2 bicyclists on country road

2020 Sapora Symposium

Sapora/Social Justice: architecture-inclusion

On December 3, 2020, a group of architects, designers and real estate planners discussed a LGBTQ-friendly development being built in Cleveland.

Click here to see the full transcript.

JOHN SULLIVAN: Hi. Thank you, everyone, for being here. My name is John Sullivan. I'm a junior here at the University of Illinois in the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism with a concentration in sports management. Tonight. I'm so excited to hear from our panelists as they talk about developing an LGBTQ community in the Cleveland Lakewood area. Studio West consists of three main spaces within its 100,000 square foot complex.

First, there's a field house, which will have a new gym, restaurant, and sports bar. Next, the fancy entertainment complex will have six different entertainment areas, all with various themes. Lastly, the 11600 building consists of eight fully leased departments and five fully leased commercial storefronts. I'm privileged to have the opportunity to learn more about this great community in the making. I'm excited for you all to learn more about it from these amazing panelists.

I'm honored to introduce Robyn Deterding, a professor here at the University of Illinois. Many of you have had Robyn as a professor in RST 340, 460, or 465. And I know for those of you that have interacted with Robyn during your time here, you will all agree that she's some of the best U of I has to offer. She also has an extensive background in campus recreation, has been involved in inclusive facilities design through the building and renovation of many of our campus rec facilities. Without further ado, here's Robyn.

ROBYN DETERDING: Thank you, John, and good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Sapora Symposium. Tonight, we will focus on equity and inclusion in relation to community development and the design of an LGBTQ+ hub in Cleveland.

Before I introduce the panel, I just want to note that I'll be monitoring the chat box for questions, so please go ahead and put them there. We will probably wait till everybody has spoken, and then we'll address your questions. But you can go ahead and put them in ahead of time.

I'm really excited about this panel and for all of us to learn more about their project. It touches on so much of what we do and who we are in recreation, sport, and tourism as professionals, and we are so very blessed to have them join us and share in something that is so transformational. Their project intersects with so many things. It's economics. It's education and outreach, entertainment destinations, community service, music, food, art, health, and well-being, and most important, it's inclusive.

I'm going to present the speakers in the order of their presentations, so please give your utmost respect and attention to our panelists. I'd like to start with Betsy Figgie. She's the president of Your CFO Resource, which is a structured finance consulting firm founded in 2005. Betsy has closed upwards of a billion dollars in transactions over her career, and she's thrilled to be co-developing the LGBT hub and serving as one of the project's stewards. Betsy believes that one of the most critical elements of the project is ensuring that LGBT youth have a safe place to play, explore, connect, and grow.

Daniel Budish is the president of Gaslamp Capital. He'll be our second presenter. He's dedicated his career to renovating and preserving historic buildings across the country through the implementation of innovative financing structures. As a native Clevelander, he has long thought about how he could best utilize his skills and tax credit to benefit the LGBTQ community. This project is a dream come true for Daniel due to its combination of historic preservation, its intense focus on philanthropy, community development, and of course, all the drag.

Our third presenter is Dr. Lady J, AKA Jeremiah Davenport. She's a non-binary trans woman, who's the world's first drag queen with a PhD specialization in drag performance history. She's also the creator and host of "Untucking the Past," a podcast that explores drag history through an intersectional lens.

A pillar of the Cleveland LGBTQ+ community, she represents the city on the national drag scene and leads locally through activism, entertainment, and education. Her dissertation, "From RuPaul to the Love Ball-- The Mainstreaming of Drag in the 1990s" has been downloaded over 3,500 times, and her work as a historian has been featured everywhere from vice.com to the "Journal of American Musicological Society."

Lauren Tatum is our last speaker. She's the owner and creative director of Bunny Paige, a Cleveland-based jewelry design and a mixed media art studio that was founded in 2013. Lauren brings a passionate energy to this project, which stems from her upbringing as a granddaughter of a judge and civil rights lawyer who served as a member of President John F. Kennedy's diplomatic team and legal counsel to Martin Luther King, Jr. Lauren looks forward to continuing in her family's footsteps while helping to build a brighter future for the entire LGBTQ+ community.

Please join me as we welcome tonight's panel. Betsy, you are on.

BETSY FIGGIE: Yes, thank you Robyn. We really appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for having us. We really are happy to be here this evening to share our vision and to share our project.

With the pandemic and everything that's happening globally, it's amazing that we have just been working on this, assembling real estate, and putting together the programs and the processes to make this successful. We really started in February with the purchase of one of our buildings that Daniel is going to talk about a little bit more in detail called the Field House.

But let me take a step back. I wanted to show you on this map. This is Cleveland, Ohio. And where you see the headset with the SW and 117 logo, that is Lakewood, Ohio, which is our LGBT hub called Studio West is located. And it's right on the border of 117th Street, which is a north-south artery. And on the west side is Lakewood. On the east side of Cleveland. So we see this as a bridge in more than one fashion. It's bridging two cities together, but it's also, as Robyn mentioned, a very inclusive project.

We wanted to build something from scratch that is open to all ages, all races, all gender identities, and all sexual orientations. And what has been really fun about this is, well, a lot of things, but two things come to mind. The first is that we are starting with a blank slate, so we can begin with the end in mind. And rather than taking small, incremental steps that may take a decade to do a project of this magnitude, we're asking people-- our stakeholders, and our partners, and our allies-- what would the ideal be, and why don't we build that first?

And the second thing that is really exciting about this is really a case study in massing. And by that, I mean, by assembling this real estate and by creating a place for the LGBT community to use as-- we call it the center of the universe, that we're aggregating real estate and resources with sufficient scale to make it meaningful. If we just did one piece of this project and then incrementally went onto the second and the third, it would take decades.

And so you're going to hear a lot of information tonight about the real estate components. As Robyn mentioned, we have entertainment. We have education. We have workforce development. And it's all happening simultaneously, and that's what's so exciting about it because we don't think that we would have been receiving the same level of support that we have from the community, and from the media, and from our allies if we had just been doing something relatively small. This is definitely a go big or go home kind of project, and we are going all out.

So the map that you see on your screen right now shows some of the real estate that is currently under our control. The yellow dot in-- we're in the center of the slide, the upper-left-hand corner. That is the Field House building. And this is what we're going to be spending the majority of our time talking about this evening because of the sports facility component to it and also how we are using design to make it very, very inclusive.

Just to the south of that is the blue dot, which represents the fantasy entertainment complex. This is a 55,000 square foot entertainment complex plus another five to six retail storefronts.

Just to the east of that in the purple dot-- now we're on the Cleveland side of 117th Street. This is the 11600 Detroit building. It's a mixed use building that has eight apartments and now six commercial spaces. We actually converted one of the basement spaces into an additional space because, quite frankly, we have more tenants than we know what to do with, which is a great problem to have.

And so this building is important to us because we wanted to include safe places for people to live and also retail storefronts for businesses to incubate and grow. And while we bought this building fully leased, we have told all of the tenants that they are welcome to stay from now until eternity. But if life or love or family takes them out of the city and they have to cancel their lease, then we are going to re-tenant this building with LGBT students, LGBT seniors, potentially an LGBT youth runaway shelter, and businesses that are owned and run by members of the LGBT community.

In the northeast corner, the pink dot, this is a daycare center that we purchased in October. It's a family-run business, and it is a beautiful two-parcel site. What we are doing is actually helping the daycare relocate closer to Studio West so that they will have the ability to provide daycare services for their existing families, their existing clientele, but then also benefit from a lot of the business owners and families that are going to be moving into the neighborhood.

The site that will be vacated in that pink area in the northeast corner is actually going to then be transformed in two years into townhomes, so for sale townhomes. And the idea there is to create high end living opportunities. And the proceeds of those sales will be plowed back into Studio West to create more opportunity, more developments, and just to keep the whole process going.

