Pop Up City Aims to Reclaim Vacant Urban Spaces

Happening Places

Terry Schwarz's Pop Up City concept is already an intriguing way to reinvent the vacant urban spaces. She's hoping it'll be much more.

By Lindsey Hoeppner
Published in Cleve. Magazine, Sept. 09 issue

Terry Schwarz wants to surprise you.

She helped create the holiday craft sale that popped up in a vacant East Fourth Street storefront in December 2007. The Bazaar Bizarre attracted 600 shoppers during its one-day run and introduced us all to a new way to make use of vacant urban spaces.

Schwarz, a senior planner at the Cleveland Urban Design Center, did not invent the concept, but she’s the one championing it locally under the name Pop Up City. As she modestly puts it, “We just brought it here and gave it a logo.”

Popularized in Germany, the concept aims to help cities that have more space than is needed for their current populations. Cleveland, which has lost nearly 10 percent of its residents since 2000 alone, easily fits the bill.

Schwarz was first exposed to the idea when the Shrinking Cities exposition made a stop here in 2007. The touring expo illustrated how unusual, unexpected happenings can generate energy and excitement. Schwarz was convinced the concept could work after watching acrobatic jump ropers during the expo’s weekend visit here.

“People started spilling out of their houses [to watch],” she recalls. “It was a beautiful moment. ... I thought, This is a useful thing we can use to renew the vitality of the city.”

Schwarz sees Pop Up City as a tool for showcasing sites that are prime spots for redevelopment or reuse. “Like the [Bazaar Bizarre] pop-up shop on East Fourth,” she says. “That space is crying out to be retailed.”

That inaugural Pop Up City affair prompted Schwarz to apply for a $30,000 grant from the Civic Innovation Lab, which financed yet more events: a one-day dog park in the Flats; the transformation of a West 11th Street pedestrian bridge into a one-night outdoor party; and Leap Night in the Flats, which turned the East Bank into a winter wonderland, complete with snowboarding, an ice rink and food vendors.

This month, Schwarz is teaming with the Ingenuity Festival for the Bridge Project, a two-day event Sept. 25 and 26 that will pack the unused trolley level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge with artists and musicians (read our preview of the event on page 71). The Ohio Arts Council is also helping fund the event, providing money to pay for important details such as insurance, security and clean up.

As Schwarz’s Pop Up City concept enters a new phase, she’s looking for partnerships with other organizations, many of which have sought her expertise in return. At press time, Schwarz was working with the Cleveland Executive Fellows, a yearlong training program for future civic leaders, on an Electric Roller Discotech — a mix of roller disco, outdoor bike polo, movies and music — set for Aug. 28 in the former Leff Electric building on East 40th Street.

Schwarz is also putting a twist on the original Pop Up City concept to help reinvent an unsightly piece of property that was once the site of a Glenville/Famicos neighborhood gas station. “It’s frustrating for people who are investing and committing to this neighborhood to have to live with this eyesore,” Schwarz says.

She wants to create a more permanent space where neighborhood residents can stage their own pop-up events. It’s a concept that she’d like to try in other locations throughout the city, too.

“It might encourage artistic entertainment. It might encourage entrepreneurship,” Schwarz says. “If Pop Up City takes hold and becomes an ongoing part of our culture, it might make people stay here.”

Want a Millenial Home? Try Fez, Morroco

Foreigners Start to Explore Market in Ancient Fez

By ABBY ARON

Published: February 11, 2010 in NY Times

FEZ, MOROCCO — At least one foreigner who has bought a house in Fez, the medieval city in northeastern Morocco, says the process requires vision and a lot of commitment.

“You are not going to find a house you love and live in it straight off,” explained Rebecca Eve, a Briton who is still renovating a house she bought two years ago in the Bab Guissa quarter for the equivalent of $110,000. “If you are lucky, you can get away with a simple upkeep project, but while the property market is in its infancy, the majority of homes require complete restoration.”

Inside the medina, or walled city, many of the 12,000 riads and dars, the local term for townhouses with courtyards, are more than 1,000 years old; “new” homes are usually at least 100. But it is this historic value that makes the Unesco World Heritage site so distinctive and heightens many buyers’ determination to restore properties authentically.

“You need to put the rest of your life on hold while doing it up,” said Ms. Eve, who started house hunting in Marrakech but found the prices more alluring in Fez, around 50 percent cheaper. “But it is time well spent, as there is always going to be a demand for restored medina homes.”

