March 23, 20223 yr I recall all the talk (at least on this forum) way back when the SHW move first came to light that Landmark would most likely be a residential conversion.
March 24, 20223 yr 3 hours ago, jmicha said: What state is the Landmark Office Towers in? Is this a building that will be put on the open office market, or is this a likely contender for a large-scale (TMUD-backed?) residential conversion on the near horizon? I'm sure Landmark is being kept in good condition, thanks to it being owned by a big company with big pockets. But the building is more than 90 years old and hasn't had a major overhaul since the mid-1980s. 3 hours ago, LibertyBlvd said: A lot of square footage in Landmark. Probably more than 925 Euclid. Landmark has just over 900,000 square feet. 925 Euclid has 1.55 million square feet, including its basement retail arcades. If you count only the above-ground stuff, it's 1.4 million square feet. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 24, 20223 yr Whatever happens with the Landmark, I hope something can happen on that corner. (excuse the quick pixlr idea) Edited March 24, 20223 yr by freethink
April 9, 20223 yr Downtown office tower hits the market "The for-sale sign is out for Fifth Third Center, downtown’s sixth-tallest skyscraper, with CBRE Group Inc. offering to the market the 27-story building for Hertz Group, its Los Angeles-based owner. A group of Atlanta-based office investment specialists has the listing, and an offering memorandum is circulating among likely buyers of multitenant downtown buildings. While prospective buyers must register and swear confidentiality to see the office building’s financial records, the CBRE listing can be found on a CBRE website. Hertz Group acquired the 508,397-square-foot building at 600 E. Superior Ave. in April 2015, for $53.75 million, according to online records of the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office." https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/downtown-office-tower-hits-market
April 14, 20223 yr An article on cleveland.com says the Plain Dealer building downtown is expected to sell next month. The article is a "subscriber exclusive" and I am not a subscriber.
April 14, 20223 yr 2 hours ago, LibertyBlvd said: An article on cleveland.com says the Plain Dealer building downtown is expected to sell next month. The article is a "subscriber exclusive" and I am not a subscriber. You got the gist of it. The rest: Buyer unknown. Price unknown. Plans unknown. Remember: It's the Year of the Snake
April 15, 20223 yr I see it as crack reporting. Besides, if we needed the details I'm sure the reporter would have told us. You know what they say; an educated public is just a pain in the ass. Carry on.
June 25, 20222 yr Cleveland looks steady in new office market data By Ken Prendergast / June 25, 2022 Contrary to the narrative that office markets nationally and especially in Greater Cleveland are dead, two new reports show they are very much alive. And while they’re not fully recovered from the pandemic and remote working, some office markets including Cleveland’s have shown surprising resilience. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2022/06/25/cleveland-looks-steady-in-new-office-market-data/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 25, 20222 yr Thanks for the report Ken. Always interested in info about the local office leasing climate.
July 14, 20222 yr Record B22018451: Com Building Permit Work Location 127 Public SQ Cleveland OH 44114 Project Description: Benesch Cleveland - Demolition Demolition permit application for tenant buildout. Floors 42-49. Complete gut of walls, doors, etc, MEP items BUILDING CODE Work Area: 159800 No. of Stories/Units: 8 "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 13, 20222 yr Anybody know anymore about this? Sherwin-Williams signs lease in Higbee Building in downtown Cleveland. Sherwin-Williams has agreed to occupy more than 80,000 square feet at 100 Public Square. https://www.bizjournals.com/cleveland/news/2022/08/11/sherwin-williams-signs-lease-in-higbee-building.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=ae&utm_content=CL&j=28716244&senddate=2022-08-12
August 13, 20222 yr 9 hours ago, willyboy said: Anybody know anymore about this? Sherwin-Williams signs lease in Higbee Building in downtown Cleveland. Sherwin-Williams has agreed to occupy more than 80,000 square feet at 100 Public Square. https://www.bizjournals.com/cleveland/news/2022/08/11/sherwin-williams-signs-lease-in-higbee-building.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=ae&utm_content=CL&j=28716244&senddate=2022-08-12 Details were in Crain’s. In a nutshell, KeyBank moved a whole floor (about 100 people) to either Key Tower or Tiedeman. Then sub-leased the space to SHW who are over-spilling Landmark. My hovercraft is full of eels
August 13, 20222 yr 22 minutes ago, roman totale XVII said: Details were in Crain’s. In a nutshell, KeyBank moved a whole floor (about 100 people) to either Key Tower or Tiedeman. Then sub-leased the space to SHW who are over-spilling Landmark. If that is the case I hope this means they need to seriously start thinking about Phase 2 on that ridiculous "temporary" surface lot on Superior. I know one or two on the forum will just lobby for a taller building. LOL Sorry I think that ship has sailed.
