Am I dreaming....I haven't read something like this since 1988.  I am really loving this town.

Awesome.

 

Hopefully soon we'll need some more office towers -- and you know where the first new one needs to go:  PUBLIC FREAKIN' SQUARE

 

Id rather see a mixed use office/retail/condo/hotel tower on public square.

 

Lower level - retail

low - mid level - office

upper- mid level - hotel

upper level - condo's

 

OK...wishful thinking..  but this is great news.  the healthier the "heart" of NE Ohio is, the rest of the metro area benefits!

While I love what skyscrapers do for the skyline, I would rather have a few midsize buildings that filled in the gaps and dispersed the streetlife a bit.  Oftentimes the large skyscrapers build indoor retail spaces that eliminate the need for workers to venture outside for lunch and other misc errands.

While I love what skyscrapers do for the skyline, I would rather have a few midsize buildings that filled in the gaps and dispersed the streetlife a bit.  Oftentimes the large skyscrapers build indoor retail spaces that eliminate the need for workers to venture outside for lunch and other misc errands.

 

I'm not talking about a mall, I'm talking about the type of tower that has no "center" or atrium and all retail is accessed via the street level, like key tower.  you enter the bank, the hotel and the restaurant via street level.

^Exactly.

 

I would like to see a tower at public square also, but we need towers of 40+ stories elsewhere (Gateway,Erieview area) so we can get rid of the "Big three" effect, where your eye is drawn so high it looks as if there are only three towers in DT. Then we'll have a more linear skyline.

^Key's cafeteria is on like the 30th floor and is incredibly busy.  If they didn't have that cafeteria, it would inject a lot more like onto the Square and the street.

^Key's cafeteria is on like the 30th floor and is incredibly busy.  If they didn't have that cafeteria, it would inject a lot more like onto the Square and the street.

 

Well when I worked for SOHIO, the caferteria on the third floor, was like a restaurant and was jam packed especially on bad weather days.

If absorption rates continue, I'd say someone better be planning to put up a new skyscraper ASAP (unless they want to drive prices up first).

 

I remember during the late 1970s and 1980s that, anytime the Class A office market downtown got below a 10 percent vacancy rate, a developer cited that as his reason for putting up a spec office tower.

 

Sounds like we're just about there -- and when DFAS is added into the picture, don't be surprised if we'll need a couple of office scrapers.

 

EDIT: CBRE's 1st quarter 2006 market outlook was largely positive for downtown, but not as positive as the Crain's article...

http://gkc2.cbrichardellis.com/GlobalMarketReports/us/cleveland1q06ofcdt.pdf

 

Their second-quarter report won't come out until next month though.

Great news. Can we assume the UH-Atrium project is a go? I'd rather see that building filled than a new skyscraper anyday. In its current condition it has a profoundly depressing effect on lower Euclid.

I saw this at work! I was super stoked, and I couldn't wait to get out and read what you all are saying. The weird thing about this to me is, I recently read articles from a within the last year that acted like downtown was doomed. And now we have good news (I'll take it!). But, which is it?

 

 

Fantastic! I think this news makes it all the more imperative that downtown housing projects push forward. I'd love to see all these office workers WALK to work rather than drive in from the 'burbs.

 

The one project I would love to see take off in light of this (hopefully) continuing trend is 515 Euclid to add their apartments above the parking deck. With all the others downtown housing projects already in play, an announcement like that would really cap a great year for downtown housing development.

 

I was just thinking about 515, and I could not find the thread. 

Is there any retail in there now?

Here's the thread:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3198.0

 

As far as retail goes, I haven't seen any and don't think any will really move in until after the Euclid Corridor construction is finished in lower Euclid, but you never know.

^No, it's vacant.

Starks' Pesht Phase I calls for 6 million sq ft of residential OR office.  Perhaps it will go more towards office than I had thought.  Let's say it's a 50/50 split, that's 3 million sq ft of office, significantly larger than two Key Towers.  That's alot of office.

This is awesome news, of course, but a little too early to count cranes IMHO: vacancy rates are still high; the rosy projections depend on this record absorbtion continuing for a stretch.  I'm sure this will cause developers to blow dust off some old plans but I doubt lenders will be interested until this absortion rate proves it has some momentum.  Personally, I much rather see this sort of optimism on the residential/retail side....but maybe this is the first step...