The historic value of such homes helps protect a buyer’s investment, according to Frances McKay of the real estate agency Francophiles, a British business that sells properties in France, Morocco and Cape Verde. “Because no two medina homes are the same, traditional properties will always keep their value when elsewhere real estate prices fluctuate,” she said.

On average, a three-bedroom unrestored property in the oldest part of the medina, the Andalusian Quarter, will sell for 250,000 to 350,000 Moroccan dirham, or $30,500 to $42,700. But while such homes are likely to have the most original features, they also are likely to need the most restoration.

These traditional homes are built of clay brick, sand and lime, which helps the walls “breathe” — making them cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Temperatures in this city of 1.5 million range from highs of 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) to lows of around 2 degrees (35 Fahrenheit).

In contrast, a 20th-century home along the outer rim of the medina, particularly in the Batha and Ziat neighborhoods, can start at 1 million dirham if it has parking, a rare feature in this predominantly pedestrian city.

Ms. Eve, along with her partner, Paul O’Sullivan, and their 2-year-old son, Finlay, are renting an apartment outside the medina while they wait for work to be completed on their new home, Dar Fin, named for their son.

Like most homes here, Dar Fin’s 4,000 square feet of living space surrounds a central courtyard, where the couple have added a fountain and plunge pool. Its four floors include four bedrooms, three living rooms and a roof terrace with views of the city’s famous landmark shrine to Moulay Idriss, founder of Fez.

Ms. Eve and Mr. O’Sullivan have modeled the décor on the Nejjarine Museum, the city’s museum of wood arts and crafts that is known for its own beautifully restored woodwork.

The couple are using recycled cedar for the ceilings and chalk-white plaster for the walls at Dar Fin. “We wanted to keep the décor simple so that it felt calm in comparison to the busyness of the streets outside,” Ms. Eve said.

In contrast, most restored homes in the city are adorned with zelliges, or patterned ceramic mosaics in primary colors, along with decorative sculptured plaster, stained glass and painted wood. The more elaborate the décor, the richer the owner, or so tradition goes.

There are no restrictions on foreign ownership of property in Morocco, but foreigners are advised to ensure that a thorough title search is conducted before a sale is closed. Local mortgages are available, although only through BMCE Bank and Crédit du Maroc, and for up to half the property’s value.

The resale market has not yet taken off in Fez, partly because the city continues to be a relatively new find for foreigners. Until 2007, there were no direct flights from any European capital and only one English-speaking real estate agency.

Even today, Fez’s role as the kingdom’s religious capital and its most conservative city means a Westerner will find living there much different from a more cosmopolitan city like Marrakech.

For example, Mike Richardson, owner of Café Clock, the medina’s only restaurant to stay open after sunset, said: “People are very suspicious of Café Clock. They assume that because it is open after dark, we are doing bad things.”

The Clock, as it is known, includes a cooking school and a cultural center that offers belly dancing classes, Arabic calligraphy lessons and concerts. “It has brought life to the medina in the evenings, which is something that has never occurred in the 1,200 years since the first stone was laid,” Mr. Richardson said. “I guess that is quite a lot to get used to.”

Despite the population’s reluctance to change, King Mohammed VI has plans to modernize the “new town,” the sprawling area of concrete homes that surrounds the medina.

The project, 2015 Fez, includes the construction of two tourist developments, Oued Fès and Ouislane, with a total of three hotels, golf courses, tennis clubs and shopping malls. It is part of Vision 2010, a nationwide plan of the king’s to increase Morocco’s tourism to 10 million visitors a year by expanding hotel capacity, creating 60,000 tourism jobs and regenerating the country’s coastlines. The local plan has not gathered much momentum yet, but officials say it is still on schedule.

Some privately funded construction in the area has been delayed, however, because of the global downturn and the tightening of regulations making it harder to use agricultural land for commercial purposes.

One notable new project that is almost complete is Les Colombes, positioned on the road between the airport and the medina.

Sixty-nine luxury villas, with individual prices starting at 5.1 million dirhams, are being developed by Pack Energy, a Moroccan company headed by Houria Benjelloun, one of Morocco’s few female developers. Sales are scheduled to begin in mid-March, with foreign buyers offered 50 percent mortgages at 6.6 percent interest.

Median Home Prices Up 25% Since Last Year

Median home prices in Cleveland, Akron metro areas on the rebound

By Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer

February 11, 2010, 4:12PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Northeast Ohio house prices rebounded last year, marking a sharp improvement from the doldrums of late 2008.

In the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor area, existing single-family homes sold at a median price of $110,100 during the fourth quarter -- up 24.7 percent from a year before, according to a report today by the National Association of Realtors. The median sale price for a house in the Akron area rose 22.8 percent from the final quarter of 2008.

