OCTOBER 28, 2024
‘It’s just money down the drain’ Brook Park dome may be good business for Browns, but experts warn it’s bad public policy | Joe Scalzo
T
here’s an old joke about economists that goes, “What happens when you put 10 economists in a room? You get 11 opinions.” That’s not true when it comes to stadiums. “You can’t get two economists to agree on anything, but it’s unanimous to every economist in the country that the impact of a new stadium is something between nothing and not very much,” Neil DeMause, editor of the website FieldofSchemes.com, said in an interview with Crain’s Cleveland last spring. “You might get a small benefit, like $50 million or $100 million, but when you’re spending $1 billion or $2 billion, it’s just money down the drain.”
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See DOME on Page 17
Parkland Terrace sells for $1.5M in Mayfield Heights
Cuyahoga County rolls out property tax assistance pilot
Diminished office building values draw vulture investors
Aims to ease the burden for seniors facing delinquencies
By Stan Bullard
By Kim Palmer
Sandip Thakkar and Abe Shehadeh are playing a long game in the office market. They and their investors are repeatedly diving in to buy, seizing opportunity in a context where traditional competitors for even small buildings are staying on the sidelines. The pair just bought the granite-clad office building called Parkland Terrace, 6120 Parkland Drive at Landerhaven Corporate Center in Mayfield Heights, for $1.5 million. That's far less than the
$2.8 million market value Cuyahoga County assigns it for taxes and the $4 million the out-of-town seller paid for it. This past summer, the duo also bagged the Midway Plaza Office Building in Elyria (near Midway Mall) and the Westlake Centre building (originally part of the former King James Office Park) in Westlake. They see the hair-raising office shakeout as a reasoned opportunity and say more deals are in the works. See OFFICE on Page 14
Cuyahoga County is piloting a $5 million property tax assistance program to stabilize homeownership for aging residents struggling with tax delinquencies and facing surging home valuations. The program, announced on Monday, Oct. 21 by County Treasurer Brad Cromes, provides up to $10,000 in onetime direct assistance to qualified County taxpayers 70 years or older with an active tax delinquency. “The intention is to have sign-up for the
program available starting in December and be fully operational for tax collection starting in January, when those first tax bill are coming out,” Cromes told Crain’s. The program will allocate $2.5 million from the County’s Delinquent Tax and Assessment Collection fund for two years. Of that total, $2 million will go to direct taxpayer assistance each year, while the remaining $500,000 a year will go toward housing counseling services with CHN Housing Partners. See TAX on Page 17
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HEALTH CARE Amazon One Medical and Cleveland Clinic partner on Northeast Ohio primary care offices. PAGE 4
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