University Circle

developer breaks ground on only for-sale residential project in university circle
The developers behind University Place Townhomes, a 19-unit project on E. 118th Street in University Circle, have broken ground on their new project. With two sales in hand, they're laying the foundation and intend to start vertical construction in the spring.

"The demographic is pretty much what we thought it would be," says Russell Lamb, a principal with Allegro Realty and partner in the project, which includes several Allegro principals. "The buyers are either people who work in the Circle, particularly medical institutions, people who want to move back to an urban environment who are downsizing, or young professionals."

"We're the only for-sale project in University Circle," he adds. "We're pretty comfortable with where we are right now." The developers hope to obtain several additional sales in the spring so they can start construction on additional units.

While much of the action these days is in the rental market, the for-sale market also is showing signs of renewed life, says Lamb. He believes University Circle is a particularly strong, underserved market, in part because there's so little developable land. The parcel on E. 118th was a rare vacant property within the district's boundaries that could be developed.

The units range in size from 1,100 square feet to just under 2,100 square feet, with prices starting at $250,000 and climbing to $450,000. Lamb describe the prices as "expensive for Cleveland, but not expensive for University Circle," an area that commands a premium.

The project design features five separate buildings around a central, European-style courtyard utilizing modern building techniques including cementitious exteriors. Dimit Architects designed the units. The interiors, while not extravagant in terms of square footage, are "modern, open and airy; there's a good use of space," Lamb says.

Uptown has been a particular "center of gravity" for the project, he adds, providing much-needed amenities that will attract the home-buying set.

What's needed to complete the Circle? "More people," Lamb says. "If any place in Cleveland has got it all, it's gotta be University Circle."


Source: Russell Lamb
Writer: Lee Chilcote
running late? prezto lets user send a drink to those in wait
Running late for a business meeting at the local coffee shop? Not going to make it to happy hour with your friends? Prezto eases the guilt by allowing the user to instantly send a cup of coffee, cocktail or even a cupcake to the person on the other end awaiting your arrival.
 
“The app allows you to give a gift to a friend remotely and immediately,” explains Anne Jiao, founder of Prezto. “It’s a way to share spontaneous moments on a daily basis.”
 
The concept is simple: Users download the app, select a participating establishment and gift to give, and then send it to a friend. The friend simply presents a code for scanning and receives the gift.
 
Jiao came up with the idea for Prezto after working in Los Angeles. “I noticed that most of my bosses hosted meetings outside the office and there was a lot of anxiety around getting to the right place at the right time,” she says. “I thought, what’s an easy way to get a meeting off on the right foot?”
 
She also reluctantly admits that a scene in the Hunger Games movie, in which the character Katniss received medication through a teleport device to win the game, also helped spark the idea. “It’s the idea of people who are not there being able to affect a person’s life,” she says.
 
Jiao went through the LaunchHouse Accelerator program last fall to hash out her idea for Prezto and still keeps an office there (in addition to coffee shops and a rented desk downtown). She employs a CTO and an intern and is looking for a second intern. She also uses five developers on a contract basis.
 
About 40 merchants already have expressed interest in Prezto, mostly in the Coventry, University Circle and Cleveland State areas. The app is in beta testing now and Jiao plans to use her interns to sign on more merchants before the app officially launches this summer.

 
Source: Anne Jiao
Writer: Karin Connelly
botanical garden enjoys busiest year on record
In 2013, the 83-year-old Cleveland Botanical Garden attracted more people than ever to its University Circle properties. During the past 12 months, 188,669 people visited the Garden, marking a 17 percent increase over the prior year’s record attendance figure of 160,000. It marks the sixth straight year of attendance increases.
 
Garden President Natalie Ronayne attributes the growth to the success of two new seasonal events, Big Spring and the holiday spectacular Glow.
 
“It’s really great to see Northeast Ohioans embracing the Garden as relevant to their lives,” Ronayne says. “One of the most appealing things about the Garden is that it can be many different things to many different people -- a place of celebration, a place of solace, a place for making new family memories. I love that people are taking advantage of that.”
 
