Cleveland Lake Shore Power Plant land gets new owner

In this westward-looking view, the 62-acre former Lake Shore Power Plant
site is outlined in red. In the foreground  is East 72nd Street and Gordon
Park South at left, Interstate 90 at right, and East 55th Street beyond.
Downtown Cleveland is in the background (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

It seemed too good to be true, and alas, it was. Title to a large, mostly vacant property for the former Lake Shore Power Station, 6800 S. Marginal Rd., in Cleveland, is being transferred to a new owner. The 62-acre site is across Interstate 90 from the bulk of Cleveland Metroparks’ lakefront improvements. But it’s not the Metroparks, the city or even a developer seeking to add recreation, housing or a mix thereof next to Lake Erie.

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Among Ohio real estate blogs, NEOtrans in top 10

Every new day offers new waves of opportunities to cover the news
involving the development of Greater Cleveland (File).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Feedspot, an international news aggregator, ranked NEOtrans in the top 10 of Ohio real estate news blogs. Feedspot compiles news feeds from online sources so users from all over the world can customize and share them with other social network users.

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Great Lakes Brewing confirms relocation options

Great Lakes Brewing Company has been expanding its footprint in Cleveland’s
Ohio City neighborhood since it here in 1988. That includes acquiring the
Gehring Building with the Chase Bank branch for its expanded offices and
possibly a larger brewpub. But the growth of both the brewer and the neigh-
borhood is prompting the craft brewer to look elsewhere for expansion
(Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a statement issued today by Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC), their chief executive officer confirmed NEOtrans’ report from last week that it is considering relocating its production facilities from Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood and packaging facility in Strongsville to a site in Avon. The press statement also confirmed it hasn’t ruled out continuing with its plans to relocate them to Scranton Peninsula in Cleveland’s Flats. And it will retain its Ohio City brewpub and gift shop. More than 200 jobs are involved among all of GLBC’s facilities.

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Downtown Cleveland skyscraper sells cheap

Downtown Cleveland’s Huntington Building, also called 200 Public
Square, is the city’s third-tallest skyscraper at 658 feet. The Class-A
office property sold for a discounted amount owing to the challeng-
ing office market in the wake of the pandemic and the growth of
remote working (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

According to a well-placed source, Downtown Cleveland’s third-tallest skyscraper is under a purchase agreement from a New York City-based buyer. The 45-story Huntington Building, also known as 200 Public Square, has seen its share of challenges since the pandemic and the rise of remote working nearly four years ago as other office properties have. That is one reason why the building has reportedly sold for a vastly discounted rate.

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Lowest unemployment rate in 23 years

Greater Cleveland’s largest and fastest-growing job sector is education and
health services, or “eds and meds.” One of the biggest employment drivers
 is the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Here, at its new Ted Ross Lab at Lerner
Research Institute, Clinic workers help develop vaccines in a tissue culture
room. Ross is Global Director of Vaccine Development at Cleveland
Clinic (CCF). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For many Greater Clevelanders, they had a merry Christmas year thanks to one of the tightest job markets locally in more than two decades. According to preliminary data released late last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate for the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metropolitan area was the lowest it has been since December 2000.

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Happy holidays to you!

  Photo by KJP (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE).

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and yours from NEOtrans!

Great Lakes Brewing move to Avon on tap?

Great Lakes Brewing Company may abandon its plans to build a production
facility and tasting room on this vacant land on Scranton Peninsula in Cleve-
land’s Flats and instead build a consolidated facility in Avon next to Interstate
90 that also relocates its Strongsville canning plant. Company officials are
reportedly ‘strongly considering’ the Avon site. Just beyond the vacant land,
NRP Group’s The Peninsula apartments were rising in this October 2023
view (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

ARTICLE UPDATED DEC. 24, 2023

A Cleveland icon may not be in Cleveland much longer. Executives and owners of Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) are debating a significant relocation of most of its operations out to west-suburban Avon in Lorain County. The 200-employee company has been headquartered and its beer products brewed in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood since its founding 35 years ago. But Avon’s mayor said an announcement may be made about the potential new site “in the coming months.”