August 13, 20222 yr Yes, they should have just made the main tower taller and eliminate the need for phase 2. Then they could have sold the other lot to either Cliffs for their new tower or to a hotel developer.
August 14, 20222 yr On 8/13/2022 at 9:51 AM, LibertyBlvd said: Yes, they should have just made the main tower taller and eliminate the need for phase 2. Then they could have sold the other lot to either Cliffs for their new tower or to a hotel developer. * cough cough * mixed use … i know, i know, they probably won’t do it, but one can dream.
October 7, 20222 yr Downtown Cleveland’s ‘office market needs help’ By Ken Prendergast / October 7, 2022 This week, global real estate brokerage Newmark released its third quarter office market report for Greater Cleveland and the news wasn’t good, especially for downtown Cleveland. While three of five submarkets in the metropolitan area saw declining occupancies of office spaces in July-September, none suffered a greater loss than the central business district. That district includes everything from Ohio City east through Downtown to Midtown. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2022/10/07/downtown-clevelands-office-market-needs-help/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 30, 20222 yr I am going to throw this out just for the purpose of fostering discussion. I will be the first to admit that the following suggestion is a pipe dream and has about a 1% chance of happening, but it is interesting to contemplate. The premise: NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME FOR PROGRESSIVE TO MOVE ITS HEADQUARTERS DOWNTOWN. As much as forum members blindly lobby for Progressive to get off its butt and do what other major corporations in other cities have done-move from long held campuses in the suburbs to the urban core-Progressive is pretty well entrenched in the burbs for a number of reasons, with two taking precedence in my mind. One, it has a huge investment in its office infrastructure spread over a large section of far eastern Cuyahoga County. Second, and probably more significant, the creation of this infrastructure in this location over the past 50 years had lead to a workforce, largely middle age with families, that have established roots close to these campuses but even farther from downtown. There is a huge population of employees who live in the i-271 corridor, north, south and east, many going far east into Lake and Geagua counties. Many purchased homes in theses areas in the first place because of where Progressive was located and are happy in their leafy enclaves. The three individuals I know who work for Progressive live in Hudson, Bainbridge and Concord. I dare say many employees live close to the Pennsylvania line. These people like their generally quick freeway ride to work and free surface parking. A huge proportion also have families and want to be close by to the house to see their kids after school soccer game or pick them up from choir practice. Again, they are pretty well entrenched in this life style and I imagine there would be a huge employee revolt, as well as a large turnover, if staff were required to make the long trek downtown. This being the case, it is sadly becoming apparent to me that the remote work revolution, fast tracked by the pandemic, is here to stay in some significant form. I was hoping this would not be the case given its effect on urban cores (a much larger conversation-cities are clearly going to have to re-invent themselves-or at least re-invent large portions of their business districts). There was just an article in the New York Times exploring how downtowns are doing and it was reported that the office districts in major cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and even smaller cities like Hartford with its huge insurance industry are often ghost towns, especially on Mondays and Fridays. And I imagine a company like Progressive is tailor made for remote work. There was probably a large portion of the company working remotely even before the pandemic. SO...if so much of the Progressives work force can and are probably thrilled to work from home, isn't this the ideal time to move the corporate headquarters downtown and staff it with those from closer in, those who don't mind the drive and youngsters who want an urban work environment. Obviously this headquarter staff wold be a fraction of the employees in the area, maybe as little as 500. You save money by shedding all the office buildings you have in the suburbs-although that would clearly be a huge marketing task and some of the space may have to be converted to other uses-no employee revolt and Cleveland gets a new Fortune 500 headquarters downtown. Like I said upfront, pipe dream but dreams can be fun.
