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| Proposed new signage on the front of the historic New England Building, also called the Guardian Building, on Euclid Avenue will replace that of the current hotelier, a Holiday Inn Express (Mira Development). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
After 26 years in business, Downtown Cleveland’s Holiday Inn Express, 629 Euclid Ave., will close. But its already got a replacement lined up in the form of an AC Hotel by Marriott, according to a developer leading the transformation.
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| A locally based development team pursuing an Ohio City apartment building on West 26th Street has received approval of its conceptual plans from a design- review panel (GLSD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A 109-unit market-rate apartment building planned along West 26th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood recently passed its first hurdle. But it has more to come, including a rezoning, vacating an alley, design-review approvals and winning over urban neighbors who expressed fears of the multi-family development.
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| Just east of Downtown Cleveland in the Midtown neighborhood is the new home of Lake Effect Health and affiliated companies that are relocating from suburban Brooklyn. The founder of those companies bought the building last summer and will renovate it to offer health care services from here (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The closure of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in 2022 has left a health care void on Cleveland near-east side. While that’s a big void to fill, an entrepreneur from the suburbs wants to start trying. And she’s already planted her flag at the northeast corner of Prospect Avenue and East 36th Street.
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| Looking west down Cedar Road from the front yard of Cleveland Heights High School, firefighters from 17 different communities joined forces Jan. 25 to quickly contain a rapidly spreading fire at the Marquee at Cedar Lee apartments. But it took 20 hours before the fire was completely extinguished (City of Cleveland Heights). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The developer of the Marquee development has informed Cleveland Heights city officials that it will rebuild the structure that was destroyed by an overnight fire that began Jan. 25. The 139-unit Marquee at Cedar-Lee building fronting Cedar Road in the 13200 block, was still under construction and unoccupied at the time of the fire, which started about 7 p.m.
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| This view is of the main entrance on the south side of the proposed new fieldhouse at Breakthrough Schools’ Woodland Hills Campus. The existing school building is to the right. This entrance to the fieldhouse will allow community activities, such as voting, to occur here and be separated from the classrooms during or after school hours (Marous). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Having affordable, comfortable places for the community to gather for events, sports and even voting can be hard to find in Cleveland’s Kinsman and Woodland Hills neighborhoods. But that could soon change for the better based on plans for a new fieldhouse at Breakthrough Schools’ Woodland Hills Campus, 9201 Crane Ave. Those plans were submitted this week to the city’s Building Department.
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| This three-decade-old corporate headquarters building for Moen was refurbished only several years ago. Community development officials believe it is a marketable property and hopefully will attract new users soon to fill a void in the city’s financial ability to provide public services (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
When the conglomerate parent of faucet and fixture-maker Moen told the world via press release on Jan. 22 that it was consolidating its various brand headquarters to suburban Chicago, it was also notifying all of the Ohio-based economic development organizations about the move for the first time.
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| Looking southeast the proposed District 46 from above the intersection of Lou Groza Boulevard and Front Street, the planned hotel will be at left and overlook a new com- munity athletic field. Apartments over retail/restaurants also overlook the sides of the field. At the field’s south end, a community recreation center will be part of a later phase (AODK). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Although the District 46 mixed-use development in Berea didn’t win a megaproject tax credit yesterday for adding a community recreation center at the development’s south end, it isn’t slowing down the rest of the $155 million project.
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| A conceptual rendering of Bedrock’s Rock and Roll Land hotel-topped entertainment center at right, overlooking Collision Bend in the Cuyahoga River. Later phases of the Bedrock’s riverfront development are seen to the left (Adjaye Associates). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
It seems $100 million doesn’t go as far as it used to. At least it didn’t today when the Ohio Tax Credit Authority awarded $100 million in Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) tax credits to just nine projects statewide. Northeast Ohio won two — Greater Cleveland got just one of those. And that was the last of four rounds of TMUDs authorized by the Ohio General Assembly unless some previous awards aren’t used and are made available.
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| Redesigning the Shoreway highway through Downtown Cleveland is a major infra- structure project that recently was awarded millions in federal funds. The fate of that and other funding to local infrastructure and energy projects may be in doubt due to a 90-freeze and agency review mandated by the Trump Administration (FO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Millions, if not hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars awarded to local infrastructure and energy projects may be at risk from a 90-day funding freeze and review mandated earlier this week by the new Trump Administration. That possibility was raised today at the first board meeting of the year for Greater Cleveland’s metropolitan planning organization (MPO) which distributes federal funds to transportation and air quality programs.
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| The Cleveland Clinic Foundation is laying off employees throughout the global health care system during rising costs in the healthcare industry (CCF). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
For the first time in years, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation is laying off 114 employees throughout the global health care system. But the number of pending layoffs in the context of the scale of the system is comparatively small and hiring in other departments continues, Clinic officials said today.