The final thought that we wanted to mention is in the brown dot, where you see the cursor right now. And this is a prime location on the southeast corner of Detroit Avenue and 117th. There's currently a Pizza Hut on there, and we have just signed the purchase agreement for this. We actually signed on Friday, so we are really happy that we can talk about this a little bit today.

But the idea here is that we are going to be taking over this site in about a year to 18 months. We are going to be converting this to expand Studio West to provide more offerings to the community. So just a little teaser out there. You'll have to follow us on all the social media to see exactly what we're going to put here.

So you'll see that everything here is within walking distance. It's a nice intersection of residential entertainment, sports, and wellness, family, day care, social services. But we're not in competition with any of the other LGBT services that are currently offered in Cleveland. And there are some marvelous nonprofits that do amazing work every day.

This we really see as additive to that because of the entertainment side. The fantasy complex itself is going to have five entertainment venues. And through sponsorships from different companies like Tito's vodka, we're going to be able to pull money in from other philanthropic sources that Cleveland has never seen before. And Lauren Tatum, who's the president of the foundation, is going to talk more about how they then deploy some of these grant opportunities into the neighborhood.

So this slide is just showing a couple of pictures. The top-center picture is a rendering of Field House that Daniel is going to talk about in a few minutes. In the lower-left-hand corner is the 11600 mixed use building. It's about 100 years old-- eight apartments, and then you can see the five storefronts.

In the middle-bottom is a historic photo of the fantasy entertainment complex. We're actually going through the process of putting the building on the National Register so that we can preserve its beauty and its grandeur and just make it more relevant for this day and age, but to keep all of the history of it and its beauty.

And then, in the lower-right-hand corner is a picture of the existing daycare center on the northeast slide that you saw earlier called Kiddie Castle. And we're going to be helping this family relocate to a new parcel and to give them an opportunity to create some wealth on their own with a little bit of support from us and some opportunities to grow their business.

And so if we could go to the next slide, I'd like to just recap by saying that this is a really an interesting case study, again, because we have not found any other development team in the United States that has or is developing an entire neighborhood specifically for the LGBT community. So it's a prototype, if you will, and it's really exciting to be on the leading edge of this.

We feel that with the experience that we bring-- both Daniel and I have backgrounds in economics and finance-- we're able to finance each component of this project individually. So each of the components, while they're independently financed, they're not reliant on each other. So if there would be some situation where one of the elements of the project was not successful, it won't be a house of cards, and it won't take the whole project down.

So everything is financed individually and cash flows individually, so on its own. So we think that by financing the project the way that we are, it makes it stronger. It makes it scalable and replicable and something that can be reproduced, perhaps somewhere across the United States in neighborhoods that are looking to revitalize their LGBT community.

And so you're going to hear more things tonight about economic development and the business side of things, whether it be a health clinic, a pharmacy, retail shops, entertainment venues, but it's also workforce development, which, for the LGBT community, and especially for the youth and the trans community, we want to create jobs. We want to create an opportunity for people to start and to grow their businesses, and to create wealth, and to have ownership in companies. And so what we're really doing here with the real estate and with the economic development and the workforce development, we're really creating a community.

And so we are trying to stay true to our brand, and every decision that we make has to pass that test to make sure that we're doing this for the greater good and that it is sustainable for the long term. So I'm going to turn it over to my co-developer/partner Daniel Budish, who's going to talk about the Field House and how this is being designed with the LGBT community in mind.

DANIEL BUDISH: Great, thank you, Betsy. That was a great overview of the project. Daniel Budish-- co-developer with Betsy. And I'm going to zoom in on one component of the project, which is the Field House at Studio West. This is actually the first building that Betsy and I purchased as part of the project. It's a 20,000 square foot old, historic warehouse building that we are going to refresh and revitalize with a very exciting new use.

So just to take you through the floor plans to tell you about how we're programming this space, the eastern portion of the building is where we'll start. That is going to be a new Colombian restaurant that is going to be led by a local famous restaurateur named Juan Vergara, who owns several other Colombian restaurants in the area that were actually just awarded the best of Cleveland restaurant awards. So we're really excited to see what he brings in terms of all wood-fired meats and vegetables in an open kitchen concept, which you'll be able to see into through a big glass wall.

And then there's going to be a private dining area at the very east of the building that people will be able to rent out. There will be a pizza kitchen which we're really excited about that faces onto Hird Avenue. So if you're going to see a show at Phantasy, it gets out at midnight, at 1:00 AM, you'll be able to come just down the street and order a pizza from the pizza window, which is something we don't really have here in Cleveland.

There will also be a lot of outdoor space associated with this property, which is very important, of course, in the time of COVID, but really something that we're trying to bring to the table in terms of just overall outdoor, exciting, programmable space that is really lacking in Cleveland. So we have this outdoor patio. We also have this big, outdoor courtyard that we are creating in the middle of this building.

So the center portion of the field house is actually going to be demolished. It's a very poor quality building that's in need of coming down. So we're going to use that opportunity to create a very welcoming, indoor-outdoor courtyard experience in the center of this building that can be the host of outdoor theater events. There's going to be a DJ booth located here overlooking the courtyard. We will also be building a new connector building between the Colombian restaurant and the field house itself that will house locker rooms and bathrooms and a cubby area.

It will also have the elevator of the building, which is very important to us. Everything that we are doing is fully ADA accessible from soup to nuts. And we'll talk about that in a bit. Then the westernmost portion of the building is the field house itself. This is a very large, open structure with three dodgeball or volleyball courts running vertically down the space with the potential also for a feature court that runs horizontally. We're also, we're excited about having a mezzanine walking track around this entire building, which will be able to house spectators watching the game that are going on below.

The field house itself, just like all of our spaces, is going to be very flexible and used for a whole variety of different uses. So the facility was kind of imagined and built in mind for Stonewall Sports, which is one of the largest LGBT organizations in Cleveland. It's a National LGBT sports league. And we are very lucky to have a very active organization here in Cleveland. They have everything from dodgeball, volleyball, kickball, bocce, even things like yoga.

And so we know from day one that Stonewall Sports, who currently doesn't really have a home, will bring their 400 people to be able to play dodgeball all year round for their season in January through March with their big tournaments. It's going to be a very vibrant and active space. But we are also really excited because not only will it be for Stonewall Sports, but we'll also be able to utilize this space for an LGBT youth league. And so that's really important to be able to not only utilize these spaces for the 21-plus crowd, but also to really make these spaces accessible and available and welcoming for people of all ages, and to provide LGBT youth with a safe space where they can just have fun and be themselves.

The second floor, we're very excited to announce that we recently got full board of zoning approval to house a massive 4,500 square foot rooftop deck. It will be the first commercially available largest rooftop deck in the entire city of Lakewood. So again, creating this very exciting outdoor space that can be used seasonally with this large, open rooftop patio area.

But there will also be a component-- we recognize, in Cleveland, the weather is not always cooperative all year round. So we have an indoor bar component as well. Part of what makes this space really unique is the fact that this is a [? Latine ?] experience with Juan Vergara as the restaurateur. So the head chef is going to be Latina and LGBTQ. The general manager of the restaurant is also going to be Latino and LGBTQ.

And to kind of make this an even more authentic and unique experience, we're providing space for traditional Colombian games, such as tejo, which is actually the National sport of Colombia. And it's a really cool game. It is just like cornhole, but more dangerous. It has, basically, instead of bean bags, you throw steel disks at a board, which is full of clay. And in Colombia, you throw them, these disks at these little triangular packets called mechas. And they explode if you hit them properly. So we've created an American, bar-safe version that we are patenting and bringing to Cleveland for the very first time.

Finally, we'll also have some cabanas that will be for rent and a community kitchen concept that will be available for LGBT chefs that want to provide classes for the community that they can teach healthy cooking to LGBT youth. And we can also use this as a multifunctional space for people to rent this space as a party room or other functions. So that is a overall kind of conception of what we have going on with the field house. And I'll take you through a bunch of images in just a bit of what this space is actually going to look like.

