Topic: Cleveland: Flats East Bank

[X]

Maybe a bit off topic but I saw a group of people walking around the old State Fish building a few days ago.  It appeared as if someone was showing a family around the building.  Could this have been a possible buyer?

I saw them doing some power washing on the building a couple days ago.

"That area, where the arhaus furniture store and watermark resaurant were, is currently being referred to by many as Sowo (south of wolstein) "

Geez. I already think these So/No-fill in the street name thing has run the course, but are we in such a gross corporate world that we now incorporate a developers name into a neighborhood name. Pardon me while I puke

I agree in principle, but I think they are being snarky, not serious.

[cd-cleveland]

I found this and thought I'd post it.  It's written by Larry Durstin, who used to do the "Hearts & Minds" column when the Free Times was solid.  It's posted on Cleveland Current, an independent column-based website that seems to have come and gone and has come again.
---

Who Killed the Flats?
Larry Durstin   

Image In the summer of 1991, Bart Wolstein summoned then Cleveland City Councilman Bill Patmon to his corporate offices in Beachwood for a luncheon meeting to talk about various city projects. During the meeting, Wolstein led Patton to a large, scale model of the Flats East Bank, an exact and elaborate replica of the area as it was that summer.

Recalls Patmon: “While  I was admiring the model, Bart took the top layer off the replica and revealed a mixed use development almost identical to the current project that his son  is now  proposing. He said, ‘“This is the direction the Wolsteins  are going.’”

When Patmon had his meeting with Bart Wolstein, the East Bank was rolling and it was difficult to understand why anyone would want to redevelop such a gravy train. It was a nationally known party place, the second largest tourist attraction in the state of Ohio behind Cedar Point. The Flats was the downtown engine fueling Cleveland’s dramatic revival from its burning river image to designation as an All-American city. Cash registers were overflowing and many of the local business owners who had gone out on a financial limb over the previous decade to build this once dormant area into a boom town were reaping huge rewards. There appeared to be no end in sight to either the rampant revelry or the swelling profits.

But as we all know, there was an end to it. Within a dozen years, the bustling party haven became a virtual ghost town ready to be redeveloped in the near-exact image of Bart Wolstein’s 1991 vision. The question is: How and why did it happen?

If you listen to the conventional wisdom, there was a combination of factors which led to the demise of the East Bank. There was the infamous Riverfest of 1993 in which groups of roving young African-Americans allegedly descended on the scene, frightening the white families that made up the bulk of those attending, prompting the annual event to be cancelled. (It should be noted that the perception of the Flats in the African-American community at that time was that blacks were not welcome there — a perception that remained strong throughout the next decade).

Also, at that time the Warehouse District — just up the hill from the East Bank — was beginning to flourish, drawing a growing number of tourists and many locals who were put off by the rowdy atmosphere in some of the East Bank establishments. The Warehouse District became the place where the “adults” who had “outgrown” the Flats went to party downtown.

Yet, while its raucous image grew and the migration up the hill kept flowing, the East Bank was still producing a ton of money for the owners of its thriving establishments. And the biggest single owner of property on the East Bank was Bart Wolstein. Throughout the ‘90s, there was a constant buzz about the big ideas for the area being dreamed up by Wolstein. 

Bart was the pond’s biggest fish and he wanted the place to be more family friendly. He was going to bring in this or that national franchise and was going to change entire strips of land into something new and bold. Nary a week went by without whispers of those big plans for the wonderfully fresh entertainment district Wolstein would build to replace the still-thriving but obviously troublesome playground. Plans that were only being held back by the group of independent owners who were clinging to the status quo.

Mike White, Cleveland’s second-ever African-American mayor who served from 1990 to 2002, knew a thing or two about those independent owners and, it could be argued, had an axe to grind with a few them. White, who was viewed as being in the pocket of Forest City Enterprises Sam Miller, the city’s largest developer and a rival of Wolstein, reportedly was taking a lot of heat from the black community about blacks being unwelcome in the Flats and being under-represented in its work force.

So White decided to call a meeting with representatives of the Flats Oxbow Association, the area’s development group. According to the Association’s Executive Director, Tom Newman, here’s what happened:  “One day in early 2000 Joe Mazzola, then executive director of Flats Oxbow, and I were summoned to City Hall to see the Mayor. Two of his staff were in attendance. The Mayor zipped in, sat down and told us that he didn’t care if ‘sh!t piles up in the streets,’ he wasn’t about to do another thing for the Flats until he saw more black faces working in the Flats establishments . . .’and I mean the front of the house, not the back.’ This is restaurant lingo meaning hosts, hostesses, waiters, bartenders as opposed to dishwashers, sweepers and salad girls. The mayor then rose abruptly and scurried out as quickly as he had come in.”