October 30, 20222 yr HtsGuy - It makes a great deal of sense for Progressive to move downtown especially with them reducing and selling office space lately. My sense is that in some way they are looking at what Sherwin Williams is doing in the center city. It would be nice to see another national brand on top of a new building downtown.
October 30, 20222 yr If Progressive, any company really, is embracing a hybrid or full remote workforce, why would they want to incur all the costs of closing/selling existing branches, then renting or buying expensive property downtown? If anything they should be downscaling or modernizing existing property for the skeletal staffs. Of course I wish downtown Cleveland was bustling with businesses again. I'm just not following your logic here.
October 30, 20222 yr I'm a Progressive employee. Progressive opened a small strategy office downtown in 2019 to explore new business opportunities. There are currently about 80 employees in that office. I highly doubt that the HQ will ever be moved downtown for the reasons already mentioned and because it would be difficult to divide their two large campuses on the east side for multiple tenants. Progressive has been consolidating people into the two campuses to sell or cancel leases on the rest of their office space on the east side as more people work from home. Depending on the role, some employees can work from home full time. Edited October 30, 20222 yr by mthompson
October 30, 20222 yr 20 minutes ago, TBideon said: If Progressive, any company really, is embracing a hybrid or full remote workforce, why would they want to incur all the costs of closing/selling existing branches, then renting or buying expensive property downtown? If anything they should be downscaling or modernizing existing property for the skeletal staffs. Of course I wish downtown Cleveland was bustling with businesses again. I'm just not following your logic here. The points you raise, and those I offered, are why I said it is a pipe dream. I guess a consideration in favor is to recruit young talent. Probably one of the reasons McDonalds left the burbs after forever and relocated its headquarters to Fulton Market. Edited October 30, 20222 yr by Htsguy
October 30, 20222 yr Well, the CEO has had a few choice words about that decision lately, but I understand your point.
October 30, 20222 yr I recently had a conversation with someone at DCA who said the number of jobs downtown is still at 100,000 because of remote working. This person believed that many of the people who live downtown also work in their residences. So perhaps more than 80 people who work for Progressive already work and live downtown? The problem is it's very difficult to get an accurate read on those downtown remote-working numbers. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 31, 20222 yr 20 hours ago, Htsguy said: I am going to throw this out just for the purpose of fostering discussion. I will be the first to admit that the following suggestion is a pipe dream and has about a 1% chance of happening, but it is interesting to contemplate. The premise: NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME FOR PROGRESSIVE TO MOVE ITS HEADQUARTERS DOWNTOWN. As much as forum members blindly lobby for Progressive to get off its butt and do what other major corporations in other cities have done-move from long held campuses in the suburbs to the urban core-Progressive is pretty well entrenched in the burbs for a number of reasons, with two taking precedence in my mind. One, it has a huge investment in its office infrastructure spread over a large section of far eastern Cuyahoga County. Second, and probably more significant, the creation of this infrastructure in this location over the past 50 years had lead to a workforce, largely middle age with families, that have established roots close to these campuses but even farther from downtown. There is a huge population of employees who live in the i-271 corridor, north, south and east, many going far east into Lake and Geagua counties. Many purchased homes in theses areas in the first place because of where Progressive was located and are happy in their leafy enclaves. The three individuals I know who work for Progressive live in Hudson, Bainbridge and Concord. I dare say many employees live close to the Pennsylvania line. These people like their generally quick freeway ride to work and free surface parking. A huge proportion also have families and want to be close by to the house to see their kids after school soccer game or pick them up from choir practice. Again, they are pretty well entrenched in this life style and I imagine there would be a huge employee revolt, as well as a large turnover, if staff were required to make the long trek downtown. This being the case, it is sadly