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| For 92 years, a seafood business has operated out of this riverfront location at Merwin Avenue and Center Street in Cleveland’s Flats. That will come to an end when Catanese Classic Seafood relocates to Collinwood in the coming months. Cleveland Metroparks bought this building as well as the Grain Craft flour mill, visible in the background at left in this wide-angle view. Soaring overhead is the Detroit-Superior Bridge (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A familiar face in Cleveland’s Flats district is packing up and heading to the city’s east side to make way for the Cleveland Metroparks’ expanding makeover of the Cuyahoga River waterfront. Catanese Classic Seafood, 1600 Merwin Ave., is making a move in the coming year to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank’s facility at 15500 S. Waterloo Rd.
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| Commercial space training company Blue Abyss has signed an agreement with NASA Glenn Research Center to provide astronaut training to the space agency (NASA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
In a groundbreaking move for the commercial space sector, Blue Abyss has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Glenn Research Center. This collaboration aims to accelerate advancements in commercial space training, research, and infrastructure development, further positioning Blue Abyss as a key player in the global space industry.
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| While there is hope in new office market data that the worst of the office glut is over, real estate investors and lenders are cautious when considering support- ing expansions, acquisitions or refinancings of office assets (Cresco). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Although a variety of four-letter words have frequently been used to describe the office market since the pandemic, there’s a new one being uttered lately — “hope.” That word made its appearance in the latest Cleveland office market report by Newmark, one of the industry’s most respected collectors and analysts of real estate inventory market data.
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| Bedford Hospital, now University Hospitals Bedford Outpatient Campus on Columbus Road. As a city-owned property, it will become the subject of a request for proposals for healthcare providers and other investors to redevelop (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The City of Bedford has reached a settlement agreement with University Hospitals (UH) that includes the transfer of the former Bedford Hospital site and surrounding properties to the city and a $2.1 million payment. This settlement ends a two-and-a-half year legal dispute stemming from UH’s controversial August 2022 hospital closure.
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| The headquarters for Moen Inc. appears to be getting ready to hop on the highway out of town. A press release and local sources say the longtime Cleveland-area company will be relocating its HQ from North Olmsted to the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, IL (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Faucet and fixture maker Moen Inc. is relocating is corporate headquarters from the western Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted to the northern Chicago suburb of Deerfield, IL by the summer of 2026, according to a press release and affected employees. It is not known how many of Moen’s 600-plus HQ employees are making the move but it appears that a significant number of them will.
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| It’s a rendering that’s been kicking around as long as the Warner & Swasey redevelop- ment project has, through at least two developers and 15 years. But that project is still alive, as is another nearby that’s been kicking around for a few years too (Geis). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Projects that have languished for half as long as the redevelopment of the Warner & Swasey factory, 5701 Carnegie Ave., were ultimately abandoned. But not this one and the reason is because just about anyone who follows redevelopment locally wants its catalytic reactivation for the benefit of Cleveland’s Midtown neighborhood.
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| Fast-moving traffic along Detroit Avenue in front of the West Boulevard-Cudell rapid transit station, at right, completes a pedestrian moat around the station. The north and west sides of the station are blocked by railroad tracks. The avenue will be narrowed and a landscaped pedestrian island added beyond the West Boulevard intersection at the next traffic light (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Unfortunately, there are many places in Cleveland where crossing a wide, busy street is like being the frog in the video game Frogger. But having that be the case at the front door to a rapid transit station reduces the usage of that station. And it reduces the potential for that station to spur the development of housing, jobs and services within a short walk.
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| Buried in the underbrush at the bottom-center of this view are the tracks that could deliver Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad trains to this site for a potential Downtown Cleveland station. This view was taken from the Lorain-Carnegie Hope Memorial Bridge. A proposed CVSR station below this bridge was recommended by Bedrock Real Estate which is building the Global Peak Performance Center at lower left and owns riverfront land beyond (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Except for one brief instruction, property-owning freight railroad CSX Transportation didn’t participate in a feasibility study for extending the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad‘s (CVSR) passenger trains into Downtown Cleveland. But that instruction, described as “a gold-plated” request, forced the study team to conclude that the CVSR extension would not be feasible — for now.
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| The McCafferty Health Center on Lorain Avenue in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighbor- hood will be demolished for affordable senior housing to be developed by Pennrose. This view of the mostly vacant health center is from Fulton Court, an alley behind the property (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Affordable housing developer Pennrose, LLC. is looking to build on the success of its other Cleveland-area projects with its next venture, this time on the city’s west side. The national developer is partnering with Ohio City Incorporated (OCI) to construct a 72-unit apartment building geared towards seniors and charging rents between 30 percent and 70 percent of the area’s median income.
