Grogins To Host Community Forum For Black Rock Gateway Project

State Rep. Auden Grogins will host a neighborhood forum on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Burroughs Community Center, 2470 Fairfield Avenue to seek input on spending $500,000 in state funding for facade and streetscape upgrades along Fairfield Avenue. These  funds will be administered by the Black Rock Business District Development Program supporting private and public investment along state-owned Route 130 and Fairfield Avenue. Black Rock business groups, Mayor Bill Finch and Economic Development Director David Kooris are also expected to attend.

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  1. ACF, thank you.
    Auden Grogins was wise to secure funding for Fairfield Ave. improvements. She’s even giving residents a voice in the outcome. Nice!
    In a related matter, here’s a promising idea from Cleveland that simply builds on the existing long-term investments in any specific area. I think it could work in downtown Bridgeport or along the strip in Black Rock. Here’s the best part: it’s free and incentivizes others to spend money here. Here’s the whole thing:
    www .crainscleveland.com/article/20140120/RENEWSLETTER/301209994/1276/newsletter07
    It’s policy worth exploring.

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  2. *** The citizens in Black Rock have always had a squeaky wheel-type attitude when it comes to their district and the pols representing them. They get involved when needed and are not afraid to call their city and state government reps when needed if not happy about issues that affect them and their city! This is part of the reason why reps like Grogins are always on their political toes, no? *** ALL THE DISTRICTS SHOULD BE SO LUCKY. ***

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  3. When Auden Grogins gets state funds, good things happen along Fairfield Avenue. Here’s how to amplify those results and improve nearby housing, which everyone needs and investors want.
    Campus District status could be wise policy in Black Rock or downtown Bridgeport. Continue below:
    Saturday, January 25, 2014

    Cleveland’s Campus District could expand the definition of downtown
    500-plus acre area featuring St. Vincent, Tri-C and CSU is joining with stakeholders for 24/7 community

    Photo credit: REBECCA R. MARKOVITZ
    A map of the Campus District featuring five key growth areas: 1. Superior Arts Quarter, 2. The old Third District Police Station, 3. Cleveland State, 4. The former juvenile justice center, 5. Cuyahoga Community College
    By JAY MILLER
    4:30 am, January 19, 2014

    It’s downtown, but it’s not the downtown of high-rise office buildings and white-tablecloth restaurants.

    The 500-plus acres east of Cleveland’s central business district has been seen as a sea of low-rise office and warehouse buildings punctuated by a few island campuses — Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College and St. Vincent Charity Hospital.

    Now, though, those big institutions, which have made significant investments in their campuses in the last few years and by their nature provide long-term stability to their neighborhood, are joining with some smaller stakeholders to plan for a future as a 24/7 residential and commercial community connected to downtown and the lakefront.

    The advocates of this area, called the Campus District, believe they can expand the definition of downtown Cleveland by building upon the continuing investment by CSU, Tri-C and St. Vincent. One key to that strategy is residential development, which has gotten a boost from Cleveland State’s plan to build housing and attract residential students.

    One thing that makes the Campus District attractive for residential construction is the inventory of property available for development or redevelopment. Campus District Inc., or CDI, a nonprofit community development organization, has identified more than two dozen sites in the district that have development potential. Among those properties are the former juvenile court complex on East 22nd Street and the Third District police station on Payne Avenue.

    According to a 2011 transportation study, the Campus District has 19,000 full-time employees, 26,000 students and a total of 100,000 people working, living in or traveling through the district daily — hence, the potential for residential growth.

    CDI sees the Campus District offering a residential inventory more diverse than what now is available downtown, including new construction with ample parking, starting with the 370-unit Langston apartment complex within Cleveland State’s footprint.

    The district also can add to downtown a mix of amenities not currently available, including retailers, unique commercial properties, such as the former clothing factory at 2320 Superior Ave. that is undergoing conversion into student housing, and green space. At a recent City Club of Cleveland event at the under-construction Ameritrust complex at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue, several downtown residents bemoaned the lack of a nearby dog park.

    Bobbi Reichtell, CDI’s executive director, said those amenities can attract residents and businesses that want to be close to the action downtown but that might not be ready for or interested in a denser, high-rise urban environment.

    Ms. Reichtell said it also is likely that the district would be home to a neighborhood school, which could make downtown a place to live for more than young singles and empty nesters.

