Jump to content

Featured Replies

Posted

i haven't walked around the west quad in a looooong time, but has anything really been done there?

  • 4 weeks later...

Medical research campus at Case could establish region as pioneer

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Barb Galbincea

Plain Dealer Reporter

A new research campus at Case Western Reserve University could create 6,000 jobs and establish Northeast Ohio as a trailblazer on the medical frontier.

 

Although Case heads the effort to construct the campus on its 14-acre West Quad, the former site of Mt. Sinai Medical Center, the university's partners include the city's major medical institutions.

 

 

 

This is good stuff!  6k job over the next 3 years!!  :clap:

its about time that cleveland truly starts to exploit its rare position having two top-notch medical facilities and a top research institution....

It almost seems like U Circle will be the new Downtown area in Cleveland ten years from now.

damn straight... this sounds exciting!  finally cleveland using its position as a world leader in medical research!  definately the most exciting news i've heard for our economy in a long time.  :clap:

I about leapt for joy when I saw that article.  There has been so much bad news lately.  The good never seems to get attention.  I think it will be hard, even for Cleveland's media and ever-present naysayers, to ignore or poo-poo this (then again, never underestimate the power of uninformed negativity).

 

Anyway, this will have such a huge impact, and beyond the 6,000 (good!) jobs.  The spin-off businesses and development will be incredible.  I saw an article recently about the jump in venture capital coming into Cleveland, and I think that this will only increase excitement and bring more.  We could be witnessing the start of a good feedback cycle here.  Now we need an education system to provide the workers, and housing that can compete for their homebuying dollars.  This could mean alot for neighborhood development in Hough and Glenville as well.

I do not think our education system will improve before this.  If any it will improve after due to the increased tax revenues from these new companies.

so this is probably going to be something taller than 10 stories im assuming... heh

 

this is amazing news, at first i didnt really think theyd do this when they first mentioned it, but now that they're looking for developers... wow... exciting.  everything in that area is going to get a shot in the arm, not to mention the whole things with the EC

Even before the first phase is built, a new building housing the Cleveland Center for Structural Biology and the Wright Fuel Cell Group, both research collaborations, will open in the fall.

 

hey fellas can we get some construction shots of what is going on with this one? since it's the first, what is the status? maybe some shots of the area in question? it's great news---thx!

As of right now, they have just demolished all the buildings on the site and brought all the fill material in to bring it up to grade.  I know demo is done, but I do not know if construction has started yet.

  • 2 months later...

after all the bad brac base closing news today, 1000 clev jobs lost & so many more around ohio & the usa--yikes, i was dying to read any good news. luckily there is some (i wanna say forest city should not get it, but the rest are outta staters so i hope they do get it):

 

6 developers show interest in Case plan for research

Friday, May 13, 2005

Roger Mezger

Plain Dealer Reporter

Six developers have made pitches to design, build and finance Case Western Reserve University's West Quad biotechnology campus, half as many as school officials expected.

 

Work on the $125 million first phase of the project, which Case envisions as a research and commercialization hub to spur economic development, is to begin next year on the former site of Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Case expects to choose its developer by fall.

 

The candidates:

 

 

Yeah that is some good news. Unfortunately it won't happen for a few years. But hey, Rome wasn't built in a day either. Cleveland really needs one of these start-ups to hit it big, really big.

Projects such as these are nice to dream about.  But, they won't really make a difference for another decade or so. 

 

2005 is the year of big projects for Cleveland: County building decision, covention center decision, securing a developer for CWRU, CMA project decision, Flats project, Zaremba project. 

It won't take a decade.  Even the first phase is going to be 500,000 sq. ft. of space and have a thousand or so employees.  that will be complete in a few years.

 

Don't forget the Lakefront plan completion, ECP construction, Clinic Heart Center, VA expansion, and Innerbelt planning.  It really is a year of big projects.

yea its definately a lot of big things, by 2010 im sure everything will be a lot different

This is the direction Cleveland should be headed, not desparately trying to hold on to federal gov't & military clerical service functions.  You got to figure the more technology there is, the more consolidation will make sense, and good jobs that people have today  will end up being performed by computers.

  • 3 months later...

