Sunday, April 13, 2008

CREE Moves To Little Bear

I have to send a big "shout out" to Bill McCorkle and the staff at Little Bear Golf Club in Lewis Center, Ohio. When Columbus Real Estate Exchangors, of which I am president for 2008, lost our meeting space rather unexpectedly (well, it was sort of expected, but not as quickly as it happened) in March, Bill stepped up and offered his beautiful facility near the Polaris retail strip as a meeting location.

There was some hesitation, but it has turned out to be a match made in heaven. Little Bear has a fantastic conference facility, part of which we are using for our meetings each Thursday morning, a fitness club, and along with a par-3 golf course is the centerpiece of a wonderful single family and condominium development project.

Bill thanks for the offer to try out Little Bear. To Tony Yacoub, Mike Lane and Randall Jackson, thanks for twisting my arm to come out and see the facility. And thanks to all the members of CREE who have been so supportive of this move.

If you want to take a look at the place yourself, here is a link to the Little Bear community.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Development Possibilities Are Everywhere.

Opportunities for development -- or re-development are everywhere you look. Not sure? Try this on for size in New York City.

The city's famed Bellvue Hospital, bilt in 1931, long a place for mental patients and criminals with severe mental problems, may soon be developed into an upscale hotel. Crazy idea? Sorry, bad humor there. Still, a hotel was not the first suggestion, just the one that makes most sense. Actually, the initial development plan was for condos.

"There are long corridors, and the rooms aren't very big," she said.
Even though officials expect the hotel and convention center would be marketed toward medical professionals and families of patients at nearby hospitals, it would be up to developers to deal with the building's sordid past.


"Not many hotels can claim Norman Mailer, Edie Sedgwick and Charlie Parker all spent the night, but the psych ward housed fewer sax players than ax murderers, said Dr. Frederick Covan, who for 14 years was its chief psychologist."

Read the story on development possibilites here.