Cleveland Development Thread

[Soda]

Curious as to what the rent on those would be.

You're looking at about $950 on the low end.

 

[Ruken]

I toured those looking for an apt. Any of the decent floorplans are 1100 and up.

 

[Sumac13]

I toured those looking for an apt. Any of the decent floorplans are 1100 and up.

Not feeling so bad about paying $535 for one bedroom in Spokane now. If ever I move back to Cleveland area, I'd try to find a place downtown. I hope it hits a critical mass where more and more corporations decide that it makes economic sense to locate in downtown area also, to help provide sustainability to the revitalization.

 

[Ruken]

Not feeling so bad about paying $535 for one bedroom in Spokane now. If ever I move back to Cleveland area, I'd try to find a place downtown. I hope it hits a critical mass where more and more corporations decide that it makes economic sense to locate in downtown area also, to help provide sustainability to the revitalization.

Yea they were very nice, mix of modern and vintage feel. Only reason I'm going 668 instead is that 1717 is literally the building over from work, felt like I would hate myself If I lived that close


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[Huber.]

How Dan Gilbert and allied casino interests snookered Cleveland -- and Ohioans: Brent Larkin
LeBron James took his talents back to Cleveland in spite of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, not because of him.

There’s too much history between them for any other explanation.

Nevertheless, no one on the planet benefits more from James’ return than Gilbert. That benefit will come from a body occupying every seat for every game at Quicken Loans Arena. More importantly, it will come from an increase in the value of the team’s franchise.

Knowing little about these things, I asked a half dozen people who know a lot more. Using a conservative number, the Cavaliers are worth a minimum of $200 million more today than they were two months ago. Some suggest the instant James announced he was coming home, Gilbert’s net worth increased by a minimum of a half billion dollars.

Gilbert paid about $375 million for the Cavaliers in 2005. Nine years later, the franchise is probably worth at least $1 billion.

But it isn’t just Greater Cleveland’s basketball fans who have been very good to Gilbert. Over the next 20 years, purchasers of cigarettes and alcohol in Cuyahoga Countywill hand him more than $80 million to pay for capital repairs at the arena he runs. That pile of money will come from the 20-year extension of the sin tax approved by voters May 6.

No one should begrudge Gilbert his wealth. He’s obviously a shrewd businessman willing to take risks.

But the people of Northeast Ohio have a right to expect Gilbert to tell them the truth and keep his promises.

And when it comes to his downtown casino, Gilbert has done neither.

On May 3, 2009, Gilbert and his partners from Penn National Gaming were part of what was probably the biggest ballot-issue swindle in Ohio history.

First came the campaign, or what might best be titled, “Promises Made. Promises broken.”

To hoodwink voters into approving one of the sweetest casino deals ever handed out in the United States, Gilbert and his partner, Penn National Gaming, orchestrated a $47 million campaign that promised millions in taxes for schools and local governments.

In return for helping children learn and municipalities better serve their citizens, Gilbert would get to own and operate a full-service casino in Cleveland and another one in Cincinnati. Penn National would do the same in Columbus and Toledo. Voters fell for it. But as Ohio's news organizations -- especially The Plain Dealer and The Columbus Dispatch -- have reported, it was all a gigantic exaggeration that relied, in part, on patently absurd revenue projections by state government

Sure, Gov. John Kasich rightly demanded, and got, a bit more up-front money. And, yes, the opening of seven slots-only racinos at seven Ohio racetracks reduced the take at the four, full-service casinos.

But even without the racinos, the campaign promises of $2 billion in annual revenue would have never been met -- not in a market where there are now 30 casinos within a four-hour drive of every Ohioan.

Promised revenue wasn’t the only bogus claim used to fool voters. So, too, were the guarantees of 34,000 jobs. A Dispatch series earlier this month said the casinos created 10,600 temporary jobs and now employ 4,844 Ohioans. That’s a mere 18,556 fewer than promised.

Part of the bait used to attract support from voters was Gilbert’s promise to build a glittering, $600 million casino along Huron Road with breathtaking views of the Cuyahoga River.

Plans the Gilbert group shared with Plain Dealer architecture critic Steve Litt showedwhat Litt described as a “contemporary building with large areas of glass at two main entrances” and “large, street-level plazas flanking the entries off Huron, where the public will be able to stroll and enjoy gardens, fountains and views of the Cuyahoga River.”