Next up on the schedule for the Garden is the 11th annual Orchid Mania, slated to run February 1 through March 9.

cleveland neighborhood progress makes key hire to lead citywide advocacy efforts
On the heels of a successful merger that brought together under one roof three nonprofit community development organizations, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP) has made a key hire to lead its policy and advocacy efforts. Alesha Washington, a Glenville native who most recently served as Director of Executive Administration and Government Relations at the Centers for Family and Children, recently joined CNP as its Senior Director of Advocacy, Policy and Research. Washington will lead strategic policy initiatives at the city, county, state and federal levels and identify and use academic research to inform community development strategies.

"Trying to create a shared advocacy platform for the CDC community is what attracted me to the role," says Washington. "There's a need and a longing for a very coordinated and aligned system. The goal is to work together to improve Cleveland's neighborhoods for all people."

"It's about connecting the dots," adds Joel Ratner, President of CNP. "The needs we're identifying at the neighborhood level should be articulated clearly, strongly and strategically to officials who are setting policy and government budgets."

In recent years, Ratner says, no such coordinated effort has existed. Policy priorities might include strategies and funding to address vacant and abandoned properties, maintaining and enhancing tax credit programs that lend to neighborhood development, and influencing the state budget.


Source: Alesha Washington, Joel Ratner
Writer: Lee Chilcote
'best things in cle' called out in atlantic cities
In an Atlantic Cities end-of-year feature titled “The Best Thing My City Did This Year,” the editorial staff highlighted the Cleveland Museum of Art birthing a magnificent new atrium that doubles as public gathering space as one of the major highlights of the year for the city.
 
"My Cleveland 2013 was full of energy, risk-taking and community-based huzzahs. Culturally, high came to mass at both the Cleveland Museum of Art, where a stunning new atrium became our public gathering place, and the Cleveland Orchestra did a neighborhood-based residency,” shares Anne Trubek, founding editor of Belt magazine.
 
Other items of note mentioned include developments in Waterloo, St. Clair-Superior, and Detroit-Shoreway that will build the foundation for 2014.
 
Check out the full piece here.

hidden cle: the coolest things in plain sight you've likely never seen
While the West Side Market and Terminal Tower demand center stage, what about the hidden gems, wallflowers and untold stories? With CityProwl podcaster and veteran architect Jennifer Coleman as our guide, we discover one treasure after another, from a tiny neighborhood worthy of Dickens to bouquets of flowers fit for a giant.
cleveland, the next brooklyn, says forbes
In a CNN Money feature titled "The Fortune Crystal Ball," the publication offers up its prognostications for the coming year, among them: Which cities will be the next Brooklyns, and which the next Detroits. Spoiler alert: Cleveland is pegged as a "Brooklyn."
 
"The American geography of prosperity has been driven by two big narratives in the past few years. On the one hand, there's Detroit, with its $18 billion in debt, pension mess, and population loss. On the other, there's Brooklyn, with its rocketing real estate prices, hip-luxe condos, and freshly foraged food stores," notes the money pub.
 
So, just what cities are deemed a "breakout town"?
 
New Brooklyns
 
Cleveland. The city is in the midst of a downtown revival that has seen not one, not two, but three Williamsburg-esque neighborhoods emerge: Tremont, Ohio City, and Gordon Square.
 
Odds of it becoming the "next Brooklyn" are placed at 63%.
 
Read the rest here.

sprav wireless meter tracks water consumption in the shower
When Craig Lewis, a mechanical science and engineering major at CWRU, was given an extra credit assignment in 2011 to come up with something that would increase household energy efficiency, he started thinking about how much water people use in the shower.

“We did a little preliminary research to see if people could track their water consumption in the shower,” Lewis recalls. “We found that 76 percent of people we surveyed had no idea what their water consumption was.”
 
So Lewis and his partners, Andrew Schad and CJ Valle, set out to create a shower head that tracks water consumption. “How can you be efficient if you don’t know what you’re consuming,” asks Lewis. The result is Sprav, a company that makes a water meter by the same name for the shower. Today’s model is wireless and works with the users’ mobile devices to provide usage data. It takes seconds to install and requires no tools.
 