These dramatic gains point to a change in the number and types of houses that are selling. In late 2008, home sales in Northeast Ohio had dwindled. The few buyers snapped up foreclosures and other deeply discounted properties. The financial system was in shambles. Banks had curbed lending. Consumers weren't spending.

Median house prices in Cleveland and Akron hit their low point during the first quarter of 2009, falling to $69,900 and $50,100, respectively. Then, a federal income tax credit for first-time buyers helped bring the market back -- attracting shoppers who weren't necessarily looking for the cheapest fixer-upper on the block.

"There was, I would say, a real knee-jerk reaction in '08 that really slowed numbers down, so this isn't a real surprise," said Carl DeMusz, chief executive officer for the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service.

From late 2008 to late 2009, Cleveland saw the second-largest price gain of the 151 metropolitan areas in the Realtors report. Akron, where the median sale price was $105,700 in the fourth quarter, ranked third. The top gainer was Saginaw, Mich., where prices increased a whopping 53.5 percent. But the median house sale price in Saginaw was just $67,400 in the fourth quarter.

"I would not characterize it as a price jump, but more as a case of a return to normal home sales," said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist. "In the fourth quarter of 2008, most of the transactions had been pure distress sales, perhaps empty homes in distressed neighborhoods. So the transaction price at that time was artificially low."

Nationwide, house prices were down 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter, when compared to a year before. The nation's worst-performing markets were in Nevada and Florida, where developers feverishly built houses and condos during the real estate boom. Now, those once-hot markets are floundering under the weight of unfinished projects, empty houses and foreclosures.

Downtown Cleveland property owners back renewal of special improvement district

Downtown Cleveland property owners back renewal of special improvement district

By Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer

February 04, 2010, 4:45PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Property owners in downtown Cleveland have thrown their support --and their wallets -- behind renewed efforts to make the center city clean, safe and attractive to businesses.

Cleveland's City Council could begin voting this month on legislation to reauthorize a special improvement district, in which property owners pay to support street-cleaning crews, marketing programs and safety escorts for workers and residents. The district, created in 2005 and set to expire this year, runs from West 10th to East 18th streets and from Front to Carnegie avenues.

The Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a nonprofit group that reports to property owners, has been collecting more than $3 million a year from the district. The reauthorization would maintain the district from 2011 through 2015.

Despite the challenging economy, many owners are willing to keep paying. The fees, levied on all owners in the district, are based on property values and the length of property lines. They range from about $45 to $130,000 a year.

The renewal process requires backing from 60 percent of the district. Owners representing 66 percent of the district have responded since the alliance distributed support petitions in October, said Joe Marinucci, the group's president and chief executive.

The city is reviewing those petitions, and City Council could consider the first legislation for the district Feb. 22. The complicated legislative process could be finished by early June.

To prepare for the petition drive, the alliance surveyed property owners, downtown residents and employees. Their response: Keep cleaning up downtown, bring businesses to Euclid Avenue and find tenants for empty office buildings.

Marinucci said the alliance already is working to meet those demands. The group hopes to open a business-development center in the spring and is reviewing proposals from local firms to create a business-focused marketing strategy for downtown.

For the First Time in 27 Years, New-Home Buyers Opt for Smaller Homes

Home Sizes Fall as Builders, Buyers Embrace Economic Reality

By Steve Kerch

RISMEDIA, January 28, 2010 — New-home buyers responded to the tough times in 2009 by opting for smaller houses, driving down the average size of a house built in the United States for the first time in 27 years.

Data recently released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) found the average size of a new home that was completed in 2009 fell to 2,480 square feet from 2,520 square feet in 2008. The last time the average completed-home size fell by a statistically significant amount was 1982.

“You’ve heard the mantra ‘downsize me’ and ’small is the new big?’ Well, last year was definitely a downer,” said Carol Lavender, president of Lavender Design Group, a residential design firm in San Antonio, Texas.

Homeowners surveyed by Better Homes and Gardens magazine said downsizing was becoming a bigger priority: 36% said in November 2009 that they expected their next home to be “somewhat smaller” or “much smaller” than their current home versus 32% who said that in 2008. “Not surprisingly, we see a ‘cents and sensibility’ approach when it comes to buying or improving a home, with practicality and price being the top priorities,” said Eliot Nusbaum, the magazine’s executive editor of home design.

While the small-house movement in the United States has been gaining steam for a number of years, the recession has accelerated it and home builders have responded.

