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| Too much of Cleveland’s East Side looks like this — rural. From nearly 100,000 residents in the 1960s to fewer than 20,000 today turned this crowded area into an urban prairie. This is East 65th Street at Luther Avenue, where the Hough neighborhood meets St Clair- Superior (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Taken together, Cleveland’s Hough and St. Clair-Superior neighborhoods aren’t that big of area. But its large amount of vacant land weighs heavily on the City of Cleveland.
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| After 2029, when Huntington Bank Field closes and stops hosting major events that require hosting a huge surge of cars, the stadium will be razed and new lakefront uses will replace it. Those proposed uses could make their first appearance in plans to be released in October (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Representatives from the North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation (NCWDC) gave Cleveland city planners an update on the lakefront master plan on Friday. As the process nears completion, the first tangibles of a new public realm are taking shape.
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| The grand, former Cleveland Trust rotunda at Euclid Avenue and East 9th Street has housed a Heinen’s grocery store for 11 years. But from the outside it’s difficult to tell what’s inside, if it’s open or how to get in. Once inside, the floor layouts are difficult for a grocery store to use and its merchandise unsuitable for an urban clientele, observers say (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
With the Downtown Cleveland Heinen’s grocery store, 900 Euclid Ave., set to close at the end of this month after 11 years in business, city, county and civic leaders are undertaking a two-pronged response to fill the void in the short- and long-term.
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| Downtown Cleveland’s Ohio Savings Plaza on East 9th Street and its little brother Park Plaza to the east both sold to the Kassouf family albeit under different corporate identities. And they sold for bargain price (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Rumors had swirled for weeks but no one was willing to confirm it — until yesterday when the sale of the Ohio Savings Plaza and Park Plaza office buildings hit public records.
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| In University Circle, the $140 million Stokes East Tower will rise 24 stories next to the Wade Park Lagoon and add to the residential inventory of one of the fastest-growing employment districts in Ohio (SCB). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Three major Cleveland development projects totaling nearly $300 million in value won financing today from the Port of Cleveland. Together, the trio of projects will add 536 housing units, 121 hotel rooms and more than 23,000 square feet of commercial space.
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| Greater Cleveland has gained some major employers in its transition from an economy that was dependent on manufacturing. But that doesn’t mean it has given up on manufacturing. It does mean that it needs more tools to attract employers of all kinds and in existing communities that the region’s labor pool can access (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Once upon a time, Cleveland was the nation’s center of industrial innovation and small, new-start businesses that resulted from it. Perhaps you’ve heard of a few of them — Standard Oil, General Electric Lighting, Sherwin-Williams, TRW, Cleveland-Cliffs, Lincoln Electric, Parker Hannifin to name a few.
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| Master Chrome had only months of visible business activity left when this screenshot was captured in active in June 2019. It was allegedly adding to pollutants to the site that took a team of people at the state, county and city governments to demolish, clean up and con- tinue to monitor (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Master Chrome was just a small industry on a small lot. Its structure didn’t even measure 10,000 square feet. The land on which it set was barely more than half an acre.
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| A Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority bus rolls by St. Ignatius High School bearing mixed messages. So is the authority’s board, saying transit funding is important but lacks the immediacy to avoid service cuts (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The future of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) didn’t get much clearer at a special board meeting held today. But the transit agency’s trustees did vote unanimously to support a compromise action that could put a sales tax levy on the ballot in May 2027. The board is due to finalize its decision in September.
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| Mark Rantala was named the new executive director of the nonprofit Slavic Village Development (SVD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Already with a week on the job at the new executive director of Slavic Village Development (SVD) in its namesake Cleveland neighborhood, Mark Rantala has been out and about, engaging with the community.
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| Lakewood Common, a mixed-use development on the south side of Detroit Avenue in Downtown Lakewood, will include apartments over retail (Harrison Whittaker). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
As the two-building Westline development on Detroit Avenue starts to fill up, Lakewood won’t need to wait long for its next major mixed-use project. In fact, an even larger, $119 million development has nearly topped out less than a mile away at the former Lakewood Hospital site.