Sprav entered Case's St. Gobain Design Competition in the fall of 2011 with a prototype and came in second place. Listening to feedback from the judges and the audience, Lewis and his team redesigned the meter, making it sleeker and with more functionality, and proceeded to take top honors at the following year's competition.
 
Sprav ran a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. While they fell short of their fundraising goal, the company enrolled in Bizdom’s fall class. “It’s been a great opportunity,” Lewis says of Bizdom. “They’ve done a great job of guiding us along the path.” The company has also turned to Blackstone Launchpad for guidance and resources.
 
Lewis has taken a year off from school to work on Sprav full-time. While the device is still in development, the company has an agreement with CWRU to test it in the dorms in 2014. While Lewis calls Sprav a “grass roots effort” right now, he has his sights set on getting Sprav in big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot, “where people expect to buy these types of things.”

 
Source: Craig Lewis
Writer: Karin Connelly
what's the economic development potential of the opportunity corridor?
In this, the second installment in a two-part series, Fresh Water development editor Lee Chilcote takes a close look at the Opportunity Corridor, a 3.5 mile planned roadway that would connect I-490 with University Circle. The project is being promoted as an economic development engine, but skeptics have their doubts.
regulatory binder eliminates the mountains of paperwork from clinical trials
Researchers and hospitals literally can accumulate rooms full of paperwork documenting a single clinical trial. Rick Arlow offers a better method of document management without all that paper. RegulatoryBinder is an early stage software company focused on document management for medical clinic trials.
 
Arlow, who was earning a dual M.D. and Ph.D. a year ago, observed how much paper was wasted in clinical trials, came up with the idea to go paperless. So he quit his studies, formed RegulatoryBinder and joined accelerator FlashStarts in PlayhouseSquare.
 
“I have a tool that allows hospitals to store clinical trial data electronically,” explains Arlow. “Up until now, researchers would store paper in three-ring binders. There were literally rooms of paper.”
 
RegulatoryBinder’s Enterprise Document Management software provides up to a 33 percent increase in documentation productivity while standardizing the documentation system and saving researchers money. The biggest challenge Arlow encountered in developing a system of electronic records for clinical trials was efficiency and adoption.
 
“The large issue is, how do you do this in an efficient manner and still be compliant,” explains Arlow. “We had to find a way to provide the software, training and services and get people to adopt it.”
 
RegulatoryBinder is being used in pilot programs at University Hospitals and a number of other sites. Arlow says that so far people have been quick to adopt the technology.
 
RegulatoryBinder was one of six Northeast Ohio start-up companies to receive $25,000 from Lorain County Community College Foundation’s Innovation Fund. Arlow also recently received follow-on funding from FlashStarts. He plans to use the money to hire staff in customer support, marketing and sales, and to promote RegulatoryBinder to more markets. Arlow hired his first employee this month and plans to hire another before the end of the year. He anticipates two more hires in 2014.

 
Source: Rick Arlow
Writer: Karin Connelly
cleveland neighborhood progress launches city life tours to highlight urban vibrancy
Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, a nonprofit community development organization, has begun offering Cleveland City Life tours to expose suburbanites, millenials, empty-nesters, boomerangs and newcomers to town to all the city has to offer.

CNP Director of Marketing Jeff Kipp says the tours really are about helping Clevelanders see for themselves the positive change taking place in the city.

"We'll do the proverbial handholding and take you into the neighborhoods," he says. "You see the positive headlines and positive trends, but a big chunk of our population doesn't have firsthand experience with the city. This is about removing that intimidation factor and bridging the gap."

Tours starts in Ohio City and include stops in Detroit Shoreway, the lakefront, University Circle, Little Italy, Midtown, downtown and Tremont. Along the way, it also touches on neighborhoods such as Cudell, Glenville and Fairfax. Each lasts two hours, costs $12 and comes with a free Live!Cleveland/City Life T-shirt.
 