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Record Rendezvous building among historic renovation awards

The middle building is 300 Prospect Ave., the former Record Rendezvous
building that won an historic tax credit award today from the state to aid
in its rehabilitation. The former record store and its founder Leo Mintz
are prominent in the history of rock-and-roll music. However, it’s not
yet known if a recreated Record Rendezvous store will be part of its
post-rehab future (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

An historic building in Downtown Cleveland that housed Record Rendezvous, where the term “rock and roll” was reportedly first used to describe the genre, was awarded tax credits to aid in its restoration. It was among dozens of historic buildings across the state that were awarded credits today by the Ohio Department of Development.

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East 105th: What difference a decade makes

There’s only two things that are the same in these two photos from
August 2014, top, and December 2023 at bottom. One is the street
address — 2200 E. 105th St. The other is the brownish 16-story
Walker Center which was the tallest building in the University Circle
area in 2014. Today it’s the third-tallest and nearly blocked out of
view by the Cleveland Clinic’s 3,000-car, 915,000-square-foot East
105th Parking Garage. At left is the new Medley Apartments over
Meijer grocery store. Across the street is the former IBM Explorys
building that may be the new home for Canon Healthcare research
 (Google/KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For many Greater Clevelanders and visitors, they now enter the Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus and the University Circle area on the new Opportunity Corridor Boulevard. But few traveled this way before the boulevard was completed in late-2021 and may not have a full appreciation of how much the scenery along their commute or visits have changed in less than a decade.

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Brooklyn Masonic Hall gets new lease on life

Residential and commercial leasing is underway for the new Lofts On Pearl
which is the old Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Cleveland’s Brooklyn Centre
neighborhood. Lakewood-based developer Kostas Almiroudis is moving
his offices onto the ground floor at left to focus on further redevelopment
of the area (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A Masonic rehabilitation has a different meaning in Cleveland’s Brooklyn Centre neighborhood these days. At 3804 Pearl Rd., it means the renovation and repurposing of a 25,536-square-foot Brooklyn Masonic Temple into 26 market-rate apartments over two ground-floor commercial spaces bracketing the building’s terrazzo-, marble- and wood-laden lobby.

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Three big county projects about to advance

This is an unofficial conceptual massing (a rendering to show scale, not
design) of what a new Consolidated Courthouse could look like if built
near the lakefront at The Pit between West 3rd Street, at left, and West
9th Street, at right. In between, atop five levels of structured parking
and a layer of public atriums of shops and restaurants could be two
courthouse structures of nearly 450,000 square feet each. Such a com-
plex would not only meet Cuyahoga County’s requirements but also
provide stadium parking relocated from a to-be-developed lakefront
(Ian McDaniel). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Fifteen years ago, when the Great Recession could let someone go bowling down East 9th Street without hitting anyone, three major construction projects were about to get started and provide the city of Cleveland with much-needed economic stimulus. Back then, construction of the new Huntington Convention Center, the Flats East Bank redevelopment, and the new Inner Belt highway bridges represented a total public works investment of nearly $1.5 billion.

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Oswald HQ moving to Flats East Bank

Oswald Companies is moving its headquarters across Downtown Cleveland
to the former Ernst & Young Tower at Flats East Bank with an option for
future expansion in the same building. Oswald will gain naming rights to
the 23-story building (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Oswald Companies today announced that it has entered into a lease agreement to move its headquarters to a larger space at the former Ernst & Young tower on the East Bank of the Flats, a prominent fixture on the downtown skyline. Once all necessary approvals are received, the move will be completed in 2024 and plans include a name change to Oswald Tower.

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More international flights arriving Cleveland

Sangster International Airport is located just east of Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Starting in March, Cleveland will be just four hours away from this Carib-
bean destination thanks to the return of the first direct flights on this route
since 2017 (Shutterstock). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Joined by Cleveland airport officials, Frontier Airlines today announced that it will be starting nonstop flights to Montego Bay, Jamaica in March with an introductory low fare. The new, direct flight is the first new international flight from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport resulting from its new crew base there. But it may not be the last.