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| This parking lot at the southeast corner of West 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Down- town Cleveland will remain a parking lot for the foreseeable future despite it gaining a new owner (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Last week, NEOtrans reported that one of the last large “parking craters” remaining in Downtown Cleveland’s central business district has a buyer. This week, we confirmed who the buyer is and what they plan to do with it.
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| A conceptual rendering of a shared-use path along West Boulevard linking several of Cleve- land’s west-side neighborhoods (contributed). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
State and local officials announced this week that the State of Ohio awarded $100,000 to the City of Cleveland to develop plans for a shared-use path for cyclists, joggers, pedestrians and others living in or visiting the city’s West Boulevard, Cudell, Clifton-Baltic and Edgewater neighborhoods.
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| Formerly known as the Rose Building, Project Scarlet also includes the smaller, neighboring Sloane Building that is amassing financing for its conversion from office building to mixed- use complex, including residential, hotel and ground-floor retail along East 9th Street in Downtown Cleveland (Diamond Signs & Graphics). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Although Project Scarlet is in Downtown Cleveland and Valor Acres is in suburban Cleveland, the two developments have something in common. They both won $7 million in Transformational Mixed-Use Development (TMUD) tax credits from the State of Ohio today.
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| Like waiting for a bus, a levy to avoid transit service cuts and fund a modest expansion of public transportation in Cuyahoga County is due to arrive soon. The only question is when (City of Cleveland). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A half-percent sales tax increase to fund a modest expansion of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) and prevent more service cuts starting next year is going on the ballot in Cuyahoga County. The only question is when. And that will be decided by the GCRTA board July 7.
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| While this modular home factory is an extra-clean example of such a facility, a long-aban- doned factory on Cleveland’s East Side will be significantly renovated for this manufac- turing purpose (SRF). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The first manufacturer to locate in Cleveland’s new Midline Priority Investment Area on the city’s near-East Side was named today. It followed last week’s award of historic tax credits for the revival of the historic Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Engineering plant, 7000 Central Ave. where Cleveland’s Fairfax and Central neighborhoods meet.
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| Since this streetview was taken in 2022, the south end of the Bluestone Business Center 2 has a new tenant, a distribution center for retailer Target. The far end will host a new manufacturer, Monteferro USA. This building previously hosted an Amazon flex distributor (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Two companies plan to hire 115 employees, generating nearly $7 million in new payroll while investing nearly $700,000 in renovating facilities for their businesses in two Greater Cleveland communities.
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| Demolition crews are starting to dismantle the 107-year-old FirstEnergy Brooklyn Service Center on Ridge Road in Cleveland. It was constructed by FirstEnergy predecessor Cleve- land Electric Illuminating Co. (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A large, familiar landmark that has stood along Ridge Road at the south end of Cleveland’s Stockyards neighborhood since 1919 won’t be standing much longer.
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| A decade ago, before the pandemic spurred remote working, an office building and plaza were planned at this city-owned lot at the northwest corner of Warrensville Road and, at lower left, Chagrin Boulevard, at the end of the light-rail Blue Line. This design was also panned by transit advocates who complained it would block a Blue Line extension south or east- ward for decades (RMS). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Two of Cleveland’s first-ring suburbs served by rail transit won federal grants this week. The awards will help them develop construction-ready plans in partnership with real estate firms for transit-oriented developments at several sites next to their rail services.
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| Often described by visitors as the most beautiful grocery store in America, the Heinen’s store and its former Cleveland Trust Bank rotunda will have to find a new use after July 31 (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Northeast Ohio-based Heinen’s grocery stores announced today that their iconic location in Downtown Cleveland will close permanently on July 31. A new use for the for space, described by many visitors and shoppers as the nation’s most beautiful grocery store, has apparently not been found.