More good news, including some new downtown office tenants I hadn't heard about (ie: Eaton and Chase Manhatten expanding). Still the average leasing price isn't high, but that could change based on absorbtion rates....

 

http://gkc2.cbrichardellis.com/GlobalMarketReports/us/cleveland2q06ofcdt.pdf

Office market outlook optimistic

Local real estate brokers detecting changes in area absorption, vacancy rate

Related Links 

Grubb & Ellis Co.

 

By STAN BULLARD

 

6:00 am, July 17, 2006

 

 

 

A dose of optimism is wafting through the community of Cleveland-area real estate brokers and building owners about the local office market’s improved level of activity.

 

Count Leah Kukulka, an office sales associate at the Independence-based Cresco brokerage, a member of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance, among those noticing the pickup.

 

“Calls are coming in. Clients are looking for space,” she said. “A year ago it was very sluggish, I think because people were waiting to see what the future would hold. A year ago I was hopeful. Now, I’m optimistic.”

 

In the office leasing business just two years, Ms. Kukulka considers herself lucky to be in position to take advantage of the rise in interest in office space.

 

Still, even longtime brokers are upbeat.

 

 

“Most people would say there’s a noticeable improvement in activity in the last six months,” said Warren Morris, a partner at Colliers Ostendorf-Morris Co. and a two-decade veteran of the city’s office market.

 

“In 2004, there was a little life. In 2005, there was a little more life. Now there’s good activity, and it’s everywhere,” Mr. Morris said. However, he also notes that today’s activity doesn’t compare with that of 1999 and 2000, when the economy was strong and the office market was growing throughout the region.

 

David Browning, managing director of the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis, said the bottom line at his brokerage “is that we believe this is going to be a very good year for the Cleveland office market.”

 

“We’re about to sign a bunch of deals in all of our listings,” Mr. Browning said, though he added that the market “is still seeing givebacks of space” by tenants that are shrinking or leaving the market altogether.

 

 

 

By the numbers

 

There’s just a whisper of a turnaround in office statistics so far, as office moves show up in statistics after a tenant relocates, often six to nine months following the execution of a lease. But one often-overlooked office statistic so far charts the change in office momentum: absorption, which reflects the amount of change in occupied office space.

 

Grubb & Ellis Co. reports downtown Cleveland absorbed 151,234 square feet in the first quarter of this year, a little more than half as much space as is in the US Bank Building in the city’s Theater District. A previous Grubb & Ellis survey found absorption in downtown Cleveland was in the black at the end of 2005 — albeit by a piddling 26,000 square feet, or less than a floor of space in Key Tower — for the first time since 2000.

 

Similarly, the suburbs last year absorbed 269,000 square feet, the most since 2003, and they absorbed another 82,000 in the first quarter of this year.

 

The still-high volume of vacancies in the market leavens the improvement in absorption of office space.

 

For the first quarter of this year, Grubb & Ellis reports the downtown market had a 22% vacancy rate, or 4.6 million square feet of empty space out of 21 million square feet. In the suburbs as a whole, vacancy stood at 18%, with the east suburbs being the strongest with 14% vacancy and the south suburbs the weakest at 25%.

 

 

 

New leases on life

 

Nonetheless, some recent leases show the market is poised, finally, to start nibbling at those vacancy levels.

 

For example, creditors’ rights law firm Javitch, Block & Rathbone in March capped a three-year search for new offices by leasing a total of 54,000 square feet of offices on two floors at 1100 SuperiorBuilding, which is at that address. That’s 42% more space than it will vacate in November at the Penton Media Building.

 

“We believed that this is the year the market is going to get tougher for our (price range) of space,” said Joel Rathbone, a firm co-managing partner.

 

When Mr. Rathbone started surveying the office market with broker Staubach Co. in 2003, the law firm had seven options among downtown buildings; this year, it had just two. He attributes the change to newer, pricier buildings not being willing to cut rents to the level his firm wanted or no longer having the space to let.

 

Other insiders say the uptick in tenant interest downtown is due to a more positive attitude in the city and Cleveland’s program of cutting checks for new downtown office tenants based on how much income tax they bring to the city.

 

In a striking yet quiet example of the revival in the broader office market, National City Corp. earlier this year leased two empty office buildings, a total of 92,000 square feet of office space, at the Aerospace Tech Park near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, according to a Cresco office market survey.