becoming apparent to me that the remote work revolution, fast tracked by the pandemic, is here to stay in some significant form. I was hoping this would not be the case given its effect on urban cores (a much larger conversation-cities are clearly going to have to re-invent themselves-or at least re-invent large portions of their business districts). There was just an article in the New York Times exploring how downtowns are doing and it was reported that the office districts in major cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and even smaller cities like Hartford with its huge insurance industry are often ghost towns, especially on Mondays and Fridays. And I imagine a company like Progressive is tailor made for remote work. There was probably a large portion of the company working remotely even before the pandemic. SO...if so much of the Progressives work force can and are probably thrilled to work from home, isn't this the ideal time to move the corporate headquarters downtown and staff it with those from closer in, those who don't mind the drive and youngsters who want an urban work environment. Obviously this headquarter staff wold be a fraction of the employees in the area, maybe as little as 500. You save money by shedding all the office buildings you have in the suburbs-although that would clearly be a huge marketing task and some of the space may have to be converted to other uses-no employee revolt and Cleveland gets a new Fortune 500 headquarters downtown. Like I said upfront, pipe dream but dreams can be fun. 1) Leaving aside what it would cost, how does the company benefit from moving downtown? 2) Why should the company pick its headquarters staff (a key part of its organization) based on their willingness to adopt a lifestyle outlook the company has traditionally eschewed? 3) Urbanists often underestimate the antipathy suburbanites have for traffic jams and for paying for parking. Peter Lewis did not, this mattered to him, and that’s a big part of why the company didn’t make this move long ago. 4) Progressive is known as a very insular company, much moreso than Sherwin Williams. The latter is already catching flack for designing its new HQ in a manner that some find insufficiently friendly to passerby and even loiterers. They will ask themselves why they should deal with this. Conversely, the critics should note that Progressive would make SHW look sociable by comparison. They barely interact with their current neighborhoods.
October 31, 20222 yr 2 hours ago, E Rocc said: 1) Leaving aside what it would cost, how does the company benefit from moving downtown? 2) Why should the company pick its headquarters staff (a key part of its organization) based on their willingness to adopt a lifestyle outlook the company has traditionally eschewed? 3) Urbanists often underestimate the antipathy suburbanites have for traffic jams and for paying for parking. Peter Lewis did not, this mattered to him, and that’s a big part of why the company didn’t make this move long ago. 4) Progressive is known as a very insular company, much moreso than Sherwin Williams. The latter is already catching flack for designing its new HQ in a manner that some find insufficiently friendly to passerby and even loiterers. They will ask themselves why they should deal with this. Conversely, the critics should note that Progressive would make SHW look sociable by comparison. They barely interact with their current neighborhoods. I think the answer to your question applies to more than just Progressive. Pre-pandemic, many companies (including Progressive) were either setting up offices downtown or moving their altogether because people were moving back into cities. Companies wanted to be downtown because that is where the talent was. Post-pandemic remains to be seen. The answer, not just for Progressive, for all companies will largely remain the same. Where is the talent and where do they want to be? Being in a central downtown location (opposed to a singular suburban location) usually gives you access to talent across a metropolitan area. Think NYC - people commute from NJ, NY and CT. In Cleveland, downtown allows you access to both east and western suburban talent. In a post-pandemic world, with remote and hybrid work environments, is a central metropolitan location as important?? I think that remains to be seen. Companies that are able to effectively embrace remote work can hire workers from across the globe - so a downtown location may not be as valuable. The good news is, work does seem to be more effective in person and I have not seen a company do entirely remote very well YET. I don't think traffic and parking are as important as talent. Thousands of companies are based in NYC where commutes reach over an hour with easy and daily parking can be $50-75.
