Ward 14: Opportunities for Contractors, Developers, and Real Estate Investors

Submitted by ANGELnWard14 on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 05:45.

 Enumerable people ask how to find the grants, resources, and connections to these current opportunities. So, I spent some time calling, mitigating, and finding the basics out over the phone for the benefit of interested parties who want to buy houses, rehab them, and invest into our community. I challenge the people who are established to participate in this process. It's actively going on everyday. The very basics of this administrative and logistical nightmare is now outlined below....

Developers/Contractors
 
        If you are interested in ascertaining contracts through the City of Cleveland as a Contractor/Developer, then it is recommended that you go down there and begin to learn about the process, get training, get registered, and begin going down there regularly for meetings, deadlines, and processes to include attending a contract bidding session. One person recommended that you spend this initial quality time in the City Hall so as to "develop professional relationships" with the people at the various offices and areas of interest because the phone communications are so difficult to mitigate sometimes at the 664-2000 number.
 
 
 
1) Prepare to spend a day down at City Hall going to these various offices, departments, and seeing how the flow of operations work. Prepare to be familiar with the Building & Housing Permit requirements for bidding requirements.
 
A) Register at Equal Opportunity Office as MBE/FBE and with the Dept. of CD & BH
 
B) Understand the many DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS and SUB-DIVISIONS Of offices that offer opportunities to bid:
                
 
    1) Community Development, Division of Real Estate: Ed Feke: 664-4037
                        Deal with selling foreclosed, vacant homes to contractor/developers with the goals of rehabbing and reselling them to the low income community.
 
   2) Community Development, Division of Neighborhood Services: Mike Johnson, 664-4102
                        A) Meetings every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1-3 pm for new contractors/cdcs
                        B) Applications and Reviews of Requirements to be a Contractor/Bidder on projects
                        C) Deals with Owner Occupied Rehab/Repairs between contractors/owners/city grants
                        D) Deals with Home Weatherization Contracts with CDC's/CHN/NFP's
                        E) Contractor Development
                        F) His receptionist should be called at 664-2045 to schedule/verify MWF meeting status.
                        G) Diane Peters was an exceptional resource at the Division of Neighborhood Services.
 
  3) Department of Building and Housing Room 518
 
 4) Department of Purchasing Room 128
 
 
 5) Understand the Difference between various departments, bids, RFP's, and IFB's and between the various departments who post them.
 
6) CITY RECORD in room 216 posts more bids posted.
 
7) Be put on the BIDDER'S LIST at 664-2620
 
8) Finance Director: 664-2536, Ronnie
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Attention: Everyone wonders where the money is from all of these grants... here's some beginnings to proactively ascertaining some of these resources and doing something positive in our community. Collectively, we can revitalize our area by encouraging real estate investors, developers, and interested persons to get inspired to do their little part.... The more people who take a chance at caring about our community, the faster we'll conquer and overcome historical issues...
 
P.S. Don't forget the bonuses of doing proper rehab by pulling permits along the way...CITY OF CLEVELAND PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENT! 
These incentives are available to all the people... It's just that most people get defeated at the door.... So, let's embrace our people and let them know how to do things right the first time! 
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Tax abatements for Smal Real Estate Investors vs RICH DEVELOPERS

Submitted by ANGELnWard14 on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 07:20.

Wow... I totally respect what Roldo discussed about RICH DEVELOPERS using these abatements in ways that hurt the little people through trickle down economics...

My posting about Property Tax Abatements for renovated, low income housing was meant to promote development by smaller investors into the housing stock of our community and to reduce the overhead costs for the low income families that dynamically live here. I was NOT intending to support the big wigs in that posting...

Yet, I do know that when small real estate investors are trying to come into our Ward, hire our people to labor the rehabs, and to provide affordable housing, that these incentives make the trickle down economics most affordable for the tenants or future home buyers/owners.

I have worked with many small real estate investors who never knew how to get these tax abatements. By the time that they learn about it, they have already done much of the work without pulling the permits and paying the permit fees and doing the inspections that get their work certified. My goal was to promote it from the beginning of their work so as to encourage them pulling the permits, doing the work legally, and effectively doing things the right way from the beginning for everyone's best interests....

Sadly, a lot of folks in our community have the desire, but not the know-how. They are not degreed or skilled in white collar requirements, and they falter along the way because they start up their businesses without proper planning.  So, I want to promote basic info that encourages them to learn, to break through uneducated barriers, and to promote the attitude that says, "YES THEY CAN DO IT!" 

In basic ideology... if you have ten people from the community that want to buy 10 different houses, exhaust the collaboration and labor to rehab them... (the people who like swinging hammers but don't know a thing about doing their personal/business taxes) and  who don't know the basic 1,2, 3's of business 101... then you end up with a big mess in the end in the majority of cases.

My goal is to support them by providing them with the proper procedures and help them to work on a base of prevention, doing the right thing, and learning as they go... I don't want  to discredit their motivations, nor to deter them from trying and I certainly do not want to make it harder for them to get out here and do something good for our community.  

We, in Ward 14, live in an entirely different direct dynamic than those big developers that you speak of downtown. The majority of our populace don't have a clue about that stuff... They live from week to week, month to month. They don't care about those technicalities... Whether buying a home or renting...they just want to know what the bottom dollar amount is for their monthly budget. 

(Demographically speaking and in consideration of the fact that so many of our Ward 14 residents live on a Social Security stipend at approximately < $700/month... I personally believe that anyone who invests in our Ward should have the decency and respect to make projections that are considerate of these socio-economic needs.... When we have investors coming in here charging over that amount monthly to these families-then they are promoting negative mathematical equations for the residents that simply do not make common sense. Now, that is absolutely questionable. I would like to promote something that is realistic for ALL participants in this community- residents and investors.)

I value your work and info. I hope that perhaps  we can collaborate on some reasonable ideas that excite, promote, and challenge the best in our community at large while protecting the interests of everyone all the same.