 

National City confirmed it has leased additional office space in the region but would discuss no specifics. Landlord Kerry Chelm, president of Chelm Properties of Cleveland, declined comment. One building was empty nearly two years, the other a year.

 

 

 

A little late to the party

 

Pat Lott, senior vice president of office development and leasing at Forest City Enterprises Inc., said most of his company’s existing downtown buildings are 90% leased, with its largest holes at the Terminal Tower, which is 23% vacant, and the Higbee Building, a former department store that is largely empty, with about 700,000 square feet of vacant space.

 

Mr. Lott maintains the Higbee Building is in a different category as Forest City only will market the property to large tenants in excess of 55,000 square feet. Industry insiders agree the building shouldn’t be considered a part of the active office market.

 

Mr. Lott said Forest City is “pretty pleased” with its leasing activity downtown. For example, the company just a few weeks ago gained a new sizable tenant when Quicken Loans opened its much-ballyhooed call center at Tower City Center’s MK Ferguson Plaza. The Detroit-based lender occupies 50,000 square feet in the building.

 

Mr. Browning of CB Richard Ellis said he thinks the office market is seeing the resurgence the rest of the nation had 18 months to two years ago.

 

However, there’s an asterisk to discussions of an office market uptick.

 

“Here’s the bad news,” said Jim Breen, a partner at the Breen & Fox brokerage. “If there’s a downturn in the national economy, we weren’t long at the party.”

 

 

 

I was pleased to see in the CBRE report that Forest City is going to bring back the Higbee building in phases. Not sure what that means but it is good to see that they are starting to do something.

 

 

More good news, including some new downtown office tenants I hadn't heard about (ie: Eaton and Chase Manhatten expanding). Still the average leasing price isn't high, but that could change based on absorbtion rates....

 

http://gkc2.cbrichardellis.com/GlobalMarketReports/us/cleveland2q06ofcdt.pdf

 

i remember mytwosense mentioned that chase bank was going to be expanding in cleveland a awhile back. this is all good news.

 

This idea that a national downturn in the economy can effect office space rental locally is a bit of stretch.

 

When the economy went into a dive at the end of the 1980's....Cleveland was not the center of that recession. It was mostly New England. This last recession was centered on Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Detroit. It all depends on how the economy dives (if it does) to determine how Cleveland will shake out at the end of the decade.

From the CBRE Downtown Office Market 2nd Quarter Report:

 

"Eaton Corporation has taken additional space in its headquarter building and will occupy in August 2006."  Where is this?

 

"The local unemployment rate decreased during the quarter from 5.6% to 4.5%.  The unemployment rate in Ohio stayed flat over the quarter at 5.3%, while the national rate declined to 4.6% from 4.8%."  That's a pretty significant jump for the MSA, especially relative the the state and nationwide numbers!

 

I was also surprised to see the newly remodeled Idea Center listed as "Class B," but I guess I really don't know all of what goes into this classification.  I just assumed that a newly renovated and technologically well-appointed building would be in the "A" class. 

 

Finally, I don't think we're going to see any new office construction in the very near future, but if and when we do, it'd better be rehab of an existing building or development as part of a larger residential/hotel/retail/entertainment facility.  As far as I'm concerned, this is the only way to do it right now!

 

 

 

"Eaton Corporation has taken additional space in its headquarter building and will occupy in August 2006."  Where is this?

 

It's on Superior and E. 12th or thereabouts. It's a black Death Star-looking building with Eaton on the side.

 

I agree with you about the rehab. Namely, the Atrium building needs a facelift (or at least the Christo treatment) post-haste. Shame on David Goldberg for letting that building look the way it does.

shame shame I know your name!  Seriously, though...let's get that thing moving...build that tower over 515 and get crackin on the Atrium (meaning, market the hell out of them) so that when the corridor opens, we won't be traveling through the same landscape of vacant buildings and storefronts as we were before spending the $200 mil!

 

thanks, B12.  I don't recall seeing Eaton on the building, but I'm sure I'll notice it next time!

Eaton Center:

ahhh, yes!  Thanks Mayday!  I sometimes catch the bus right out front, but don't pay much attention to the building.  I'm usually a bit more taken by the St. John's buildings next door!

I thought that I had heard that Ferchill had taken control of the Atrium building.  If so, this would make sense if UH ever decides to locate some workers in the building. Goldberg is on the board at UH and I am sure that they would be careful to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Ahhh Eaton Center, a little bit of Houston of our very own.