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| A parking lot at the corner of West 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Downtown Cleveland’s Warehouse District may indeed be the subject of a vertical development based on the workers in the background drilling for core samples at locations around the lot this week (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A large parking lot in Downtown Cleveland’s Warehouse District that’s been up for sale twice since 2019 apparently is now under a purchase agreement with a buyer who seems interested in developing it.
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| According to plans filed with the city, the owner of the 54-year-old 1100 Superior, Brady Sullivan Properties, is converting floors 3-5, 9, and 13-15 from office spaces to 160 apart- ments. It just won a maximum historic tax credit from the state to help finance its work (CBRE). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik today announced more than $86 million in historic tax credits to support the preservation and revitalization of dozens of historic buildings across the state. Of that, nearly $18.5 million was awarded to seven projects in Cuyahoga County.
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| Some Cleveland streets, such as the northern portion of West 25th Street in Ohio City, see very frequent bus service because more than one route is combined here. But without a new source of revenue there will be fewer buses which means fewer connections and thus fewer destinations and jobs will be accessible by transit (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) Board of Trustees learned today the bus and rail agency is facing one of three potential futures. While there are solutions to all three, GCRTA staff said only two would offer some benefits in addressing costs that are spiraling out of control.
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| Four townhouses could see construction in the coming weeks at the corner of Lake Avenue and West 83rd Street in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. It’s one of many west-side pro- jects sought by developer Insight Holdings (Insight). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A variety of new housing products are due to start arriving over the next year on Cleveland’s West Side. Not only are they a mix of for-sale and for-rent housing, they are of different styles and located in different neighborhoods.
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| Crews are nearly done framing 141 new apartments at Arcadia, just across the street from the transit-oriented Van Aken District in Shaker Heights (Ian McDaniel). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
With summer in full swing, momentum grows on completing several high-profile construction projects around the east side Heights. Hundreds of new apartments and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment are underway to construct more walkable and transit-oriented districts.
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| In less than a dozen years, stunning growth has changed East 105th Street, where Cleve- land’s University Circle and Fairfax neighborhoods meet. Transportation access to this booming area has improved but still lags Downtown Cleveland’s even though Uni- versity Circle’s employment and population are quickly catching up (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Each morning, the red lines appear on the traffic app’s map. The lines, along with their yellow brethren, make for a colorful mosaic along the otherwise green-shaded grid of neighborhood streets surrounding the Cleveland Clinic. But that’s the only attractive thing about them. No one wants these indicators of traffic congestion — not city officials, Clinic officials, neighbors or commuters.
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| Proposed design concept for the Shaker Square car wash (SBA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Clean Express Auto Wash, a Cleveland-area express car wash operator and a brand of Express Wash Concepts, issued a statement today today that it has withdrawn its application for a proposed car wash location in Cleveland’s Shaker Square.
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| The former American Sugar Refining Co. plant on Carnegie Avenue in Midtown closed early last year, was sold last month and in the coming weeks will be demolished for an as-yet uniden- tified end user. The 10.3-acre property has joined many others in the Midline redevelopment district to be reactivated once again (CRESCO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Another big piece of land has been added to the Midline redevelopment district on the city’s near-East Side. And officials are wasting no time in clearing the site for future development.
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| From the central green in Valor Acres, the rest of the $678 million mixed-use development takes shape in Brecksville (Ian McDaniel). CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
While billions-worth of development is underway to revitalize downtown Cleveland and adjacent neighborhoods, billions more in mixed-use developments are rising in communities throughout Cuyahoga County.
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| A Clean Express Auto Wash stands on Broadview Road in Parma in a well-landscaped setting. But vocal opposition to building one next to Cleveland’s historic Shaker Square emerged at a design review committee meeting today (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
It may be one of the nicest-designed, best-landscaped and best-operated car wash operations you can find, but Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, his chief of development, City Council members and a committee of the City Landmarks Commission said a proposed car wash doesn’t belong next to Shaker Square.
