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I didn't know if this needed a new thread, since it covers many different projects or should be tacked on to another thred. Mods, please move around to where you see it fits best

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/06/range_of_retail_planned_for_do.html

 

Range of retail planned for downtown Cleveland

 

Posted by Michelle Jarboe June 01, 2008 02:48AM

Categories: Economic development, Real estate, Retail

 

In the downtown Cleveland of the future, you might start an afternoon on East 12th Street, chatting with the owner of a coffee shop while munching an organic muffin.

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I was going to post it at the retail thread in city discussion, but this is probably as good as place as any.

 

I love the troglodytes over at cleveland-dot-bomb. Sometimes I think they would euthanize a loved one for having a cold. I tried posting a response but I kept getting a dirty message:

 

"Bad ObjectDriver config: Connection error: Host 'comment-3.host.cdc.advance.net' is blocked because of many connection errors; unblock with 'mysqladmin flush-hosts'"

 

So I'll post it here......

 

If anything is falling into oblivion, it's the car-dependent suburbs. Mixed use and densely developed city neighborhoods like Ohio City, Tremont, Little Italy, University Circle and especially downtown are much more pedestrian and bicycle friendly as well as transit accessible. Look at where the real estate values are falling fastest nationwide -- the suburbs (source: Atlantic Monthly and NPR). Thus it makes sense to have more retailing options in the city, especially downtown which is the city's fastest growing neighborhood.

 

Get out of the suburbs while you still can!!

“What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
Or “We all dwell together to make money from each other”? -- TS Eliot’s The Rock

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I have a question.  There was a website called Downtownclevelandbuildingprojects.com which had not been updated for a few years.  Anyone know anything about what happened to it?  Has it been absorbed into urbanohio?  I tried to search UO but did not get any hits.  It was a rather good site.

 

 

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I have a question.  There was a website called Downtownclevelandbuildingprojects.com which had not been updated for a few years.  Anyone know anything about what happened to it?  Has it been absorbed into urbanohio?  I tried to search UO but did not get any hits.  It was a rather good site.

 

I was a big fan of that site as well:

 

http://pages.prodigy.net/karapaul/cleve.htm

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“What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
Or “We all dwell together to make money from each other”? -- TS Eliot’s The Rock

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Re: "Range of retail planned for downtown Cleveland" posted by Cornercurve...

 

I am a big fan of that 16? story building depicted in the warehouse district.

 

Amazing how Pesht would truly change the whole dynamic with not just the warehouse district, but the entire downtown.

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Update on the Holiday Inn conversion that has been discussed in this thread before. 

 

Overhaul will convert downtown Holiday Inn into Doubletree

Posted by rroguski

June 09, 2008 18:08PM

 

As new boutique and luxury hotel brands consider downtown, an old property is getting a $15 million facelift - and a more upscale name.

Renovations are under way to transform the Holiday Inn Select hotel into a DoubleTree. Five floors of rooms - out of 15 total - have been stripped and remade, with new furniture, fixtures, bathrooms, air-conditioning and flat-panel televisions. Three more floors are under construction, and the rest could be finished by Labor Day.

 

More at:

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/06/overhaul_will_convert_downtown.html

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Didnt know where to put this, so feel free to move if there is a better place...

 

On MSN today, Cleveland made the list of 12 "unexpected "green" cities.  Our green reputation is growing! 

 

http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=207&GT1=45002&page=2

Smart(ish) Cities: 12 unexpected urban areas that are doing good green stuff

 

Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Most people -- if they give Cleveland much thought at all -- probably see it as a Rust Belt city, a victim of white flight and the decaying industrial economy, and of environmental gaffes in the 1970s when Lake Erie was declared dead and the nearby Cuyahoga River was so choked with pollution that it caught fire. But this Midwest metropolis is also home to a surprisingly forward-looking sustainability subculture. The city hired a sustainability programs manager in 2005; last year, its transit system was named the best in the nation by the American Public Transportation Association. A focus on energy-efficient, affordable housing has seen new townhomes and cottages springing up in a formerly depopulated neighborhood, and community gardens sprouting along with them. Cleveland also ranks second only to Los Angeles in the number of projects per capita seeking certification under LEED-ND, an expanded version of the notorious green-building guidelines that applies to entire neighborhoods. Its biggest problem may be convincing people to move there -- or move back -- but even in that realm, there are signs of hope: one activist reports that Cleveland natives currently working on green programs in other cities have begun calling to find out how they can help back home. (Read more about Cleveland's green efforts at Grist.org.)

 

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http://www.cpnonline.com/cpn/content_display/regions/midwest/e3ifd5bab0845dffef8d0b1f661981ef9de

 

HRPT Finalizes Cleveland Office Complex Acquisition

June 10, 2008

By: Dees Stribling, Contributing Correspondent

 

HRPT Properties Trust has closed on the acquisition of the 877,000-square-foot North Point office complex in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio. All together, the two-building property sold for $123 million, or about $140 per square foot...

 

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No problem. I had to scroll back to remember what you were referring to.

“What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
Or “We all dwell together to make money from each other”? -- TS Eliot’s The Rock

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Awesome observation. Now that you mention it, I've never heard a negative word either! I do like what they've done, especially in terms of their renovations.

“What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
Or “We all dwell together to make money from each other”? -- TS Eliot’s The Rock

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I believe a big reason for Marous doing quality work is that its owners, up until they started the company worked in the field, two as union carpenters, one as a union operating engineer. They know what is acceptable and what is crap. Alot of other contractors that have been around the area for generations dont have that type of field experience around anymore. Most are run by college grads with no experience actually doing the work and understanding what actually works best in real life, not on paper. I see this first hand being that I spent two years working for Marous and can compare them to other companies. I've dealt with management from other companies where they send some college grad out on the job trying to tell you how you should be doing your job. That never happened with Marous.