From the 8/26/05 PD:

 

 

Forest City may build Case's W. Quad

Friday, August 26, 2005

Roger Mezger

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

Forest City Enterprises Inc. has been selected to develop Case Western Reserve University's $125 million West Quad biotechnology campus.

 

The university's medical school issued a news release after the close of business Thursday saying that it has signed a 90-day agreement with Forest City to work out terms of the deal. If talks succeed, Case and Forest City will sign a final contract for the project.

 

[email protected], 216-999-4446[/i]

 

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/1125049297292520.xml&coll=2

 

well as much as people dislike Forest City Enterprises sometimes for a lack of investment in Cleveland (true or untrue), this is something they have good experience with, and FCE does create some damn nice buildings - see Tower City Center, etc.  I think they'll do this one right.

Also, from Crain's, this contains a little bit more on what the West Quad will mean in the long run and how it fits into the market.

 

Forest City to develop Case's West Quad

 

By SHANNON PETTYPIECE

 

9:10 am, August 26, 2005

 

Case Western Reserve University has signed a preliminary agreement with Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises to develop a proposed 1.5 million-square-foot research park.

 

Forest City was chosen from six developers who expressed interest in the plans to transform a portion of University Circle into a research hub dubbed the West Quad. Some in the real estate and research communities have speculated that Forest City would be a natural developer for the project because of its Cleveland ties and experience developing a similar research park in Boston.

 

 

The way I see it, if we're going to pull new residents to our region, in addition to being more competitive in retaining those that already live here, this is the type of thing that is going to have to flourish.  This whole thread is about things that fall into that category...growing our economy in ways that differentiate (make us better) than the next guy.

does anyone have any renderings of the west quad??

There are some conceptual drawings around.  If Forest City does the project, they will get their own architects.

sorry, i posted this on the University Circle construction thread earlier...  I did suggest that this warrants its own, though!

  • 6 months later...

Case, developer still talking about West Quad project

Friday, March 17, 2006

Tom Breckenridge

Plain Dealer Reporter

President Edward Hundert's resignation and a budget squeeze have added a dose of uncertainty to the university's development plans in University Circle.

 

Case and Forest City Enterprises Inc. were to have a final development contract in place by the end of 2005 for the $125 million West Quad biotechnology campus.

 

They missed that deadline and say talks continue.

 

Construction was planned for this year on the 14-acre site, once the home of Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

 

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

 

[email protected], 216-999-4695

 

Case has continued to do site prep at the West Quad.  If they weren't confident that the project would go forward, I doubt they would continue to ready the site.

i cant wait to see the renderings for all this stuff.  theres already a ton of construction going on in the circle right now between the museum, clinic, and euclid corridor.  im sure the momentum will keep up since the area is already hot/booming

Projects at Case down, not out

Biz could fill void left by Hundert's exit

 

By SHANNON MORTLAND

 

6:00 am, March 20, 2006

 

 

 

With Dr. Edward Hundert planning to resign from his post as president of Case Western Reserve University come Sept. 1, the business community is rallying to make sure the bold initiatives he started do not fade into the sunset with him.

 

It won’t be an easy task. Dr. Hundert will leave behind a university that is carrying more than $600 million in debt and must cut its budget by 5% to address a $40 million operating deficit. Case also will be working to hire what would be its fourth president since the departure of Agnar Pytte in 1999.

 

Such financial and leadership uncertainties might make it tough for Case to complete on time some of the big projects it has championed during the 3½-year reign of Dr. Hundert, who resigned amid faculty and alumni discontent with his leadership. Among those projects is the West Quad, a 14-acre research park planned on the former Mt. Sinai hospital campus. The first phase of the project calls for constructing 500,000 square feet of research space in two buildings at a cost of $125 million. Civic leaders indicate they don’t intend to let the West Quad die.

 

“If there is any question about the project’s viability, we would make certain that it happened,” said Fred Nance, chairman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership business advocacy group and managing partner of the Cleveland office of law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP.

 

READ MORE AT:

www.crainscleveland.com/article/20060320/SUB/60317033

  • 3 months later...

Case remains committed to Quad plan, leader says

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Mary Vanac

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

The West Quad biomedical campus planned by Case Western Reserve University remains a "critical undertaking," the project leader says, despite a budget squeeze and new leadership for the university.