“The era of easy money is over. You really have to think before you go out and decide you need that five-bedroom, five-bath home,” said Rose Quint, the NAHB’s assistant vice president for survey research. “Couple that with the energy cost concerns of consumers today and I think we will continue this trend. Houses will not shrink drastically, but they will shrink.”

Although actual square footage of homes didn’t fall until 2009, the percent of homes with four or more bedrooms in them has been falling since 2007, NAHB data show. And in 2009, the number of homes with three or more bathrooms fell for the first time since 1992.

Two other trends in home construction are contributing to the declining square footages: The prominence of first-time buyers in the housing market and the increasing number of households with members 55 and older who are buying homes.

First-time buyers, driven into the market in good part by the availability of an $8,000 tax credit, are more likely to compromise on home size in exchange for a lower price. And the 55-plus crowd tends to purchase single-story homes, which generally are smaller because of the land costs that favor the more-efficient two-story plans.

“Barely over half of new homes today are built with two stories or more,” Quint said. Two-story homes peaked at about 55% of the market in 2006. For 2010, home builders say they will focus on lower-priced models and smaller homes. More than 95% of builders surveyed by NAHB in January said that was the way they saw their business evolving this year.

The penchant for smaller homes will necessitate some design changes. Builders, attempting to respond to those consumer demands as well as hold the line on prices, told the NAHB surveyors that they were most likely to include these features as standard in their houses this year:

-Walk-in closets in the master bedroom.
-Laundry rooms.
-Insulated front doors.
-Great rooms.
-Energy-efficient windows.
-Linen closets.
-Programmable thermostats.
-Energy-efficient appliances and lighting.
-Separate shower and tub in master bathrooms.
-Nine-foot ceilings on the first floor.

Among the things that builders said they were least likely to add to houses in 2010:

-Outdoor kitchens.
-Outdoor fireplaces.
-Sunrooms.
-Butler’s pantries.
-Media rooms.
-Desks in kitchens.
-Two-story foyers.
-Eight foot ceilings on the first floor.
-Multiple shower heads in the master bath.
-Smaller kitchens.

“You can see that builders are concentrating heavily on energy-saving features,” Quint said. “But a lot of the luxury items are on the chopping block or on hold as builders try to lower costs.”

Experts Estimate that 25% of Home Shoppers Are Dual Tracking: In the Market to Buy or Rent

Real estate portals adopting rental search

By Associated Press business staff

January 15, 2010, 5:35PM

LOS ANGELES -- In a strategic move, two of the biggest real estate sites -- Zillow.com and Trulia.com -- are joining the crowded ranks of rental Web sites.

The decisions come as more people are shut out of the housing market. Some 30 percent of households rent, but that figure is growing amid high unemployment, rising foreclosures and tighter mortgage lending standards.

Zillow launched its rental search function last month. While it only has about 2,000 rentals listings right now, the company plans to boost that number sharply in the next couple of months by taking in listings from brokerages.

"We think about one-quarter of all home shoppers now are dual tracking, they're actually in the market to buy or to rent," says Spencer Rascoff, Zillow's chief operating officer.

Trulia expects to debut its rentals search with more than 4.5 million listings within the next six months.

"We're building multiple tools to help consumers compare, contrast and make better decisions on whether they should be renting or buying in today's market," spokesman Ken Shuman said.

Seven out of the 10 most visited real estate Web sites last month offer rentals, according to Hitwise, an Internet tracking firm.

Increasingly, real estate agents are advertising homes on Web sites like Realtor.com to find tenants, not just buyers. Some rental sites are also getting listings from Multiple Listing Services -- databases of homes compiled by real estate agents.

"A lot of times we now notice that a home will be listed both for rent and for sale on our site, because the homeowners are having trouble selling the home," says Douglas Pope, co-founder of real estate search site HotPads.com.

A bounty of choices is a good problem to have if you're a renter. But don't expect to find the universe of available properties on a single Web site.

It helps to know what kind of rental you prefer: a house, an apartment in a small building, or a bigger complex full of amenities like a gym, pool or 24-hour security.

Generally, Web sites for rentals let users comb property listings for free. Most display photos, interactive maps, the ability to search by city, ZIP code or attributes such as number of bedrooms, price or amenities. They also include contact information for the leasing agent or owner.

Narrowing choices is the name of the game, and some sites make it easier than others.

Craigslist.org is a favorite with individual building owners, homeowners and property management firms. The portal, which has sites for 30 or so markets, doesn't charge for ads.

But its no-frills approach makes winnowing searches cumbersome and time-consuming compared to other sites. You can try to focus a search by ZIP code, or city, but you may get listings that are outside those parameters.

