Police HQ to the ArtCraft Building

The City of Cleveland has announced that the new site for the new Division
of Police headquarters will be the historic Artcraft Building, 2540 Superior
Ave. It is located next to Interstate 90 at the east end of downtown in the
Campus District (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

After a competitive request-for-proposals (RFP) process the city has selected the historic ArtCraft Building, located at 2530 Superior Ave., as the top pick for the new Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) headquarters. The city will begin negotiations for the site with the property owner’s team led by TurnDev Development and expects to have legislation ready for City Council review in January 2023.

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Westinghouse plans revealed

A recent rendering of the planned Westinghouse redevelopment. While this
image is from a 2021 plan for the project, the proposed features in this angle
showing the West 58th Street frontage at left and the lake-facing side at right
haven’t substantially changed in the current planning (Trebilco/AECOM).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Plans for the Westinghouse redevelopment got a lot clearer this week after NEOtrans was able to secure recent conceptual plans for the project. While a luxury boutique hotel and apartments are likely to be the highest-profile features in a pending redevelopment of the former Westinghouse plant overlooking the West Shoreway, a less sexy land use will be the plan’s bread and butter. That use is a planned warehouse for Cleveland-based MCPC, an information technology company that helps businesses manage security risks and logistical challenges.

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Kalina House eyes construction in 2023

Over the next few weeks, the nonprofit Mark Kalina Jr. Foundation needs
the generosity of Greater Cleveland and beyond to realize dreams of building
the Kalina House along East 79th Street between Euclid and Carnegie avenues.
The site was selected due to its proximity to the HealthLine bus rapid transit
and its connectivity to Cleveland’s largest medical institutions (AoDK).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Although a proposed building in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood to support individuals with traumatic injuries and their families is physically small, the need for the facility is large. To that end, the nonprofit Mark Kalina Jr. Foundation will host a Buy-A-Brick Fundraiser over the coming weeks in support of the proposed housing facility – The Kalina House. This opportunity for charity will run from Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29 until New Year’s Eve.

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The next CSU: a few insights

It may look like a new building but it’s not. As part of Cleveland State
University’s desire to add more dorms, the 1971-built Rhodes Tower may
be converted to housing and get a new exterior. This is just one example
of how it could look. Another is to add glass curtain walls to protect the
precast concrete façade from moisture and better insulate the building
(CSU). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

When Cleveland State University (CSU) formally released its downtown campus master plan to the public last week, a few things were left out it. Their exclusion wasn’t because of some devious intent to deceive the public. Rather, it was because CSU officials and those at the Boston-based planning firm Sasaki Associates CSU hired to develop the master plan hadn’t yet made decisions on the omitted elements.

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Sherwin-William HQ+R&D rises to $750 million

To the left of a holiday-themed Terminal Tower, the new Sherwin-Williams
headquarters will rise to 39 stories, including rooftop mechanicals. At 616
feet, it will be the fourth-tallest tower in downtown Cleveland before the
end of 2024. This rendering shows how the new skyscraper will look on
some nights. On other nights it will have decorative lighting in its vertical
crevasses and within its reverse-angled crown (Michael Collier/SHW).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Sherwin-Williams (SHW) has announced that construction costs for its new headquarters in downtown Cleveland plus its research and development facility in suburban Brecksville have increased from at least $600 million to $750 million. But the cause, according to the global coatings giant, isn’t entirely what’s affecting all other construction projects — inflation and interest rates. Instead, it cited compliance with state, county and municipal regulations in hiring minority- and female-owned subcontractors and suppliers, plus local small businesses. Those regulations were triggered because of public-sector resources SHW tapped for these projects.

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Slavic Village’s Broadway in transit

The five-way intersection of Broadway Avenue, East 55th Street and Hamlet
Avenue is the traditional center of Slavic Village, once called Little Bohemia
for its large Czech population. It retains all of its pre-World War I buildings
even though many are in a decayed condition. Reviving this area as part of
the Broadway transit corridor is the goal of new planning and development
by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and Slavic Village
 Development Inc. (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

The beleaguered Broadway Avenue corridor in Cleveland’s Slavic Village could soon see new signs of life thanks to a federal grant that was awarded last week to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA). The $432,000 grant will allow the transit agency to develop plans to redesign the Broadway corridor from the Turney-Ella bus loop near Calvary Cemetery to downtown as a bus rapid transit (BRT) route with enhanced pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. Once those plans are complete, it can then apply for federal funds to build that infrastructure.