    Photo credit: STAN BULLARD
    Developers are beginning to turn former factories into housing alongside a growing number of restaurants and art galleries. Construction is underway on a former clothing factory at 2320 Superior Ave.
    ‘We do have a new focus’
    Commercial redevelopment also is in the district’s future. In particular, two buildings, now publicly owned, have private-sector potential. Developers are looking over the former county juvenile courts building, and the city of Cleveland will vacate the old Third District police station when a new, $16.8 million building on Chester Avenue near East 55th Street opens, which is expected to be in spring 2015.

    “We do have a new focus,: said Michael Schoop, CDI’s board chairman and president of the Metro Campus of Tri-C. “We think we’re in a position to build on the broader development structure and infrastructure we have that will be here for the long term.

    “And it’s worth pointing out that there is a range of amenities here that people can take advantage of,” Mr. Schoop said. He noted that his campus has a theater, an auditorium and a recreation center that are available to the public, “and PlayhouseSquare is in walking distance from here.”

    Even before Campus District Inc. completed a strategic plan late last year, it tackled one big impediment to knitting together the district –the lack of north-south through streets.

    The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency awarded the city a $1.5 million grant to improve East 22nd Street from the U.S. Postal Service complex on Orange Avenue to Euclid Avenue. The money will help the city improve traffic flow and make the street more comfortable for walking and bicycle riding. Ms. Reichtell is looking to foundations for as much as $4 million in additional support to extend the work on East 22nd north.

    Photo credit: MCKINLEY WILEY
    Cleveland State University’s plan to build housing and attract residential students has given the Campus District a boost.
    Lofty goals
    Ms. Reichtell sees enormous potential for the Campus District to serve as a linchpin in the ongoing effort to make downtown Cleveland an attractive place to live.

    “I want the Campus District to contribute to growing to 25,000 the residential population downtown,” she said. “To reach 25,000 (residents), downtown needs an array of housing at various price points and to provide a school.”

    Ms. Reichtell said CSU estimates a demand for 1,200 beds of student housing and 300 units of market-rate housing. Some of that demand will be filled by the planned redevelopment by Clayco Realty Group of Chicago and St. Louis of the former Jewish Community Federation building on Euclid Avenue into 217 apartments for CSU students.

    The Campus International School, a part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, is operating temporarily as a K-5 school at the Cole Center on the Cleveland State campus. But Ms. Reichtell said to reach its goal of K-12 education, the school needs to find its own building, and she would like that building to be the Third District police station.

    Other goals for the district are to build an arts and a live/work residential district along Superior Avenue and improve safety. CDI has an agreement with the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a nonprofit that has developed a successful “clean and safe” program for the heart of downtown, to assist it with real estate development and marketing of the district.

    Perhaps the most vexing issue facing CDI is finding a way to co-exist with the people who come to the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s homeless shelter at 2100 Lakeside Ave. at the district’s northern end. Ms. Reichtell is less concerned with the shelter and its clients than with the homeless who stay outside and use doorways and other public places instead of a toilet to relieve themselves.

    “The shelter isn’t going away, but we’ve got to figure this out,” she said.

    Photo credit: MCKINLEY WILEY
    Cuyahoga County Community College has opened the new Advanced Technology Training Center and completed a renovation of its wellness and recreation center.
    Firm hand on the rudder
    Damon Taseff, another CDI board member and a principal with Allegro Realty Advisors, said he is bullish on the Campus District.

    “When you look at the Cleveland neighborhoods that are having any type of success reinventing themselves, they are those neighborhoods that include a number of key stakeholders that can help push redevelopment,” said Mr. Taseff, who lives in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood and was on the board of Ohio City Inc., another community development group, as it helped transform the West 25th Street area.

    “The Campus District is not short on those types of stakeholders,” Mr. Taseff said.

    “As those institutions (CSU, Tri-C and St. Vincent) grow, supportive uses will need to fill in around them,” he said. “All of that land on the south (end of the district) has a lot of upside if they position themselves correctly.”

    Mr. Taseff had particular praise for the work of Ms. Reichtell and CDI.

    ta-da

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    1. Cleveland, OH has seen extraordinary flight from its center area. Tri-C and the other development has gone to the suburbs away from the Tower City area. Since the 1950s when Cleveland was one of the most populated cities and a center for manufacturing, its population was well over 1 million. In the last census its population is under 400,000.
      I have always compared the morass of Cleveland as it mirrors Bridgeport … loss of industry, loss of retail, loss of population, and run by cronyism, nepotism and corruption. It’s still going on.

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