The Observation Deck

The current nationwide panic attack caused by the corona virus is going disrupt the local economy in a big way. Since Lakewood has a bar-based economy it is particularly susceptible to the measures taken to control the spread of the virus.

The economic disruption is going to have a lasting affect on how people shop and how people dine out and how people work.

One on shopping will increase at an increasing rate putting even more stress on brick and mortar stores. New shopping habits will become the new norm; expect more store closings and more empty store fronts.

Eating out will be replaced by eating in. Buying a takeout meal means no tip, no tax and no alcohol and a substantial savings. Expect a permanent drop in restaurant traffic. Restaurants that are already under stress will be forced to close. Most of them won’t be replaced.

The fear of the virus is causing more companies to adopt work at home strategies. Those companies will find that it is much cheaper to have a work at home employee. Many of their employees will find that working at home is cheaper and easier. Expect a big decrease in the demand for office space.

What affect will all of that have on the development of the Lakewood Hospital site? The whole economic plan was based on retail and office development.

The Hospital deal negotiated by Mayor Summers and City Council transferred about $65 million in City funds to two private foundations. What role do those foundations have to play?
These sites might be helpful:

http://www.onelakewood.com/coronavirus/
https://www.cdc.gov/
https://odh.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/odh/home
https://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/Content/21474

I suspect this pandemic is the death knell for "One Lakewood Place".
The coming recession will disrupt development (even moreso than the 2008 downturn impact on the Rockport project, which was delayed for many years).

It's ironic that this hospital-killing scheme will be undone by a global pandemic which spotlights our lack of available hospital beds.

Bill Call wrote:Eating out will be replaced by eating in. Buying a takeout meal means no tip, no tax and no alcohol and a substantial savings. Expect a permanent drop in restaurant traffic. Restaurants that are already under stress will be forced to close. Most of them won’t be replaced.

I disagree strongly on this specific point. When this pandemic ends, folks will be hungry (no pun intended) for the opportunity to get out and dine with family and friends.
Group meals have been part of the human experience for thousands of years....the desire to connect over good food and drink is innate.

There will be much more to say about the local political and economic ramifications of this event...for now let's just hope we can minimize the death and suffering.

I just want to set a couple records straight and underline a real irony.

"One Lakewood Place" was dead before the last election. Carnegie's only hope of pulling it off was to get Sam in. He would have given more money and more incentives, that make no sense. Lakewood's current finance director and lawyers say that what was being asked for would break the city. A employee involved with the negotiations was let go for going against the last administration's lawyers and finance director.

The truth: they sold our hospital for a Rec Center; after that fell through, and before the deal was done, they had decided to lie and mislead if for nothing else, the millions in the Foundations. This became their singular focus, everything else was distraction.

Now the real irony. Nearly everything the FitzGerald/Summers administration did was to close the hospital and turn Lakewood into a bar-based economy.

And now, here we sit with no hospital, empty schools that could have been used for needed bed space sold for $1.00, and our largest economy on 8-week shutdown while the medical world is exploding with opportunities and endless need.

Let us not forget, the same people cut costs by dismantling the best Health Department in a city of our size in the state. So now our information is gathered adhoc, and disseminated through various tweets and FB!

This was all pointed out to FitzGerald, Summers, O'Leary, Bullock, Madigan, Litten, Anderson and others. They chose instead to curry favor with the Mayors in power instead of the facts on the table.

They will have the blood of those infected on their hands in this.

I know of at least 10 places in Lakewood that cannot go 1 week without being open. Another 20 that could not do a month. It is believed roughly 6% of Lakewood renters are involved in the food service business.

As it was pointed out in January by myself and others, Summers/FitzGerald sold the cash cow for a handful of magic beans.

They should have been prosecuted not praised.

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BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

It’s come true. We have a hole where hundreds of hospital beds once existed. They absolutely would have helped.

I already knew OneLakewood was a dud. We were already headed for a recession. The market has changed. No tenants were signed. They were asking fir more concessions. All the signs were there that Carnegie would back out.

