Posts Tagged Jacobs
Perfect Solution Where New Cuyahoga County Officials Can Meet
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, Politicians on March 28, 2010
March 28, 2010… I have the perfect place for the new Cuyahoga County Council to meet. It shouldn’t cost a penny. County taxpayers already paid for construction. And even to furnish it!
It’s a building the County constructed in Jacobs Field.
It’s not far from the present County Administration building.
The building wasn’t even in the lease. It was a gift.
I was told at the time that there was an unsightly ramp. Such a problem. So we – thank you Michael White and Tim Hagan especially – built a 57,500 square foot administration building “to hide the ramp that would have been visible to the public from Ontario Street,” Gateway boss Tom Chema told me. I guess they didn’t think of some far less costly solution. Shrubbery perhaps?
The truth is that Dick Jacobs wanted an office building for his Cleveland Indians staff. And what Dick Jacobs wanted our County Commissioners and Chema gave him.
So why doesn’t the County ask the Dolan family to vacate one floor of the five-story office building we built for them? (Come to think of it, maybe Matt Dolan, candidate for County Executive, could expedite this process with Larry Dolan, team owner and his dad.)
Back in 1990 I reported on this give-away. Neither The Plain Dealer nor any of the hot shot TV news stations touched it. Is that unusual?
Here are some of the facts:
The building, not called for in original plans or lease, cost us $7 million. That included furnishings. Yes, we even furnished it for Jacobs. It cost $900,000. Telephones, desks, computers, etc. All free.
Jacobs, of course, certainly knew the value of such real estate.
Here’s what I wrote in the Free Times at the time:
“Downtown real estate developer Dick Jacobs, of course, knows the value of that Gateway gift. Indeed, Jacobs, owner of the new Society (now Key) Center a few blocks away, asks tenants to pay $38 a square foot in his building. (His Society Center was property tax free, as was – and is – the stadium and the free building. You see rich people are not expected to pay taxes as the rest of us are made to do.)
“If Gateway did the same, instead of charging no rent, the space given Jacobs in the administration building would be worth $2,185,000 a year. With no increase over the 25-year lease that would be more than $54 million in free rent.”
Since 1990, that would have meant more than $30 million to the County. Didn’t happen.
And there’s a perfect table for the new commissioners to meet around.
At Jacobs’ request the County provided an 18-foot by 5-foot boat shaped table for a conference room. That should fit for the 11-member Council. If not, I’m sure it could be expanded.
The table had an ash veneer, according to the plans. I don’t think some of the special treatment asked by Jacobs will interfere with government business. The table called for inlaid wood shaped to replicate the stitching of a baseball.
There might be one problem. The table also called for a metal etching of the racist symbol of Chief Wahoo to be inlaid at each end.
I checked at the time with some firms that make custom tables. One said that with the inlays the cost would be about $10,000 for the table.
Good enough for our certainly new tax-conscious commissioners, don’t you think?
I asked Chema at the time whether he reported this magnificent gift to the Internal Revenue Service. “Absolutely not,” Chema said.
So there’s plenty of room for the commission at no cost in a building we taxpayers built.
The inattentive Plain Dealer offered today (Sunday) three possible meeting places. The cost estimates for the three range from some $687,000 to $1.2 million. The PD story is here:
Time to save some public money. Time for a billionaire family to give back to the community. Time, indeed, for us to assert our public will.
C’mon Matt, you can help. Have a talk with dad.
Jacobs-Ratner Fight Continues with Issue 3 Vote
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, People, Politicians on October 27, 2009
October 27, 2009… Damian Guevara in the Cleveland Scene last week had a take on the Issue 3 that has been neglected by most, including me, but touches on a damaging game among Cleveland developers. They vie among themselves for advantage no matter what the cost to community.
It has cost us plenty over the years.
Guevara points out that Forest City Enterprises would be a winner if the measure passes. And that its rival, Jeff Jacobs, wants to stop it, making him the winner.
The battle between the two families – Jacobs & Ratner – has been going on in Cleveland for years. Neither cares much about the damage they cause the city.
“The question for Greater Clevelanders,” writes, Guevara, a former Plain Dealer reporter, “Do you trust wealthy pro-casino interests – in this case, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert – to deliver on the latest promise of blue-collar and hospitality jobs, multi-million-dollar tax payments and yet another facelift of downtown Cleveland?”
I’d say no.
He calls the manipulation of the constitution inherent in a “yes” vote for Issue 3, a “deal-breaker” for many.
But the beneficiaries are clear, he notices.
“For all the vagueness of the constitutional amendment,” he writes, “there is some astounding specificity to be found in the amendment’s wording, the list of designated parcels put aside for casino construction. In Cleveland, this includes 83 acres of real estate. The Cleveland casino will, parcel-for-parcel, go on land owned by Forest City Enterprises, or the adjacent Scranton Peninsula in the industrial flats, just across the Cuyahoga river, all owned by Forest City.”
Of course, the major opponent to Gilbert’s casino desire is Jeff Jacobs, son of the late Dick Jacobs and a developer and casino operator himself.
The Jacobs-Ratner (Forest City Enterprises) battle has a long history of rivalry in Cleveland. Damaging to the city, too.
When Dick Jacobs built what is now Key Center he made it taller than Forest City’s Terminal Tower. There had been an unwritten law in Cleveland no building should be taller than Terminal Tower. That’s why the Sohio building remained shorter. They are all Public Square buildings.
Some called it developer penis envy.
When Jacobs got a special deal on the Marriott hotel, Sam Miller of Forest City demanded equal tax breaks for his Ritz-Carlton. He got it.
The biggest battle was fought over Chagrin Highlands, a plot of land more than 500 acres that the city allowed for development in 1989. Unbeknownst to anyone, Dick Jacobs was made a principal thanks to George Forbes. When Jacobs wanted to build a retail center at the same time as Beachwood Place was expanding, Mayor Michael White caused the city to sue Jacobs.
The suit stopped Jacobs’s plan; Beachwood Place, with Ratner interests, went ahead with its expansion. The suit was later dropped.
It was Jacobs vs. Ratner on the new County administration building. Jacobs sold his East 9th property to the County for that purpose while Forest City still owns its offering to the County, the mostly empty Higbee department store building.
The two factions also fought over placement of the Medical Mart/Convention Center with Jacobs winning with the location of the present city’s center.
Originally, when the plan was passed by City Council years ago for a convention center, Scranton Peninsula was its location, with Forest City promising other retail and housing development there.
So around and around these two major Cleveland forces go.
Another question to be answered is whether any principals in the deal, if passed, will be from the Ratner or Miller families. Gilbert isn’t talking about that.
Hate to make a choice on this one but I’m pulling for Jacobs this time.
Guevara’s piece can be found here: http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/cash-of-the-titans/Content?oid=1690218