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Cuyahoga County’s economy surges

Multiple construction cranes preside over the Cleveland Clinic’s Main
Campus near University Circle. In the foreground is the site of one of
the largest building projects in Ohio — the 1-million-square-foot
Neurological Institute on Carnegie Avenue. It is eclipsed only by
the Sherwin-William headquarters downtown. In the distance are
two cranes for the Cleveland Clinic’s new Global Center for
Pathogen Research & Human Health measuring nearly 300,000
square feet (Courtesy, clevelandskyscrapers.com).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In the spirit of Oscar Wilde, one could say that a year’s worth of economic output data might be considered a curiosity. But multiple years may be considered a trend. Last year, the growth of Cuyahoga County’s gross domestic product (GDP) ranked 10th among Ohio’s 88 counties and was the best performer among Ohio’s most populous, urbanized counties. according to new data released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Cuyahoga County OK’s first microgrid utility in USA

Compass Energy Platform was chosen to serve as the utility opera-
tor for Cuyahoga Green Energy to serve Greater Clevelanders
(Shutterstock). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

This week, Cuyahoga County has launched the first microgrid electrical utility in the United States. Cuyahoga Green Energy (CGE) has contracted with Compass Energy Platform to serve as the operator for the county-run utility.

Cuyahoga County Council unanimously approved the 10-year contract at its Dec. 5 council meeting. Together with $1.8 million of Department of Energy funding secured by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, Compass Energy Platform will bring its own capital and engineering partners to develop and finance the utility’s first three projects planned in Euclid, Brooklyn and the Aerozone region adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

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BrandMuscle opens new Cleveland hub

BrandMuscle opened its new office hub yesterday in Downtown
Cleveland — one of two for the marketing technology company.
Their new spot is the Post Office Plaza in the Tower City Center
complex. The other is located in Chicago (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The bad news is that a Downtown Cleveland employer has reduced its office footprint. The good news is the company, BrandMuscle, a mid-sized marketing technology firm, opened a new office yesterday downtown. The better news is that BrandMuscle kept Cleveland as one of its two remaining office hubs along with Chicago, while closing other offices in Austin, TX and Kansas City, MO after switching to a largely remote-work culture.

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Birthing Beautiful Communities to rise on Chester

Northeast Ohio’s first stand-alone birthing center, in what would be a visible
and accessible location, is designed to help reduce Cuyahoga County’s
nationally high infant mortality rates (City Architecture).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For the non-profit organization Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC), their mission is often noted in news stories detailing Cuyahoga County’s infant mortality crisis. Sadly, the county has had one of worst infant mortality rates in the country and is a symptom of much larger problems including poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate housing and unaffordable health care. Much of the need is in Cleveland’s inner city and especially on the East Side. So, to meet the need, BBC is seeking to construct Northeast Ohio’s first free-standing birthing center in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood, on the north side of Chester Avenue, between East 63rd and 65th streets.

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Cabinet-maker MasterBrand to move HQ to Beachwood

North America’s largest cabinet maker MasterBrand Inc. will move its
corporate headquarters and dozens of jobs from Jasper, Indiana to
3300 Enterprise Parkway in suburban Beachwood (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A newly independent corporation with 13,600 employees company-wide in more than 20 manufacturing facilities and offices is relocating its headquarters to Greater Cleveland — specifically, Beachwood. While a 26-year-old, three-story office building at 3300 Enterprise Parkway will be its new corporate headquarters, MasterBrand’s operations center will remain in Jasper, Indiana along with a production facility and training center.

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Amtrak expansions to Cleveland win funding

Amtrak service in North Carolina has broken new ridership records with state-
supported services including 10 daily trains linking Charlotte and Raleigh at 79
mph. This is an example of the kind of Amtrak expansion of Ohio is reportedly
reportedly seeking (NCDOT). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown announced today that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has selected four key routes in Ohio as priorities for Amtrak expansion and directed $500,000 to draw up construction-ready plans for each. Once those plans are finalized, then those routes would be eligible to apply for federal construction funding.