This idea that a national downturn in the economy can effect office space rental locally is a bit of stretch.

 

When the economy went into a dive at the end of the 1980's....Cleveland was not the center of that recession. It was mostly New England. This last recession was centered on Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Detroit. It all depends on how the economy dives (if it does) to determine how Cleveland will shake out at the end of the decade.

 

Also in the late 1980s and early 1990s, California was hurting, too. When I lived in the exurbs of Geauga County back then, we had several new neighbors from California who said the economy was pretty rough.

 

But our economy wasn't so wonderful either. I finally graduated from college in 1992 and had a hard time finding a job locally.

A little shuffling (From Crain's):

 

Edward Howard will bid farewell to IMG spot for Superior space

 

By STAN BULLARD

 

6:00 am, July 24, 2006

 

Needing more space and seeking a chance to redo its offices, Edward Howard & Co. plans to move by December to the 1100 Superior Building in downtown Cleveland from IMG Center.

 

The public relations firm has leased 17,000 square feet on the 16th floor of 1100 Superior. That’s 20% more office space than it occupies on IMG’s seventh floor at 1360 E. Ninth St., said Kathy Obert, Edward Howard chairwoman and CEO. The high profile firm’s current lease at IMG expires at year-end.

 

“It’s not dramatically more space,” Ms. Obert said, but the firm selected 1100 Superior because of a renovation to the one-time Diamond Building and a more efficient layout for its 35-person Cleveland headquarters.

 

Neither she nor 1100 Superior manager Mark Ferris would disclose the rent. Ms. Obert said the move was “not a cost-driven decision” as broker Trammell Crow Co. had found it less-expensive downtown options.

 

Ms. Obert said the new space Vocon Design Inc. of Cleveland is preparing will feature private offices that allow for “serious work” related to matters such as initial public offerings, but it also will be designed to encourage creativity, reflecting the firm’s role in crafting new brands.

 

Wayne Hill, Edward Howard president, said the new office reflects the youthful spirit of its staff.

 

“We’ll have a lot more light,” he said, due to the office using lighter woods and glass walls.

 

 

When its a downtown to downtown move, its always good to see them occupying more space than they are vacating.

words of wisdom from wimwar  :wink:

^i just figured out some basic mathematical principles and have been applying them to the office market in Cleveland.

Bums.

 

Chase cutting 290 jobs here

 

 

 

11:13 a.m.

 

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said today that it's eliminating 290 Cleveland jobs.

 

Chase is closing its mortgage and home-equity collections office at Tower City in downtown Cleveland; the jobs will move to Columbus and Dallas by year-end. The company's home-equity processing office in Tower City, with about 400 people, won't be affected.

 

About 80 percent of the workers have been on the job for less than five years. The workers cover two shifts, calling customers about past-due loan payments

Bums.

 

Chase cutting 290 jobs here

 

 

 

11:13 a.m.

 

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said today that it's eliminating 290 Cleveland jobs.

 

Chase is closing its mortgage and home-equity collections office at Tower City in downtown Cleveland; the jobs will move to Columbus and Dallas by year-end. The company's home-equity processing office in Tower City, with about 400 people, won't be affected.

 

About 80 percent of the workers have been on the job for less than five years. The workers cover two shifts, calling customers about past-due loan payments

 

I wonder if these jobs will be recaptured on the retail side of things since chase seems to be building up branches.

That's a surprise, since CB Richard Ellis' last report spoke of expansion at Chase.

 

Class ‘A’ quarterly net absorption was

46,477 square feet with Chase expanding into

13,427 square feet in Chase Financial Tower.

 

Hmmm

bummer

That's a surprise, since CB Richard Ellis' last report spoke of expansion at Chase.

 

Class ‘A’ quarterly net absorption was

46,477 square feet with Chase expanding into

13,427 square feet in Chase Financial Tower.

 

Hmmm

 

That's why i wondered if they would be creating more retail banking positions.

maybe they are just reorganizing, some jobs are leaving but others coming with the expansion?

Not sure if there's a better place for this...

 

From Cleveland.com:

 

Fifth Third Center is for sale in downtown Cleveland

 

1:33 p.m. (updated 1:46 p.m.)

 

Another downtown Cleveland skyscraper is up for sale: Fifth Third Center.

 

Paul Rubacha, principal of Ashley Capital LLC, a joint-owner of the building, confirmed to The Plain Dealer today that the 28-story building at 600 Superior Ave. is on the market.