But really, what's important is the connection between the overall philosophy and ethos of Studio West and really, the inclusive, diverse representative, accessible space that we are trying to create in all of the different pieces and parts of the project, and really translating that into the actual, physical design of these spaces. So everything that I'll show you, if you can look at it from the lens of these design tenants that I'll take you through, and it's really just about the-- making sure that the mission speaks every day to the physical design of these spaces.

So really, it's about creating inclusive and diverse and representative spaces, and that is from the physical components, which I've already discussed, that really create a safe space for everybody regardless of age, gender, race, sexual preference, et cetera. But also, the way that we're going to be staffing these spaces. And Lady J will talk more about this in her section, but we've created a hiring committee to remove bias from the hiring process and really create spaces that when you walk in, you can really see yourselves reflected in everybody from the bartenders and the servers all the way to the managers.

Accessibility is also something that's been top of mind for us. All of the spaces that we're creating we are making as accessible as possible for everybody, and that includes things like bar heights. So we had to completely redesign all of our bars to make sure that we had a very visible and very easily accessible lower portions of the bars that were large enough for not only one or two wheelchairs but also for a group of people that were with that person.

So it's about-- we've brought in outside expertise on some of these things that we really want to make sure we get right. So we're talking to a ton of people about all of these different aspects of accessibility and exclusivity just to make sure that even if one of the members of our team isn't thinking about it that we have people that are advising us on all of these concepts. Again, elevators in all of these spaces. Even things like the stages, we're trying to figure out how to make them accessible with ramps.

And then even things like some of the press we've done and some of the podcasts and things, we've been dictating that into text to make sure that we have as much in terms of both visual and audible messages as possible. Then continuing, we also are using these spaces-- I mean, they must be a showcase of LGBTQ creativity and talent. We have so much of it in Cleveland and around the country. And really, there's not any large space now to showcase that talent.

So really, creating spaces that allow people to make drag a career, to be able to bring in the large scale, like, Rupal drag shows back to Cleveland because we've been skipped on the circuit now. Our big LGBT club closed a few years back. So this is really bringing back these larger event venues that can have pride events, and balls, and pageants also, using these spaces as much as possible for LGBTQ and community art.

And so we have a mural Call For Artists that Lauren is going to talk a little bit more about that we have over 26 canvases across the building. Everything from as large as a huge mural on the exterior of the field house all the way down to things like the restroom stall walls. And so we're really just trying to create a diverse set of experiences where we can showcase the talent of the LGBTQ community.

Sustainability is super important in both the recycling-- in both the physical aspects and the financial aspects of the project. We are reusing everything that we can possibly. From the buildings themselves to the furniture that was bequeath to us by previous owners. It makes the spaces more authentic and sustainable.

We are also reusing and all of the wood that we possibly can from the buildings that we're tearing down. So those pieces of wood are going back into our tables and our bar face. And then the long-term financial sustainability is just as important. While we're making these spaces as affordable for the community as possible, we also need to make sure that we can keep spaces going in perpetuity.

And so what we are working on from Betsy and my perspective are the budgets and all of the revenue sources from the bars and memberships and space rentals, renting out cabanas and walkers. Really, just every single piece of the project where we can make it affordable for those who need some financial support and where we can obtain some revenue and sponsorship opportunities to keep these spaces going.

And then really want to make sure that these spaces are completely unique and whimsical. So this is the first public rooftop patio in the city of Lakewood. It's going to be huge regional draw. And things like the materiality, reusing the wood-- that's been done a ton before, and it's great, but we're trying to take these things one step further. We don't just want kind of a reclaimed wood wall that you've seen a hundred times before now. We're using new wood-charring techniques to try to really bring out the wood grain and make these materiality pieces really distinct.

So now, I'll take you through some of the imagery. And I'll take you through this pretty quickly. But if you can look at these images with those design tenants in mind, that's how we've been developing these spaces. So these are images that's a mixture of images which are inspiration for what these spaces, the ethos of these spaces will be at the end of the day, and some renderings, which are actually in the space that we have at the field house.

So you can see here the big mural walls, including public art. The transparency between the field house and the street. Really trying to open up these walls to make sure that it's very open and active spaces. All of the reclaimed materiality, keeping it very industrial. Bringing in some greenery where we can. So really try to brighten up these spaces while keeping them kind of gritty.

The kitchen area, which will be fully open to display the awesome wood-fired grills that Juan Vergara will be utilizing, as well as again, this wood and metal materiality aesthetic that we have throughout the building. And this is a rendering of the actual space that we have. Some of these design inspiration images that you can see coming to life with the wood grain bar that we have, which will be that charred wood technique. The lower ADA-accessible bar portion that is also mirrored on the other side. The reclaimed wood tables that will also have the charring technique. The kitchen, which is open through that glass.

And then some very unique opportunities for mural art on things other than the walls. So creating additional opportunities to create interest in the space. Just another angle of the bar. Some of the gaming area mural inspirations that we'll be doing. And then this is the inspiration imagery for the field house. So this is not going to be your standard high school gym. We're really creating a fun area, which will have things like glow in the dark volleyball nights and these ghosted advertisement imagery that we will put out in our call for artists.

And so really excited about these because we're going to be asking the community for fun, whimsical ideas to advertise things that are specific to the LGBTQ community. So wig glue, for instance, instead of Pepsi. So you'll see through this imagery just again active spaces that just are very varied in materiality. This is the courtyard space, which will be a space for theater events and DJ dance parties and volleyball. So just a ton of different uses going on there.

And then we really tried to make sure that every single space was really thought about in great detail. So even the bathrooms, we put a lot of time and effort into the way these look because there's nothing worse than going to a really cool restaurant and then going to a disgusting bathroom in that space. So we really wanted to make this just 100% part of the project and carry through the whimsy and character of the space into all of the materiality. So for instance, even something as mundane as a baby changing table, we're going to be putting fun mural on those. Same thing with a mundane trash can.

Then this is the upstairs community kitchen space. So this can, again, be rented out and provided for classes. We wanted to really make this space stand out in a space that people wanted to come and rent out and spend time in. And then the amazing, fun kind of concept we have for the rooftop space, which is a much more summery, light feeling, taking inspiration from Colombian tejo bars all the way to a little bit of Miami and Cuba.

Then you'll see more of the tejo itself, as well as string lights across the spaces, really trying to create an intimate atmosphere. More tejo inspiration imagery. And then finally, the cabanas that will be able to be rented out. Even, again, the rooftops of these cabanas will be each a separate artistic experience. And this is the field house looking to the East from the West. So I will now pass it over to Lady J.

DR. LADY J: Let me just unmute myself. Hello, everybody. Let me get my screen shared here. OK. Thank you, Betsy and Daniel, for that wonderful introduction of the project in the field house. As Daniel said, the hiring committee is going to be one of the most important parts of Studio West 117, and I am really excited about the entire set of people that we have to start off with. Our composition is always going to be inclusive, diverse, and representative of Cleveland and composed of proven LGBTQ community leaders.

So right now, everyone on the committee, Zoe, Arris, myself, Nick, Ryan, and Janet, who is a non-voting advisor to the committee, are all people who have worked in major ways with the LGBTQ Center here in Cleveland, who's one of our big partners. So there are people who really understand the depths of hiring at an inclusive level and representative level and trying to look past bias. Many of these people are people who train other people in anti-bias training.

So I think this is really going to be exciting. And I think it's really important that this committee, for the very first time, is an all-- is a majority Black hiring committee. Cleveland is a majority Black city, and it has always perplexed to me that it doesn't look and feel more like Atlanta, where you see Black management. You see Black leaders. You see Black business owners. You see Black people in positions of power.