That’s what voters were promised. What they got was a cramped casino, shoehorned into four floors of a former department store. It’s tastefully done, but located in a building designed to sell things to customers, not soak them.

Asked about the promised, $600 million casino, Jennifer Kulczycki, spokeswoman for Gilbert’s Rock Ventures gaming company, replied in an email, “I don’t have an update at this time.”

But the dirty little secret here is that the market for casino gambling has cratered, especially in northern states east of the Mississippi River.

Casinos are closing in Atlantic City. A campaign is underway in Massachusetts torepeal a casino gambling initiative before they’re even built. Tax revenues are failing to meet expectations at the overwhelming majority of the nation’s casinos and racinos.

Yet when a campaign spokesman was asked during the 2009 campaign if an abundance of new casinos might impact revenue projections in Ohio, Penn National Vice President Eric Schippers said, “We’re not concerned at all about market saturation in terms of being able to meet our revenue estimates because we’ve already adjusted for competition.”

They didn’t adjust nearly enough. Casino gambling revenue in Ohio declines almost every single month from the same month a year earlier.

Harold Vogel, a New York-based gambling industry analyst, said that, because casinos are now cannibalizing each other, “These ventures in Ohio will be a disappointment.”

Such a disappoint that Gilbert’s Rock Ventures, the company that owns the Horseshoe Casino, might have trouble obtaining financing should Gilbert decide to ever keep his promise.

When things don’t go his way, Gilbert’s tendency is to lash out. When James left the horribly run Cavaliers to win two championships in Miami, Gilbert wrote of James’ “cowardly betrayal.” Just days before hoodwinking voters in 2009, Gilbert sent vile emails to top Plain Dealer executives after the newspaper ran a legitimate story reporting Gilbert had been arrested on gambling charges while a student at Michigan State University.

In May 2013, he tweeted that I was a yellow journalist for having the audacity to suggest he hadn’t kept his word to voters, adding “more to be revealed in the months ahead” about the new casino.

Seventeen of those months later, we’re still waiting.

Instead of details about that new casino, we’ve gotten a proposed park with a cheesy sculpture on a postage-stamp-sized parcel of land near Gilbert’s downtown casino.

Amidst near unanimous condemnation, Horseshoe Casino officials quickly retreated from their tawdry proposal of a sculpture featuring a stack of chips and a bright red die.

In 2009, the politicians and public fell for a textbook bait and switch. This one’s from the same playbook.

Promise ‘em a lovely new casino with lots of glass and wonderful views.

Give ‘em instead a tiny little park with a hideous piece of “art.”

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer's editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: (216) 999-4252

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/09/how_dan_gilbert_and_allied_cas.html

 

[Soda]

Already read this op-ed and it's retarded. Sour grapes.

To keep it less troll-y...

Parsons-Brinckerhoff out of Detroit was chosen as the designer of the pedestrian bridge from downtown to the lakefront. They have an impressive portfolio, https://www.pbworld.com/. This is a huge opportunity for the City, but also for the designer. They have some iconic bridge designs, but on the pedestrian side of things, there hasn't been much flair. The Browns want the bridge to be in the back-drop of the stadium and the City/County intend for the bridge to be visible and iconic.

Also, expect a lot of projects to be moving quickly in the next 2 years...

Downtown projects are under the gun to meet Jackson's goal of 'no orange barrels' during 2016 Republican National Convention

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland has had a long history of moving slowly on efforts to refresh its drab downtown with new parks and streetscapes.

But important projects that have been discussed for a decade or more are officially under the gun to get finished in time for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

The administration of Mayor Frank Jackson is using 2016 as a challenge to accelerate the proposed redesign of Public Square, enhancements to the downtown Mall, and a lakefront pedestrian drawbridge on the west side of North Coast Harbor.

Cuyahoga County is pushing just as hard to finish its new convention center hotel and a second pedestrian bridge to connect the Mall to North Coast Harbor.

"Mayor Jackson has told us, quote unquote, 'no orange barrels,' " chief of staff Ken Silliman said in an interview earlier this week, repeating a mantra about 2016.

"One of the many benefits of attracting the Republican National Convention is that it gives you a target date to shoot for on a lot of these significant public projects, much like other cities have used Olympic games as a target date," Silliman said.

