Cleveland Thermal target of acquisition

The 129-year-old coal-fired Cleveland Thermal steam heating plant on Canal
Road, at right, in downtown was shut down nearly seven years ago and is next
to the big Bedrock riverfront development site. It’s worth watching to see what
happens next to this and a couple of other sites around town (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

As Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm gets ready to roll out the details of phase one of its riverfront development, a neighboring fixture on the banks of the Cuyahoga River since 1894 may not be around much longer. The long-closed Cleveland Thermal steam heating plant, 2274 Canal Rd., along with possibly other properties of Cleveland Thermal Generation LLC are in the process of being acquired, according to a real estate source.

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Old Brooklyn Lofts gets early OK

Old Brooklyn Lofts is a proposed redevelopment in the heart of the project’s
namesake neighborhood of Cleveland  to convert a vacant mixed-use building
with high ceilings into apartments, most with bedroom lofts. A 12-space park-
ing lot will be constructed behind the building on the right (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A Parma real estate investor and his development team won conceptual approval yesterday from a local design review panel to convert the vacant, century-old Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple at 3409 Broadview Rd. in the heart of Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood into loft-style apartments. The team will then refine their plans into more detail schematic designs for review by the Planning Commission’s citywide design-review committee prior to construction.

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Ohio City buildings to be razed for Bridgeworks

An axiometric view of the proposed demolition plan for the Bridgeworks
site, at the west end of the Detroit-Superior Bridge in Cleveland’s Ohio
City neighborhood. But the pending demolition of buildings on the site
doesn’t mean construction is about to begin. Instead, the demolition
is sought because the developers could lose a state grant to aid in
the demolition if they don’t use it soon (LDA/Mass).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Two historic buildings are proposed to be torn down for a 16-story, mixed-use development in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, despite information that financing, including the use of air rights, for the high-rise is still being finalized. A demolition permit application was filed Aug. 4 by LDA Architects of Cleveland for Bridgeworks LLC with the city’s Building Department following recent approvals of the demolitions by the city’s Landmarks Commission and a design review committee. But the approvals by those two panels in the City Planning Commission were made with the presumption that the overall Bridgeworks development would be carried out.

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Bedrock to start riverfront work

This view shows the location of the first phase of planned rehabilitation of
steel bulkheads along the edge of the Cuyahoga River. The work would
be the first evidence on the landscape for Bedrock’s huge riverfront de-
velopment (Osborn Engineering). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A company owned by billionaire Dan Gilbert has secured a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the reconstruction of bulkheads along the edge of the Cuyahoga River, a federal navigation channel. The approved work will be one of the first tangible pieces of Detroit-based Bedrock Real Estate’s huge Cleveland Riverfront Development Project.

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Erieview, Galleria redo: steps forward, back

 Proposed uses and activities for the Erieview Tower and associated Galleria
were updated this week in a presentation shared by a development team

led by James Kassouf as part of a request for tax abatement from the

city (Berardi). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A $193 million redevelopment of half-empty Erieview Tower and its associated and similarly vacated Galleria shopping mall, 1301 E. 9th St.,  is the first big project to request a scaled-down tax abatement from the city under Mayor Justin Bibb’s new abatement policy. That policy reduces the amount of tax abatement for new construction or renovation in stable, wealthier neighborhoods in Cleveland, including downtown.

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GCRTA stations: lots of opportunity

Here are just four of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s 21 rail
stations that have park-n-ride lots. All station parking lots are largely devoid of
cars since the pandemic. Even before that, most station lots weren’t as full as
they used to be. With downtown employment and commuting way down and
interest in transit-oriented development up, these large parking lots can be
developed with new uses to support regional goals like adding affordable
housing, improving access to jobs and reduced emissions (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A COMMENTARY

In recent months, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has served notice that its rail system isn’t going anywhere. That could be interpreted in one of two ways. In one way, GCRTA plans to invest $540 million by the end of this decade to rebuild its 34-mile rail system including a new, standardized light-rail fleet plus rebuilt tracks and stations on the Red, Blue and Green lines. Greater Cleveland’s “Rapid” is sticking around for decades to come. But taking it another way, there are no expansion plans while ridership on GCRTA buses and trains fell nearly 60 percent from 2013 to 2021 “led” by its rail system which fell even farther, from 9.3 million boardings in 2013 to 2.9 million in 2021.

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Seeds & Sprouts 31 – Oliva Steakhouse on downtown’s menu; Starting Point center opening at Link59; Lido Lounge stripped by George, BofA

 Proposed signage on the façade of a new restaurant, Oliva Steakhouse,
on West St. Clair Ave., in downtown Cleveland’s Warehouse District (Richardson).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Oliva Steakhouse is on downtown’s Cleveland's menu, Starting Point center to train child educators and caregivers is opening at Link59 in the Midtown neighborhood, and Lido Lounge on West 117th Street is getting stripped from the landscape by Bobby George and Bank of America.

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