The Observation Deck

Hotel & Leisure Advisors has released the findings of its extensive hotel feasibility study commissioned by The City of Lakewood.

The $7,000 study—unanimously approved by Lakewood City Council in July 2012 and paid for through its economic development fund—was championed by Ward 3 Councilman Shawn Juris.

Here is the one-page Executive Summary from the 145-page report:

Executive Summary
The city of Lakewood is interested in having a new hotel developed within the city boundaries. At this time, no specific sites have been identified for the proposed hotel. Based upon our analysis, we believe that the potential exists for a new hotel to be developed within the city of Lakewood. The new hotel would attract demand from downtown Cleveland, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport area, various west shore suburbs, and businesses and individuals in Lakewood.

Site Analysis
We have considered potential locations for a new hotel in the city of Lakewood, Ohio. We recommend four specific areas for a developer to consider construction of a new hotel within the city of Lakewood boundaries. Each of these four areas has advantages and disadvantages which should be considered by a potential developer in their analysis of whether to construct a new hotel within Lakewood. The four areas include the following:

1. Downtown Lakewood
2. West End of Lakewood
3. Interstate 90 and Warren Road or Bunts Road interchange
4. East End of Lakewood (W and Clifton)

There is something for everyone in the report. Don’t let that 145-page count rock your world. Find what interests you and have a go at it. The report includes …

… pages and pages and pages of charts, graphs, and statistics;

… some pretty interesting and well-presented market analysis material,

… a detail question-by-question breakdown of responses from the 34 organizations/businesses who filled out the online (SurveyMonkey)Lakewood Hotel Demand Survey for Organizations survey and the 169 people who completed the Lakewood Hotel Demand Survey for Individuals.

Lakewood-based Hotel & Leisure Advisors is a hospitality consulting firm specializing in appraisals, feasibility studies, property condition assessments, impact analyses, economic impact studies, and litigation support for hotels, resorts, waterparks, casinos, and other leisure real estate according to its website (http://hladvisors.com).

Peter Grossetti wrote:
Here is the one-page Executive Summary from the 145-page report:

Executive Summary
The city of Lakewood is interested in having a new hotel developed within the city boundaries. At this time, no specific sites have been identified for the proposed hotel. Based upon our analysis, we believe that the potential exists for a new hotel to be developed within the city of Lakewood. The new hotel would attract demand from downtown Cleveland, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport area, various west shore suburbs, and businesses and individuals in Lakewood.

Site Analysis
We have considered potential locations for a new hotel in the city of Lakewood, Ohio. We recommend four specific areas for a developer to consider construction of a new hotel within the city of Lakewood boundaries. Each of these four areas has advantages and disadvantages which should be considered by a potential developer in their analysis of whether to construct a new hotel within Lakewood. The four areas include the following:

1. Downtown Lakewood
2. West End of Lakewood
3. Interstate 90 and Warren Road or Bunts Road interchange
4. East End of Lakewood (W and Clifton)

There is something for everyone in the report. Don’t let that 145-page count rock your world. Find what interests you and have a go at it. The report includes …

… pages and pages and pages of charts, graphs, and statistics;

… some pretty interesting and well-presented market analysis material,

… a detail question-by-question breakdown of responses from the 34 organizations/businesses who filled out the online (SurveyMonkey)Lakewood Hotel Demand Survey for Organizations survey and the 169 people who completed the Lakewood Hotel Demand Survey for Individuals.

Lakewood-based Hotel & Leisure Advisors is a hospitality consulting firm specializing in appraisals, feasibility studies, property condition assessments, impact analyses, economic impact studies, and litigation support for hotels, resorts, waterparks, casinos, and other leisure real estate according to its website (http://hladvisors.com).

So the study was taken up because "The city of Lakewood is interested in having a new hotel developed within the city boundaries."

Well so much for the study. It would seem that a company (local) was hired to tell
Lakewood where they could place the hotel THEY WANT.

It is not a feasibility study. It is not a study into what Lakewoodites want. It is a study
of what Lakewoodites want representing a full 0.03% of the city. And that is only if the
people that cared enough to answer the study were from Lakewood, or not one person
answering 169 times. Again 0.03% of the city represented in this study.

I wonder if the question had been, would you rather spend $2,000,000 county dollars on
parks or a Boutique Hotel, located in the Lakewood Center North Building. The answers
might have been different.

I did find it refreshing that the studied narrowed the possible locations down to East, West,
Downtown, or South. I was worried it might have been to general. Funny how none of the
studies put any value in our lakefront. I guess a hotel in the Lakewood Center North
Building would be far nicer than anything near Lakewood Park or the mouth of the river.