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Sherwin-Williams to move Valspar to Greater Cleveland

The name “Valspar” was removed from its headquarters and research center
near downtown Minneapolis, replaced by Sherwin-Williams’ name several
years after the Cleveland-based company bought its rival in 2017. But now,
sources say that most if not all 700 of the former Valspar employees
 will be moved to Greater Greater Cleveland (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Within the next few years, Sherwin-Williams reportedly intends to relocate most, if not all of Valspar’s headquarters and research jobs, or up to 700 employees, from Minneapolis to Greater Cleveland, according to a highly placed source. Global coatings giant Sherwin-Williams acquired its former rival in 2017 for $11 billion, setting off a remarkable growth trajectory for both companies. That is resulting in the construction of a Downtown Cleveland office skyscraper, the gobbling up of more existing office space downtown, a new suburban research center and the start of planning for significant additional downtown office space.

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Park Place Tech to buy Progressive’s Alpha campus

View of Progressive Insurance’s Alpha Drive complex in October 2022 as
seen from Interstate 271. The complex is the subject of a purchase agree-
ment with Park Place Technologies which needed larger offices, a ware-
house and data center for its growing business (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Fast-growing Park Place Technologies, with nearly 500 employees in Greater Cleveland, has found a new, larger home after an extensive search that included expanding into a neighboring building or moving to downtown Cleveland. In fact, the property ultimately favored by the global data center and networking optimization firm matched the company’s requirements almost exactly. However, a title has yet to transfer to Park Place Technologies or any affiliates.

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Major expansion of Fairview Hospital planned

Fairview Hospital’s North Campus, on the left, is where Cleveland Clinic
officials plan to expand the hospital’s medical and parking facilities, start-
ing by replacing its oldest structures across Lorain Avenue, at right. When
the older structures are replaced and demolished, new hospital facilities
will rise in their place (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a significant project in Cleveland’s Kamm’s Corners neighborhood, a phased expansion of Cleveland Clinic’s Fairview Hospital, 18101 Lorain Ave., is in the works. The project is proposed to start by replacing older structures with new ones on the hospital’s North Campus. After those new structures are built, three groups of older structures on the South Campus will be demolished and their land redeveloped with future hospital facilities. The group of three structures are the seven-level Groveland Avenue parking garage, attached medical office buildings and, across Lorain Avenue at the North Campus, the Moll Cancer Pavilion.

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Largest Hough development in a century

Taking up an entire city block, a redevelopment of the former Martin
Luther King Jr. High School property with 310 housing units, commercial
space and greenspace is further testament to the growth of University Circle-
area institutions and employment whose benefits are spilling over into Cleve-
land’s Hough neighborhood (LDA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The largest planned, single development in a century is proposed for Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood by reutilizing the huge site of the closed Martin Luther King Jr. High School, 1651 E. 71st St. On that 11-acre property bounded by Hough and Lexington avenues plus East 71st and 73rd streets, 310 housing units and two divisible commercial spaces are planned as part of a neighborhood destination.

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Canon, Cleveland Clinic form partnership

A potential landing spot for Canon Healthcare is the vacant but still-new
former IBM Explorys building at East 105th Street and Cedar Avenue.
The building is owned by Geis Companies and the land owned by
Cleveland Clinic. The site has been rumored to be of interest
by the newly established Canon Healthcare USA (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Global imaging giant Canon Inc. and the locally based yet global Cleveland Clinic Foundation today announced their intentions to form a strategic research partnership to develop imaging and healthcare information technologies to improve patient diagnosis, care and outcomes. The announcement, initiated by Canon, publicly reveals the first tangible development in nearly a year since the company said it had created a U.S. healthcare subsidiary Canon Healthcare USA Inc. and would locate its headquarters in Greater Cleveland.

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Plaza sought atop Ohio City Red Line station

GCRTA and a private developer will seek funding for a bridge cap over the Red
Line transit tracks, station and greenway south of Abbey Avenue in Cleveland's
Ohio City neighborhood. This view looks southward from Abbey next to
Columbus Road (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) and a private developer will seek federal funding for a bridge cap over the Red Line transit tracks, West 25th Street train station and the Red Line Greenway to improve pedestrian connections to existing and future developments. GCRTA’s board on Tuesday will vote on a staff recommendation to authorize the pursuit of funds to plan for and construct the bridge cap to support a pedestrian plaza and provide a second stairwell/elevator entry, called a station head house, to the rail station below. GCRTA’s board typically approves staff recommendations.

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Sherwin-Williams’ HQ2: how big?

