Wow, What a Thesis Idea! It's Worth $132 Million!

UC’s Matt Lones, 30, will soon graduate with his master’s in architecture from the University of Cincinnati's prestigious College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.  But for now, he’s the typical graduate student in that he’s over busy wrapping up classes, projects and his master’s thesis.  On the other hand, he’s entirely atypical in that the redevelopment ideas that sparked his thesis will soon be made real as part of a multi-million dollar deal Matt helped pull together.

When he began his career as a graduate student two years ago, Matt couldn’t help but have ambitious designs for an abandoned, 42-acre industrial site that he’d initially chosen as the subject of his thesis.  He’d first picked a Sandusky waterfront property near to where his wife’s family vacationed for his theoretical study on redevelopment.  But there was potential for so much more at this site where Sandusky Bay (on Lake Erie) overlooks Cedar Point, and Matt’s enthusiasm began building.  He wanted to do more than “just academic” designs.

Matt recalls standing amidst the derelict buildings along the lake shore one day.  With him was UC College of Business alumnus Mike Will, economic development specialist for the City of Sandusky, Ohio.  Mike Will was giving Matt a tour.

Recalls Matt, “Mike said they were selling one of the buildings, the Chesapeake Building of 235,000 square feet, for $1.  I handed him a $5 and said, ‘Here’s $5.’  I said, ‘I can do it.’  He said, ‘You need to have the funds to redevelop it too.’  That slowed me down.  I knew I could do a development plan.  It was going to be part of my thesis.  The funding was another matter.” 

But not for long.  Matt, who had worked as an intern-architect in Columbus, Ohio, for four years before heading to UC’s prestigious architecture program, couldn’t help but have ambitious designs for the Sandusky waterfront property.  He talked to anyone he could about his dreams for redeveloping the site.  One day, Matt happened to be chatting at a family wedding about his proposals.  A local businessman was listening offered to introduce Matt to a former Sandusky mayor who might have some contacts.

“So, began my professional contacts for the project,” says Matt, a resident of Worthington, Ohio, near Columbus.  “The former mayor put me in touch with city officials…They’d had difficulty in developing the site for years.  Sometimes it was conflict over the vision for the site.  Sometimes, it was money.”

Another acquaintance introduced Matt to S. Robert Davis, co-founder of Wendy’s and a businessman with a long string of multi-million dollar developments under his belt.  After their meeting, Davis told Matt to arrange a meeting with the city in connection with the venture.  Matt did so, and Matt’s master’s thesis design proposals then began to move from theoretical pipedream to a very solid construction.  In fact, the project has been praised on the front pages of the local daily, “The Sandusky Register,” for reinvigorating “the community’s dream for downtown development.” 

Matt had started his research and designs in August 2002.  He and Sandusky officials met with Davis that fall.  Through his development corporation, Davis then agreed to fund the $132 million project – the Bayfront Urban Revitalization Plan – which had started as Matt’s pre-thesis project and has since been refined by an architectural firm.  Construction will actually begin on the project later this month, just in time for Matt's graduation.     

The series of derelict buildings and docks will be transformed into:

• 350 condominiums with views of the Cedar Point roller coasters and fireworks;

• retail, professional and medical services, restaurants, convenience stores, a theater and fueling stations – a one-stop center for those on land or boaters out on the lake;

• a 360-boat marina for the many Ohio residents from other cities who keep boats on the lake;

• a pier with a boat launch for transportation to and from Cedar Point;

• a boardwalk that wends through the entire development, inviting the entire city to explore the site
   

Matt has found that the whole process, especially the business side, had its challenges and rewards.  But one thing he’s grateful for is the fact that his partners in the City of Sandusky and entrepreneur Davis never looked down at him as “just a student.”  Recalls Matt, “Bob Davis never looked down on me.  We’ve visited lots of sites [in researching current water parks, marinas and developments], and he always asks me, ‘What can we do with this space?’  No one in Sandusky ever acted like I was too young.  They gave me respect.  Mike Will said he always listens because he never knows someone’s background.  He said that if he’d looked at me differently, this project might never have happened.”

Sandusky’s Mike Will first toured the waterfront site with Matt to help the ambitious architecture student with his thesis.  Will says he’s taken a lot of people through the site.  “When touring, you often get a sense if someone’s ideas will go anywhere or not, or if they’re biting off more than they can chew.  Really, in this case, I didn’t expect too much, and part of me wondered about taking the two hours to do the tour.  But it took so long because Matt was asking a lot of questions.  I could tell he had something specific in mind,” recalls Will.  He adds that in looking ahead, it’s expected that this project will serve as the catalyst for more lake-front redevelopment around Sandusky.

And when Matt looks ahead, he simply wants to stroll the Bayfront Revitalization’s  boardwalk.  He says, “The best part will be to see all this realized, to see people being helped by this, to see people using it.  I’ll be thrilled to death to see the boardwalk.  It’s giving Sandusky a destination.”

While not even graduated yet, Matt has already set up his own firm in Worthington and has two other projects under his belt, both of which he’s designing himself, one 20-unit condominium project already under construction in Worthington and another 58-unit condominium project in Columbus, which will break ground in October 2004.

Matt admits that the combination of school and his building entrepreneurial career have meant “a lot of sleepless nights, a hectic pace and pushing the deadlines.”  Still, it’s been worth it.  Concludes Matt, “I went from dreaming about projects in school to the dream project.”