So we close public parks for safety and because the city cannot afford them, but spend
money on this desperately need hotel study thingy?

.

Peter Grossetti wrote:
Here is the one-page Executive Summary from the 145-page report:

Executive Summary
The city of Lakewood is interested in having a new hotel developed within the city boundaries. At this time, no specific sites have been identified for the proposed hotel. Based upon our analysis, we believe that the potential exists for a new hotel to be developed within the city of Lakewood. The new hotel would attract demand from downtown Cleveland, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport area, various west shore suburbs, and businesses and individuals in Lakewood.

Site Analysis
We have considered potential locations for a new hotel in the city of Lakewood, Ohio. We recommend four specific areas for a developer to consider construction of a new hotel within the city of Lakewood boundaries. Each of these four areas has advantages and disadvantages which should be considered by a potential developer in their analysis of whether to construct a new hotel within Lakewood. The four areas include the following:

1. Downtown Lakewood
2. West End of Lakewood
3. Interstate 90 and Warren Road or Bunts Road interchange
4. East End of Lakewood (W and Clifton)

There is something for everyone in the report. Don’t let that 145-page count rock your world. Find what interests you and have a go at it. The report includes …

… pages and pages and pages of charts, graphs, and statistics;

… some pretty interesting and well-presented market analysis material,

… a detail question-by-question breakdown of responses from the 34 organizations/businesses who filled out the online (SurveyMonkey)Lakewood Hotel Demand Survey for Organizations survey and the 169 people who completed the Lakewood Hotel Demand Survey for Individuals.

Lakewood-based Hotel & Leisure Advisors is a hospitality consulting firm specializing in appraisals, feasibility studies, property condition assessments, impact analyses, economic impact studies, and litigation support for hotels, resorts, waterparks, casinos, and other leisure real estate according to its website (http://hladvisors.com).

So the study was taken up because "The city of Lakewood is interested in having a new
hotel developed within the city boundaries."

Well so much for the study. It would seem that a company (local) was hired to tell
Lakewood where they could place the hotel THEY WANT.

It is not a feasibility study. It is not a study into what Lakewoodites want. It is a study
of what Lakewoodites want representing a full 0.03% of the city. And that is only if the
people that cared enough to answer the study were from Lakewood, or not one person
answering 169 times. Again 0.03% of the city represented in this study.

I wonder if the question had been, would you rather spend $2,000,000 county dollars on
parks or a Boutique Hotel, located in the Lakewood Center North Building. The answers
might have been different.

I did find it refreshing that the studied narrowed the possible locations down to East, West,
Downtown, or South. I was worried it might have been too general. Funny how none of the
studies put any value in our lakefront. I guess a hotel in the Lakewood Center North
Building would be far nicer than anything near Lakewood Park or the mouth of the river.

So we close public parks for safety and because the city cannot afford them, but spend
money on this desperately need hotel study thingy?

At least the study money stayed in Lakewood.

Whatever happened to that wave hotel concept?

Remember, wasn't it rooms for high rollers at the casinos, skaters at Winterhurst,
people flying in for the Beck Center and shoppers coming into town? Proposed
back in 2005?



.

All the talk of hotels reminds me of discussions I heard around the time the current Winterhurst was built about 1975. Recall that the old Winterhurst was an open rink located in what is now the parking lot and a Pick-N-Pay grocery store stood where the current building stands.

As the discussion went, Holiday Inn, which subsequently went to Crocker Road, wanted the site for a hotel.
The same points, proximity to downtown and the airport were raised back then.

As the discussion went, Winterhust would have been built at Lakewood Park adjacent to an enclosed Foster Pool with common entry, lockers, concessions, etc. The design of the pool building was said to have large thermal windows that could opened in the summer. Obviously, that did not happen and you may also recall that Foster Pool had a cover installed that was destroyed by a winter storm in the late 70s.

Since then, the crime ridden Yorktown Motel on Clifton is gone, the nearby Lakewood Manor became the Days Inn, and the motel on Edgewater became Travel Lodge.

....and we couldn't have saved the $7,000 and given this to Lakewood High School / St. Ignatius students to complete, why?

Any "study" of this kind should be totally under the purview and expense of the private sector and specifically any developer who would want to determine risk vs. profits according to his own specific criteria.

IF interest in hotel development continues, i'll be waiting to hear what the estimate is for the economic impact($$$) in Lakewood.

Stan Austin wrote:Any "study" of this kind should be totally under the purview and expense of the private sector and specifically any developer who would want to determine risk vs. profits according to his own specific criteria.

