The Greater Cleveland Partnership has a new video out, highlighting many of Cleveland’s development projects, including Battery Park and the Gordon Square Arts District in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, the Detroit Superior Lofts near Ohio City, Steelyard Commons, the Flats East Bank neighborhood, East 4th Street, The Avenue District, Collegetown, Chester 82, Park Lane Villa, Upper Chester mixed-use development project, Case Western Reserve University, University Circle Place, University Arts and Retail District, University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, the Euclid Corridor Project and the Medical Mart.

It’s a very interesting and informative video that’s worth watching.

(I had to take down the original embedded video because it kept autoplaying. Go to the Greater Cleveland partnership’s multimedia page)

The Warehouse District Street Festival will take place on Sunday, September 23 from Noon until 7:30pm on West 6th Street.

The festival (rescheduled after the August 19 date was canceled due to rain) features food, drinks, live entertainment, an art show, motorcycle stunts and open houses of warehouse district condos and apartments.

Come check it out!

It looks like Heinen’s will be the supermarket moving into Scott Wolstein’s redevelopment project on the east bank of the Flats.

The local grocery store chain currently has 17 locations in Northeast Ohio and sources say they have signed a letter of intent with Developers Diversified to move into the Flats location. Heinen’s will join Bernie’s Steakhouse as well as other restaurants, shops, clubs, residences and office space in the $230 million mixed use neighborhood.

The project was held up by an eminent-domain lawsuit that was settled in mid-June, leading to the creation of an adult entertainment district where Larry Flynt’s Hustler club will move to. Wolstein and the Cleveland Port Authority still have to come to an agreement with James Kassouf who owns the remaining pieces of land they want. Kassouf says the land is worth $3.55 million while the port says it’s worth just $640,000. Just a minor discrepancy…

• Picture of east bank of the Flats development proposal
• Another sketch of the east bank of the Flats project

Is a new ice cream parlor/juice bar coming to downtown Cleveland?

Posters were spotted on the windows at 1239 West 6th Street that may indicate just that. The location on the east side of the street between The Cloak Factory and the parking lot next to Spy Bar has been vacant for years.

The posters feature ice cream cartons with creative names such as Trailer Park Treats (Champagne Sorbet), Baby Food for Kids and Supermodels (Low Fat Vanilla), Dumpster Juice (Toffee Crunch), Dinosaur Doo (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough), Mullet Julep (Mint Chocolate Chip), Fuel Injected Love Shammy (Coffee), Yellow Snow (Banana) and Hang 10 (Blue and White Coconut Swirl).

Signs also indicate there will be a jazz band/piano man and juice bar.

An ice cream parlor was scheduled to move in there years ago but those plans fell through. Now it appears the project may be back on track! And just in time for… fall.

Cleveland is looking into developing three acres of the West Bank of the Flats into an adult entertainment district in an effort to get Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club to move there from the East Bank of the Flats.

The two block adult entertainment district would run southwest from the corner of Center Street and Merwin by the red turning bridge. Diamond Men’s Club is already located in that area and would be part of the new district. The Hustler Club would move into the old Crooked River Brewing Company building which is mostly vacant but currently houses the Pizza and Calzone Company. There are also rumors the Stage 2 strip club would move into the district from its current location on Superior Avenue.

Scott Wolstein plans to redevelop the East Bank of the Flats into a multi use neighborhood but needs the Hustler Club to move in order to make that happen.

Some people near the proposed adult entertainment district are upset about the move, including the developers of Stonebridge condominiums. But Diamonds is already there and the master plan for Stonebridge calls for more condos just a block away from Christie’s — another strip club on the East Bank.

Development is good for the area, even if it is turning abandoned buildings into strip clubs. It will bring people and money into the area and into the city. A crowd leaving a strip club is not going to be any more rowdy than a crowd leaving another bar or club. There’s an adult store and a strip club in the Warehouse District and that hasn’t hurt development there. Having The Circus on the East Bank of the Flats didn’t stop the Flats from hitting its peak in the early 1990s. A gay bathhouse in Ohio City hasn’t stopped $450,000 townhouses from being built across the street.

Some have complained that people walking in a nearby park will be able to see the strip club. So what? It’s a building. The strippers are dancing on the inside of the club, not the outside. You’re not going to be exposed to anything you don’t want to be if you’re just passing by.

Downtowns should be a mix of people and businesses — some of which you may not like. It’s what makes being downtown and living downtown unique and different. If you want to live in a fake, cookie cutter ‘downtown’, move to Crocker Park.