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| Sherwin-Williams new headquarters tower has joined the family of Cleveland sky- scrapers. But most of the company’s employees won’t join the tower for months after its official grand opening ceremony which is scheduled for March (Property of The Sherwin-Williams Company). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Although the grand-opening ceremony for the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters tower has been set, repairs to already finished areas are pushing occupancy of the tower months farther into the future. Some employees told NEOtrans they don’t expect to migrate over to the new tower until next fall.
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| Bedrock’s downtown riverfront development isn’t just about new buildings, it’s also about new infrastructure that make those new buildings possible. But funding for the infrastructure is coming from tax revenues captured from the new buildings, requiring an incremental approach for both unless future funding is pledged to move more quickly, which is what Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration wants to do (Adjaye Associates). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration is requesting an important amendment to the city’s riverfront tax increment financing (TIF) district that would do two things. One spells out exactly what infrastructure work would be done. A second would extend the 30-year TIF to 42 years. And the third and perhaps most controversial is that it would pledge undefined future TIF revenues to start infrastructure work now.
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| Singer Steel on Random Road in Cleveland’s Little Italy has a new owner — a local real estate developer. But the property, used as covered parking, has a steady revenue stream even if it isn’t developed (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Passersby took note of a new sign that has gone up this week on the old Singer Steel building, 2100 Random Rd. in Cleveland’s Little Italy. The sign is for an active local developer named TurnDev of Beachwood, leading those passersby to wonder what’s next for the former industrial building that was turned into covered parking area.
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| The Downtown Cleveland office building formerly known as Ohio Savings Plaza has not only lost its name from its façade. It's also losing its former main bank branch, now under the name Flagstar Bank, from the building's ground floor (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Customers who have accounts at Flagstar Bank’s Downtown Cleveland branch received letters this week saying that the branch will be closing and that all accounts will be moving soon to Flagstar’s Ohio City branch. But the $2.6 billion question is: why?
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| This massive 22-silo grain mill set between Merwin Avenue and the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland’s Flats may be demolished if the Cleveland Metroparks can secure state funding. The former mill buildings on the right side of Merwin are not affected at this time (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Since the 1930s, the massive Graft Craft silos have been a familiar sight along the Cuyahoga River, on the Flats’ Columbus Road peninsula. But they may not be around much longer if a planned application for demolition and clean-up funds by the Cleveland Metroparks is successful.
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| In the 45-story 200 Public Square tower in Downtown Cleveland is the headquarters and roughly 1,000 employees of Cleveland Cliffs, one of North America’s largest steel companies. The future of that future of that presence could be in doubt if Cliffs acquired US Steel (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The headquarters of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs could move from its namesake city to Pittsburgh if Cliffs is successful in acquiring US Steel, Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said. But a Cleveland City Hall source today said Mayor Justin Bibb spoke with Goncalves who reportedly reassured him that relocating Cliffs 1,000-plus staffpersons from Cleveland at this stage is just speculation.
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| An earthmover works atop a pile of debris that used to be a roughly 135-year-old building on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The house behind it is due to be razed next. The billboard is part of the same property which could become a multi-family development site (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
An historic building on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood was there when commuters on the adjacent West Shoreway went home on Friday evening for the weekend. When they went past the site this morning during their return to work, the building was gone.
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| The busiest light-rail station in Shaker Heights is this one — the Blue Line terminus at Warrensville in the Van Aken District. This station and its new busway transfer area, along with 21 other Shaker Heights stations, will get new passenger amenities based on their usage (GCRTA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
When the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) new trains enter service in the next few years, they will be picking up and dropping off riders at more attractive and user-friendly stations in Shaker Heights. That’s due to a $2 million program to enhance station amenities at all 22 stations in this eastern suburb that was built around its two light-rail lines, the Blue and Green lines.
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| Located on Lorain Avenue just west of West 117th Street in Cleveland’s Westown neighborhood, the historic Variety Theatre, plus its included retail spaces and upstairs apartments, is awaiting a rebirth. But it needs a new owner who can bring the restoration project across the finish line (Cresco). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The Variety Theatre, 11816 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland’s Westown neighborhood, has had multiple owners and uses in its 98-year history. It’s about to have a new one as its owner has put the property up for sale this week.
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| The North Coast Connector, also known as the land bridge, won nearly $70 million in federal funds for its construction. This view is looking south along the proposed land bridge toward Downtown Cleveland (FO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Today, the city of Cleveland announced that it was awarded $69.3 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for its ambitious downtown lakefront redevelopment. This is the second major federal grant for the downtown lakefront since October when the city was awarded $59.7 million from the USDOT. Construction is due to start in 2027.