 

Opened in 1991 as Bank One Center, the building changed its name in 2003, when Fifth Third Bank moved its Northeast Ohio headquarters there. Bank One, the inaugural anchor tenant, moved its local offices to the Penton Building on St. Clair Avenue.

 

More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

From Crain's:

 

Investment firm doubles its space

By SHAWN A. TURNER

 

6:00 am, September 4, 2006

 

 

Cleveland investment management firm Wasmer, Schroeder & Co. has doubled its office space in a move to Eaton Center.

 

The firm now has a 4,000-square-foot space, an increase from the 2,000-square-foot office it had worked out of inside the Bradley Building downtown.

 

Wasmer Schroeder is looking to add two workers to its four-person Cleveland staff by the end of the year, partner John Majoros said. The firm also has an office in Naples, Fla.

Also, this was mentioned somewhere else, but that 2-story building on Euclid between 13th and 14th, next to the luggage shop, is being renovated inside and now has a sign on the front window for Weber Murphy Fox. Are WMF moving in there, or are they just the project architects?

Here's more enthusiastic chatter about a new office building downtown. I'm not sure why there's so much talk of the East Bank when everything seems to be purely speculation at this point.

 

I say there's no clear need for a new office building downtown as long as the Atrium continues to disintegrate in one of the most visible spots downtown. It's not Class A now, but maybe it could be brought up to that level, and for far less than it would cost to build new.

 

 

 

Monday October 2, 2006

 

Baker Hostetler search may alter office landscape

Law firm’s massive space needs could spell end to decade-plus construction drought downtown

 

By STAN BULLARD

Crain's Cleveland

 

6:00 am, October 2, 2006

 

Baker Hostetler won’t say much about where its Cleveland office home may be in two years. But a buzz is rising in downtown circles that the big law firm could serve as the catalyst for the city’s first new downtown office building in 15 years.

 

Such talk is astonishing because the downtown office market’s nightmarish condition a short time ago had middle-age office brokers privately writing off working on a new skyscraper for the rest of their careers. But a resurgence of Cleveland’s Class A office market — those buildings with the best views and locations — could change that situation.

 

Developers have designs ready for a dream tenant, and Baker, with its 455-person Cleveland staff, could be it.

 

Wolstein Group already has aired plans for a substantial office building at its proposed Flats East Bank mixed-use project. Behind the scenes, The Richard E. Jacobs Group has a concept for a new building on Public Square.

 

Pat Lott, senior vice president of office leasing at Forest City Enterprises Inc., said Baker “chose to pass” on a proposal his company submitted to the law firm. Under the proposal, Baker would have been housed in a new building constructed by Forest City at Prospect and Superior avenues next to the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

 

According to Robert Roe, president of the Cleveland office of the Staubach Co. real estate brokerage, the office market supports the developers’ interest in a new building.

 

“In our opinion, downtown Cleveland is ripe for a new office building,” Mr. Roe said. “You’ve got a series of large tenants, including Baker, that only have the option to renew in place or look at construction. If you’re more than 50,000 square feet, there are not a lot of options.”

 

And Baker is a big tenant. The Cleveland-founded firm rents 164,000 square feet and fills eight floors at National City Center, where its lease expires in late 2008. Insiders say it needs more than 200,000 square feet going forward.

 

Baker spokeswoman Christine Gill confirmed that the law firm’s management is “investigating several options.”

 

“Beyond that, we have no comment,” Ms. Gill said.

 

However, Baker might not be able to stay silent for long about its office plans.

 

That’s because constructing a downtown building that could accommodate the firm likely would take a minimum of two years. Even redoing existing office space for a tenant of Baker’s scale would take considerable lead time.

 

 

Options are few

 

Todd Gabriel, a vice president at Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Cleveland office unit, said 200 Public Square — formerly known as the BP Building — is the only option for Baker if it chooses to relocate to an existing building because the 41-story building could accommodate the law firm by moving around other tenants to make contiguous offices available.

 

While Baker could remain in National City Center, Mr. Roe said that building couldn’t meet the expansion requirements its lawyers seek. National City Center illustrates the improving nature of the downtown office market: It’s full. There’s also a feeling the building’s owner, banking giant National City Corp., might not mind securing Baker’s space for itself; it has cut leases at several suburban office buildings this year.