All players involved in the downtown projects, including members of the administration and the nonprofit Group Plan Commission, which Jackson initiated to spearhead much of the work, have affirmed in recent weeks their commitment to meet the 2016 deadline.

Yet factors out of city and county control could affect whether some of the deadlines can be met. Those factors include weather, fundraising and the willingness of contractors to rise to the challenge and accept the risk.

For example, the city hopes to speed up completion of the $8 million North Coast Harbor pedestrian drawbridge designed by highly regarded Boston bridge architect Miguel Rosales with the Cleveland office of CDM Smith.

The drawbridge will create a pedestrian loop linking both sides of the harbor with Voinovich Park, the flag-shaped green space north of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Originally funded in 2005-07, the drawbridge was scheduled for completion in 2017 – a full decade after the money was in hand. In June, city officials said that federal and state reviews of the design delayed the project and helped increase its cost.

At a meeting of the City Planning Commission last week, city officials said for the first time they hoped to finish the bridge in 2016, shaving a year off the schedule.

During the meeting, the Planning Commission reviewed and approved plans for a small building to house the bridge operator, who will raise and lower the 142-foot-span as needed.

In an interview days after the meeting, Silliman and Matt Spronz, the city's director of capital projects, described the 2016 deadline as a best-case scenario. They said they wouldn't know for sure whether the deadline could be met until they receive construction bids on the drawbridge project in January.

"It's a very complicated project, and it has a potential for a lot of delays and risks, but that's the current schedule we're trying to proceed on right now," Spronz said, describing the new goal of finishing the drawbridge by 2016.

The pace is also picking for the other pedestrian bridge -- a $25 million, 800-foot span that will connect the northeast corner of the downtown Mall to North Coast Harbor.

On Tuesday, Cuyahoga County Council approved a $2.8 million contract for the team of Parsons Brinckerhoff and Rosales to design the bridge, which will cross an ugly no-man's land of railroads, parking lots and the Shoreway to link the lakefront attractions to the city's new convention center.

Rosales, who will lead the design for this, his second lakefront pedestrian bridge in Cleveland, was in town this week to meet with lakefront stakeholders and to start working on concepts for the fully funded project.

The city and county have committed $10 million each, and the state has chipped in the remaining $5 million.

Bonnie Teeuwen, the county's director of Public Works, which will oversee construction, has said she is certain the bridge will be finished by 2016.

"There wasn't any hesitation in my voice, was there?" she said during an interview on the topic in August, smiling, after affirming her confidence.

LAND Studio and the Group Plan Commission have said they will soon schedule public meetings to solicit views on how the bridge should be designed.

Other signs of the 2016 push include a pair of ordinances now percolating through reviews by the City Planning Commission and council committees.

One ordinance would enable the city to use tax increment financing from the Horseshoe Casino improvements to the Higbee Building to help finance the $30 million Public Square project.

The other ordinance authorizes the Group Plan Commission to add enhancements to landscaping on the downtown Mall, to build a pedestrian bridge from the Mall to North Coast Harbor and to sell naming rights.

"The world comes to an end in June 2016," Ed Rybka, the mayor's chief of regional development, joked at the Planning Commission meeting last week as he described the ordinance.

"The mayor is very clear on this," Rybka said in a more serious tone. "If we're going to reconstruct Public Square, it needs to be done by June 2016."

A majority of commission members voted to approve the ordinance. Chairman Anthony Coyne, who also chairs the Group Plan Commission, recused himself from the vote, as did commission member Lillian Kuri, an employee of the Cleveland Foundation, a funder of the Public Square project.

The sole "no" vote on the legislation came from Norman Krumholz, a professor emeritus of city planning at Cleveland State University who also served as director of city planning from 1969 to 1979 under Mayors Carl B. Stokes, Ralph J. Perk, and Dennis Kucinich.

Krumholz, a nationally respected advocate of equity planning – the philosophy that public investments should serve the disadvantaged - said he was worried that the Public Square project would negatively affect riders of Regional Transit Authority buses.

Joe Calabrese, the CEO and general manager of RTA, responded at the meeting that the agency would work with the city and the Group Plan Commission to minimize any negatives for riders. A traffic study expected later this month would help planners finalize the design for the square, Calabrese said.

Krumholz appeared somewhat satisfied by Calabrese's assurances, but he lashed out at the proposal for the $25 million pedestrian bridge from the Mall and convention center to North Coast Harbor.