"As we drive through University Circle, we can reference the excitement that's happening in North Shore Collinwood," Kipp explains, adding that while the tours can't feasibly cover the whole city, they will highlight all city neighborhoods.

The tours are being marketed through CNP's website and partner organizations such as Global Cleveland and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. There currently are tours scheduled between Christmas and New Year's and around the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.

"This is a way to roll out the red carpet and give a reintroduction to your Cleveland neighbors," Kipp adds.
 

Source: Jeff Kipp
Writer: Lee Chilcote
missed opportunity? what must happen for new roadway to live up to its name
In this, the first installment in a two-part series, Fresh Water development editor Lee Chilcote takes a close look at the Opportunity Corridor, a 3.5 mile planned roadway that would connect I-490 with University Circle. The project is being promoted as a bike- and pedestrian-friendly boulevard, but skeptics have their doubts.
museum of contemporary art boasts impressive first-year numbers
In an Art Daily feature titled "MOCA Cleveland releases metrics of strong inaugural year in new building, Uptown," the art publication shares impressive numbers from the museum's first year in its new building.

"In the first year in their new building, MOCA delivered significantly expanded audiences and benefits," says the article.
 
Among them:
 
55,997 visitors took advantage of MOCA’s offerings, up 284 percent from recent years
 
650+ new members, tripling membership in MOCA’s new home
 
The numbers also show how MOCA’s impressive new building at the corner of Mayfield Road and Euclid Avenue acts as a beacon to draw people to University Circle and Uptown.
 
82 percent of MOCA’s visitors are coming to University Circle specifically to visit the Museum
 
70 percent of MOCA’s visitors are eating at a surrounding restaurant
 
24 percent are shopping while in the area
 
Read about the rest here.

new study on regionalism comes at ideal time, says next city
In a feature titled "Three Lessons on Regionalism," Bill Bradley, writing for Next City, outlines the findings of a report recently released by Fund for Our Economic Future.
 
"Regionalism, from Paris to Portland, offers cities with closely woven outlying suburbs opportunities to broaden their tax bases, increase minimum wages and develop unified approaches to transit -- which could, in turn, give low-wage workers better access to jobs. Advocates have touted these benefits for years. Now, a new report explores how regional collaboration can help spur economic growth."
 
The Northeast Ohio-based Fund for Our Economic Future, which along with the Knight Foundation, released the report.
 
In sum: "Data is hugely important, investing in groups that find funding can enlarge your pools of grant money, and big thinkers must be instrumental in turning those grand ideas into reality."
 
Read the rest here.

genomic test helps men with prostate cancer choose proper treatment path
Eric Klein, chair of the Glickman Urology and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, along with a team of researchers at the Clinic and Genomic Health, have developed a genomic test that determines the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and therefore helps doctors and patients decide the proper course of treatment.
 
“It’s a biopsy-based test that looks at how certain genes are turned on or off,” explains Klein. “Before it was developed we made an educated guess on how aggressive a man’s tumor was based on factors like age and health.”
 
Often there are multiple small tumors in prostate cancer. The Oncoptype DX Prostate Cancer test, developed for market by California-based Genomic Health, looks at the activity of certain genes within the tumor. Based on the results, treatment can range from surveillance to more aggressive treatment.
 
“We developed it in a way to tell what else is going on in the prostate,” says Klein. “About 20 to 25 percent of men who have this test are re-assigned to a different category of progression.”
 
Klein is pleased with what the test means for the treatment of prostate cancer. “First, it identifies those who have more aggressive cancer,” he says. “Second, it reassures those who choose surveillance.”
 
Klein has spent the past eight years developing the prostate genomic test. The University of California San Francisco spent three years validating the method, and it was released in May. The test is one of many advancements in genome-guided solid tumor analysis recognized by Cleveland Clinic Innovations as the number-two innovation in health care this year. Genomic Health has a similar test for treatment of breast cancer.
 
“This is the first foray into precision treatment for prostate cancer,” Klein says. “With this test a management decision can be made based on the characteristics of the tumor. It’s individual decision making based on that person’s disease. That’s’ where we want to be.”