 

The Class A vacancy rate in downtown Cleveland was just shy of 12% as of June 30, Grubb & Ellis reports, and is low enough for talk of a new downtown building to be reasonable again. However, Mr. Gabriel said he thinks rents are too low to support a new building. He said rents generally are in the range of $16 to $17 per square foot in the class A market, while a new building would require rents in the high $20s per square foot.

 

However, Mr. Roe argues that tenants in Class A buildings are used to paying higher rents, so the price to occupy a new building wouldn’t be a shock.

 

Besides, Mr. Roe said, developer Scott Wolstein, whose family-led Wolstein Group is proposing the Flats East Bank project, has larger motivations for winning Baker than other developers and might be willing to work with the law firm on price.

 

“The Flats East Bank (plan) has retail and living and office space,” Mr. Roe said.

 

“To support retail during the day you need the office space. It’s as important for (Mr. Wolstein) to have the disposable income for his retail tenants as to have the office tenant. He’s probably able cut a better deal than someone else who wants to build downtown.”

 

 

Off the beaten path

 

Even so, selling Baker or another high-profile office tenant on the Flats requires selling a vision for a new East Bank, which currently is a postcard for urban blight even though it adjoins the waterfront and the bustling Warehouse District.

 

“It’s a weird location” for a Class A tenant, said Kevin Piunno, managing director of the Midwest Real Estate Partners brokerage.

 

“It’s a suburban location,” Mr. Piunno said. “Where can you walk to from there?”

 

Adam Fishman, a principal in Fairmount Properties and Wolstein Group’s partner in the Flats East Bank project, said the development team is marketing office space “to a few select, larger users.”

 

“Frankly, it’s premature for us to discuss any office tenant,” Mr. Fishman said.

 

Harbor Group, owner of 200 Public Square, confirmed it could house a tenant of Baker’s size, but declined comment on the law firm’s space search, as did National City Corp.

 

Jacobs Groups spokesman Bill Fullington said the Westlake developer has done “very preliminary research to see if there is a market” for a downtown office building on land it owns at Public Square.

 

“We always look at how it can be developed,” Mr. Fullington said.

 

One other factor adds intrigue to this competition: Jacobs Group and Wolstein Group both have been clients of Baker. Indeed, the law firm itself promotes on its web site the work it has done for publicly traded Developers Diversified Realty Corp., the shopping center giant that is headed by the Wolstein Group’s Mr. Wolstein.

 

get a mixed used building in there, have some condos on top, i wanna see that parking lot on public square get developed, leave DFAS for Wolstein.

^

I agree, leave DFAS for Wolstein. We need to keep all of our large coporations/firms etc. in the heart of downtown. I think the best case scenario would be for Baker to move into 200 Public Square, and for National City to occupy the space that Baker will vacate in NCB building. That would probably push the construction of a new building on the front-burner.

 

On a side note, could you imagine what the downtown office landscape would be if OfficeMax would have moved into the Diamond building, and if UHHS would have moved into the Atrium?

As previously stated, let DFAS occupy the East bank site. Give the Public square address (or whereever)to the law firm. Whatever might get built, whether its mixed used or all office I hope its not a dingy little building and exceeds 500 feet.

I hope its not a dingy little building and exceeds 500 feet.

 

And what does that matter?  Postcard shot?  Ego trip? 

 

Building a new skyscraper would probably be a bad idea at this point.  The market isn't exactly robust when Class "A" space is leasing for only $16/sf.  Oversupplying space, as a 500' building would, is only going to depress local real estate values further, and thus make future construction cost-prohibitive. 

 

From the land of dingy little buildings that lease for $40+/sf,

 

DaninDC

 

 

True.  Its just that I dont think anybody on here wants to see anything less than a 500'+ building (and something of taste) go in the public square spot.  Sure, we all are hungry to see something major and new in the skyline, even though it may not make sense or be the right time.  There are plenty of other options in the heart of downtown that would provide a bigger benefit than moving to a new building on the east bank of the flats..   

^ you said it willyboy. that prime spot on public square should never be allowed to become a land of dingy little office or apt buildings. thats no ego trip that is common sense. save the little stuff for elsewhere in the city. i dont think jacobs would dare do that anyway (he owns the land right?). i'd rather have the law firm move to the flats with wolstein and wait some more rather than waste that space --- unless it could be a jazzy pumped tower up via some creative mixed use.

amen!