October 31, 20222 yr ^ And not just talent but young talent. It's easier to recruit young people to a job in a vibrant downtown vs. a quiet suburb. One of the biggest problems companies have today is finding qualified people, especially qualified young people. Locating where they prefer to work (and live) makes it a little easier to recruit them.
October 31, 20222 yr 3 hours ago, E Rocc said: 1) Leaving aside what it would cost, how does the company benefit from moving downtown? 2) Why should the company pick its headquarters staff (a key part of its organization) based on their willingness to adopt a lifestyle outlook the company has traditionally eschewed? 3) Urbanists often underestimate the antipathy suburbanites have for traffic jams and for paying for parking. Peter Lewis did not, this mattered to him, and that’s a big part of why the company didn’t make this move long ago. 4) Progressive is known as a very insular company, much moreso than Sherwin Williams. The latter is already catching flack for designing its new HQ in a manner that some find insufficiently friendly to passerby and even loiterers. They will ask themselves why they should deal with this. Conversely, the critics should note that Progressive would make SHW look sociable by comparison. They barely interact with their current neighborhoods. 3) I honestly find it incredible that people think traffic jams only occur downtown. The traffic downtown is nothing comparable to the I480 and I271 interchange during rush hours, as well as I480 and I77. Which is all a result of further sprawl of jobs and HQs now in the outer ring suburbs.
October 31, 20222 yr 3 hours ago, E Rocc said: 1) Leaving aside what it would cost, how does the company benefit from moving downtown? 2) Why should the company pick its headquarters staff (a key part of its organization) based on their willingness to adopt a lifestyle outlook the company has traditionally eschewed? 3) Urbanists often underestimate the antipathy suburbanites have for traffic jams and for paying for parking. Peter Lewis did not, this mattered to him, and that’s a big part of why the company didn’t make this move long ago. 4) Progressive is known as a very insular company, much moreso than Sherwin Williams. The latter is already catching flack for designing its new HQ in a manner that some find insufficiently friendly to passerby and even loiterers. They will ask themselves why they should deal with this. Conversely, the critics should note that Progressive would make SHW look sociable by comparison. They barely interact with their current neighborhoods. You quoted my original post but it seems like you did not actually read it given your response.
October 31, 20222 yr 21 minutes ago, AsDustinFoxWouldSay said: 3) I honestly find it incredible that people think traffic jams only occur downtown. The traffic downtown is nothing comparable to the I480 and I271 interchange during rush hours, as well as I480 and I77. Which is all a result of further sprawl of jobs and HQs now in the outer ring suburbs. A friend of mine who has lived and worked in Los Angeles for the last decade tells me (only partly in jest) the only place with worse traffic is his hometown, Strongsville.