With White already upset with the lack of blacks in “front of the house” positions in the Flats and the growing concern among the chamber of commerce types that the wild behavior on the East Bank was chipping away at the perception of Cleveland as an All-American town, the summer of 2000 provided the events that — many argue — sealed the area’s fate.

In that summer, five people drowned in the Cuyahoga River in the vicinity of the Flats. In response, White created the Flats Safety Task Force — made up of members from the city’s fire, police, building and housing departments — to address health and safety concerns in the area. To help accomplish this, the task force selected for inspections certain establishments it thought presented code enforcement violations and decided what course of action was appropriate.

According to White this was a strong and needed tactic to prevent more deaths and disturbances. To others, including some of the independent owners who had butted heads with White over the years, it was the unleashing of Gestapo tactics designed to drive them out of business and open the area for a big developer to swoop in and take over.

In February of 2001, PDU, Inc., owners of the club Heaven & Earth, negotiated to sell its club to Dazner, Inc. for $400,000 and planned on finalizing the purchase on March 5. However, at 11 pm on Friday, March 2, the Safety Task Force — led by its chairman, Robert Vilkas, Commissioner of Cleveland’s Division of Building and Housing — came to the East Bank club to inspect the premises, checked all of the patrons and found no underage violations. But Vilskas ordered Heaven & Earth immediately closed and summoned Cleveland carpenters, who had been waiting in a truck nearby, to board up the club.

On March 4, Danzer informed PDU that it was no longer interested in purchasing Heaven & Earth because of the raid. Due to a drastic slump in business, PDU was unable to pay its bills and eventually sold the club to Dazner in May, 2001, for the reduced price of $129,000. PDU ended up suing the city of Cleveland for its tactics and was awarded $345,000 in damages by a jury, a decision that was later appealed and overturned.

Several other independent clubs were subsequently raided and temporarily shut down by the task force, causing a number of these establishments to suffer severe financial hits and prompting others to abandon their businesses altogether. None of Wolstein’s properties were ever raided or boarded up. To many, the message was clear: Mike White was executing a selective campaign of harassment of the small businessmen on the East Bank.

By the time Jane Campbell took office in January, 2002, the East Bank was becoming a shadow of its once glorious self and the talk had already turned to what, if anything, could be done to revitalize it. Many in power agreed that it would take more than a band-aid to fix this particular development problem. The Plain Dealer editorialized against the independent owners, charging that they were slumlords, and suggesting that big ideas were needed if the East Bank was to be saved.

And it just so happened that the Wolsteins, though owning less than a third of the East Bank’s properties and way behind Forest City in influence with the new mayor, just happened to have a really big idea — one that is ready to come to fruition in he next few years, nearly two decades after it was put on the drawing board.

[clvlndr]

... so it was really Big Bad Mike White who "killed" the Flats? ... and poor, underappreciated Jane Campbell saved them?... so much of this is rumor and hearsay.  This guy's obviously got an agenda.

[KJP]

How soon we all forget?   The FEB South of Main Avenue thread:  http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,9984.

The guy's name is Michael Tricarichi.

That's him. Thanks!

[MayDay]

Getting back on the topic of the Flats East Bank project itself:

Lots and lots more earthmoving going on:


The big "pipe" on the lower right is actually the top of a chain link fence:

[Flee2theCleve]

awww...where are the 2-3 pic composite panoramic shots?  those are way cool and give great persepctive

[MuRrAy HiLL]

Since this is Cleveland's oldest neighborhood, I bet as they excavate deep enough, they’re going to find some cool artifacts back from the first 100-150 years of the city.

[Firenze98]

What the blue trailers on site?  Diesel fuel tanks?

Good point Murray Hill.  We could have an archealogical dig on our hands soon. 

[MayDay]

"What the blue trailers on site?  Diesel fuel tanks?"

Not quite sure, but this is their manufacturer:
http://www.rainforrent.com

"awww...where are the 2-3 pic composite panoramic shots?  those are way cool and give great persepctive"

They're excavating the site from west to east. Those pano shots are taken from the east, so basically you'd see nothing new except for some mounds of dirt. Oh, and this was on my lunch break, thankyouverymuch!

[shakeratl]

I noticed on wkyc.com its stated the flats development is building 2 buildings for Eaton Corp.  There wasn't an official announcement from Eaton was it, or did i just miss it?

[the pope]

I noticed on wkyc.com its stated the flats development is building 2 buildings for Eaton Corp.  There wasn't an official announcement from Eaton was it, or did i just miss it?

You know what might help a little? A link to the article....

