some recent kind of non-news news from crains about this -- at least they added a starbucks lease:
$250 million Stark nuCLEus project is stalled, but 'alive'
February 05, 2017 UPDATED 3 DAYS AGO
Photo by CONTRIBUTED RENDERING The design for the complex of retail, apartment, office and hotel properties on a parking lot at East 4th Street and Prospect Avenue is a spare, modernist structure with oodles of angles.
By STAN BULLARD
More than two years after Stark Enterprises and J-Dek Investments lofted plans for a 48-floor downtown Cleveland skyscraper, the site remains a sea of parking lots.
Ezra Stark, chief operating officer of the family-owned Cleveland real estate company, said in an interview that the nuCLEus project remains in the works, but he wouldn’t project when construction might start or when the mixed-use building might be completed.
Previously, the company had said work would start by the end of 2016 and the project would hit the market in 2018. Substantial delay can be attributed in part to the Republican National Convention in July 2016, which turned the nuCLEus site between Huron Road and Prospect Avenue near East 4th Street into a buzz of activity.
Aside from cars coming and going from the lot, though, nothing has stirred since.
The final, missing piece? Stark said the project is in negotiations with the city of Cleveland to put in place the public financing portion of the $250 million project.
“We’ve spent a lot of time negotiating with the city, schools and county. We’re awaiting a decision,” Stark said. “It’s not a simple tax abatement.”
However, he declined to specify what aid the developer wants that the public bodies have not delivered.
The city and county confirmed talks with Stark, but not much more than that.
Daniel Williams, spokesman for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, issued an email saying, “The city continues to work with Stark Enterprises to address the complex issues associated with the nuCLEus project. Financing such a large project is complex and multi-layered, and these discussions are on-going.”
Meantime, Mary Louise Madigan, Cuyahoga County spokeswoman, said, “There are ongoing discussions about the project.” However, like Williams, she declined to provide any details on the discussions.
Madigan noted any incentive package the county grants nuCLEus would need to go through Cuyahoga County Council before it could proceed.
Cleveland city councilman Kerry McCormack, whose Ward 3 includes downtown, said negotiations between the developer and city administration have “gotten sensitive around the schools. Normally with tax increment financing plans, they don’t include funds from the schools (just the city). From what I understand, there are some solutions for the schools, and Stark wants to get creative how it does it.”
However, McCormack said it’s his understanding that the talks and the nuCLEus project “are absolutely alive. It’s a great project, and it’s important to get creative with it.”
Since Stark secured an approval from Cleveland City Planning Commission for preliminary design of the project in November 2014, some steps toward advancing the project with the city have been taken.
According to Cuyahoga County land records, the first step in putting a TIF in place was taken on Dec. 4, 2014, as the site was deeded to the city, which clears the way for legal work to allow a bond to be issued supported by future non-school tax receipts of the site. Legislation updating the zoning of the site to allow the scale and mix of office, retail and residential uses at nuCLEus was adopted Sept. 17, 2016, by Cleveland City Council.
Stark in 2016 recorded a lease for a HopCat brewpub, part of a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based chain, on the site.
A lease for a Starbucks at nuCLEus also was executed recently, according to Steve Altemare, a senior vice president at Lyndhurst-based Goodman Real Estate. In an email, Altemare said the lease is fully executed but does not include a specific delivery date for the shop.
Stark said the scope of nuCLEus is unchanged. It still includes a hotel, 150,000 square feet of national restaurant and retail space, 500 residential units in a mix of rentals and condos, 200,000 square feet of office space and a massive parking garage capable of serving 1,500 cars.
As time passes, the limbo that nuCLEus is in is beginning to become more dangerous. Interest rates are starting to rise from levels that make many real estate developments relatively easy to finance. Moreover, looming tax reform by the Republican-led Congress and White House may change the ground rules for future real estate development.
Although delay typically builds skepticism among realty pros, support for an expansive project with contemporary design — and nuCLEus certainly registers on both fronts — remains strong.
Chandler Converse, a CBRE managing director who heads its Cleveland office tenant rep practice, remains enthusiastic about nuCLEus.
“I fully understand how difficult it is to pull off big projects, and nothing is easy in Cleveland,” Converse said. “It’s a great challenge to balance construction costs, rental rates and financial markets. I hope they can pull it off.”
http://www.crainscleveland.com/artic...lled-but-alive