October 31, 20222 yr 1 hour ago, cadmen said: ^ And not just talent but young talent. It's easier to recruit young people to a job in a vibrant downtown vs. a quiet suburb. One of the biggest problems companies have today is finding qualified people, especially qualified young people. Locating where they prefer to work (and live) makes it a little easier to recruit them. I mentioned this as one of the few reasons it probably made sense for Progressive to perhaps move downtown (again I opined it was very unlikely even though I was encouraging it). That said, I am out of the work force at this point and don't know if this is a thing-although it does seem to be the case with the youngsters just starting out in my family. Most of what I understand of the younger generations supposedly wanting an urban environment for work comes from what I read. It does seem to be a constant theme in articles, but who really knows if this is actually the case. I can relate a personal anecdote which may be telling. Interestingly it involves Progressive. I graduated from law school in the early 80s and my first job was with a small "elderly" law firm in the Terminal Tower. After about a year and half I was not happy with the work environment (primarily, nobody in the office was even near my own age) and started a job search. I was fortunate in that I was able to secure a fair number of interviews, mostly with small to mid sized firms in downtown Cleveland and even a couple in downtown Chicago. In addition I interviewed extensive for what I thought was a really great job with Progressive. I liked the young guy interviewing me at Progressive with whom I would be working. He was really selling the position and he had a lot of energy and enthusiasm for both the job and the company. It just so happened that within a couple of days I was offered jobs with two downtown law firms as well as Progressive. I had to make a relatively quick decision at that point. The Progressive job offer was tempting because in addition to the guy I really liked, the compensation was huge. 20% more than both the law firm offers which was no small thing for me at the time, just starting out in life and having a good amount of student loan debt. The Progressive office was is some flex space on one of those side streets off of Wilson Mills Rd in Mayfield Village. Alpha or Beta. Something like that. I am sure Progressive shed the space a long time ago. In the end, despite the monetary advantages of the Progressive job, as a young hip guy (yeah right😉) I could not see myself driving to Mayfield Village everyday and working in that type of suburban environment even though the commute would have been a snap for me given where I was living at the time. I think I would have gone nuts in that office. I ended up taking one of the law firm jobs downtown (and this was at a time in the mid 80s where downtown was not exactly hopping) and eventually lived in apartment where I took the Shaker Rapid to work almost every day. Personally never regretted it . So maybe some truth in all those articles, even though my experience was in a totally different generation. Edited October 31, 20222 yr by Htsguy
November 7, 20222 yr 🤮 https://www.cleveland.com/business/2022/11/medical-mutual-will-leave-downtown-cleveland-headquarters-in-favor-of-former-american-greetings-site-in-brooklyn.html My hovercraft is full of eels
November 7, 20222 yr Somebody really dropped the ball here. Cannot read the article. I thought that building was suppose to be a pit.? Are they re-building it?
November 7, 20222 yr Just now, Htsguy said: Somebody really dropped the ball here. Cannot read the article. I thought that building was suppose to be a pit.? Are they re-building it? I mean the Brooklyn Building not the Rose Building. Looks like more Ninth Street apartments sometime in the future.
November 7, 20222 yr 6 minutes ago, Htsguy said: Somebody really dropped the ball here. Cannot read the article. I thought that building was suppose to be a pit.? Are they re-building it? They spent a large sum of money a few years ago to renovate the large building in front as their operations center. Through the pandemic they did well with remote work, so now need a smaller office footprint. Rose would need a substantial renovation to bring it up to the standards of the Brooklyn facility.
November 7, 20222 yr Again I cannot read the article but I was guessing that part of the equation is that their office staff is now a fraction of what it was pre pandemic with large numbers working remotely. If there is a small sliver lining...at least they are moving to an inner ring suburb which can use the tax base rather than some place like Westlake or Strongsville.
November 7, 20222 yr Well this is disappointing. A few years ago, they were considering consolidating everything downtown, with perhaps a new building being built close to their current HQ. Did Brooklyn offer them a sweet deal? How many workers will be moving?
November 7, 20222 yr Medical Mutual has a history (apparently) of making plans to do one thing with their HQ and then pull a complete 180° and do something regressive. The One Cleveland Center @ E.9th & St. Clair Ave. was built specifically for them, yet just before completion, they changed their minds and stayed in the Rose Bldg. Cue a few years ago when we were anticipating their site selection for a new HQ, only for them to AGAIN decide to remain put. Anything other than incentives from Brooklyn would be hard to imagine. I once worked at the AG building in Brooklyn and it isn't anymore modern/updated than what they currently have IMHO. Edited November 7, 20222 yr by Barneyboy
November 7, 20222 yr 1 hour ago, roman totale XVII said: 🤮 https://www.cleveland.com/business/2022/11/medical-mutual-will-leave-downtown-cleveland-headquarters-in-favor-of-former-american-greetings-site-in-brooklyn.html I'll not forget that when mgmt. made the big announcement that AG would be moving out of Brooklyn the employees were so happy they were crying and hugging each other.