[3231]

^here's the link to that story  http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=94596


This is what gets me about the local tv news. They'll include a blip like that in their stories. That would be big news, but i don't think they get it. It is as if they don't understand the magnitude of what they are saying. If the Eaton thing is true, then that should be in the headline because it is news.

[the pope]

^Thanks I did wkyc.com > search > "eaton" and found no relevant articles.

[willyboy]

I think they just got their facts wrong since they don't mention Ernst and Young, who has committed. 

[clvlndr]

Any new design schemes for FEB overall? ... specfically re Eaton's campus?  (or has Eaton's failure to sign yet put a campus in question?)

[musky]

Getting back on the topic of the Flats East Bank project itself:

Lots and lots more earthmoving going on:


The big "pipe" on the lower right is actually the top of a chain link fence:

What about the big turquoise pipe sticking out of that block of concrete in the lower left of the first picture.

[MayDay]

I'm thinking that's some kind of waterworks thing, but I'll leave it to our resident geo-tech *cough*gotribe*cough* experts to explain.

[Firenze98]

Ah.. the rain for rent might be a way to control erosion/dust or recycle water for whatever reason as a way of gaining a LEED credit for the site.  Just a thought.

[CornerCurve]

The Flats: East Bank makeover well underway as former bars, clubs and restaurants cleared

 Kim  Wendel     2 hrs ago

CLEVELAND -- If you blinked, you missed it. A large portion of the East Bank of the Flats is gone and the area is now well under construction for developer Scott Wolstein's $522 million project.

© 2008 WKYC-TV

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=94596&catid=3

[Florida Guy]

^ Unfortunately I scrolled down and read the comments section.

[MayDay]

*Love* the comments with that article.

[musky]

Oh, these are brilliant!!!

Missannx wrote:
The RTA stop is what lead to the downfall of the Flats. It made the place cheap and easy (just like Circus Circus) for drugs,robbery and murder (Oh my!)
8/12/2008 8:24 PM EDT on wkyc.com

   
deleon wrote:
Everyone is getting out of Cleveland as fast as they can so who is this going to serve? The people in the suburbs don't want any part of it and Cleveland is not now or will it ever be a destination for out of state tourism. Unfortunately, Cleveland has slipped too far to come back.
8/12/2008 6:19 PM EDT on wkyc.com

[jpop]

ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!

[doctabroccoli]

"Well people who have money to buy the condo's will take advantage. You probably can get a good deal since people ARE leaving Cleveland and the demand is low." 

Okay, Mr. Suburbanite.  You put your house on the market against a downtown condo and see which one sells first.  My money's on downtown .

[Downtown]

Gone are places named Circus, Circus, Tangerine Farleys and the House of Brews.

Am I the only one who never realized we had a casino in the FEB?  Has proofreading become extinct? A very informative article. 

[Hts121]

I have dealt with Wendel in the past and she is not the sharpest tool in the shed IMO.  She is at her best getting under the skin of politicians and running with conspiracy theories (when she was with the Chagrin Herald Sun), not reporting on projects like this.

What I really don't get is the way she ended the article.  First she tells us all about the project... then she says all that is just for starter's as the Wolstein group is planning a residential and retail project just down the hill from the WHD.   

[mrnyc]

boy when someone like wolstein finally stands up and takes action the fleas really come jumping out of the woodwork. all those d'poos-pooers make me laugh.   

[Eparabola]

from the http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=94596 article:

"Missannx wrote:
The RTA stop is what lead to the downfall of the Flats. It made the place cheap and easy (just like Circus Circus) for drugs,robbery and murder (Oh my!)"


i guess you learn something every day - i sure did

[KJP]

I have dealt with Wendel in the past and she is not the sharpest tool in the shed IMO.  She is at her best getting under the skin of politicians and running with conspiracy theories (when she was with the Chagrin Herald Sun), not reporting on projects like this.

When she left Sun News for WKYC, a party was held for her including a cake. She complained that the cake wasn't "big enough." That tells you all you need to know about Wendel and her (undeserved) ego.

[MayDay]

I sent a helpful email to Kim, and got a friendly response in return.

[jpop]

I sent a helpful email to Kim, and got a friendly response in return.

So .. did it, or did it not include the word "dumbass"?

[MayDay]

It most certainly did not.

[MayDay]

Easternmost part of the E&Y/Tucker tower site:



Yeah, I think the Waterfront Line might see more use in the near future


The west section has a LOT of earthmoving going on:


Not sure what this is being used for (aside from drilling into the ground):


And a panoramic update for you ingrates! 

[Cleveland]

wow great to see progress. nice pictures A+

[Eparabola]

fantastic!