And here in Cleveland, that's still a big problem. We were just voted the number 1 worst city in America for Black women to work. We have the highest murder rate for Black trans women in America. So we have some real big issues to work on. And we were voted the ninth most segregated-- or, we are the ninth most segregated city in the country. So we've got a lot of work to do to make sure that nightlife gets integrated.

And for a long time, that hasn't been the case. There have often been clubs that propose that they are a general LGBTQ club but, in fact, are majority white clubs with majority white owners, majority white producers, majority white performers. And then there have been Black clubs. And the resources given to each have been very different, obviously. So this is something I think it's really important that we address on a project this large, where we're going to have hundreds of jobs at stake.

So we are also making sure that we're accounting for the fact that people in our community, especially trans women of color, have been targeted often for sex work charges that often weren't even sex work charges. So we're going to be specifically taking people on a case-by-case basis about background checks and things like that and making sure that we get the people who need jobs in Cleveland in those jobs. And I think that's going to be really great.

And the thing about the hiring committee, too, is it's going to be an asset for all of our business tenants. So we have a trans thrift store that we're working with. We have a queer tailor that we're working with. All those places will be using our hiring committee to help them staff their businesses as well. They will ultimately have the final say, but they will have the ability to make use of the anti-bias level of training that has been put into these incredible leaders on this committee.

So this is going to be really, really important because, as Daniel said, we want to make sure that this inclusivity doesn't just look like we have black performers on the stage, or we have black representation on our board. It needs to look like people of color, people with disabilities, trans people, all of that, everyone who is traditionally being shut out of most jobs and not granted access, those are the people that we want to make sure we are reaching our hand out to and saying, this is a place for you to work. We want you. And that is very, very important to us.

Community engagement is also obviously a huge part of what we're doing. So a lot of what I've been doing as the outreach person is going out to the community to different organizations, whether it be the B. Riley Sober House, one of the country's only three LGBTQ sober houses that we're working with. Whether it be leaders from the LGBT Center. I've been a drag performer for 10 years, so I a lot of older drag performers, especially trans performers who, like myself, have been sort of a go-to space for people who are surviving to get assistance who may not go to something like the LGBT Center that may seem terrifying, or maybe like it's not for them, or maybe they don't understand it, or it's overwhelming.

So we're reaching out to those leaders who aren't just identified by a job but are identified by who they are in the community, what their role is, and asking them, who are the people that are falling through the cracks? And how do we reach them as we're addressing-- doling out resources and looking to support people in who we're booking and how we're hiring?

I've also been-- both Lauren and I have been engaging in this amorphous-- there's not an official name for it, but essentially, a queer leadership council of about 30 different leaders of different organizations that came together this year just after the George Floyd protests, all of us looking for a way to provide a framework of restorative justice for all of us to work together. Not just to share a calendar, not just to share each other's events, but to start really thinking coherently about how we function as a larger community, organization to organization.

So for instance, someone in nightlife, once we get these networks mapped out a little bit better, someone who is-- a drag performer is often someone who is doing survival work. And so if I know that there's someone who's not telling someone who has resources that they need assistance but I know it because I'm booking them in shows, I'm going to know where to send them. Whether it's if they need a housing question, and maybe I can refer them to the Center. If they need assistance with getting their name changed legally, there are services through the Legal Aid Office that I can send them to.

But basically, creating a network of resources through this community engagement that is meaningful and significant. And in addition to that-- so for all of the hiring process and as well as some larger community things like how do the police engage with our community that we're building, we're also working with the LGBT Center who have been doing these trainings to form our own trainings, all of those being informed by actual encounters with the police with our community that have happened that have gone negatively, saying, how could we address this differently? What are ways we can grow from these scenarios? And how can we learn to engage better as a community?

And we're doing that through the anti-bias training. We're doing that through community training. Anything we can do to make this community safer, especially for trans women of color who, as I said, our murder rate here is very high. So if we can get one person saved in some way by an access to a resource or a person that they can trust that they might not otherwise through this sphere of things that we're doing, I think that's going to be really significant.

And we also have these wonderful hiring partnerships for [? Latine ?] hiring, for diversity hiring with enlightened solutions, for disability hiring. I've been also speaking with someone about-- from the Center for Employment Opportunities about hiring people with a history of incarceration of some kind. What does that look like? What does training for them look like? What is the process of getting them from the day that they leave there to the day they get a higher look like? All those kind of things. So we're really trying to think very differently from your average organization when it comes to hiring and community engagement.

So now, we get to the fun part-- the programming. This is my favorite part, of course. And I'm really excited about the fact that this is going to be the first place here that's going to really offer truly inclusive and accessible nightlife in the long run. I didn't really understand the depths of this problem until one of my drag kids-- so this is an adult that I help with their business and also their life.

One of my drag kids, when I took him on a few years ago, he is someone who uses a chair most of the time and has a little bit of mobility. And he's a puppeteer. And when we first started booking him, even on a ground floor bar, that was the first time I had to think about, OK. We can't get him into the front door because there's a step down and step back up. We can't get him into the back door because even if we bring him in through the bar, he has a very wide chair. It doesn't make the clearance from behind the bar.

So the night that I discovered that problem the first time I booked Nate was really an awakening for me, and it's something I love that we are able to think about an address in this project. So there are places where there is inclusive audience space. There is almost no space where there is an inclusive stage space. And as Daniel was saying, that's something that's going to be really, really key.

And one of the things I'm really excited about, one of the festivals we've been speaking with, because we're going to be able to host festivals in these huge spaces, is the DisabiliTease Festival, which is on screen, with the feature headliner, Little Peaches. DisabiliTease is a burlesque festival, which is all performers who have disabilities. And there are several drag troupes like this that I'm interested in bringing as well. There's a group of performers who all have Down syndrome. There's another one called Deafies in Drag, who are all deaf drag performers.

I think these are some incredible things where we can really bring in that sense of inclusivity. Not to say, we're going to do this once a year, and it's going to be the Disability Night, but to say, you are a part of this. You are a part of this from day 1. You have been thought of from day 1. That is one of the things that I think is really magical and special about this project. And so I don't waste my time, I'm going to have to go a little faster.

But multidisciplinary programming, we're going to have six different venues, and what we want to do is make them speak to one another so that the events at each one would be something where it would make sense for you to go from event to event. That doesn't mean they're all the same. It's just, we want to find ways that we can complement them each other. And we're going to be able to do that through providing-- we're going to be doing everything from drag shows to burlesque shows to live music. DJs, festivals.

And on top of that, with the restaurant in the alleyway between the two buildings, we'll be able to bridge those two places so you can go start a brunch on a Sunday morning, go to a queer flea market in the alleyway that leads to a show that then maybe leads to a poetry reading that then maybe leads to the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. And you have these business spaces that we're going to have as well.

So everything just fits together in this really magical way where you could really-- in envisioning a whole new neighborhood, we're also envisioning an initial space in that neighborhood where you can spend a whole day. And then it's just expanding that all down the street in a number of different ways.

And the other thing I love is we're going to be able to do incubation of venues. Or incubation of shows. So in order to support performers getting their career from I'm doing a $50 gig here, a $50 gig here, to I can go out and produce a show and make a grand off of it, what we can do is start them in one of our small venues like the chamber or the eight ball lounge, as you're seeing up on the venue sheet now.

And when you start in one of those small spaces, you might only need to sell 30 tickets, 50 tickets. And then we can move you when, you've outgrown that space, when your show is getting too big, instead of having to worry, will my crowd follow me when I moved to this bigger venue three miles down the road, you can say, you don't have to go anywhere. The show is going to go upstairs to the fantasy dance club, or it's going to go to the red leather lounge, or it's-- eventually, what we want to work up to is being able to usher shows, then incubate them from a small crowd to being able to fit the Fantasy Theater, which is our crown jewel, 1,000-seat theater.