November 7, 20222 yr 59 minutes ago, Htsguy said: Looks like more Ninth Street apartments sometime in the future. Is the Rose building suitable for apartment conversion?
November 7, 20222 yr One of my close friends sisters works for Medical of Mutual. They're pretty much running a skeleton staff at the Rose on a day to day. I want to post more on this at some other point in another thread, but as important as it is to retain businesses in the city, with the way municipal income tax functions it's far more imperative now to continue to build housing and create vibrant neighborhoods, now that office work is playing a diminished role with so many people working from home. It therefore more important to tax people where they live than work. In many cases where they work is where they live, the home. Edited November 7, 20222 yr by KFM44107
November 7, 20222 yr Is it reversible? Can Cleveland counter with some kind of offer is it a done deal?
November 7, 20222 yr 13 minutes ago, surfohio said: I'll not forget that when mgmt. made the big announcement that AG would be moving out of Brooklyn the employees were so happy they were crying and hugging each other. A creative company like AG moving to a city like Westlake is still a mystery to me. I am sure, of course, there we incentives, and the fact that at least it was not a bland office park helped with the decision. Still I think a company like AG would be a perfect fit for some place like Ohio City. They could have slide into an office component of the Intro development very easily, and I think they would have had many happy employees. I wonder if that had been an option at the time they would have considered it. Edited November 7, 20222 yr by Htsguy
November 7, 20222 yr 7 minutes ago, Htsguy said: A creative company like AG moving to a city like Westlake is still a mystery to me. I am sure, of course, there we incentives, and the fact at least it was not a bland office park helped with the decision. I think a company like AG would be a perfect fit for some place like Ohio City. They could have slide into an office component of the Intro development very easily, and I think they would have had many happy employees. I wonder if that had been an option at the time they would have considered it. Hard to say with AG's ownership being known for being or at least thinking like, well "old people." But at the time a lot of the employees were happy just to move somewhere less forlorn, and not surrounded by a notorious speed trap (Linndale). FWIW the Westlake offices are really nice. The Brooklyn facility was having a lot of issues, leaky ceilings, etc. Edited November 7, 20222 yr by surfohio bad english
November 7, 20222 yr If you recall AG is attempting to lease out half of their Westlake HQ now because of remote work changing their office environment.
November 7, 20222 yr 5 minutes ago, LibertyBlvd said: Didn't the CEO of AG have a financial stake in Crocker Park? Good memory! "Members of the Weiss family, which leads American Greetings, own a minority stake in Crocker Park. The company repeatedly has said that real estate investments by members of the family would not affect the headquarters decision. " *Lol, yeah right. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2011/05/american_greetings_moving_its_world_headquarters.html
November 7, 20222 yr 1 hour ago, roman totale XVII said: 🤮 https://www.cleveland.com/business/2022/11/medical-mutual-will-leave-downtown-cleveland-headquarters-in-favor-of-former-american-greetings-site-in-brooklyn.html Friendly reminder that once the article gets written out/published for the news tomorrow you can access it free through library resources. Same goes for Crain's digital access. Edited November 7, 20222 yr by GISguy
November 7, 20222 yr 2 hours ago, Htsguy said: Again I cannot read the article but I was guessing that part of the equation is that their office staff is now a fraction of what it was pre pandemic with large numbers working remotely. If there is a small sliver lining...at least they are moving to an inner ring suburb which can use the tax base rather than some place like Westlake or Strongsville. There is no silver lining to this whatsoever. Yet another downtown company moving out of the city proper leads to less taxes, less vibrancy and even less business in the area. It doesn't matter whether they move to an inner ring suburb or exurb, the result is still the same. Downtown and Cleveland are in the state they are in because people and businesses left for the inner ring in the first place. I remember people on this forum were talking apartment conversions after Voss left the city. The place is still vacant. Edited November 7, 20222 yr by AsDustinFoxWouldSay
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