The Observation Deck

The two developers revealed their plans.

Carnegie:

http://www.onelakewood.com/wp-content/u ... 5.2017.pdf

And Castro:

http://www.onelakewood.com/wp-content/u ... public.pdf

Opinions?

How exactly will the "winner" be decided?
Is anyone willing to bet against Fitzy's group?

Mike presents a good point. If this was a regular City property or similarly Board of Education property there are some straightforward and long established procedures in offering property for sale.
This whole additional process of development proposals seems to be extraneous.
To wit-- if you are an interested buyer in the parcel, put in an offer and do with it what you will.
(I would think right off hand that a potential purchase price would be a tad less than the $150 million that the hospital was worth)

Mike

Shall we start a pool? How many will bet against the unsinkable Fitzgerald?

As Pam Wetula noted in another thread, lots of people, especially the younger crowd, have no idea who Ed Fitzgerald is. You can bet he counted on that. People have short memories.

But what he forgot is that there is an active and politically engaged group of "good government" people in Lakewood that make sure everyone knows who Ed is and what he did in losing Ohio for the Dems.

In fact, I hear a lot of county bigwigs despise him. Might get interesting.

Oh, and the plans as presented are boring and uninspired.

But what did we expect?

Michael Deneen wrote:How exactly will the "winner" be decided?

The winner has already been decided. Both proposals are pretty ugly---this will be a failure--- aptly named "Lakewood Center South"

Note how the "winning" proposal from Fitz-Carnegie has a market study being done this month---the top floors will be taken off after they "win" the "bid."

Looks like they moved the West End to DownTown. Mixed-use, retail, restaurants, & upscale housing...the sort of "out-of-the-box" thinking that is so 1999. And Lakewood, do not slap Towne or Centre on anything...we are better than that.

Kate McCarthy wrote:Looks like they moved the West End to DownTown. Mixed-use, retail, restaurants, & upscale housing...the sort of "out-of-the-box" thinking that is so 1999. And Lakewood, do not slap Towne or Centre on anything...we are better than that.

AMEN!

"Town Center" is SO passé!

Is this what we gave away our hospital for!

An ice cream store, a pet store, coffee shop, all of which we currently have?

Or, if we are "lucky," we MIGHT get interest from "second level retailers" - fitness facilities, grocer, or social service retailers, whatever that is! Again, I think Lakewood HAS those offerings.

Our mix currently incorporates: First floor retail, with an emphasis on an ice cream shop, pet store, coffee shop, as well as cafes and restaurant tenants will facilitate indoor/outdoor dining, lounging, shopping and browsing activities. This mix will support our goal to create a Town Center for Lakewood Civic Life at this centric location which engages the community, residents of Lakewood, and the occupants and guests of the Project. In response to the strong level of interest from local Northeast Ohio retailers we are exploring the possibility of second level retailers. This is an option that we will explore further as we move forward, should we be selected. This will include a grocer, several service orientated retailers, a physical fitness facility, and a possible day care center. The final tenant mix will in part be driven by which residential concept we ultimately develop.

The fact is, there are NO national retailers planning to occupy space. How does this compare to how the project was sold to the voters?

Might there be a connection between the Marc's rumors and plans starting to come together for the hospital site? Rather than speculating on how the hospital closing might have affected their business, maybe they are looking for higher profile and a bigger space. Wouldn't that be special?

Meg Ostrowski wrote:

Ms Ostrowski,

As always, you have brought this into focus

You have taken us back to a place where Lakewood Towne Centre, err Lakewood Centre Southe began..year before Bullock and O'Leary were born.

A place where Mike and Jay sat with their milk and cookies in front of TV and thought of "Dreaming Big"!!!

Let's not get our knickers in a twist about Lakewood Towne Centre, because there already exists Lakewood Town Center. It was an exciting project. It was going to be like the Gold Coast, with big mixed use buildings that would bring residents downtown.

http://www.thecoralcompany.com/properti ... wn-center/

dl meckes wrote:Let's not get our knickers in a twist about Lakewood Towne Centre, because there already exists Lakewood Town Center. It was an exciting project. It was going to be like the Gold Coast, with big mixed use buildings that would bring residents downtown.

http://www.thecoralcompany.com/properti ... wn-center/

Let's not forget, glass walkways to take people to and from the hospital, and all of the high end shopping in DowntowN, Lakewood.



They talk big, but their dreams always turn to strip malls.

.

I think we all can recognize a small-minded planning effort when we see one.

Here were some of my previously published thoughts toward a larger vision for our city:

http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/2016/0 ... -of-dreams

The pending proposals are small-minded plans that:

1. Lack Public Use and Benefit

2. Lack innovation

3. Fail to Leverage Other Public Funds

A national design competition would have been a feather in the cap of the city.

I was present at the January 15, 2015 Press Conference when all the lies were launched. I read the fake "Fitzgerald" newspaper (that could have been created by George Orwell). I read the false affidavit filed in State Court. I read the Ohio Ethics Opinions related to LHA and LHF conflicts of interest. What a debacle!

Even the folks at Build Lakewood must be having second thoughts by now. Clearly, our city officials really had no plan at all for the future use of the hospital site. It was just left-up to the developers to fix, more or less randomly.

Clearly, a case of shoot yourself in the foot and no box of bandages.

Why would any public official or public employee want to ruin their career for either of these two plans?

Lying so the city might get a new pet store?

Planning? What planning?

I recall the mayor proclaiming that "national" developers and retailers were interested in the site - it was on the Build Lakewood site

Where are they now?

All they have is a local ice cream shop.

The deal is already signed and set in stone, and probably has been for months, if not years. Any attempt at a public meeting or hearing is nothing more than a dog & pony show.

The deal will almost certainly go to Carnegie, the group that hired Fitzgerald. At this point, the only reason City Hall may not choose Carnegie would be the fact that they got caught with their pants down regarding the Fitzgerald controversy.

Too bad, I always thought Fitz! would make a wonderful used car salesman!