Cleveland's Aquarium Opens SATURDAY!

The time has come for Cleveland's West Bank of The Flats to come back to life. This Saturday, January 21st the Cleveland Aquarium in the Old Powerhouse Building will be open to the public. Swim with sharks, visit exotic aquatic life, and acquaint yourself with local Lake Erie creatures. Our new aquarium will be the only free standing aquarium in the state and the architects made sure to preserve the historic nature of the structure. The building and experience will truly be one of a kind! The aquarium hopes to attract 500,000 people in 2012 alone, this will hopefully encourage other businesses to bring their establishments Downtown and specifically to The Flats.  Adult tickets will be available for $21.95 and $15.95 for Children 12 and under. The aquarium will be open daily from 10am to 6pm, visit their website at GreaterClevelandAquarium.com


Tell us readers- will you be visiting the aquarium this year? Do you already have your tickets?

Photo courtesy of Cleveland.com

2011 Brite Winter Festival

The 2011 Brite Winter Festival is a community celebration of fire, arts, music, games, and snow that is free and fun to all. The event takes place from 5pm-10pm on Saturday, February 19th at Hart Crane Memorial Park in the Flats. This community outing will bring together:

-Musicians + Stage + Pop Up Cubes
-Giant 24 Foot Long Skee-ball Ramp
-Mini-golf Course
-Art Installations, such as the "Light Jukebox"
-Bonfires and Fire Performers
-Snow Fun, Sledding, Ice Sculptures, and an Ice Xylophone to play

Forest City closes $85 million sale of land for Cleveland casino

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The developer of a planned Cleveland casino has purchased 16 acres of downtown land from Forest City Enterprises Inc. for $85 million.

Forest City sold the land and air rights to Rock Ohio Caesars Cleveland LLC, the real estate company announced this morning. The property is adjacent to Forest City's Tower City Center, an office, hotel and retail complex on Public Square.

The casino developer paid $11 million cash at closing and will pay the balance in installments in late 2011 and 2012.

"This sale is milestone in the process of bringing a first-class casino to Tower City, and the start of an exciting new future for downtown Cleveland entertainment," said David LaRue, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Forest City. "The sale is also a demonstration of the value embedded in Forest City's portfolio of real estate. We anticipate that a successful casino will stimulate further downtown revitalization and economic development, and will also have a positive impact on the long-term value of our Tower City assets."

Rock Ohio Caesars LLC is a joint venture between Rock Gaming and Caesars Entertainment, which plan to develop and run casinos in downtown Cleveland and Cincinnati. The developer is expected to open a first phase, short-term casino in the Higbee Building at Tower City and to open the larger casino behind Tower City in 2013.

(Article Courtesy of Cleveland.com)

Money secured, work to start next week on Flats aquarium

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A whole lot of fish from around the world are expected on Cleveland's shores in the fall.

Jacobs Entertainment announced Friday that it had secured the $33 million needed for the first phase of a long-discussed aquarium in the Powerhouse on the Flats' west bank. Officials hope to start construction next week and expect the attraction to open later this year.

They're also designing an eventual second phase estimated at more than $40 million.

Mayor Frank Jackson said in a news release, "The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is one of the many new projects that will help reinforce downtown Cleveland as a destination for residents, visitors and businesses."

Patrick J. McKinley, executive vice president of Jacobs Entertainment, said, "We expect this to serve as a catalyst for additional development for years to come."

Officials hope for synergy among the aquarium and other downtown attractions, including the planned casino and the Flats East Bank project that recently broke ground.

The aquarium will be a U.S. first for Marinescape NZ Ltd., which has developed 21 aquariums in Europe, Asia, Australia and its home country of New Zealand. The Flats aquarium will occupy more than 70,000 square feet in the historic Powerhouse at Jacobs' Nautica Entertainment Complex, which opened in the late 1980s.

The aquarium will include a "SeaTube" of clear acrylic for a walk-through view of marine depths. It will also offer environmental education, with classrooms, full-time teachers and research projects. Officials hope for more than 400,000 visitors annually. The average ticket price is set at under $14.

Last November, the City Council let Jacobs reduce the number of guaranteed full-time jobs from 40 to 20 in return for a $2 million city loan for Phase 1. But Jacobs officials still predict 40 full-time jobs, which would have $1.6 million in wages per year.

Phase 1's financiers include FirstEnergy Corp. and AMPCO, which operates Nautica's parking lot. Officials are still exploring Phase 2's financing, timetable and more. They foresee a new building with glass atriums along the river.

Phase 1 will occupy much of the Powerhouse. The building will still house Lolly the Trolley's headquarters and Windows on the World, a recently expanded banquet facility. It will add an aquarium-themed restaurant.