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Cleveland to get MLS NEXT Pro team

Krenzler Field in downtown Cleveland is the home of the Cleveland State
Vikings soccer and lacrosse teams as well as the Cleveland Soccer Club
semi-pro team. If available, Krenzler Field and its seating capacity may
need to be expanded to accommodate Cleveland’s new Major League
Soccer NEXT Pro team (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

The reserve league of top-tier Major League Soccer is expected to announce on Monday that it will expand to Cleveland as the next city to gain a professional soccer team, according to sources who spoke off the record. The announcement will be made at 1 p.m. Nov. 21 at Pins Mechanical on West 25th Street in Ohio City by Michael Murphy. He led the effort locally to land the MLS NEXT Pro (MLSNP) team.

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CSU releases campus master plan

Conceptual rendering of a new 5,000- to 7,000-seat arena for Cleveland
State University on Payne Avenue overlooking Interstate 90, at lower
left. The new arena would host CSU basketball, concerts and other events
and allow the university to demolish the 13,610-seat Wolstein Center. The
9.3-acre Wolstein Center site would be redeveloped as the Partnership
District with up to 800,000 square feet of new mixed-use development
(CSU/Sasaki). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

At a regular meeting today of its board of trustees, Cleveland State University (CSU) unveiled a new campus master plan to capitalize on its location in Cleveland’s urban core and to guide the development of the university’s physical campus over the next decade. Details of that plan were shared with NEOtrans and other Northeast Ohio media in a press release and an illustrated presentation.

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Downtown Lakefront buildings no longer for sale

At North Coast Harbor, Harbor Verandas in the foreground and Nuevo
Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar in the background are no longer on the
market. Owner Cumberland Development wants to retain them due to
their profitability and reassess after the real estate market improves,
including when the fate of nearby Burke Lakefront Airport is
decided (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Two very visible buildings at downtown Cleveland’s North Coast Harbor that were listed for sale over the past year were just taken off the market this week by owner Cumberland Development LLC. There are several reasons why the Harbor Verandas mixed-use building and the Nuevo Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar are being retained. But one of them is because of the fate of the nearby Burke Lakefront Airport could cause the value of the site to rise in the future.

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A Christmas Story House, campus for sale

Tens of thousands of guests tour A Christmas Story House in Cleveland’s
Tremont neighborhood each year — especially this time of year. Some of
them stay the night in the working-class home-turned-celebrity along with
the Bumpus House, at left, thanks to the holiday-themed movie. Both were
renovated by owners Brian and Beverly Jones to look like they did in the
movie (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

That little house on Cleveland Street is on the market just in time for the holiday season and the release of a sequel to the 1983 classic movie “A Christmas Story.” And just like one of Ralphie’s father’s silly puzzles, “This one could be worth 50,000 bucks.” But the house isn’t on Cleveland Street, it’s not merely the house that’s for sale and the campus of seven properties is likely to fetch multiples of $50,000. Indeed, according to some real estate insiders, it could go for dozens of times more. Dare we say “A major award”?

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Hough busily breaking new ground

Groundbreakings for new projects are becoming more common in Hough
just as the new projects are breaking new ground in other ways, too. That
includes investing in residents and their futures. This groundbreaking was
in August 2021 for the Lumos Apartments on East 93rd Street that is re-
placing structurally deficient houses next door (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

For anyone who has been watching real estate activity in recent years in Hough, they are probably no longer surprised that investment is growing here. But what may be surprising is that the pace of it continues to increase. And, with that, there’s growing interest by local and national investors to make sure that gentrification doesn’t take hold and push away people who need jobs within an easy walk, bike or bus ride of booming University Circle.