And so once you are able to do a fantasy theater show and produce at that level, you're going to be able to launch that show on a national level. You're going to be able to tour with that show. Because at that point, you are able to not just amass an audience but, you have a true following if you can fill 1,000 seats. You have something special that people want.

And that's the magic thing is being able to take careers-- and drag is just one of them. We can do this with bands. We can do this with the DJs. All that. But to be able to incubate these shows in a single space where you keep growing the show, and you don't have to lose the audience as you translate the space, transform from space and space I think is going to be incredibly significant.

So the venues that we have to go over, and I'm just going to show you a quick image board of these after this, but the first one is the chamber, which is the got spot. There is the image board for what it is now. The chamber is the-- has always been the goth venue. There has been drag and goth shows here for a long time.

So we're keeping the goth theme and just upping it times 10. So this is going to be kind of-- imagine a Trueblood vampire bar in the Louisiana bayou or something from Interview with A Vampire, and that's kind of what we're looking at here. So candles, and Gothic crosses, and the whole nine yards.

Outside of that, we're going to have a huge patio that's going to be also this kind of Louisiana bayou vampire field with the wrought iron accessories. And the checkerboard that you're seeing there is actually an extension-- and this is another thing I love-- of the real, faded checkerboard dance floor that is inside the club. So that checkerboard dance floor will stay. And then this will continue out, that distressed theme, onto the patio, which I love.

The Red Leather Lounge. This is going to be the kink and leather space. This is the old-- the Phantasy Theater was originally a silent movie house in 1915. And it is going to be-- this was the old hallway leading into it. The Phantasy Theater is the crown jewel-- oh. Sorry, I forgot I laid these out a little differently.

The dive bar is going to be the Eight Ball Lounge. So that is in honor of, there was-- oh, we don't have time to tell the story. I'm going to skip it. So the Eight Ball Lounge is honoring an incredible group of Black lesbians who raised money for charity in the '80s that are lending us the title to honor them. I'll leave it at that.

The upstairs is going to be the deep sea bioluminescent-- this is the EDM, festival kind of space. And then the Phantasy Theater, which is, again, the 1,000-seat theater. The big mama of the whole piece. This is we'll have the stadium Virginia shows. We have Virginia West come up. All of that.

And yeah, so we're going to have-- we're also going to be really helping the ballroom scene in Cleveland, which has been on a downturn for a long time, helping give them the space and the resources to get back up and running so we can get the balls from running in the basement church to running in that fancy theater. Same thing. We're going to have pageants and all of that.

Last thing is education is a huge part of this. We're working on an international drag residency program where we're bringing artists from around the world. I work with an international drag festival, so we have a lot of great connections for that. We're also working on a drag college curriculum in order to create a pathway for performers to learn in a couple of years what they would in probably 5 to 10 and then a lot of things that you'd never learn.

We're going to have a dance studio where private instructors can rent space, but it is owned by a business tenant that's going to be an all ages dance space. We're also going to have the podcast and broadcast studio, which, again, will be another low barrier entry way to get money in the pockets of folks, and again, something that we want to make accessible to all levels of experience with technology. So I'm going to just wrap up there and let Lauren take over because I know we're running low on time.

LAUREN TATUM: Sure. If you can hand it back. I believe, Daniel, if you can bring the presentation back up. Perfect. So hello, all. Again, my name is Lauren. I am the president of the West 117 Foundation. So I think if Daniel, Betsy, and Lady J have established anything, it's that the overarching theme of this entire project is community. We've really looked at what the community wants, what it needs.

And we want to take a holistic approach to providing as much as we can to the community and for the community. We've asked everyone to provide us feedback. When we hear something we can change, when we hear something we can do better, or just an idea that really excites us, we're able to take a step back and figure out how we can integrate it into the project. And when you do a lot of that outreach, you hear and you get a lot of excitement. You get a lot of people who want to give what they can back to the project.

And the foundation is one way we work in tandem with Studio West to be able to provide that, to take those philanthropic resources that people want so desperately to give to the community, and we're able to take that and transform it into a part of this project. So my first slide, I put up the vision and the mission statement. I like to zoom in or focus on the vision statement because I really feel that it speaks to exactly what the foundation wants to do, which is the West 17 Foundation will generate philanthropic resources to support entrepreneurship, arts, culture, health, and human services to create a hub for Cleveland's LGBTQ+ ecosystem in collaboration with Studio West.

We chose every one of those words very, very carefully because it really speaks to the entire project. And I think if we've heard anything tonight so far, you'll agree that we really touch on things from entrepreneurship-- how do we actually impact local entrepreneurs? How do we help them succeed? How do we help people who have never really had the opportunity to own a business or to grow their business? How do we help with that?

How do we expand the rich arts and culture, community-- and we have so much of that in Cleveland, especially in the LGBTQ+ community. And a lot of times, we don't have one central kind of place to hone all of that talent and we really get to be that one central resource. Health and Human Services. Again, this entire project, there's a space kind of for each one of these factors to plug into. And again, with the foundation, by being able to generate philanthropic resources, we're able to spread that around where it needs to go.

I think Betsy in the very beginning of the presentation made a really good point that this is something that would take a lot of organizations over a decade to complete, but by kind of looking at this full project in the scope of both philanthropic resources and the commercial side of things, we're able to accomplish things, again, that it would take people years or a decade to actually accomplish.

If we move on to the next slide-- perfect, thank you. So these are just a few of the things that I think [INAUDIBLE] the foundation we're able to do. And again, each one of these things Betsy, Daniel, Lady J have already touched on, so they're going to sound familiar. But for example, with rental space subsidies-- now, this could be anything from the retail spaces to the rental spaces for the apartments.

So for example, we have Suitelime Alteration, who is well-known, local queer tailor who is looking to expand her business. Right now, she has a huge clientele of people who go to her who specifically are looking for a tailor that will look at their individual body outside of orientation or gender and fit them with clothing that works for them.

Now, she might not be able, let's say, to afford expansion right away, but she already has people who are going to her and in-demand service that she provides. That's where the foundation is able to step in and say, OK. Well, you can afford x amount of rent for the space that you currently are able to afford. We can step in and help you expand. We can provide a subsidy that will allow you to expand so that you can grow your business in a way that you would not have otherwise.

And again, the same goes for the rental spaces with the apartments. So as people move out of the spaces, let's say we're-- if somebody reaches out to us in the LGBT+ community who needs a safe home. They're only able to afford x amount in rent. We need more to be able to cover the mortgage of that space. Again, the foundation is able to step in with a subsidy that will enable them to have a safe home in a safe space in the community that we're building so they'll also have access to all of these resources that are just down the street from them, or maybe they'll be able to now get a job at one of these locations. It just opens up an entire world for them in a safe space that they might not have otherwise had access to.

Another thing is the apprenticeship programs. So we've also touched on the retailers, the restaurant, the kitchen that we have. And I'm going to go in in a little bit into the makerspace that we're looking to develop. These spaces all allow for people to develop-- to basically develop an education workforce development that, again, they might not otherwise have had access to. So by being able to offer these apprenticeship programs-- for example, with Suiteline, she's currently looking to take on an apprentice that now will be able not just to learn tailoring but a very specific sector of tailoring that, again, isn't done, and isn't very well-- people don't have access to this specific type of tailoring.

By her now being able to teach people and to make this type of tailoring more accessible, this allows the community to actually have access to this. And this is to spread the goal outside of just this local space. This could be something that goes outside of Cleveland. Maybe we can actually have this service available in other cities, other states, just by offering it here and allowing it to be a model for something that just doesn't exist yet.

Donation of equipment and the community makerspace. Again, these are examples of we have a lot of people in the city that are looking to either provide resources, provide equipment. So for example, with the makerspace, we're looking to have woodworking. We're looking to have soldering. We're looking to have metalsmithing. We're looking to have a lot of different machines that, again, aren't necessarily available at your local library and also enable workforce development.