Still, it has filters that help someone looking to rent a room, swap houses or rent their property for only a few months -- something many other sites don't.

And Craigslist's rental listings are sorted by date and die off after a week in several major markets, which means they can be more current than those on other rental sites.

Some portals, such as Apartments.com and Rent.com, cull many of their listings from property managers handling large apartment complexes or condos. I didn't see many smaller properties turn up in several searches, however.

Others sites, like Realtor.com, offer condos or single-family homes listed by real estate agents, but not apartments.

Rentals.com gathers all kinds of rental property listings and lets users narrow searches by type of property. The firm says it has 72,000 unique listings, but cautions that available properties vary from market to market and "sometimes can be very low."

Zillow, meanwhile, which already provides a trove of neighborhood data, among other features, estimates people looking to rent account for more than 10 percent of its visitors.

Those would-be renters can search homes for sale or rent at the same time. They can also find Zillow's estimate on what it would cost them to rent or buy in the same neighborhood.

The concept is similar to a feature HotPads rolled out three years ago. The site lets users scan a map dotted with homes for sale and for rent. Trulia.com appears to be planning a similar rent-versus-own feature.

With the foreclosure crisis expected to continue this year, that's a calculation a many potential renters will be doing.

Cleveland's Beer Scene Is About to Get Even Better!

Noted brewmaster Andy Tveekrem returns to Cleveland to pour his energies into microbrewery

By Michael Heaton, The Plain Dealer

January 12, 2010, 2:00PM

He's baaack.

In November, rumors in the microbrew community started bubbling up. Certain sudserati had spotted legendary master brewer and former Akronite Andy Tveekrem sipping a few brews around town. Was he back visiting for the holidays? Or was something bigger brewing?

Tveekrem is back in Cleveland. If all goes according to plan, there will be a new microbrewery and beer garden on West 25th Street come June. Tveekrem is joining Sam McNulty to create the Market Beer Garden directly across from McNulty's Bier Markt, just north of the West Side Market. McNulty also owns Bar Cento and Speakeasy, both of which are adjacent to the Bier Markt.

McNulty feels that landing Tveekrem for the new brewery project was destiny.

"I was backpacking in Thailand," McNulty said. "I stopped in a bar in Bangkok that had Wi-Fi. I happened on a blog that said Andy was leaving Dogfish Head. I e-mailed my business partners right away and told them we have to get this guy. He does amazing things in the brew house."

Tveekrem, 46, has moved back from Delaware, where he was the brewmaster for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery for the last five years. He and his wife, Vickie, who was a waitress at the Great Lakes Brewing Co. when he began his brewing career there, are renting in the Tremont neighborhood for the time being.

"What is really exciting is the opportunity to see this through from A to Z, to design the brewery, install the equipment, formulate all the beer recipes, and then put them all out there for folks to enjoy," said Tveekrem.

"I've formulated and brewed a variety of beers over the years, but never had the chance to do all of the beer list from scratch."

Tveekrem grew up in Akron and earned a bachelor's degree in history from the College of Wooster. He also has a master's degree in history from Kent State University. He studied brewing at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago.

He began with Great Lakes Brewing Co. in 1991 and was brewmaster when he left in 2000. During his time there, Great Lakes went from producing 850 barrels a year to 18,000. Pat Conway is one of the founders of the company.

"Andy is a talented brewmaster," said Conway. "He helped us transition into our ales and some other different beers than we had in the very beginning. We wish him well and hope things work out for him."

After leaving Great Lakes, Tveekrem worked at Fredrick Brewing Co. in Maryland for four years, then moved to Dogfish Head. He is formulating his beer menu for the new brewery right now.

"I tend to gravitate toward IPAs [India Pale Ales] and hoppy ales, although I'm also quite fond of hefeweizen and porters," Tveekrem said.

"We'll have 10 all the time, with some of them being seasonals and novelties that come and go throughout the calendar year. So, eventually, we'll have 20 to 25 beers through the year. Maybe more as time goes on."

Matt Cole is a partner and brewer at the Fathead Brewery and Saloon in North Olmsted. Tveekrem hired Cole when they both worked at Great Lakes.

"In this business, it's lead, follow or get out of the way," said Cole. "Andy is a leader. He's creative and not afraid to try new things. He's been a beer ambassador for a lot of us in this business for a long time."

The 6-foot-4 Tveekrem (the name is Norwegian) has become something of a striking, Viking presence in the West 25th Street area since he moved back to Cleveland. There's one extra advantage to this new job at the Market Garden Brewery.

"I can walk to work," he said.