In this unofficial rendering, an HQ2 structure that includes all of Sherwin-
Williams’ unaccommodated existing existing and future office and parking
needs on the northeast corner of Superior Avenue and West 6th Street
could require a significant skyscraper. These are the types of planning
options Sherwin-Williams will reportedly consider over the next year
(Ian McDaniel). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Just as NEOtrans was publishing breaking news Nov. 10 that Sherwin-Williams in 2024 would advance planning for the second phase of its headquarters, a trusted source responded with some remarkable data. That source provided employment data for Sherwin-Williams’ various office locations in Greater Cleveland and in Minneapolis which shows the company is dramatically expanding with new jobs that, if continued, shows the urgency in the company’s consideration of a second headquarters structure in downtown Cleveland, hereinafter referred to as HQ2. And based on that employment information and other insights, it is likely to be a significant structure or structures.

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Input sought on Watterson-Lake development

A simplified conceptual rendering of how a proposed mixed-use development
could look on the former Watterson-Lake School site on Detroit Avenue between
West 74th and 75th streets in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. The graphics,
called a massing were presented at a recent community meeting to gather input
on how to refine the design. The term “axon” here refers a three-dimensional,
axonometric view (Stantec). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

At a recent community input meeting, a basic concept was revealed for redeveloping the former Watterson-Lake School site on Detroit Avenue, between West 74th and 75th streets in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. The design concept, called a massing, suggested a mixed-use, mixed-income development offering 112 apartments in a five-story building set back from Detroit, 12 rental townhomes, retail and small business incubator spaces fronting Detroit, plus community and park spaces.

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CSU narrows finalists to develop Arena

Four firms were invited to submit proposals to Cleveland State University’s
Euclid Avenue Development Corp. for at least the new arena if not an attached
parking garage and mixed use district along Payne Avenue and Interstate 90
in downtown Cleveland (Sasaki). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Four finalists were invited by Cleveland State University (CSU) and its development arm Euclid Avenue Development Corp. (EADC) to submit proposals to build, at minimum, a new multi-purpose arena for the university. In addition, their proposals could also include a parking garage and mixed-use district of housing and shops that were proposed as part of its $650 million campus master plan unveiled last year. The arena, parking deck and mixed-use district were all proposed to rise along Payne Avenue, just west of Interstate 90 in downtown Cleveland.

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Tremont’s Lincoln Hts apartments start

An unofficial groundbreaking was held yesterday for the Lincoln Heights
Apartments in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood and construction vehicles
were delivered to the site at the west end of Breiver Avenue. However, town-
homes at the former Cleveland Animal Protective League property may be
pursued at a later date (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Hidden away behind houses and trees, construction on another large development in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood got under way this week. And while this latest development project is largely shielded from view, it simultaneously reveals the continuing strength of Cleveland’s multi-family market as well as the comparative weakness of its for-sale housing market. That’s especially true in certain neighborhoods that, starting next year, will lose their ability to offer 100 percent property tax abatement for new, for-sale homes.

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Now arriving: Woodhill Station East

A bird’s-eye view of the proposed Woodhill Station East in the foreground with
the first phase, a nearly completed Woodhill Station West, in the background
along Buckeye Road. This view looks northwest from the intersection of Buckeye
and Woodhill roads plus Shaker Boulevard. The light-rail “Rapid” station is just
out of view to the left (City Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A neighborhood-level design review panel today gave thumbs-up, with a few conditions, to conceptual plans for the next phase in the effort to replace the 83-year-old, 487-unit Woodhill Homes public housing in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Woodhill neighborhood. Woodhill Station East, a 64-unit mixed-income apartment complex with ground-floor retail at 9615 Buckeye Rd., is proposed to be the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority’s (CMHA) third phase in its Woodhill Redevelopment efforts that would ultimately result in the construction of 640 mixed-income housing units on the city’s east side.

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Dix & Eaton grows, buys St. Louis PR firm

Dix and Eaton’s new offices on the top floors of the Bulkley Building in
Downtown Cleveland’s Playhouse Square will include a mix of social
and work areas including this lounge (Van Auken Akin).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

With a new Downtown Cleveland headquarters in the works, Dix & Eaton will move into it as one of the largest, employee-owned communications companies in the United States. That change in status occurred on Nov. 1 when the 71-year-old strategic communications firm acquired Standing Partnership, a 32-year-old, St. Louis-based marketing communications consultancy. The acquisition was announced today by Dix & Eaton. Terms of the transaction between the two privately owned firms will not be disclosed.

