@cledocumenters First item on the agenda is Ordinance 1029. This will authorize the Director of Economic Development to acquire and reconvey parcels of land from Erieview Holdings.

@cledocumenters This refers to the city's plan to redevelop the largely vacant skyscraper Erieview Tower at 1301 East 9th Street.
This project will see Erieview Tower converted from office space into mixed use. Some floors will remain office space while others will be apartments and hotel rooms

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@cledocumenters "With post-covid declines in the downtown workers and office space, we have an opportunity to largely convert this building from 80% vacant into a hotel, residential, and office, which is consistent with reimagining the downtown plan," said Project Manager Robin Brown.

@cledocumenters The developer is requesting a non-school tax increment financing plan. (TIF)
A TIF is a method of subsidizing public development. Basically, taxpaying bodies that stand to benefit from a new development will divert some of their new taxes into subsidizing the development.

@cledocumenters Basically, a new development leads to higher tax revenue. TIFs take that tax revenue and use it to subsidize the development.

@cledocumenters The estimated value of the TIF is $1.6 million, per Brown. The city expects $594,000 in additional income tax for Cleveland City Schools following the abatement.
"The project is gonna create over 800 permanent jobs, and retain over 500 jobs," Brown said.

@cledocumenters Project management team is presenting on the renovations. Key details are a new W Hotel on floors 5-12, a refurbished Galleria, and new luxury apartments on floors 17-28.

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@cledocumenters The city expresses thanks to the Kassouf family, the key developers in this project.
The Kassouf family own 25 acres of real estate in the Central Business District. They also own 2,000 parking spaces in the Greater Cleveland area, per the city presentation.

@cledocumenters The city has mentioned the project funding is pretty convoluted. This graphic in the presentation seems to demonstrate that pointed:

@cledocumenters Councilwoman Santana asks if there's any letter of intent for the businesses going in the shopping area of the planned mall.
The project team says no, and that businesses will likely wait until construction has actually begun.

@cledocumenters Santana asks when they expect to commence construction, the project team says in first quarter 2024.

@cledocumenters The committee has approved ordinance 1029.

@cledocumenters Next on the agenda is ordinance 1091, which will enter into a TIF with the developers of the Apollo Mixed Used Development Project at 1250 Riverbed Street.
This project will redevelop the decaying Left Bank Apartments into new units.

@cledocumenters The city is presenting some information on this project, and alongside them is a representative for the developer named Adam Rosen. I am unsure who's representing the city as they didn't introduce themselves (they rarely do)

@cledocumenters The Apt Development Group is requesting a "41 non-school TIF" to help fund redevelopment of the Left Bank Apartments.
Built in 1870, this is a former manufacturing building that converted to apartments in the late 1990s, but was abandoned in the 2000s.

@cledocumenters The plan calls for 70 apartments and one commercial office space.
The commercial office space is for Michael Apt, one of the developers of the project.

@cledocumenters Financing for the project comes from a number of sources. Lots of state, federal and city funding involved.

@cledocumenters The developers are citing inflation, high construction costs, and the historic value of the nearby viaduct as justification for the TIF.
Below is a graph of the expected financial impact of the TIF, which will last for 30 years.

@cledocumenters Council had a few brief questions on the location of the property proximate to other area landmarks like the Towpath.
Following those questions, the ordinance was passed by the committee.

@cledocumenters Next the committee will be holding the Building & Housing 2023 Operational Hearing. Presenting are Director Sally Martin O'Toole, Thomas Van, commissioner of code enforcement, and assistant director Colleen Majeski.

@cledocumenters Graph that breaks down the organizational structure of the Building & Housing department

@cledocumenters Department milestones, including the new "Residents First" code enforcement package

@cledocumenters Following the survey conducted with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, the city has begun blight removal on properties marked unsatisfactory by the survey.

@cledocumenters More information on this survey and the grading system can be found here:

@cledocumenters Committee Chair Hairston asks the department to clarify what the $15 million dollar in ARPA funding mentioned at one point in the presentation was used for.
O'Toole says this is in reference to the newly revitalized demolition department, and they've utilized about $4 million.

@cledocumenters Hairston asks if this is for residential or commercial projects. A department member from the audience steps to the table to clarify that it's a mixture, but they more often do residential work as individual residential projects are generally cheaper.

@cledocumenters In response to Santana expressing frustration over the code violation enforcement process, which Santana believes is inefficient, O'Toole said she thinks the establishment of a civil fining process under the Residents First package will be a "game changer."

@cledocumenters O'Toole says presently the city is limited to criminal complaints and out of state or out of country landlords simply don't show up. A civil complaint process will allow more flexibility in enforcing fines against errant landlords.

@cledocumenters "We'd like to take a much more aggressive stance in taking more civil actions and civil filings, which we think will be a game changer," she said.

@cledocumenters Hairston asks why Building & Housings headcount has gone down in spite of the city budgeting for additional new positions.
O'Toole says it is due to poor compensation.
"It has been a tremendous challenge for us to attract and retain with the wages we've been paying," she said.

@cledocumenters Councilman Harsh asks why the permit approval process is so sluggish, if it's a staffing issue.
O'Toole says this is why the department is engaging in a study with Baker Tilly to determine optimal staffing levels.

@cledocumenters Councilman Harsh asks why online permitting, in his view "the lowest hanging fruit in the City of Cleveland", is not more widely used. "Is it a legal issue?"
B&H pushes back to say that over 50% of their permits are issued electronically, commercial and residential.

@cledocumenters "Many people think that pulling a permit should be like paying your water bill, but because of what it actually entails, it's actually equivalent to filing for a new credit card," said Thomas Van of B&H.

@cledocumenters Sorry for the break in tweets.
Pretty long exchange between councilwoman Howse and B&H on the tax delinquency foreclosure process.
In short, Howse felt this process, alongside other B&H processes like code enforcement, are cryptic and confusing for citizens and legislators.

@cledocumenters O'Toole said that the department is working to "operationalize" its procedures to make them more efficient.
Asst. Director Majeski delved into more technical details on some of these processes and why the work the way they do.

@cledocumenters (I'm sorry for lacking specifics, but this conversation was very dense in technical terms and made references to projects/events I could not follow. I don't want to misrepresent what was said, but the gist was Howse seeking a more transparent, approachable B&H department. )

@cledocumenters The meeting concludes with Hairston questioning some line items of B&H spending, like auto disbursements for employees who travel using their personal vehicles.
Nothing particularly notable came up in this line of questioning.

@cledocumenters And the meeting is adjourned!
Questions? Comments? Did I get something wrong? Contact us at
@cledocumenters @signalcleveland
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Correction: Robin Brown is the Manager of Economic Development and Technology for the City of Cleveland