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are they building a construction wall to enclose the front?

 

I just saw them rolling in the Metal frames for the subwall and they had a bunch already "up" for the length of the corridor (as viewed from the garage door)

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This is a random question on development.

 

It occurred to me that not once have I heard anything negative about Marous Brothers' work. Is it only me or are they that good?

 

I'm doing work with them on Capitol Theater.  What a nightmare.

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I forgot to mention this earlier... But I noticed today while walking around at lunch that there are signs up for the Kourfant and Mazzone Construction Co. at the 1303 Prospect Place building (Not Prospect Place apartments... this is the skinny building in between the surface lot and the US Bank garage on the north side of the street kind of across from the old bottoms up).  Kourfant & Mazzone is the construction company that owns and refurbished Joshua Hall.  I heard awhile back that someone bought the 1303 Prospect Building and was moving their offices in there.  I can not now for the life of me what the company is.  Obviously this is moving forward.  Personally i think this is great news.  For an eternity Prospect consisted of one of the worst projects downtown, Ohio Desk, S Rose, and a lot of buildings in REALLY bad shape.  Now Winton Manor has been rehabbed and is much better, The Osborn is pretty much at capacity, Prospect Place Apartments has rehabbed that building, Joshua Hall has remade another ramshackle into a gem, and now this.  I realize that there are still too many parking garages and surface lots on this street... but not long ago it was absolutely abhorrent.  Now there is only 1 vacant property left (the bottoms up building).  This gives me hope that maybe at somepoint down the line Prospect will be in good position for some infill...

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I forgot to mention this earlier... But I noticed today while walking around at lunch that there are signs up for the Kourfant and Mazzone Construction Co. at the 1303 Prospect Place building (Not Prospect Place apartments... this is the skinny building in between the surface lot and the US Bank garage on the north side of the street kind of across from the old bottoms up). Kourfant & Mazzone is the construction company that owns and refurbished Joshua Hall. I heard awhile back that someone bought the 1303 Prospect Building and was moving their offices in there. I can not now for the life of me what the company is. Obviously this is moving forward. Personally i think this is great news. For an eternity Prospect consisted of one of the worst projects downtown, Ohio Desk, S Rose, and a lot of buildings in REALLY bad shape. Now Winton Manor has been rehabbed and is much better, The Osborn is pretty much at capacity, Prospect Place Apartments has rehabbed that building, Joshua Hall has remade another ramshackle into a gem, and now this. I realize that there are still too many parking garages and surface lots on this street... but not long ago it was absolutely abhorrent. Now there is only 1 vacant property left (the bottoms up building). This gives me hope that maybe at somepoint down the line Prospect will be in good position for some infill...

 

FYIW

About 4 weeks ago, I saw three men standing on the sidewalk next to Bottoms Up, unrolling architectural drawings, and pointing towards the second floor. 

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I also noticed today that the Goodyear car repair place at East 14th and Prospect is closed. The three-story building that it was in is a faded beauty built in 1922 and was/is used as a parking structure. I keep hoping that building gets rehabbed. Maybe Goodyear's closing will make that possible.

“What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
Or “We all dwell together to make money from each other”? -- TS Eliot’s The Rock

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Goodyear has been closed for a while. 

 

This stretch of Prospect is one of my favorite areas of Downtown, and it is great to see that it is coming along.  I remember it being a place that was unpleasant to be even during the day a decade ago.

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I also noticed today that the Goodyear car repair place at East 14th and Prospect is closed. The three-story building that it was in is a faded beauty built in 1922 and was/is used as a parking structure. I keep hoping that building gets rehabbed. Maybe Goodyear's closing will make that possible.

 

It has been closed for about 3 years. The owner thinks that it should be torn down and has no patience for the city's "historic preservation stance."

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I forgot to mention this earlier... But I noticed today while walking around at lunch that there are signs up for the Kourfant and Mazzone Construction Co. at the 1303 Prospect Place building (Not Prospect Place apartments... this is the skinny building in between the surface lot and the US Bank garage on the north side of the street kind of across from the old bottoms up). Kourfant & Mazzone is the construction company that owns and refurbished Joshua Hall. I heard awhile back that someone bought the 1303 Prospect Building and was moving their offices in there. I can not now for the life of me what the company is. Obviously this is moving forward. Personally i think this is great news. For an eternity Prospect consisted of one of the worst projects downtown, Ohio Desk, S Rose, and a lot of buildings in REALLY bad shape. Now Winton Manor has been rehabbed and is much better, The Osborn is pretty much at capacity, Prospect Place Apartments has rehabbed that building, Joshua Hall has remade another ramshackle into a gem, and now this. I realize that there are still too many parking garages and surface lots on this street... but not long ago it was absolutely abhorrent. Now there is only 1 vacant property left (the bottoms up building). This gives me hope that maybe at somepoint down the line Prospect will be in good position for some infill...

 

I've met with Korfant & Mazzone a few times.  Yes, they've recently finished the rehab of that building and moved their offices in.  IIRC, they're finishing up six condos around $300k each.  There's a good article about the rehab and the company in the May 2008 issue of Properties Magazine (you can download the entire issue free here).

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It has been closed for about 3 years. The owner thinks that it should be torn down and has no patience for the city's "historic preservation stance."

 

Then he should sell it to someone who does have the patience and then get the hell out of town!

 

That building was around around long before he was born and the longer it sticks around, the less it remains solely "his building"  and moreso a community asset. That's the reality of an older city. Perhaps he should move to Houston or Orlando...

“What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
Or “We all dwell together to make money from each other”? -- TS Eliot’s The Rock

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