Thanks Mayor Summers and all your rich pals.

Bridget Conant wrote:BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

It’s come true. We have a hole where hundreds of hospital beds once existed. They absolutely would have helped.

I already knew OneLakewood was a dud. We were already headed for a recession. The market has changed. No tenants were signed. They were asking fir more concessions. All the signs were there that Carnegie would back out.

Thanks Mayor Summers and all your rich pals.

When you add in the decimation of our Health Department, and selling off empty schools for $1, it really starts to add up, just how bad they were.

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I see an opportunity for a brand new hospital on the old hospital site. Let's hope the foundations and our new administration are working on this as I type.

Meg Ostrowski wrote:I see an opportunity for a brand new hospital on the old hospital site. Let's hope the foundations and our new administration are working on this as I type.

One for each Lakewoodite: Wait for them all to load.

That was not meant as a joke. The site is nearly ready. The foundations couldn't have spent all the money yet, although the value has certainly come down. Even if it's one of those temporary tent hospitals, someone should be thinking about this?

A stumbling block would have to be the "non compete" agreement with the CCF that some nitwit agreed to. I think it's an opportunity for a shrewd lawyer to create a new concept i.e. "We plead civic insanity"

CCF will do. I'm sure there'd be something in it for them.

They wouldn't pay their rent, they wouldn't live up to their lease, they charged us a facility fee high enough that little profit could be made. They took whole departments out of Lakewood and moved them to CCF owned facilities and they never paid us one dime for any of that.

The citizens of Lakewood owned that hospital and the old City Charter specified that if anything ever happened to the hospital, the Foundation money would go to the City of Lakewood.

Do you really think that the CCF would do anything to help Lakewood?

By their actions, let them be judged.

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

Meg Ostrowski wrote:That was not meant as a joke. The site is nearly ready. The foundations couldn't have spent all the money yet, although the value has certainly come down. Even if it's one of those temporary tent hospitals, someone should be thinking about this?

Meg

Please accept my apology.

It is just not going to happen. If there had been a building there, maybe one would take it over. But I fear that ship has sailed. With issues to the ground, the market and property, it would be a miracle. Nadhal Eadah had always thought maybe a VA Hospital. But even that would be 3-4 years away.

Stan, I believe the non-compete was dropped in the final version.

In the end, UH, Metro, and Premiere were all kind of jerked around.

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dl meckes wrote:They wouldn't pay their rent, they wouldn't live up to their lease, they charged us a facility fee high enough that little profit could be made. They took whole departments out of Lakewood and moved them to CCF owned facilities and they never paid us one dime for any of that.

The citizens of Lakewood owned that hospital and the old City Charter specified that if anything ever happened to the hospital, the Foundation money would go to the City of Lakewood.

I understand how hard it is to get over what happened here but I'm coming from the perspective of putting people before money. Yes, CCF took advantage and was one of the beneficiaries of the previous administrations' bad deeds. But given the seriousness of the time, I see an opportunity to try to make things right. Let it begin with a tent.

Meg Ostrowski wrote:

dl meckes wrote:They wouldn't pay their rent, they wouldn't live up to their lease, they charged us a facility fee high enough that little profit could be made. They took whole departments out of Lakewood and moved them to CCF owned facilities and they never paid us one dime for any of that.

The citizens of Lakewood owned that hospital and the old City Charter specified that if anything ever happened to the hospital, the Foundation money would go to the City of Lakewood.

I understand how hard it is to get over what happened here but I'm coming from the perspective of putting people before money. Yes, CCF took advantage and was one of the beneficiaries of the previous administrations' bad deeds. But given the seriousness of the time, I see an opportunity to try to make things right. Let it begin with a tent.

Meg

CCF didn't take advantage of anyone. Our elected officials and some civic leader did.

Nothing is allowed down there until the EPA says it is OK.

Also, the river still runs through it.

Thank you for caring about our city.

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