 
Source: Eric Klein
Writer: Karin Connelly
happy dog to open east side location in iconic euclid tavern in university circle
The Happy Dog in the Gordon Square Arts District is famous for tasty hot dogs with crazy toppings, live music and adventurous cultural fare, including members of the Cleveland Orchestra recording an album live in front of the racetrack bar. Now the successful venue is heading east; in the ultimate win-win, the owners are opening their first east side location inside the now-shuttered Euclid Tavern.

"We've been approached many times, and there are a lot of things we could have done," says Sean Watterson, co-owner of the Happy Dog. "To be a part of bringing the Euclid Tavern back to life was the thing that made us go, 'OK, maybe we could do another one of these, and this is the place to do it.'"

The Happy Dog signed a lease on the space this week with University Circle Inc., which bought the building last year from the previous owners. The Euclid Tavern operated continuously as a bar from 1909 until 2001, making it the second longest-running bar site in Cleveland, according to UCI Director Chris Ronayne. New owners re-opened it in 2008 and stuck with it until 2013. UCI began renovating the space and looking for a new operator earlier this year.

"We were searching for the right tenant to live up to the iconic reputation of the Euclid Tavern as a music venue," says Ronayne. "We were in courtship with the guys from the Happy Dog for a while -- they know food, music and programming."

The Euclid Tavern has hosted national acts Chrissie Hynde, Pavement and Green Day, and also served as home base for legendary local acts like Mr. Stress. The tavern was also featured in the 1987 film Light of Day starring Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett.

Although plans are still being shaped, Watterson says the new venue will operate as the Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern. A similar menu will be available, but some hot dog toppings will only be available at the east side location, and vice versa. The owners also plan more cultural programming through partnerships with area institutions such as the Cleveland Institute of Music and Institute of Art.

The same partnership that owns the west side Happy Dog, including Watterson, Sean Kilbane and chef Eric Williams, will open the Euclid Tavern location.


Source: Sean Watterson, Chris Ronayne
Writer: Lee Chilcote
pay it forward: how shopping small reaps big rewards for the local community
It's a fact that $68 of every $100 spent locally returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. We all know that shopping small is good for the local community, but what are the real and tangible benefits behind the movement? A closer look reveals how buying local feeds our region in ways both obvious and subtle.
the freelance life: how some locals are cobbling together the careers of their dreams
Since the Great Recession, more and more folks have been living the "gigging life," working multiple jobs or hopping from one project to the next in hopes of cobbling together a living budget. While that might seem arduous, it also allows those living the lifestyle to follow their true passion.
developer breaks ground on 20 new micro-apartments in university circle
WXZ Development recently broke ground on 20 new micro-apartments on E. 118th Street in University Circle, adding to the wave of new housing in the area. Developer Jim Wymer says demand remains strong for efficiently designed, higher-end rental units geared towards professionals and students.

"We realized the true market that was untapped was an upscale rental product that was suited to the demographics of the Circle," says Wymer, who previously built and sold 12 townhomes at Circle 118. "There are people looking for nice, unique housing that feels like a for-sale product, but they want to rent."

A few years ago, WXZ developed Hazel 8, a 59-unit apartment project on Hazel Drive that is nearly 100 percent occupied. The units feature hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances and rent for $1.85 per square foot, or about $1,100 for a 600-square-foot, one-bedroom unit, due to the premium University Circle location.

The newest units, located on land previously owned by RTA, are actually Phase II of 118 Flats, a project that already brought 10 new units to E. 118th and Euclid.

"The market is so unique," says Wymer of demand for the units. "We have people coming into the market from as far away as the Far East. There was a lot of Internet shopping with Hazel 8 -- probably one-third of our tenants did applications and made deposits without ever seeing the product."

The units at 118 Flats average about 800 square feet, but they are efficiently designed with high ceilings, little wasted space and plenty of natural light, making them feel less like cramped apartments and more like hip micro-units.


Source: Jim Wymer
Writer: Lee Chilcote