[zaceman]

Developer pitches Warehouse plan to retailers

Vegas conventioneers hear from other locals about projects here

Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Christopher Montgomery
Plain Dealer Reporter

Las Vegas -- If developer Bob Stark was using the International Council of Shopping Centers convention here as a test of his $1 billion plan to remake Cleveland's Warehouse District, then the development looks as if it has gotten a passing grade.

Stark said before leaving for the four-day show that he didn't need a market study to gauge the viability of his project, which would transform surface parking lots into a collection of new buildings with 1 million square feet of street-level retail and 6 million square feet of mixed residential and office space. He said he would know the fate of the deal based on the reaction of the retailers he's pitching the plan to at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

And so far, he likes what he's hearing.

"They all get it, what the beauty of it is," Stark said. "It's not about trying to market your space in downtown Cleveland. This is an entirely new development."

He's framing the project as the best mixed-use site in the country, and he is including in his pitch the eventual extension of a Warehouse District-style neighborhood to Lake Erie on what is now property owned by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.

But that's off in the future. His immediate concern is the development of three parking lots along Superior Avenue and West Third Street. Last week, Stark signed a development agreement with the owner of the lots, Solon-based developer Weston Inc., that gave him the site control he needed to move forward.

It's on those lots and several others nearby that the $1 billion project would be built. He thinks it can be open by 2009.

Stark, who was talking about the project here last year when he didn't have any site control, said he has gotten to the "next level of response" from retailers.

"Now they want to know when it's going to happen, and they want me to talk with them in greater detail once the convention is over," he said.

Stark allowed this reporter to sit in on one of his meetings with a representative from a major national retailer on the condition that the retailer not be identified. Also at the table were T.J. Asher, president of Weston; John Carney, chairman of the Port Authority; and Valarie McCall, Mayor Frank Jackson's chief of government affairs. On the back wall of the room was a wall-length photograph of downtown and the lakefront looking east that provided a handy visual reference.

Over about 15 minutes, Stark described his vision in his usual animated style, raising his voice and using his hands. He pointed out the strong show of government support at the table and stressed the agreement with Asher, whose family controls Weston.

The meeting ended with the representative inviting Stark to meet with one of the retailer's top executives, an invitation that Stark called a "home run." And that's the way most of his meetings have played out.

"We're in a market that many people have redlined, and we always hear about how Cleveland is dead," Stark said. "What the response I'm getting tells me is that not only are we not dead, but if we create the right concept and place, people will be willing to come here."

Asher said he thinks it has helped that he and Carney have attended many of the meetings.

"I think it brings a lot of confidence and cohesiveness to the plan," Asher said. "Retailers can look at us and know that we wouldn't be spending our time on this unless we thought it was worthwhile."

Carney said he is there to assure retailers that the Port Authority board has considered Stark's plan and is "working with him to achieve it."

Changes that the port would be involved in, if the full scope of the development is realized, include lowering the Main Avenue Bridge and turning it into a boulevard, moving the railroad tracks on the lakefront underground and moving the port operations from their current location.

Stark said the next steps will be to continue talking with owners of the other parking lots he needs and to start to formulate an economic model that will map out the types of rents he can expect for the retail, office and residential space.