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Reactivating downtown Cleveland

Downtown Cleveland catches the evening light on a muggy June 11, 2022,
as seen from Voinovich Park and North Coast Harbor. Downtown continues
to struggle to fill offices and retail spaces although hotels and especially re-
sidential buildings are performing much better since the depths of the global
pandemic two years ago. Helping downtown climb out of those depths is the
responsibility of many, including the Downtown Cleveland Alliance (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

In the late 20th century, downtown Cleveland rolled up its sidewalks after 5 p.m. Now, on some weekdays, it seems like downtown doesn’t roll out its sidewalks until after 5 p.m. That shows how much downtown has changed in the post-pandemic world from a commercial district to a residential, entertainment and tourism center.

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Plans revealed for big Tremont site

Looking northwest toward the former APL site in Tremont with West 18th
Place at the right, the proposed APL Apartments and Townhomes fill the
middle of the image. An improved greenspace is planned to the left of the
proposed development. No building colors or textures are shown here as
this rendering is intended to show only the scale and siting of proposed
buildings. At the upper left, near West 25th Street, is the planned West
20th Apartments and the Treo mixed-use development that’s nearly
completed (Sixmo). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Perhaps the largest never-developed piece of land on Cleveland’s near-west side now has a plan for developing it. Tomorrow, a neighborhood-level committee of the City Planning Commission will see and hear a presentation by a development team led by Knez Homes and Property Advisors Group to construct 129 housing units on a 3.65-acre plot of Tremont land Knez acquired last February, a story first reported by NEOtrans.

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Shoreway Tower plan rises

Looking eastward along the Shoreway from Edgewater Park, the proposed
12-story-tall Shoreway Tower would overlook the park and provide views of
Lake Erie. But a city design review panel had strong reservations about the
building’s proposed height (EAO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A conceptual proposal for a residential tower along the West Shoreway, overlooking Edgewater Park, got a little bit taller after it was first introduced to Cleveland’s City Planning Commission last April. Originally proposed to be 10 stories tall, the market-rate apartment building got bumped up to 12 stories and 138 feet tall which puts it over the 115-foot height restriction for that area’s zoning.

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Medical Mutual HQ staff won’t return downtown

Medical Mutual’s 10-story, 120-year-old Rose Building in downtown Cleve-
land has been mostly empty since the pandemic, as many of the insurance
company’s employees are working from home. They will not return to
work in this building in 2023 and will instead report to work at the
company’s operations center in suburban Brooklyn on a hybrid
work basis (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A spokesperson for health insurance industry giant Medical Mutual confirmed that the company’s headquarters will leave downtown Cleveland in 2023. However most of their roughly 1,000 downtown office employees never returned from remote-working during the pandemic, leaving the historic Rose Building at East 9th Street and Prospect Avenue mostly empty over the past two-plus years. Today’s news has led to some wondering if the building could be converted to residential as with other old office buildings downtown.

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Historic buildings to be razed in Flats

This group of 19th-century buildings in the 1772-1800 block of the west
side of Columbus Road in Cleveland’s Flats are proposed to be demolished
by the property owner, a Beachwood developer which currently has no plans
for developing the site (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A row of buildings along Columbus Road in the Flats is due to be razed in the coming weeks by an active, local real estate developer. But there is no plan to replace buildings, including two from the 19th century that stand in a nationally registered historic district. Instead, according to a partner at the property’s owner, Integrity Realty Group (IRG) of Beachwood, the contiguous buildings would be demolished to keep them from falling down on innocent passersby. No structural analysis was included in the owner’s demolition requests to the city.

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Cleveland police HQ site search begins anew

Since 1977, the the Cleveland Police Department headquarters has been
located in this eight-story building at the northwest corner of Ontario
Street and St. Clair Avenue downtown. It has been proposed for several
new locations since 2017 and may be proposed for yet another pending
the outcome of a new request for proposals issued by Mayor Justin
Bibb’s administration this week (Ideastream).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Officials at Cuyahoga County and now at City Hall are having difficulty deciding where to build their new venues for addressing crime. Three years ago, an effort began in earnest to find a new home for Cuyahoga County’s new jail campus and a new courthouse tower. A steering committee set up to decide that course of action has failed to settle on a site for those facilities in that time. But the city’s efforts to find a new home for its Cleveland Police Department (CPD) Headquarters has been going on for even longer and will continue for at least a few months more, following an announcement today by Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration.

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