It was actually pretty neat.  A crowd of maybe 200 showed up and the speeches made sense.  When the switch was thrown the old Mercantile Bank Building was lit for Christmas for the first time in nearly two decades.  The lighting was, of course, just the beginning.  Cleveland's Forrest City Enterprises is about to begin converstion of the clock tower building into 225 apartments.  That is only the beginning as an entire section of downtown usually resembling a black hole is about to be converted into an urban center.

The project is a tribute to the Mayor whose tenacity in pursuing what was at one time a dead project brought it back from the dead.  Indeed, it is one downtown project the Mayor was more than willing to provide a tax abatement - to the tune of $70 million.  Of course, as with other projects, the City doesn't write Forrest City a check it simply allows it to forgoe that amount in taxation over a period of years.  Without the abatement all parties agree the black hole would have remained a black hole.

It is just possible that the development will be largely complete by Christmas of 2007.  That will mean the Merc itself, the adjacent Continental Building, and a brand new structure with 150 condos.  Now that will be something to celebrate indeed.

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