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| Seen from the corner of Cedar Avenue and East 93rd Street, this massing shows the scale, shape and location for Cleveland Clinic’s planned 120,000-square-foot expansion of the Maria & Sam Miller Emergency Services Building. If the City Planning Commission agrees with this concept, the details of the design will be filled in (Cleveland Clinic). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Cleveland Clinic and its facility planning consultants are seeking approval next week from the Cleveland Planning Commission for conceptual designs for its expanded Emergency Department, called Building E, 9105 Cedar Ave., in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood.
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| Good Night John Boy recently moved to this building on the riverfront, an upgrade among several happening all around the Flats East Bank (Ian McDaniel). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
When the sudden closings of several long-term tenants punctuated the end of the 2025 season, many were quick to declare Flats East Bank in Cleveland “dead” once again.
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| Cosm Cleveland rises at the northeast corner of Huron Road and East 4th Street in Downtown Cleveland’s Gateway District (Harrison Whittaker). |
In Downtown Cleveland’s Gateway District, Cosm’s vertical construction is moving along — fast. The massive “shared reality” entertainment venue, being developed as part of Bedrock’s Rock Block, would stream sports events on a nearly 100-foot, 12k-resolution LED dome.
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| Within its existing building shell at right, which is as long as the new Sherwin-Williams head- quarters is tall, the Cleveland H5 Data Center plans to expand its capacity on Rockwell Avenue downtown (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Plans were submitted today for the expansion of an existing data center in Downtown Cleveland that could be affected by the city’s proposed moratorium on data centers. Unlike a newly proposed data center that was rejected by the city last month, this latest project involves expanding within the walls of an existing structure.
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| Across the Rocky River, a tower crane for Fairview Hospital’s North Campus expansion rises above the Lorain Road Viaduct (Harrison Whittaker). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Once described as “a slice of suburbia in the city,” Cleveland’s Kamm’s Corners neighborhood might be the last place one would expect a $150 million construction project large enough to require a tower crane. But that’s exactly what’s underway at Fairview Hospital’s 169,521-square-foot North Campus expansion.
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| Site plan for the proposed Shaker Square car wash. North is at the top of the image, with the southeast commercial quadrant of Shaker Square visible at upper left (Kimley Horn). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Shaker Square, although faded from its peak decades ago, remains Greater Cleveland’s seminal example of transit-oriented community design in which the rapid transit system, pedestrian activity, and vertically mixed uses are juxtaposed to support each other.
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| At the northeast corner of Miller Road and Innovation Parkway, the Cleveland Clinic plans to build this medical office building (Perspectus). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
New structures and uses keep getting added to the mixed-use lifestyle center Valor Acres at Miller and Brecksville roads in suburban Brecksville. The latest will be a Cleveland Clinic outpatient care facility, due to open in late 2027.
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| At the northeast corner of Detroit and St. Charles avenues is the former Lakewood Center West, now converted into Lakewood Lofts. In the parking garage seen behind, 70 spaces are set aside for tenants of the lofts (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Downtown Lakewood is steadily turning from an office district into a residential one. The latest example of that metamorphosis is perhaps the quietest conversion of a seven-story suburban office building in Greater Cleveland’s history.
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| The development team of The Thomas apartments and their future successors posed at a groundbreaking ceremony today in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood (NEOtrans). |
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| Transit oriented development isn’t limited to rail station areas. It can also be built along high- frequency bus lines like Cleveland Clinic’s North Campus expansion of Fairview Hospital where Cleveland meets Fairview Park (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Most municipalities in Cuyahoga County were built-out decades ago, limiting opportunities to offer newer, more competitive housing and build a stronger tax base without raising taxes. The few remaining places for development are infill sites for which many communities lack zoning to develop them.