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Next round of Brownfield grants starts Dec. 5

Just south of downtown Cleveland, the Scranton Peninsula site of a former
Republic Steel mill that manufactured chrome-plated nuts and bolts will
soon become home to about 1,000 residents in more than 600 apartments
roughly equally split among two developments. One of those is the NRP
Group’s The Peninsula, in the center-foreground, which won a $6 million
Brownfield grant from the state last year for site clean up (Adam Greene).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Several things have long slowed Cleveland’s post-industrial transition to embrace new economic drivers. One of the biggest is the lack of large, clean properties near existing labor. The city recently announced a $50 million land assembly program that could be boosted to $100 million with other funding. While some of that funding could come from the private sector, another source may well come from a new round of state funding to aid redevelopment, announced today.

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Greyhound, Barons may offer downtown, west-side stops

The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Transit Center near Cleveland State University is
a relatively quiet place after years of service cuts by the Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Authority. But it may soon see renewed activity if the transit
agency is able to reach a deal with Barons Bus Inc. for use of its downtown
station plus the Red Line rail stop at Puritas-West 150th (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

With the clock ticking down to an eventual departure from the 75-year-old Greyhound station in Downtown Cleveland, the operator of long-distance bus services is seeking new stations to serve area travelers. After an earlier plan to relocate Cleveland’s station to the Triskett Red Line rapid transit station on the west side met civic resistance, Barons Bus Inc. is pursuing two stations locally. Cleveland-based Barons operates bus service under a license with Greyhound.

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Hawthorne School conversion starts Monday

A rebirth of Hawthorne Elementary School starts Nov. 13 as construction
workers will descend upon the site on that date following the closing this
past week of financing to convert the 106-year-old building into apart-
ments (Bialosky). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While classes aren’t starting on Monday morning at Hawthorne Elementary School, 3575 W. 130th St., in Cleveland Jefferson neighborhood, that is when Sustainable Community Associates (SCA) is going to school. The Cleveland-based real estate development firm has repurposed many an old Cleveland building into apartments, some with shops or restaurants. But this is SCA’s first lesson in converting a school to apartments.

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Sherwin-Williams may advance 2nd tower in 2024

This may not be the last time we see a building under construction from this
angle, looking east from the Rockefeller Building at West 6th Street, north
of Superior Avenue. Between the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters
tower and West 6th, another building may rise to accommodate additional
Sherwin-Williams employees, suppliers and corporate partners (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

One year from now, as Sherwin-Williams employees are scheduled to begin moving into their new, 616-foot headquarters tower in Downtown Cleveland, there are renewed rumblings that the global coatings giant will pursue the development of the west half of its HQ site. The HQ site is west of Public Square and the west half of the HQ site is along West 6th Street, between Superior and St. Clair avenues. That’s where Sherwin-Williams has proposed a second office tower and a row of low-rise, mixed use buildings extending around the corner of St. Clair to partially wrap its five-level, 920-space parking garage. And based on the company’s employment growth, it’s already outgrown its new headquarters.

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Ohio Savings Plaza has a buyer, plans

Ohio Savings Plaza, seen as the black and white building in the middle of the
image, has a little brother hiding around the corner and both buildings repor-
tedly have a buyer. The structure visible here at East 9th Street and Chester
Avenue in Downtown Cleveland reportedly will be converted from office
to residential with the ground-floor retail remaining (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

NEOtrans has learned that the two-structure Ohio Savings Plaza in Downtown Cleveland has a buyer who has put the property under contract while its real estate team does its due diligence. NEOtrans has also learned that the buyer intends to partially convert the half-full, 500,000-square-foot. two-building property to residential. The larger of the two buildings, an 18-story tower at 1801 E. 9th St., is tentatively to be converted to apartments. The smaller building, called Park Plaza at 1111 Chester Ave. that faces Perk Park, will likely remain an office building.