The Cleveland Improv comedy club will move this month from the Powerhouse to bigger, renovated space in Nautica's old Sugar Warehouse, which also is the site of Shooters on the Water. Nautica Charity Poker Festivals will move next to McCarthy's Ale House in a historic Nautica building across the street. Officials hope to move the Powerhouse Pub and the adjoining Howl at the Moon bar elsewhere in the complex.

The complex also includes the Nautica Queen dock, the Nautica Pavilion amphitheater and the Apartments at Nautica. It does not include the somewhat intermingled Christie's Cabaret and Harbor Inn.

The previous Cleveland Aquarium closed at Gordon Park in 1986, and its fish were moved to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Several local groups have talked about opening other aquariums.

(Article courtesy of Cleveland.com)

Flats East Bank project closes financing, to start construction

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Construction will start this week on the long-delayed Flats East Bank project, now that developers have finally locked in the money to build offices, a hotel, retail and a park at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River.

The Wolstein Group and Fairmount Properties closed on their financing Tuesday - making a $272 million development real after years of dreaming and planning. Set to open in spring 2013, the project will extend downtown Cleveland to the waterfront and include the central business district's first new multi-tenant office building in more than a decade.

The project is a rare private, urban development to move forward, in the wake of a recession and a financial crisis that roiled the real estate industry. And it is one of three potential game-changers for downtown Cleveland, where a new convention center-medical mart project is scheduled to break ground soon and a casino is in the works.

"We have major headquarters that are here in Cleveland that will remain in Cleveland as a result of this," Mayor Frank Jackson said. "I believe it will eventually attract other people to that part of the city and, in some fashion, may even move what we consider the center of town as people begin to consider the water's edge as a place where they want to live and work."

Loans and grants from the city are among 35 sources of funding for the project. To pay for the 18-story office building, a 150-room Aloft hotel, a parking garage, retail and public spaces, the developers lined up everyone from major banks to foreign investors who hope to gain U.S. residency in exchange for putting money into the Flats.

Stakeholders described the project as the most complicated financial transaction in Northeast Ohio's history.

"Every professional involved would tell you this was the most complex undertaking and closing that they've ever been part of," said Adam Fishman, a principal with Fairmount Properties.

The $272 million first phase will house accounting firm Ernst & Young, law firm Tucker Ellis & West and the CB Richard Ellis real estate brokerage -- all downtown tenants itching for a new location. The Flats East Bank also will include a riverfront boardwalk and 14 acres of parkland. The green space eventually could be the site of residential development, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, once the economy improves and more financing becomes available.

"Today is finally the beginning of implementing my husband's vision for the Flats," said Iris Wolstein, whose husband, Bert Wolstein, hoped to turn the former nightlife mecca into a riverfront district. He died in 2004.

"While it has been a very long and treacherous road to get to today, this family collaboration will benefit our hometown and give the city a vibrant showcase for all of us and future generations of Clevelanders to enjoy," she said in a news release Tuesday afternoon.

Iris Wolstein and Scott Wolstein, her son and the executive chairman of Developers Diversified Realty Corp., unveiled their plans for the Flats East Bank in 2005. When financial markets collapsed in 2008, money for real estate disappeared and the development was put on hold. The Wolstein Group and Fairmount Properties struggled for two years, split the construction into phases and sought additional public and private funding sources to revive the project.

Wells Fargo Bank funded $53 million in bonds to support the office building. The Ohio Carpenters' Pension Fund and the Cleveland International Fund, a group of foreign investors, also stepped in on the first-mortgage bonds. FirstMerit Bank provided a loan. The federal government, the state and Cuyahoga County kicked in loans and grants.

Cleveland contributed nearly $53 million, $37.2 million of that in loans, worked with the developer on a deal to divert anticipated increases in property taxes from the project to pay for construction, and took advantage of a federal economic stimulus program to lower the cost of bonds for the project.

"These deals don't work with straight private financing anymore, particularly in cities like Cleveland or Pittsburgh where the market is not booming," said Tom Murphy, a senior resident fellow with the Urban Land Institute and a former Pittsburgh mayor. "This is an investment for the future that will create momentum in Cleveland."

(Article courtesy of Michelle Jarboe and Cleveland.com)

Feds award $32 million loan for office building at Cleveland's Flats East Bank project

Another key piece of financing for the $275 million Flats East Bank Neighborhood project is falling into place.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to award a $32 million loan for the office tower component of the project. A news release from Sen. Brown's office said he repeatedly had urged HUD to approve the loan.

“This news will keep over a thousand good-paying jobs in Cleveland and create hundreds more construction jobs,” Sen Brown said.

The project includes a new office tower that will house the Ernst & Young accounting firm and the Tucker Ellis & West law firm, as well as a hotel, retail space and a parking garage.

(Article courtesy of CrainsCleveland.com)