"I think the bicycle-pedestrian bridge is a total waste of time and that Clevelanders think other priorities such as safe streets and better schools are a much higher priority," Krumholz said. "My opinion is that those dollars should be used on more higher-priority issues."

Krumholz had had his say, but with the majority in favor, the legislation for the Group Plan Commission moved briskly on its way – another sign of the motivating power of the 2016 deadline.

http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2014/09/city_county_press_ahead_on_dow.html

 

[Sumac13]

I will impressed if all of these projects can be finished in 2 years. I think the pedestrian bridge will be cool. I dig other designs of Rosales and feel confident he will come up with something iconic that works, too. As for the convention center hotel's design, I am not feeling it at all. Boring. I'd like to have seen something like 30 St. Mary Axe (The Gherkin) in London:

As for the Public Square project, the renderings look… ? I think it can turn out either great or shitty. I cannot visualize it from behind a keyboard. Regardless, I like the concept.

 

[Ruken]

Was down at Lagos this weekend, that whole flats project when finished is going to be awesome. Praying that apartment complex allows pets because I would love to move there.


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[SixPACK]

Hofbrauhaus Cleveland set to open Oct. 9 in Playhouse Square; promises an Oktoberfest year-round

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It took centuries for the general public to even be admitted to the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich. So what's a few days here or there when it comes to the opening of one in Cleveland?

Well, wait no more.
Hofbrauhaus Cleveland will open its doors Thursday. It will be followed by a keg tapping to mark the grand opening on Oct. 22 – complete with servers in dirndl and lederhosen outfits, German bands and party-hearty stein slamming.

The 24,000-square-foot, $8.4 million Bavarian-themed entertainment spot was initially scheduled to open in September, but was pushed back due to the enormity of the project.

Monday, the place was crawling with construction workers shoveling gravel and carrying boards.

Structurally, the place is ready to go. Even some of the small details are in order – like the immaculate flower boxes in front.

"Germans love their flower boxes," said marketing and sales manager Andrea Mueller, standing in the soon-to-be-beer garden. "Gotta have those up."

The beer garden looks good to go, adorned with rows of picnic tables to accommodate up to 1,000 patrons.

The magnitude of Hofbrauhaus Cleveland is mind-boggling – and not just because it runs counter to the prevailing smaller-is-better approach to bars, eateries and entertainment. The location has long been a dead zone in downtown nightlife, which is poised to suddenly become a hopping area.

Located on Chester Avenue between Playhouse Square and the Greyhound Bus Station – a personal favorite building -- the Hofbrauhaus will include three floors and a number of rooms, the most prominent being the 450-seat beer hall and that beer garden. It will brew and sell Hofbrau beer starting in November.

"The aging process is three to five weeks," said brewmaster Josh Jones, in the brewing room, which features 15 tanks a room full of sacks of malt imported from Germany. "So until we can get it up and running, we're going to be getting our beer from Germany."

The beer list will represent German staples, which only use water, malt, hops and yeast, according to Bavarian purity laws.

After all, the original Hofbrauhaus in Bavaria was founded by the beer-guzzling Wilhelm V, in 1589.

The Cleveland Hofbrauhaus has required linking the new building with the Hermit Club. The 110-year old Tudor-style spot will be used as part of the Hofbrauhaus – including a beautiful performance room that will play host to 120-160 people.

It opens the little-known gem, formerly a private club, to the general public. But the Hofbrauhaus is looking for much more than that: To reinvigorate a part of town by attracting ethnics who left the city decades ago.

This Hofbrauhaus marks a reversal in a movement that was capped off with the death of the old Hofbrau Haus. The latter – a restaurant and gathering place on East 55th Street -- was a landmark for most of the 20th century.

"We're hoping to bring these people back to the city," says Mueller, a Cleveland native and German-American who grew up speaking German.

In Germany, everybody knows the Hofbrauhaus song. You know, "In Munchen steht ein Hofrauhaus, oans, zwoa, g'suffa!" ("There's a Hofbräuhaus in Munich—one, two, drunk!")

Imagine, soon enough, they might be singing it in this once-dead spot. OK, OK, make that, "In Cleveland steht ein Hofbrauhaus, oans, zwoa, g'suffa!"