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| The Carriage Co. redevelopment will restore and repurpose the former Voss Industries plant on West 25th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood into a mixed-use complex of apartments, ground-floor retail, offices and indoor parking (SA Group). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Redevelopment of a vacant factory complex in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood into a mixed-use property is on an “aggressive” timeline to get underway. But the Landmarks Commission said it needed more design details about new windows and exterior doors before it could sign off on the entirety of The Carriage Co. project.
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| Headquarters for The Albert M. Higley Co. stands on Euclid Avenue in Cleve- land’s Midtown neighborhood. The construction firm also has five regional offices in nearby states (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Back in 1925, Albert Higley Sr. did what the founders of many new companies owners did. He started building small. But unlike many new companies, his Cleveland-based construction firm didn’t stay small for long. Now, 100 years later, The Albert M. Higley Co. also known as AMHigley, is thinking big as it refreshes its image for the next century.
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| The University East Building is a successfully leased property, located at the south- east corner of Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road in University Circle since 1926. But the property is in need of updating which it will get from new building manager First Interstate (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
This summer, an aging but well-located building in the heart of Cleveland’s booming University Circle will get a needed refreshing to help it compete with new apartment buildings nearby. The University East Building, 11308-11330 Euclid Ave., will get that attention now that it is under the long-term management of a prominent local real estate developer.
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| With construction of the Depot on Detroit apartments due to start later this year, there is renewed interest in realizing a neighborhood plan to redesign streets in the vicinity of the West Boulevard rapid transit station, seen to the right of the rendered apartment building (City Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
In two weeks, the board of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) is expected to approve the sale of land for a planned apartment building just west of the West Boulevard rapid transit station in Cleveland’s Edgewater-Cudell neighborhood. But that development is renewing interest in a neighborhood plan for redesigning streets next to the station to make the area a more comfortable place to walk and could avail more development sites.
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| Construction work is due to start immediately on converting aging offices in the 61-year-old Erieview Tower to luxury apartments. Following that will be reno- vations to convert offices to hotel rooms. Twelve floors of offices will be modernized and a rooftop restaurant and bar will be restored (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Closing of financing for the $218 million redevelopment of the 38-story Erieview Tower and Galleria redevelopment in Downtown Cleveland was announced today by two advisors to the project. The momentous occasion signals an immediate start for residential construction, although some of the remaining office tenants in the building told NEOtrans that site-prep work is already underway.
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| Downtown Cleveland in July 2024, prior to Oswald Companies putting up its naming rights sign on the silver Flats East Bank near the center of this image. Their new and old buildings are both making news at the turn of the new year (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
At the start of the new year, employers are expanding, relocating, renovating and otherwise retrofitting their office spaces. Ironically, the current and former Oswald buildings in Downtown Cleveland are the addresses where most of these investments are planned, according to public records. As NEOtrans reported last week, 2025 may be the year that Cleveland returns to the office.
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| Downtown Cleveland’s Canal Basin Park, as viewed from near the old Superior Viaduct, shows the newly added boat docks and the planned boardwalk along the planned boardwalk along the Cuyahoga River. Designs for the park offer features that are both fun and educational for people of all ages (Merritt Chase). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Although Cleveland Planning Commission’s Design-Review Committee gave a unanimous thumbs-up today to conceptual plans for downtown’s Canal Basin Park, it wasn’t without some suggestions for improvement. The design team for the 20-acre park, located between turns in the curvaceous Cuyahoga River, will come back to the commission with refined, more detailed schematic designs in the coming months.
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| The Cleveland Browns and their majority owner Haslam Sports Group moved a step closer today to making this rendering of the proposed Brook Park stadium a reality by exercising an option to buy the 176-acre property (HKS). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The owners of the Cleveland Browns football team have completed the next part in the process toward building a new enclosed stadium in suburban Brook Park, officially executing a clause in a land purchase agreement to acquire the site. The site at 18300 Snow Rd. in the Cleveland suburb will not only house the new Huntington Bank Field enclosed stadium, but also a planned, adjacent mixed-use development.
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| Every one of these buildings, from Cleveland’s “Big Four” in the 600-foot-plus club to the tiniest shop at the edge of downtown, has a story to tell. That story is still being written. Some added interesting plots last year. Others could take their turns in 2025. One story that is just starting is the newly built Sherwin- Williams headquarters tower (The Sherwin-Williams Company). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, many of us are about to rediscover our relationship with the office. Some of us never left. Others left and aren’t coming back. But an increasing number of Americans and Greater Clevelanders will be coming back to the office in 2025, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic caused employers to dabble with remote or hybrid working.