 

"We have been working very deliberately with Forest City, putting together the business terms of a partnership between the two institutions," said Ralph Horwitz, dean of the university's medical school and head of the project.

 

 

Its good to hear some news about this.  Its incredible that its been over a year since they started negotiations. 

"In the meantime, the university has demolished most of the Mt. Sinai buildings and built the Cleveland Center for Structural Biology/Wright Fuel Cell Group building on a corner of the West Quad campus."

 

I know it's a challenge to build something before the rest of the site is planned...but that Structural Biology/Wright Fuel Cell Group building is pretty icky.  Man do I hope this site booms though in the next couple years.  Too bad it's not closer to the rapid or BRT.

^yeah, they did all these studies to determine the cost/feasibilty/function of keeping some/all/none of the Mt. Sinai buildings.  They also included cost estimates of developing to different densities on site.  Then, to end up with a full demo (except the precious parking garage!) and to build a one-story building as a kick-off?  Not one of the proposed schemes had a building that small... makes you wonder.

I assume that they had to build the Wright Center asap due to funding. 

well, I'd assume that too, but it's just strange that the master plan was already given a dink before it ever really got started...

I wish they had sold the Mt. Sinai buildings for residential redevelopment and then located the West Quad elsewhere, where empty land was already available (and let's face it, land is plentiful if you venture a few blocks west into Hough and Fairfax, though I know Fannie Miller might object). Those old buildings were just so beautiful.

 

Still, what's done is done, and like Weimar I'm glad to see this still being described as a "high, high priority" for CWRU.

well, I think the West Quad (can we rename this thread already?) was looked at as more of a connected part of the CWRU campus and had a critical mass of available land that could be acquired all at once.  If they can build out with bio-tech-med uses, then great, but I, too, thought that there could be some residential uses on-site.  Much like we're seeing at St. Luke's (Buckeye-Shaker), the possibility of re-using hospital buildings as residential structures is somewhat speculative and iffy.  But there could definitely have been a market for building new residential towers over Rockefeller Park, Wade Lagoon, CMA, and the Arts Garden!

 

As for the blocks west of the West Quad, there is lots of interest from developers in this area and I've seen some beautiful conceptual drawings, but have heard nothing more concrete to date.  I think the market will eventually make it happen and there are lots of people pushing for it right now!

though I know Fannie Miller might object). Those old buildings were just so beautiful.

 

Fannie Lewis

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

 

As for the blocks west of the West Quad, there is lots of interest from developers in this area and I've seen some beautiful conceptual drawings, but have heard nothing more concrete to date.  I think the market will eventually make it happen and there are lots of people pushing for it right now!

 

Finch and Heartland are working with the Cleveland Foundation and, yes, Fannie Lewis to make Upper Chester a realty reality.  But you didn't hear that from me.

who are you anyway? :wink:

who are you anyway? :wink:

 

I'm Wilmar!

  • 5 months later...

Any word on the West Quad?  Have they fixed the budget enough to get going on this again?

  • 6 months later...

Just wondering about the status of this? Does anyone have any news to report? I know there were some staffing changes at Case and budget issues, etc, but was just wondering if there were any updates here?

We'll have to wait until the new Case president gets her office situated before hearing something. They still need to balance their budget, but she theoretically is supportive of this project.

  • 9 months later...

Case plans $105 million center for medical, energy innovation

 

Posted by Tom Breckenridge April 23, 2008 15:30PM

Categories: Breaking News, Economic development, Medical

 

Case Western Reserve University wants to turn fallow land in its West Quad into a fertile home of innovation for medicine and energy.

This is great news!!!  Further proof that Cleveland has truly turned a corner. 

This sounds like exactly the type of thing that we need.

Fantastic. Glad to see the West Quad is back in play.

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

Very good news. I'm a little worried about the form this will take urbanistically though. I hope it's not built as a low-rise, set-back, suburban style blob simply because they've ended up w/ a surplus of land.

Very good news. I'm a little worried about the form this will take urbanistically though. I hope it's not built as a low-rise, set-back, suburban style blob simply because they've ended up w/ a surplus of land.

 

Why? I think that would be great! ;)

 

I wonder how they are going situate it on the site.

Maybe the quotable Map Boy can provide us with some insight as to CWRU's inclinations...?

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck

Create an account or sign in to comment

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.