West Side Sun News
July 6, 2006
Stark’s downtown plans are gaining momentum
By Ken Prendergast
Staff Writer
Add two more big names within development circles to Bob Stark’s big plans for revitalizing downtown Cleveland.
Agreeing to build in accordance with Stark’s master plan is Rustom Khouri, president of Westlake-based Carnegie Management & Development Co., and property owner James Kassouf, often a partner of Khouri’s.
Although the agreement’s paperwork hasn’t been finalized, the tentative deal would have Carnegie build a mixture of housing, offices and retail on 10 acres of land Kassouf owns, mostly in the Warehouse District. Much of that land is surface parking, including a 9-acre strip south of the lakefront railroad tracks, between West 3rd Street and the Cuyahoga River.
Stark proposes working with multiple developers and downtown property owners, including the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, to build 1 million square feet of retail topped by 6 million square feet of mixed residential and office space.
The master plan includes developing within a street grid extended northward from the Warehouse District to the lake. Port authority officials said they are eager to get downtown port operations out of the way by gradually moving them to an island planned west of the Cuyahoga River’s mouth.
The Khouri-Kassouf agreement is similar to one Stark recently signed with Tony Asher, owner of 8 acres of Warehouse District land west of West 3rd, between St. Clair and Superior avenues. Stark said he hopes to open in 2009 the first buildings on Asher’s land, long occupied by drab, but profitable parking lots.
“The collaboration keeps growing,” Stark said. “I keep putting together the team. These people are not only property owners, but savvy business people.”
Khouri’s firm has a nationwide resume of building housing, retail and offices, including the kind of high-density, mixed uses Stark has in mind for downtown.
Khouri said he shares Stark’s belief that developers need to think bigger than merely “filling gaps” in the downtown landscape. Past projects, like the $400 million, 380,000-square-foot Tower City Center, which has struggled since it opened in 1990, weren’t big enough to change downtown’s dynamics, he said.
“You need to get over the million-square-foot threshold,” Khouri explained. “The reason is it has the density and drawing power for mixed-use tenants to coexist. Bob’s is probably the best project to date to revive downtown. I’m 100 percent behind Bob’s project.”
For his part of Stark’s plan, Khouri proposes building 500,000 to 600,000 square feet of mixed residential, offices and retail. He said he wasn’t ready yet to discuss a possible construction timeline.
Development plans are starting to run into each other, however. The port authority is seeking to take by eminent domain several acres of Kassouf’s land for the Wolstein Group’s planned Flats East Bank neighborhood. As long as Kassouf owns the property, he said he and Khouri will press ahead with their own plans.
Stark is pitching his downtown master plan to potential investors, most recently a large group of financiers June 29 at Key Tower. Attending to support Stark were Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s Chief of Governmental Affairs Valerie McCall, port authority board Chairman John Carney and Councilman Joe Cimperman whose Ward 13 includes downtown.
“It was an amazing meeting,” Cimperman said. “The support was huge. It (Stark’s master plan) has got so much good, positive momentum.”
Stark said he continues to seek development agreements to gain site control for his first phase, notably with Los Angeles-based investor Duane Cameron, owner of 2 acres of parking lots southeast of the West 9th-St. Clair intersection. Cameron could not be reached for comment.
More landowners are likely to be approached soon. Stark said one of those is John Coyne, whose family has a 3-acre parking lot north of the Shoreway near West 6th. Coyne attended some of Stark’s presentations.
“We own some property that, at some point, I imagine Bob Stark might want to talk to me about,” Coyne said. “But I’m waiting and seeing. In spirit, I support what he’s trying to do. But I’m way down the totem pole.”
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also some interesting news (cross-posted on UrbanOhio.com)