Tt comment jul 19 2015 - a

Since this all began around 2000, the plan by Pizzuti seemed to progress the furthest.

In June 2005, I attended the Marina District Neighborhood Charette that was held in East Toledo. It was an interesting day that lasted for several hours.

Sponsored by: City of Toledo, REERC, River East Associates, Pizzuti Corp., with the support of the American Institute of Architects Toledo Chapter.

My comment from that thread:

Peter Ujvagi organized the event, and he kept it moving on schedule. Each part started and stopped on time.

Attention to detail by PU. No wasted time that day.

Some of my other notes from that day 10 years ago.

I was in the breakout-group with George Sarantou, Pete Gerken, Mary Chris Skeldon, Don Monroe, the architect working with Pizzuti, and many others.

Peter Ujvagi organized the entire event, and he was in the other group. We all met together initially at the start of the morning, and then we split up into these two groups to brainstorm.

In our breakout group, one wall of the room held big sheets of paper that contained a list of all our wild ideas for the Marina District.

The other wall contained a map of the district, and anyone in the group was allowed to walk up and start drawing an idea.

The 2005 thread contains other info from that day.

Ujvagi would be a great person to ask about all of these Marina District plans that have been presented to the public since 2000. I wonder which plan he thinks would have been the best. Or which time did he think, "Yeah, this is going to happen now."?

I'm guessing that it would be the Pizzuti activity in 2005, but I doubt that PU would give a straight answer.

Carty defeated Ford for mayor of Toledo in November 2005.

In 2006, it seemed that one of Carty's top priorities was to erase anything that Jack Ford started.

In the spring of 2006, Carty fired Pizzuti and brought in Dillin.

Bell gets elected mayor, and he attracts Dashing Pacific.

Collins defeats Bell, and in Collins's first year as mayor, he wants Dashing Pacific gone from the Marina District.

We'll probably have a mayoral change this November, and another mayoral change in November 2017.

It's not the economy because Toledo has been using that excuse since at least 2001.

For this fall's elections, it seems that every mayoral candidate and district council candidate have been talking about fixing our roads. That's nonsense, since it should be part of their job to ensure that our roads are in decent shape. It's a given. Fixing roads should not be a new idea.

Ujvagi could set himself apart from not just his District 3 opponents, but everyone else on council and even the mayoral candidates by discussing the Marina District.

In August 2005, Ujvagi published an opinion piece in the Toledo Blade about the Marina District.

The [marina] district, along with The Docks development in International Park, renovation of the King Bridge, Starboard Side condominiums, and construction of the Veterans Glass City Skyway, would strengthen the idea that the river unites Toledoans instead of dividing us.

We could finally break down the perceived barrier between the residents of the East Side and the rest of Toledo. As a bonus, we would be able to take advantage of this exciting project to continue the revitalization of East Toledo neighborhoods and the Main Street neighborhood commercial district.

After at least two false starts, and tough negotiations by Mayor Jack Ford, a developer [Pizzuti] with the commitment, capabilities, and vision to make the marina project a success has been selected. They are now working diligently, with the involvement of the community, to develop and implement a plan that is supported by market realities.

Ujvagi's opinion piece also discussed the arena issue, which was a fiery topic early last decade. Back in 2005, and actually all the way back to 1993, some people advocated for building the arena on the west side of the river. Even Pizzuti felt that the east side of the river was the wrong location for an arena. From my June 2005 meeting notes:

One thing I learned was the worst place to put a new arena would be on the site of the current arena. That would cause too much of a break between The Docks and the rest of the Marina District.

The architect hired by Pizzuti feared that The Docks could "wither on the vine" if a new arena was built where the old one is. In place of the old arena there needs to be a recreational activity center that attracts people year round or restaurants and retail. Centrally locating the arena in the Marina District would also be a mistake, apparently.

But some politicians and, of course, many East Siders felt that a new arena was promised for the east side.

From all the info that I had absorbed back then, building the arena on the west side of the river in the downtown area seemed to make the most sense.

More from Ujvagi's August 2005 column:

In September, 2001, Toledoans cast their vote by a margin of nearly 68 percent to 32 percent to suspend the restrictions of Section 79 of the Toledo City Charter and enable the participation of the city in the construction of a new arena on the East Side.

However, over the last several years, a dedicated group of downtown investors, some elected officials and administrators, and others have advocated for the construction of the new arena on the other side of the river - near the existing convention center and Fifth Third Field. Except for the East Side advocates (and The Blade's editorial position), little effort was put into making the arena a reality in the Marina District.

Further movement on the Marina District is stalled on the issue of the arena location. We are now awaiting a second study to determine which location would be "economically" most viable.

What is missing in this debate is the original commitment made to the voters of Toledo, where the arena would really best leverage additional economic opportunities, and consideration that perhaps the land on the east side of the river could be actually developed with higher and better uses.

Further exacerbating the situation is that no viable alternative proposals from the downtown advocates have been presented to replace the arena investment for the Marina District.

Our community seems at a stalemate. It is time to make some hard decisions - before increasing suburban developments make the Marina district uneconomical.

The result meetings made it clear that while some East Siders and others will accept no less than the construction of the arena in the Marina District, others believe just as passionately that there are higher, better, and more creative uses for the land.

Pizzuti and some other others viewed a new arena and the Marina District as two separate development projects while the other camp viewed the Marina District and a new arena as the same project. The Marina District automatically included a new arena.

Ujvagi's August 2005 opinion:

There are other options besides the arena, including: additional residential development; expansion of the proposed ice house concept to year-round recreational opportunities; expansion of The Docks concept; other developments that do not need such expansive parking and which attract and keep people in the district longer and bring them there more often than the limited dates of arena events; connecting the Marina District with Main Street, and taking greater advantage of the riverfront to attract people and investments.

Political, downtown, and East Toledo community leadership must come together and agree on moving the Marina District project forward before it is too late.

If the arena is moved, any alternative development must be significant, equal to the economic impact of the arena and without reducing the city's financial commitment to the project. A "Dairy Queen," as one administrator suggested East Toledo deserves, is not enough.

The Marina Development must reach out to the surrounding neighborhoods, including the Main Street neighborhood commercial district and the residential communities, in concrete and specific ways to strengthen the momentum for revitalization and redevelopment.

If the new arena had been built on the east side, would the rest of the Marina District land be more developed today?

Some would say "Yes" and they would argue that the Marina District land remains empty in 2015 because an arena was not built at that location 10 years ago.

That's ancient history now, but it's always political.

Maybe a reporter will someday ask for Ujvagi's thoughts or plans about the Marina District land for the year 2020.

Ujvagi should have reshaped his August 2005 Blade column about the Marina District into a 2015 mayoral campaign platform and then tried to upgrade his status from Mayor of East Toledo to Mayor of Toledo.

I know of a business that's currently located in a suburb that is planning to move. The company contains over 100 employees. A year ago, they used a realtor to find at least 10 suitable locations in and around Toledo. Their choices have been narrowed down to two options, and one is located in downtown Toledo. The other is located in a different suburb.

It's getting tough to find enough space or enough "suitable" space to house 100-plus employees in downtown Toledo. Not every business can afford to renovate a building. They just want to move in.

I know that every Marina District plan has viewed the land as mixed-use for residential, entertainment, and office space, but maybe that land should focus on providing office space for the mid-sized businesses. But who wants to build buildings that may not get occupied?