Stan

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Also comes news of the Hard Rock Cafe and Northfield Park working together for off track betting, gambling,
conference rooms, hotels, restaurants and party facilities.

Will this take more of the Cleveland High Rollers south east, making the overflow, for the not full hotels
downtown even more unneeded?

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Stan Austin wrote:Any "study" of this kind should be totally under the purview and expense of the private sector and specifically any developer who would want to determine risk vs. profits according to his own specific criteria.

Stan

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Also comes news of the Hard Rock Cafe and Northfield Park working together for off track betting, gambling,
conference rooms, hotels, restaurants and party facilities.

Will this take more of the Cleveland High Rollers south east, making the overflow, for the not full hotels
downtown even more unneeded?

Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland lost millions when they subsidized downtown hotels that are now in receivership. The hotel at the arcade is set to receive millions more in taxpayer subsidies to be converted into taxpayer subsidized apartments. If the apartments fail I guess the County can spend millions more to convert the building back to a hotel. This is called investing in the future.

If taxpayer subsidized hotels in downtown Cleveland can't survive I'm not sure how an unsubsidized hotel can survive in Lakewood. Of course if the County is willing to fork over millions in subsidies for a hotel in Lakewood I guess that's ok. But since Lakewood in inellgible for County investment dollars .....

Bill Call wrote:Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland lost millions when they subsidized downtown hotels that are now in receivership. The hotel at the arcade is set to receive millions more in taxpayer subsidies to be converted into taxpayer subsidized apartments. If the apartments fail I guess the County can spend millions more to convert the building back to a hotel. This is called investing in the future.

If taxpayer subsidized hotels in downtown Cleveland can't survive I'm not sure how an unsubsidized hotel can survive in Lakewood. Of course if the County is willing to fork over millions in subsidies for a hotel in Lakewood I guess that's ok. But since Lakewood in inellgible for County investment dollars .....

Bill

Last year and I can find the date and the photos, at the Clifton Club they were putting on a presentation about
Lakewood development and Clifton Pointe. Nate Kelley our old Planning Director mentioned that the city had a
couple million dollars headed our way in 2012/2013 from the county. I had always figured that the money was
for this hotel project in one way or another. After all, it certainly did not come out of any need for a hotel
either here or downtown. But the right hotel might have interest in who is the next governor if you catch my drift.

,

Jim O'Bryan wrote: But the right hotel might have interest in who is the next governor if you catch my drift.

,

A lot of politicians are adept at turning development dollars into campaign contributions.

Well, pointless as this study may be in its scope and recommendation, the statistics are interesting.

But I find the list of tourist attractions a bit lean. That alone should have been the reason for this study not being done.

It seems to me there are a number of folks (and I probably missed a few) doing essentially the same thing?? If I don't read this/these right, please fill me in.

Lakewood Chamber of Commerce Mission:
Lakewood Chamber of Commerce is organized for the purpose of advancing the commercial, industrial and professional interests of the community of Lakewood. (source: http://lakewoodchamber.org/about/)

LakewoodAlive Mission:
LakewoodAlive is a nonpartisan economic development corporation whose mission is to improve the quality of life of residents by creating alliances with community leaders, leveraging community assets and expanding the pool of available resources in order to facilitate economic stabil­ity and growth in the City of Lakewood. A 501-c (3) nonprofit organization, LakewoodAlive is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Trust and Heri­tage Ohio, which is the oversight organization for the Ohio Main Street Program. (source: http://www.lakewoodalive.com)

Downtown Lakewood Mission:
Using the National Main Street Four Point Approach, Downtown Lakewood facilitates the talent and passion of volunteers to create a vital business district that attracts people to Lakewood to live, work, shop, play and invest. (source: http://downtownlakewood.org/)

Lakewood Department of Planning and Development Mission:
The Department of Planning and Development coordinates long-range planning, zoning, and economic development for the City as well as administers the federal Community Development Block Grant Funds awarded to Lakewood by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Department works directly with the Lakewood Planning Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Board of Building Standards/Architectural Board of Review and Sign Review Board, the Lakewood Heritage Advisory Board, and the Citizens Advisory Committee. (source: http://www.onelakewood.com/Development/Default.aspx)

Role of Lakewood City Council:
As the legislative arm of Lakewood City government, the chief function of City Council is the making of laws. While serving as the city’s lawmaking body, Council also monitors the operation and performance of the city budget. In addition, Council members serve as their constituents’ links to their local government. When a constituent has a question or concern with city policy or services, they are encouraged to contact their ward Council representative, or any Council at Large member. (source: http://www.onelakewood.com/CityCouncil/)