We'll be able to have classes where people can come in and learn a skill that doesn't take them having to go to a trade school or to actually find someone that they have to pay to learn the skill from. They can come to the makerspace by paying just an overall fee for the entire space and learn multiple skills, again, that they might not have access to.

And the next one is our donor wall. And this is kind of where I wear two hats. So as Robin mentioned, I am a mixed media artist by trade. And so when we first came into the space, we were gifted about 100,000 just glass blocks in pallets. And they are just sitting there for the taking, and we didn't really know what to do.

Now, going on our tenant of sustainability, we really wanted to find a use for them. And that's when we are all looking at this thinking, well, how could we make this into our donor wall? We don't want it to just be an average, boring wall with names on a wall. That's fine, that's fine. That's very corporate. But how can we make this more Studio West?

now, One project I did that was a lot of fun last year for Cirque Du Soleil they created a device that could be worn on stage. And from the lighting booth, they could change it on their phone via Bluetooth to change the lights of the object on stage. We wanted to take that type of interactive, fun experience, and we're like, well, how can we do this with glass blocks? How can we make this sustainable?

So that was our original inspiration for the donor wall. And Daniel, if you can switch to the next slide, you can see where we took this. Now, the glass blocks would have been amazing, and we will still find a way to use that. But we ran into a lot of problems on how we would wire it, how we would power it. More importantly, how users on their end would be able to interact with it because that's one thing we really, really wanted. We really want each community member who donates and therefore has their name on the donor wall to be able to interact with it in some way. To feel a part of the entire wall that they've helped build.

So with the interactive donor wall, we actually decided to go with a smart light technology where it's a touch-enabled experience. So a person will actually be able to walk up to the wall and touch it. They'll be able to take their palm, run it against it. They'll be able to see the lights, touch the lights. And we're also working with the app to be able for them to find their block. We're going to essentially change the blocks to act as a typical donor wall so their name will be on it, whether that is etched or imprinted in some way on that block. And they should be able to step back, and if their friends say, hey, I'm on that wall, they'll be able to actually pull it up, tap the button, and see their specific tile light up.

So this is very similar to a light display you might have in your home. It has a million colors. It's going to be a lot of fun. And then this kind of goes into my next project, which is the call for artists. So Daniel did an amazing job showing you all of the inspiration that we've gathered for the entire field house. This is going to touch specifically on the different mural spaces that we have available for artists from the community to come in and actually contribute to what the space is going to look like.

So this-- I wanted to keep it kind of simple. You guys have seen how large and crazy the space is, so I just wanted to touch on the first floor that the field has. We call this planner ABCs of the call for artists because I think there are over 26 individual spaces that muralists will have an opportunity to come in and transform in some way.

This is just the first floor we see here. So we see where the restaurant area is. You see the three yellow areas are areas that we've kind of designated for Juan Vergara, who is running the restaurant. He's really well known in Cleveland for his really unique art that he puts in his restaurant. So by kind of carving this space out for him, people who walk in will still get that feeling of, I know this-- I know this restaurant. I know this vibe, I know this feeling, in an immersive space that still feels very much like the field house. So the goal is to take all of these spaces, keep them completely unique, and get as many LGBTQ+ artists involved while still having a very unique Studio West feel to that. So that's the goal for the call to artists.

On the next slide, we're going to touch just on-- and Daniel touched on this, too so we see here the advertisements that we're looking at doing. We want to keep them very campy, very fun, very in the spirit of what Studio West is about. With this particular imagery and inspiration, we have the ghosted mural, which is a lot of fun because it speaks very much to kind of old Cleveland. You still see some of these driving around downtown. And I think just having that cool, campy experience will provide that bit of nostalgia with the current vibe on trend kind of Studio West feel that we're going for.

On the next slide, this is personally one of my favorite areas, which is going to be the open courthouse area. But you can see the different ways that we can go-- I'm very inspired by this particular inspiration slide because on the left, we see we can go very ghosted mural, where everything looks kind of vintage, and aged, and kind of go along with the ruins and the industrial vibe that the space already has. Whereas on the right, we can also do very poppy and colorful and almost graffiti-style pop art. And these things can meld together, which is, I think, what Studio West all about. It's about taking the old, industrial Cleveland vibe of things, but giving this fresh, new life that feels alive and vibrant and fun.

And then on my last slide, this one, again, is super important. Daniel touched on the tejo experience in the Colombian restaurant. We really want to bring in Colombian artists. This is a space where we want to keep very true to the tejo and restaurant experience we're trying to build, but we also want it to, again, be very cohesive with the other spaces as far as the art, the color scheme, and also just the feeling.

So you don't want to walk from, let's say, downstairs to the tejo court and have a jarring disconnect. So our color scheme here is really important. It's going to be a way that we can kind of tie-in the two spaces but still keep the cultural relevancy very on point and very prominent in a space that really needs to speak to that.

So these are just three areas. But as you can imagine, it's going to be a lot of fun and a really big experience to kind of tie all of those things together. But it gives you a really beautiful overview of everything Studio West is about and everything that I hope to bring as the president of the foundation to the overall project.

ROBYN DETERDING: When do you guys sleep?

LAUREN TATUM: Never. [LAUGHTER]

DR. LADY J: We do not.

ROBYN DETERDING: Your minds have to just be going all the time. This is--

LAUREN TATUM: Yeah, we text each other at 3:00 AM.

ROBYN DETERDING: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. This is mind blowing. It's amazing. And your thoroughness is unbelievable. Yes. So I'm so-- I was so excited to see this. I'm even more excited to come visit.

LAUREN TATUM: Yeah. We welcome you. We welcome you. That's going to be the best part, I think, about this. I keep dreaming about the time that we're a year or two out from this, and we're sitting down on this beautiful patio and just looking at the stars and thinking, we did it.

ROBYN DETERDING: Yeah. We did this.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

Yeah. It's amazing The holisticness of it is unbelievable.

LAUREN TATUM: Yeah.

ROBYN DETERDING: So Mike will have to put it on his trip-- his--

PRESENTER: Absolutely.

ROBYN DETERDING: Yeah. [LAUGHING] So we do have a couple of questions. And I know Betsy answered, but I'm not sure everybody gets the response. So the one question was, are you already actively engaged with the State Historic Preservation Office in Ohio to be sure you can maximize grants and tax credits if applicable?

DANIEL BUDISH: Yeah. So--

BETSY FIGGIE: Right. So there are-- Daniel, go ahead and take this from a more global perspective.

DANIEL BUDISH: Oh, yeah. So I mean, the tax credit side is something that Betsy and I, that's how we started working together because her expertise is really on working in low-income communities to provide a subsidy which focuses on the new markets tax credit, as well as all the other subsidies that we can provide for community-based projects from the city, from the county, from other non-profit organizations. And really, the skill is structuring all of these pieces together so we can create a sustainable project that then we can make each of these pieces as affordable as possible to the tenants and to people patronizing these spaces.

And so the work of the tax credits starts from day 1. I work with the state of Ohio on projects, including Studio West, but also other projects around the state from a historic taxpayer perspective through my consulting company, as well as projects across the country. So the state is very well aware of what we're doing with Fantasy. We have a historic consultant working on the architectural side of things. So she's the one doing the work to

get the building on the National Register. And then from an economic perspective, we take that to the state of Ohio and do the historic tax credit application, which is a competitive process to get the state of Ohio credits and then layer them in with the federal historic tax credits, which are automatic. As long as you do the renovation properly to the National Park Service Historic Standards, you can get those credits. So it's just a balancing act of all of these different financing pieces to put together into one capital stack.

ROBYN DETERDING: OK. And so another question was, you're in Lakewood and Cleveland. Is that-- so do you have to work with two different city--

BETSY FIGGIE: Oh, Yeah.

ROBYN DETERDING: OK, yeah.