 

[Green Demon]

 

[Pick6]

anyone checked out the Hofbrauhaus yet?

 

[Green Demon]

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Stark Enterprises is seeking early approvals and financing help from the city of Cleveland for a project that could change the downtown skyline, with 500 apartments, offices, stores, restaurants, a hotel and structured parking.

Representatives for the developer expect to appear at a city design review committee meeting Thursday and the Cleveland City Planning Commission on Friday. Both bodies will consider conceptual plans for a project called nuCLEus, slated for a large parking lot and other property north of Quicken Loans Arena.

The Plain Dealer first reported on the project, a joint venture between Cleveland-based Stark and J-Dek Investments Ltd. of Solon, in August. The companies paid $26 million in September for most of the development site and other downtown real estate formerly owned by the L&R Group of Companies of California.

"We're going to announce our lead architect, our design architect shortly, within the next few weeks," said Ezra Stark, chief operating officer for Stark Enterprises.

"We expect a lot of announcements from various public agencies regarding the assistance we're hoping to receive in order to make this project happen," he added. "We're looking to the state, the county and the city in order to bring new construction to this marketplace, because you can't do it without public assistance."

Stark wouldn't discuss the details of the potential financing plan.

But Cleveland is laying preliminary groundwork for a tax-increment financing agreement, which would earmark a portion of new property-tax revenues generated by the development to paying for up-front infrastructure costs. The city focuses on non-school TIFs, which don't touch property-tax revenues slated for the schools. Legislation introduced at Cleveland City Council last month doesn't elaborate on the potential scope of the TIF.

City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who represents much of downtown, said he supports the project and looks forward to seeing details about the public-financing requests.

"I don't think that there is a better time for this," Cimperman said, pointing to heightened attention to the Gateway District thanks to LeBron James's return to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2016 Republican National Convention planned for The Q. "But we're about to see if time and pressure can make a diamond, because this is a huge endeavor. ... This is the cauldron of stress that could facilitate a project like this happening."

Developer Bob Stark has said nuCLEus could be a $250 million to $350 million investment. Other potential public incentives include property-tax abatement, which is widely available for new residential projects in Cleveland, and money from Cuyahoga County's pool of casino revenues meant for downtown projects.

Stark hopes to extend the pedestrian feel of East Fourth Street, which is lined with restaurants between Euclid and Prospect avenues, south to Huron Road near The Q. The developer also wants to transform an existing walkway between Huron and Prospect, near the eastern edge of the site, into a more intimate pedestrian alley, with outdoor dining, small shops and bars on either side.

A presentation compiled for this week's design review and planning meetings shows that Stark and J-Dek have honed their plans during the last few months. Blocky conceptual studies for the 3-acre Gateway District site feature a handful of towers perched atop parking garages, with retail lining the streets.

The tallest building could stand as tall as 500 feet, though current sketches show roughly 30 floors overlooking the lower, park-like roofs of parking garages. The development is likely to require zoning modifications.

Stark compared the project to the much larger CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip or the twin-towered Time Warner Center in New York. If the development happens, it will be one of the largest recent real estate investments in downtown Cleveland, ranking with the Flats East Bank neighborhood, the makeover of the former Ameritrust buildings on East Ninth Street and the taxpayer-funded convention center complex where a new Hilton hotel is being built.

Stark aims to open the parking portions of nuCLEus before the mid-2016 RNC. Other parts of the development might open in late 2016 or early 2017.

Yet another project that could be in the works pending approval and funding so still a ways to go. Would be interesting to see how construction would work since this would be next door to the RNC and I'm sure that the project would have a tough time getting finished by then if that's the plan.

 

[Soda]

If you ask me.... This pedestrian bridge is both necessary and stunning... Hope like hell the crooked politicians in this City don't strike it... I can't describe how much I like it.

The 1,600 beams that are the structure of the "podium" (everything below the tower part) are all in as of today. This also is a publicly funded venture and I think it's another smart one.

 

[Soda]

In addition to the first bridge design, these two are also under consideration. I still really like the first one I posted...

 

[Peachtree]

The cable-stayed bridge is awesome, but how great would it be if they actually capped the tracks and built a linear park?

One of the VPs at my job in ATL recently made a trip up to Cleveland for a medical conference and he said that out of all of the places he's been in the world, CLE was the most surprising. Made me feel all warm inside.