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Nela Park may add residential

From the air looking west into the sun setting next to distant Downtown
Cleveland, Nela Park looks much smaller than it does from the ground.
Three commercial buildings on the former campus of General Electric’s
Lighting Division could be converted to residential by its new owner
Phoenix Investors (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Many Greater Clevelanders have at least some familiarity with a place that could soon become home to many Greater Clevelanders. The owner of the former General Electric Lighting headquarters, 1975 Noble Rd. in East Cleveland, is preparing plans to convert several office buildings within the 94-acre Nela Park Campus into apartments and make those intentions known at a meeting of local stakeholders, possibly as early as this month, according to a source familiar with the project.

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Courthouse proposals are on trial

The Justice Center’s courthouse tower is in the center of this view. But one
of the options for replacing the tower is to build a new courthouse where
approximately this view was taken — from just north of the intersection
of Lakeside Avenue and West 6th Street. This view is from the elevated
Shoreway highway which may not be here much longer. In front of the
current courthouse tower and slightly to the left is a Cuyahoga
County office building called Courthouse Square that is also
in play (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In local real estate parlance, a “whale” is a development project whose total floorspace measures 1 million square feet or more. Not only are they big, they’re tough to get. But there are two Cleveland entities who were able to do what Capt. Ahab could not — catch the whale. Two whales are under construction right now — Sherwin-Williams’ new headquarters tower downtown and Cleveland Clinic’s new Neurological Institute in the Fairfax neighborhood, near University Circle. A third whale is in the early stages of the chase, a stage where things are most fluid and thus, very intriguing.

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Downtown retail revival plan announced

Not a soul was in sight at The Avenue shopping mall at Tower City Center
last weekend, despite the rainy, cool weather that might have otherwise
prompted people to linger indoors. There was no pre-Halloween program-
ming or other activities to attract people to possibly shop and spend
money (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Downtown Cleveland, Inc. today shared its Downtown Retail Strategy, designed as a roadmap to create a thriving retail environment in the urban core. Unveiled by Downtown Cleveland, Inc. President & CEO Michael Deemer during the 2023 State of Downtown at The City Club of Cleveland, the plan is one of Reimagining Downtown Cleveland’s near-term economic priorities. It aims to fill gaps in the city center’s marketplace and serve existing residents and businesses.

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Collinwood school reopens as apartments

There’s no mistaking that a portion of the Longfellow School Apartments
in Cleveland’s North Collinwood neighborhood was fashioned from a
former school building. Chalkboards, wood cabinets and students’
cubbies remain for residents’ use in the new senior housing
complex (Vesta). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

When schools are converted into apartments, they don’t always look like schools anymore — at least on the inside. The Longfellow School Apartments in Cleveland’s North Collinwood neighborhood put that notion into detention. Located at 650 E. 140th St. just south of Interstate 90, Longfellow had its second ribbon-cutting ceremony last week nearly 100 years after its first.

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Cleveland, Maple Hts projects add hundreds of jobs

A new company to Cleveland, LabConnect will open on Carnegie Avenue at
what has been the Athersys headquarters for nearly 20 years. LabConnect's
expansion to Cleveland could happen in early 2024 (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Tennessee-based laboratory services company LabConnect and local fermented foods producer Cleveland Kitchen Co. were approved this week for a combined $1.1 million in state job creation tax credits for up to 250 new jobs at facilities in Cleveland. Meanwhile, a growing Vendors Exchange International, LLC plans to move its offices and manufacturing facilities from a western suburb to Maple Heights where it will expand to more than 70 jobs, thanks to financial support from Maple Heights. 

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County Courthouse project gets seven proposals

An intriguing proposal for the new Cuyahoga County Courthouse was
submitted by DBL Development LLC, a partnership of local companies
seeking to locate the court facilities in multiple structures that would
replicate historic buildings from downtown Cleveland’s past (DMD).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While the specific proposals for a new or renovated Cuyahoga County courthouse haven’t been publicly released yet by the county, a list of who submitted the proposals was provided to NEOtrans as a result of a public records request. And the list of seven respondents provides some insight as to who has presented what for the county’s nearly 900,000-square-foot courthouse facility that could cost $400 million to $700 million to build or renovate.