BETSY FIGGIE: We do. It was funny because when we first started acquiring property, it was on the Lakewood side. And we sat down with the Ford Councilman from Cleveland, and he was like, OK, you guys need to, like, bring it over here and do more on the Cleveland side. And we were like, hey, we're like Switzerland. We're an equal opportunity developer. But it's been really-- it's just been a great experience to be able to do things that crosses this artificial boundary. To say, hey, you know what? We're going to have feet on both sides of the equation. And it's been welcome on both sides.

ROBYN DETERDING: That's good. That's really nice you have that support.

DANIEL BUDISH: But it does [INAUDIBLE] the number of times we have to go between the four cities and talking to two sets of council people and two sets of city offices. And so it definitely adds to the complexity.

ROBYN DETERDING: Yeah. So another question was security concerns being planned into the facilities via building and staffing. Cameras, that type of thing.

BETSY FIGGIE: So there's the normal security in terms of cameras and motion detectors and things like that, but we are also focusing on personal safety. So Lady J had mentioned the sensitivity training that we're creating in partnership with the LGBT Center to help educate the police force on what it means to de-escalate the situation or to enact to roleplay a situation that has happened in the past where maybe people have been misunderstood. And so we want to be very upfront with our security partners to make this a very, very welcoming place.

ROBYN DETERDING: Right.

BETSY FIGGIE: I mean, that's really priority one with us is people feeling safe and that they belong here, too.

DR. LADY J: I would also add to that that part of what I want to do once we actually have the venues up and running as part of this whole thing of kind of training the elder drag performers and stuff is to have those people available as a, if they're in the room, to intervene first. To be the person to say, you know, this old queen knows all these young queens. Somebody is popping off because somebody thinks somebody stole somebody's wig.

Let's not have this get out of hand and become a brawl that runs out on the street or bleeds into another club. Can we jump in and settle this in a reasonable way with somebody who knows what's going on? That's part of what I want to do is develop some kind of an unofficial or official system with the older performers and stuff that are coming through who have been through this all before and are a little bit more grounded to kind of help also with that.

ROBYN DETERDING: Right. Right. So another one was, you mentioned your chef. They're wondering if there are any particularities of foods or meals for LGBTQ. Or, like, I wondered, you know, you talked about Columbia a lot. How did you-- how did you get to where you want at Columbia? I mean, how did that get chosen? So food particularities, and then the Colombian piece.

DANIEL BUDISH: So a lot of this project is in this creative group that you see before you, kind of bringing every single amazing idea that we've ever had into a project-- like, one single project. And it's just super fun to be able to bring those ideas to life. My best friend from graduate school is Colombian. She lives in Bogota, and I visited her multiple times in another life before I started my business.

I thought about starting a tejo bar because it's the most underappreciated sport in the world, in my opinion. It's incredibly fun. So when we realized that we have this basically recreation complex, that we could really make it more of like a comprehensive, fun sports bar meets Colombian tejo bar meets other kind of-- like, Jenga and other kind of table games. And so you could really then just have a very fun experience. And then everything in this project has just been kind of like kismet.

So having this idea for a tejo bar. Well, it just so happens that one of the best restaurateurs in the city of Cleveland is Colombian and has this set of very successful restaurants. Even during the pandemic, he's been expanding. We approached him about the project. He was the first restaurateur that we approached about the project. And he's like, I love everything about this.

And my family member that's LGBT, and I want to do this for him. And I so it's just-- he also has his chef that he's promoting to be the head chef. She's queer and Latina. And then he has this general manager he's wanted to promote for a long time who's gay and Latino. So it was just a really incredible kind of fusion of concepts. And that's just for the field house. And we didn't really focus on all of the other things we have going on.

ROBYN DETERDING: That's true.

DANIEL BUDISH: [INAUDIBLE] the Phantasy, there will be other food venues available there eventually. And so we have [? Arris, ?] [INAUDIBLE] who is on the Lady J's hiring committee. And we had started talking to [? Arris ?] about things relating to the hiring committee because she's a huge asset in the community of a visionary and a leader. And it just so happens that she's always wanted to start a restaurant, and she has amazing food.

And so we're putting her restaurant, a new restaurant where she's going to be able to start her own business doing this. So really excited to be able to present her with that opportunity, and we'll be able to provide a small space for her to basically get that off the ground. So there's a lot of other things, but it's not a specific food that's like a queer food, but it's more giving LGBT business owners and employees the chance to have gainful employment and start their businesses and expand what they're doing here and showcase their skills.

DR. LADY J: And the funny thing about the bringing [? Arris ?] on was half of that just came from the fact that I had friended her from becoming part of the hiring committee. And I kept, every Sunday, I was like, girl, the food you make looks like-- I would pay $60 a plate for that, and I'm a cheapskate. I was like, it just looks so good. And then when she brought it in for us to try, it was like-- like you said, it's kismet. Because when I called her about it, the first thing she said was like, that is ridiculous. She was like, I was just saying the other day everybody in my family is always like, you should start a restaurant. You should start a restaurant. I just didn't have the capital to start a fully formed restaurant.

But doing the small bites thing was like just the right end for her. That's what I love about this project is it's, like you said, kismet. Like, everything just magically seems to line up just right.

BETSY FIGGIE: You know, and Robin, food is like the great aggregator. And so when we think about community and food being very important to break bread together, to physically spend the time turning off the electronics and just sharing each other's company I think is so important, and we lose that. And it's the food. It's the new experiences that bring people together to make those memories and to just develop this camaraderie between groups.

Now, you know, this is a project designed by and for the LGBT community that is tolerant of straight people coming in, but we want to open it up so that everybody can experience this and just feel the warmth and the love and the community. And you know food is a great convener for that, too.

ROBYN DETERDING: Right.

PRESENTER: Let me ask a question. So we've been watching, the nation has been watching kind of the politics of the state of Ohio at interest rate for the last nine months. And you mentioned yourself in the presentation that you thought that Cleveland should look more like Atlanta than it does. What you guys have put together involves some-- I mean, it's complicated and involves so many different people and approvals and government officials and stuff. How do you line, that how does that line-- as you're talking, I'm thinking, how are they getting this done?

BETSY FIGGIE: Yeah. Michael, it's really about communication. I know that sounds cliche, but getting in front of people to have them share their opinions early so that people feel that they're being heard. Working through the city process of the mayor's office, and city council, and county council, and the building and housing, and the fire department, the police department, the zoning board, the architectural review board. And then, oh, yeah, there's a homeowners association down the street.

I mean, it's just-- it's overwhelming. And I think Daniel and I have done 300 tours this week, different groups and different individuals, just so that we can hear their thoughts. And I tell you, Michael, every time we do a tour, there's one little nugget of information maybe that we hadn't thought of before we we're like, that's a great idea. You know, we should do that.

And so I think people are seeing their ideas reflected back to them and we're being respectful of the process. Daniel worked at one point for the city of Cleveland, so he knows what it's like when people come in perhaps with a sense of entitlement asking for the sun, and the moon, and the stars. But if you treat people with respect and deference and bring them into the fold early enough into the process and kind of lay out your vision and how people can help, I think that generates a lot of loyalty.

DANIEL BUDISH: And we chose this location very carefully. I mean, we came to a few people with this concept, and everybody kind of had a different-- they wanted it here, they wanted it there. This was the perfect confluence of buildings that were kind of available in a grouping. Kind of the last area of the city of Lakewood, which is an inner ring suburb of Cleveland, that hadn't really been renovated yet.

It is not surrounded by a lot of residential, so we were able to get this rooftop patio approved. That was a big thing with the city of Lakewood. The first rooftop patio. It's a pretty conservative community from that perspective. But one of the big kind of assets to this location is that our city councilman here in Lakewood is also the city council president. He's also LGBT, and out in the open, and has been an incredible asset for fighting for this project.

