This meeting featured the presentation and approval of three key emergency ordinances: a PACE financing agreement for the Erie View Tower Hotel, the designation of the Old John Marshall High School as a Cleveland landmark, and a significant departmental reorganization renaming the Department of Economic Development to the Department of Development. Council members expressed strong commitment to collaborating with the administration on future policy development and metrics, despite concerns regarding the lack of a current Director for Community Development and the timeline for performance evaluation implementation.
Ordinance 1440-2025 (Erie View Tower PACE Financing):
Ordinance 1321-2025 (Old John Marshall High School Landmark Designation):
Ordinance 1226-2025 (Departmental Reorganization):
Thank you so much. We will start with ordinance fourteen forty twenty twenty-five by council as well, Terris and Agrippa department request emergency ordinance. A project declared that's three to conduct speciality. Project divided with assessment of the cost of such special energy from the district. Authorized directory coming energy project cooperative agreement. Uh this is a financing tool for uh clean energy and energy efficient upgrades to buildings uh allowed here in the state of Ohio. Uh so this is financing on a properties uh tax assessment. Uh this is over and above their property taxes uh rather than uh through like a traditional bank note. Uh some of the improvements include uh energy efficient HVAC, uh windows and doors, roofing, uh water conservation, uh, and things above uh normal standards. So the project, Erie View Tower Hotel. Uh so uh the Erie View Tower uh redevelopment uh has been brought uh before council for a variety of things. Uh this item is for the pace financing just for the hotel component, which I believe is floors nine through 15. And so the hotel, it will be a 210 key W branded hotel. Uh this project is led by the building owner, Elias Kasouf. Uh and the pace financing will be provided through Greenworks Lending LLC. Uh this will be up to 43 million uh 881 864 uh financing over 28 years. And so uh that financing will be paid back on the property tax bill over and above those existing property taxes. Uh so the lending term is uh is expected to end in 2055. Uh again, uh this financing covers improvements like HVAC controls, building envelope, uh water heating and light fixtures that exceed uh energy standards uh that make the building uh efficient, green, and resilient. Uh and the special assessment, uh it has been approved by the advanced energy district uh before coming before city council. Uh this assessment will secure a loan uh with a semi-annual payment of just under two million dollars. Uh with that, happy to uh answer any questions. All right. Thank you for the uh presentation. We're all familiar with the review tower uh project. We saw this three, four times along the uh along the way, even more. Um the you mentioned that the um the pace is only going to be subject to the W hotel section on the property. That is correct, yes. And that you said floors nine through. That's the bottom level, right? Uh so the I've got uh a spread here. So uh the hotel will be floors four through twelve. Uh it will also have a a restaurant and a bar on uh levels thirty-eight and forty-one. Gotcha. Just out of curiosity, any reason why we didn't put the not we, but you all didn't put the um uh hotel rooms further up for the view. I'm just curious about that. Maybe to Mr. Moorehouse. Sure, yeah. Um thank you. To the chair. The um hotel use is uh deemed to be an inferior use, I guess. Uh you have more transient occupancy, and so therefore, you know, we want to put the more transient occupants on the lower floors and let the folks that would stay there longer, like office users and um apartment renters take advantage of the views, you know, up on the upper floors. We would just get more value doing that, essentially. And I still looking at the the color, the green is kind of the middle. So that view is a pretty good view from that uh that middle green floor versus the renovated offices. Now we all most of us toured this place. That the blue and red man. Talk about an airshield view. That's amazing up there.