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Gordon Square: more apartments, townhomes

Looking north toward the proposed Breakwater Residences, the existing
Edison at Gordon Square apartments just beyond, and Lake Erie in
the distance. Herman Park is at the bottom of the image (Dimit).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Less than a year after acquiring the Premium Metals property, 5901-6001 Breakwater Ave., in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood, Beachwood-based developer TurnDev has released conceptual plans for developing the site with a mix of multifamily apartments and townhomes. Tentatively called Breakwater Residences, its 193 housing units and a long, five-story building represent a significant project but not as large as what was previously proposed for the site by another developer. And it’s less dense than what the city’s zoning code allows.

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Local projects may benefit from federal incentives

Construction is moving along on the high-rise Farnsleigh Apartments at
the Van Aken District in Shaker Heights at the end of the light-rail Blue
Line. Many housing developments are planned at or near rail and bus
rapid transit stations in Greater Cleveland to address a housing shortage
but tight lending and high interest rates have slowed the start of new
projects. New guidance for existing federal financing could free up
new lending. (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Having too much office space, not enough housing inventory and tight private financing to address those conditions isn’t just a Greater Cleveland phenomenon. It’s a nationwide problem. So the federal government on Friday announced incentives to encourage the conversion of high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use and develop surplus land owned by transit agencies.

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North Coast development authority launched

An aerial view of proposed plans for redeveloping Downtown Cleveland’s
lakefront are shown looking northwesterly from the perspective of down-
town. The landscaped malls are at lower left from which a new North
Coast Connector land bridge would cross the lakefront railroad tracks
and Shoreway highway converted into a boulevard. A transportation
center with parking plus a rail and bus station is planned next to the
connector which would end at Lake Erie’s shore (FO).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

With updated plans for redeveloping downtown Cleveland’s lakefront steadily rolling in like Lake Erie’s waves, the nonprofit development corporation charged with funding and implementing those plans also is coming together. Today, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb announced the initial board of directors for the new North Coast Waterfront Development Corp. (NCWDC) and its chair, David Gilbert, CEO of Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission.

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Old Aquarium razed for South Gordon Park plan

On the city’s East Side, a Cleveland Metroparks contractor yesterday
began demolishing the old Cleveland Aquarium at South Gordon Park.
The aquarium closed in 1985 due to structural problems with the build-
ing and has sat empty and decaying ever since (Brian Zimmerman).
 CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

After sitting empty and rotting away for nearly four decades, the old Cleveland Aquarium at South Gordon Park was finally demolished yesterday by contractors for the Cleveland Metroparks. The regional park system, whose long-term lease of this city-owned site took effect earlier this month, wasted no time in taking down the long-closed aquarium building. In the coming months, Metroparks officials said they intend to seek community input on how to improve South Gordon Park.

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Ohio City finance firm moving to the Flats

Next spring, Skylight Financial Group intends to relocate into a smaller
space above the BrewDog Cleveland Outpost on Scranton Peninsula
near downtown Cleveland. As recently as two years ago, this was
a lonely outpost in a desolate part of the Flats but is steadily
gaining more commercial and residential neighbors (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Another significant office tenant with naming rights to their building is on the move -- and shrinking. This time, it's Cleveland-based financial planning firm Skylight Financial Group which is a general agency of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) in multiple Ohio cities. But unlike Ernst & Young (now EY) moving from one side of downtown Cleveland to the other, Skylight Financial will be leaving Ohio City's Market District in 2024 for Scranton Peninsula in the Flats.

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North Coast plans updated, go public today

An aerial rendering of the planned changes to the North Coast Harbor area
of downtown Cleveland’s lakefront. This view shows Cleveland Browns
Stadium dominating the scene with the port facilities and West 3rd
Street at right and Voinovich Park at the foot of East 9th Street
to the left (FO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a virtual session held earlier today, the community got to see a refinement of plans for Downtown Cleveland’s lakefront that were first shared publicly in July, namely for the area near North Coast Harbor. The plans, showing stadium renovations, transportation investments and conversion of lakefront parking lots to year-round public uses, were developed and refined by a consulting team hired by the city and led by Field Operations, a public spaces design firm based in New York City.

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