Our state senator for the state of Ohio here is Nikki Antonio. She's a very well known across the state for-- she's LGBT, and fights every day for LGBT rights. And so while we're in Ohio, we are actually in a sea of blue here. We're in a community that prides itself on being the most high concentration of LGBTQ people, at least at one point, in the entire state of Ohio. So this is a very welcoming community.

And everybody who we've been working with on the city level and the county level, they-- we're all rowing in the same direction. They all recognize how amazing an asset this will be for community building for revitalizing these old, vacant, historic buildings. So it's actually been very easy to get everybody on board that we need to get on board, at least.

BETSY FIGGIE: Robin, I think it's worth repeating, too, that each of these elements is financed independently. So when we go to talk to different city or county leaders or other nonprofits or just folks in the community, Daniel and I know what we're talking about. We know how to put projects together so that they come in on time, on budget, and on mission, and that they're sustainable for the long term.

So It's not a situation where we're just a team of altruistic people trying to make our own little dent in the universe, but we're doing this-- the underlying ideals of finance and bringing in subsidies and knowing how to do this, which translate to affordability for the operators and for the tenants and for the clientele, means that there's a strong business case that is underpinning all of the fun and the excitement and the ability to harness-- there's a lot of buying power within the LGBT community as well. Lots of same sex couples with two incomes and no children. There's I think a lot of pent-up demand for entertainment. And post-COVID, people just need to get out. And they need something positive to look forward to.

But there's really a business case under this, and there are very strong economics supporting it. So it's not just all fun and games and philanthropy, but it's really understanding how to put together a project that's going to be around for the long term that isn't related-- that isn't dependent on other elements of the project, too. So it's not that house of cards that I had mentioned earlier.

ROBYN DETERDING: Right. So you're able to go in and sell it depending on who the stakeholder is that you're talking to. And that's a really important piece.

PRESENTER: Let me ask-- I have another question. And I know we're running long. Cleveland is like Pittsburgh and Buffalo. You have these towns that were the Rust Belt. And who in the '80s and and early '90s and whatnot were kind of rough in those communities. And the economy has changed. And those towns, a lot of them have been-- Cleveland, there's so much with sports, and rock and roll, and there's all types of things that have really kind of-- that community has been rebuilt, much has been in Pittsburgh and much has been in Buffalo in that area. What do you think the impact is going to be on the community of what you guys are doing in 20 years?

DANIEL BUDISH: I mean, I think that this is-- I worked for the city of Cleveland. Saw the impact that politics and kind of municipalities and-- the impacts they could have on development and economic development, community development. And they serve a very important purpose. But really, I wanted to go into development and wanted to do this project in particular because really, I mean, you can make such more of an impact on a place by actually being the owner and being able to craft the project to have the most people impacted by it.

And so the way we've built this project is just to have the highest impact on the highest number of people. It is an economic development play, a community development play. I think that what we're doing here is going to help Cleveland reverse the brain drain that we've seen, reverse the drain of the LGBT community going to other cities like Columbus, Chicago. Everybody with stronger LGBT neighborhoods that can support entertainment and LGBT businesses.

People in the community want to be able to experience these offerings that you can only get right now in cities like New York, but not without the New York City prices. We are going to be bringing avant garde entertainment, avant garde art, really a whole community experience, to Cleveland. This is going to be a national draw between the programming that Lady J is bringing in.

I mean, this is going to be an international draw. We have a very large component of the project that we didn't even talk about, but it's a health and human services component of the project that is going to be a national or international draw for people to come and get front-line, top-notch health services for the LGBTQ community that you really can't get anywhere else. So I think that this is going to be-- I mean, the studies in terms of urban planning make it clear that the arts communities and the LGBT communities across the country are a huge indicator of the desirability of a city wanting to live in a place. And we don't have that in Cleveland right now to the extent we should. And that is what we're trying to bring to Cleveland.

BETSY FIGGIE: And Robin, we didn't even touch on gentrification. But Michael's point earlier about, what is this going to look like 20 years from now? Well, Daniel and I are still going to be the owners 20 years from now. We're not going to sell out. We're not doing this to build it to flip it.

We want to be able to manage the brand. We want to be able to manage the safety. We want to be able to manage the accessibility, the uniqueness for the LGBT community. And we're in it for the long haul. We don't want to build something and, in three years, have the LGBT community not be able to afford to live here. We're doing this for the long term. So hopefully, in 20 years, we can have another conversation like this to say, we're still in it. And how have we been able to preserve that and to allow some individuals and families to grow and prosper by this?

ROBYN DETERDING: Well, and to adjust. I mean, in our field, we tell our students we have to be like chameleons, and we have to adjust constantly. And this community will be the same because our world changes overnight.

BETSY FIGGIE: Right. But by partnering with the foundation, we can keep that affordability component in there, too. We want students. We want seniors. We want whomever to come here and to not be priced out of it. We could rent these apartments to millennials all day long. But by renting it to young transgender woman who's a person of color that maybe needs a couple a month in rent subsidy, then it becomes interesting. Right? And then you help her find a job, and you help-- it just it all kind of feeds off of itself.

ROBYN DETERDING: Right.

DR. LADY J: I just wanted to add, for me, the very human aspect of what this looks like 20 years down the line is one of the things that really-- is one of the things that keeps me-- when you say the thing about how we're not sleeping and we're exhausted, the light at the end of the tunnel that I keep running towards is, for my entire 10 years in drag-- I'm a trans woman. My partner's a trans man. We've been together for 10 years. And over the years, we've had a number of kids who have ended up living with us for a month, three months, six months, because there's nowhere to go. Or I'm physically removing them from a physically abusive household.

What I see is people having options. People being able to get a job. A job. A real job. Something where they don't have to put on a fake suit and hope they can pass enough while they're at work for long enough to kind of get by to maybe make that giant eagle job works maybe they can make $13 an hour instead of $11. It's like, trying to get somewhere being trans is so often really difficult, especially because most people when they're thinking about trans people, they're thinking about trans people who pass. They're not thinking about people who to the average person are going to be perceived as a cross dresser in some way.

You know, those realities are the kind of thing that hit a 19-year-old who's starting their transition starkly in the face when they go to a job interview and they're immediately met with a look of disgust. We are going to be able to be providing a barrier for that and a safe place to work. A place where not only are you going to be able to get a job, but you're going to work around other trans people. You're going to have other co-workers who understand what your life is, what your life looks like.

You won't be the weird one or whatever at work who's the freak that everybody is like, let's ask you all the questions we've never asked a trans person before.

ROBYN DETERDING: That's right. [LAUGHING] Because you're the expert.

DR. LADY J: All of those things are what I see as the ultimate impact, especially with the work that Lauren and the foundation are doing, that are going to save lives. If we get an LGBTQ Youth Center down the line, that to me is like, the day that's done-- if I die the next day, I can die happy because that that's the thing that, like, so many of us in the world of queer activism are working towards with not even a vague idea of how to begin to make something happen.

ROBYN DETERDING: Right. So you're giving hope.

DR. LADY J: Yeah.

ROBYN DETERDING: And that's what-- I thank you all for the work you're doing for, proactively thinking of all the details and developing this and building such a holistic community. And this has been fabulous. I have been waiting for this since I talked to you in September. So I want to thank you all.

And I think there's a connection U of I will have with you. And we will be so excited to see more of what you're doing. And I want to thank you all for sharing tonight. So Mike, do you have anything else you want to--

PRESENTER: No, it was outstanding. It's such an impressive plan. And thank you for your commitment to your community. It's a very inspiring talk. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. So thank you for being with us tonight.

ROBYN DETERDING: Yep.

BETSY FIGGIE: Our pleasure.

ROBYN DETERDING: OK. Good night, everybody.

LAUREN TATUM: Thanks, everyone.

PRESENTER: Thank you.

LAUREN TATUM: Good night, thank you.

[? DR. LADY J: ?] Good night.

BETSY FIGGIE: Thank you.

DANIEL BUDISH: Thank you.