February 24 through March 1 is the first annual Downtown Cleveland Restaurant Week. Over 40 downtown restaurants will have special $20 and $40 three course meals! And if you don’t live downtown, you can park for just $2. More information is available at the Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s website. Make reservations now!

AMC recently announced that they would be installing 100 IMAX screens at AMC theatre locations in 33 major US markets over the next three years. Cleveland is not on the current list and the closest IMAX to here is Columbus. There used to be an IMAX screen at Cedar Point, but that’s no longer operational.

The IMAX screens should not be confused with the OmniMax theater at the Great Lakes Science Center. The OmniMax screen is a dome and while it does a good job of filling your peripharial vision, the screen format makes it difficult to view standard movies.

The IMAX screen is large, but mostly flat. The new screens will be digital and capable of doing amazing 3D. Popular titles such as Beowulf (in 3D), I Am Legend and The Dark Knight (the next Batman movie) have been made for this large screen format.

People will drive a good distance to come see a movie on an IMAX screen and it would be a great addition to downtown Cleveland, but where would we put it?

There is a plan to build a 10 screen movie theater complex in Scott Wolstein’s East Bank of the Flats project. Most discussions have said this would be more of an independent theater like Cedar Lee in Cleveland Heights. But it would be hard to fill 10 screens with only indie movies. And another independent movie theater is going up in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, not too far away. I think an IMAX theatre could work in the Flats. It wouldn’t be all 10 screens — just one or two of them would be the oversized IMAX screens.

Downtown needs more unique entertainment options like this or an ESPN Zone or something of that nature. Hopefully someone out there has the ability and willingness to make it happen.

Bob Stark spoke with The Plain Dealer last week about his plans for redeveloping the Warehouse District.

The plan calls for 1 million square feet of street-level retail, mostly from national chains. (for reference, Crocker Park also has 1 million square feet of retail, Legacy Village has just under 600,000 and Steelyard Commons has about 650,000 square feet so far)

Some may worry the national chains would take away from the intimate, local feel of the Warehouse District, but keep in mind that famous shopping districts, such as Michigan Avenue in Chicago, is mostly national chains. You’re not going to be able to get enough local shops in to cover 1 million square feet. I don’t think this will negatively affect Style Lounge, 360 Clothing, Clothing Brigade or Adult Mart (well, that’s already a chain). In fact, it should help.

Stark is also planning 1.2 million square feet of office space (that’s the equivelent of BP Tower on Public Square. Or “200 Public Square” as they call it now…) — enough for about 5,000 workers.

He’s also looking at building 600 condos and 500 hotel rooms spread across three boutique hotels. Here’s the latest artists’ rendition:

The blue is office space, the yellow is retail and the red is condos/hotels. Other renditions seem to indicate that parking will be sandwiched between the street level retail and the office or residential space above. The “park” you see towards the top of the picture on land that is now a parking lot between West 9th, St. Clair, West 6th and an alleyway is actually on top of a multilevel parking garage. I assume it would only be accessible by the residential units that surround it. Lack of public parks and space has been one criticism of Stark’s plan.

I’ve heard some people ranting on various blogs that there’s too much vacant office space already. Volts said, “There is an abundance of empty office and retail space in the immediate area.” But Class A office space downtown is only 11 percent vacant. That’s low. And a large employer would be looking for contiguous office space, not a bunch of little areas all over the city or spread across multiple floors of Key Tower.

New spaces and projects like this make companies want to relocate to downtown Cleveland. “If you build it, they will come.” And let’s face it, Stark Enterprises is a company that’s out to make money. Don’t you think they’ve done their homework on this? Do you think they’re going to build 1.2 million square feet of office space and then say, “Gee, I hope someone moves in.” No. The leases with big tenants will probably be done before construction even begins.

The latest plans have three office buildings along Superior Avenue between West 3rd and West 6th. The building at West 3rd and Superior would be the tallest, at 22 stories — about the size of the new federal court house tower at the corner of Huron and Superior. More official plans about this strip of buildings (and possible tenants) should be announced in a couple months.

Interestingly, Stark has a “big bang theory” about this project. It’s not going to be a piece at a time. It’s going to be EVERYTHING, built all at once, between 2009 and 2011. Now that, my friends, would be sweet. But that’s a hell of a lot of construction all going on at once. It would be a major, $1.2 to $1.5 billion project that would surely create a lot of buzz and press. And that’s what Stark wants. If it takes place over 10 years, there won’t be the same excitement that would happen if it all came into being over 2 to 3 years.

Funding remains a question. Stark is looking into accessing some of the money that would come in through sales tax at the new stores and income tax on employees who work in the Warehouse District. Hopefully a plan can be put together to get this project underway.

A window broke at the Grand Arcade on West Saint Clair in the Warehouse District at about 2:20pm on November 27, sending glass and wood down onto the sidewalk, street and cars below.

It’s unclear why the window broke. Work is currently being done on the roof of the Grand Arcade, but witnesses did not see anything from the roof hang over and break the fourth story window. No one was at home in the unit at the time.

Recent articles have discussed the proposed Medical Mart and convention center being built in University Circle — closer to our world-class hospital systems — instead of downtown.

I support the old Higbees building for the Medical Mart itself and building the convention center on the land south of Tower City, between Huron Road and the Cuyahoga River, for a couple of reasons:

• You will be able to go from the Medical Mart to the convention center without ever having to go outside. Great for Cleveland winters.
• The Medical Mart would be located in the same building as the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Great for people visiting Cleveland for medical shows.
• It’s a central location for hotels, restaurants and entertainment. The Higbees location is right on Euclid Avenue — a short bus ride to University Circle. It’s within a short walk of the Warehouse District, the Flats and East Fourth Street. Convention center and Medical Mart visitors can get to a hotel, restaurants, shopping, and Quicken Loans Arena without having to go outside.
• The RTA rapid line can get people from the airport to Tower City for a couple of bucks. How much is a cab ride to University Circle?

The Terminal Tower and Public Square are the center of the city, the county and the region. To me, putting the Medical Mart and convention center in University Circle would contribute more to urban sprawl. We still need to focus on building our core at this stage in the game. And a Tower City location is the best spot to do that.

Related:

• Conventions belong downtown
• Public officials want Medical Mart site to be downtown
• Medical Mart’s promoters narrow search to 2 downtown sites