Cleveland launches affordable housing fund

Creating more housing investment will help address a shortage of quality housing
in Cleveland, where lenders are often reluctant to invest due to neighborhood
instability, discrimination and inequality. So Cleveland is partnering with
KeyBank and the Local Initiatives Support Corp. to change that (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Last evening, a new Cleveland Housing Investment Fund (CHIF) was launched when Cleveland City Council passed legislation that requires the city to provide financing to the new fund. The city’s $18 million commitment leverages $20 million pledged by Cleveland-based KeyBank to boost the development of mixed-income rental housing and home ownership opportunities.

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George’s third billboard lands on Opportunity Corridor

To make way for the Irishtown Bend Park, this huge billboard on the blighted building
on which it sets at the southeast corner of West 25th Street and the Detroit-Superior
Bridge will be demolished and replaced by three billboards as a result of a court
settlement. The third and final billboard location has been identified (Google).
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A George family-owned billboard that metastasized into three as a result of a 2023 court settlement has found its third and final landing spot in Cleveland. That third billboard site is a piece of a city-owned parcel on the Opportunity Corridor near Quincy Avenue that is unlikely to be developed with any other uses, according to a city official. Title to the land will be transferred to the Georges.

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CWRU’s South Residential expansion stops

The first two phases of expanding Case Western Reserve University’s South Residen-
tial Village were completed in time for this Fall Semester. But they now appear to be
be the last phases, A third phase proposed across the street is not being pursued due
to there being a sufficient amount of student housing (William Rawn Associates).
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As Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) approaches its 200th anniversary, just two years away, the growing college has just one megaproject on its syllabus for Cleveland’s University Circle — the $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building. So CWRU’s bicentennial legacy is to do what it has often done — prudently build when it needs to, not when it wants to. Even so, news of what the university is not building may come as a surprise.

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León to lead Cuyahoga Land Bank

Ricardo León today officially became only the second president in the history
of the Cuyahoga Land Bank (CBL). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Ricardo León gained something by losing something. He lost the prefix “Interim” prior to his title of “President” of the Cuyahoga Land Bank, a private, nonprofit government entity whose mission it is to acquire properties, return them to productive use, reduce blight and increase property values in Cuyahoga County.

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Bridgeworks can finally build – up to two stories

In the coming weeks, work crews will start to appear at the northeast corner of West
25th Street and the Detroit-Superior Bridge near Downtown Cleveland to demolish
existing, vacant buildings and begin the construction of Bridgeworks — at least
partially at this point (GLSD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

After four years of going through multiple design iterations, it somehow seems natural that Bridgeworks finally got the OK today from the city to start construction — but only up to the second floor. To build above that, the project’s development team is going to have to come back to the city for design approval of the building’s top five floors. The team pledged it would do so — quickly.

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Realities behind Amtrak’s ‘new’ train to Florida

Amtrak has a shortage of these bilevel train cars on its western long-distance trains
because it cut maintenance staff during the pandemic. Amtrak hasn’t fully reinstated
them and has dozens of cars awaiting overhauls and other routine work. So Amtrak
is taking the bilevel cars from its Chicago-Cleveland-Washington DC service, seen
here, to keep its western trains running. Normally, Amtrak visits Cleveland in the
pre-dawn hours except when trains are very late, as was the case here on July 17,
2023 (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While Amtrak’s press release about the creation of a direct-but-temporary Chicago-Florida passenger rail service through Cleveland touted it as an achievement, the reality behind it is actually quite different. According to several sources, the direct service is being implemented to rescue Amtrak from its own shortcomings — both internal and external.

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Library Lofts turning next page at Circle Square

Workers on Sept. 12 were busily attaching exterior panels to the 11-story Library
Lofts development at Circle Square in Cleveland’s University Circle. This week,
the first residents are moving in. In the background at right is The Artisan apart-
ments, part of Circle Square and the tallest structure in University Circle (KJP).
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With a partial occupancy permit from the city awarded, arriving residents are opening the book on Library Lofts — the latest building to be offered at the Circle Square district of Cleveland’s University Circle. Like a novel with a thick plot, progress on the apartment building-over-public library has taken lots of turns, though it’s not done yet. But this page-turner is almost there. And what a poetic conclusion it may turn out to be.

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