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| Where Steve Barry Buick’s showroom stood on the north side of Detroit Avenue at Brockley Avenue in Lakewood now is a 66-unit apartment building with a yet-to-be-leased ground- floor retail space (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Until the first decade of this century, Detroit Avenue in Lakewood had a half-dozen car dealerships along it. Today, they’re all gone after having closed or moved to exurban highway interchanges.
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| The Slavic Village Neighborhood Plan represents the culmination of a series of outreach events involving diverse members of the community (Slavic Village Development). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
On Friday, City Planning Commission approved not one, but two transformative plans developed alongside each other for Cleveland’s Slavic Village — which hasn’t seen a comprehensive neighborhood plan in almost two decades.
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| Construction on a single-family infill home by Cleveland Bricks wraps up on East 84th Street north of Chester Avenue (Harrison Whittaker). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
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| A conceptual rendering of a film studio proposed in Euclid. This graphic shows the administra- tive offices and one of the film/sound stages but three more stages are planned as additions to the right (Christopher A. Lobas & Associates). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Getting ready for its close-up is a mid-sized film studio campus planned by an experienced filmmaker in the Cleveland suburb of Euclid. The goal for the filmmaker, Northeast Ohio native and Ingalls & Co. CEO James Ingalls II, is to transform Greater Cleveland into “a premier cinematic hub.”
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| Only five ORRIS townhomes front Center Ridge Road in Rocky River. The other 20 units are set behind in a large lot near shopping, schools and parks (TKG). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A collection of new luxury rental townhomes is now open and move-in ready at ORRIS, 22601 Center Ridge Rd., Rocky River. Developed by The Krueger Group (TKG), this phase-two expansion of the ORRIS development adds 25 townhomes to offer single-family living in a maintenance-free rental setting.
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| Officials gathered yesterday for the ceremonial groundbreaking for the renovation and mixed-use repurposing of the long-vacant Warner & Swasey factory in Cleveland’s Midtown district. But the actual site preparations began months before (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Although site preparations have been underway since winter, now the repair, recovery and rebuilding work begins on the redevelopment of the long-vacant Warner & Swasey factory, 5701 Carnegie Ave., in Cleveland’s MidTown neighborhood.
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| Bus and train rides in Cleveland can often be slowed by riders fumbling for change while boarding and paying fares. That’s especially true during busy times like at the Red Line Little Italy station during the annual Feast of the Assumption in August (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Boarding Greater Cleveland’s buses and trains will be quicker and simpler for customers after several fare payment-related changes are implemented after years of advocacy and planning.
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| A conceptual rendering depicts a reworked South Rockefeller Park, including a pro- posed closure of Stearns Road and two-way conversion of MLK Jr. Drive (Sasaki). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
On Friday, University Circle’s 10-year master plan for land use and public realm improvements won unanimous approval from City Planning Commission. The plan, titled Connecting the Circle, aims to transform the city’s second-largest employment center into a “Connected Civic Commons.”
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| The Hope Memorial Bridge — home to the Guardians of Traffic pylons — overlooks the site of the future Riverfront Amphitheater and the existing warehouse at 401 Stones Levee Rd. in the Flats (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Developers from Bedrock Cleveland and Rock Entertainment Group (REG) on Friday received approval from the City of Cleveland Planning Commission (CPC) to demolish a warehouse at 401 Stones Levee Rd. in the Flats. The demolition clears the way for the group behind billions in riverfront development to proceed with the next phase of revitalization and activation.
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| An early conceptual rendering for the redevelopment of the former Westinghouse plant along the West Shoreway includes many features of the final, approved project including retaining the façade of the foundry at left for new construction behind and redevelopment of the tower at right with apartments (AODK). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A ride along the West Shoreway from Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood to Edgewater Park will soon be a tour of multiple, major residential construction projects within sight of the roadway and more developments just a few blocks south of it. The latest to join the cavalcade of new multifamily housing will be the Westinghouse redevelopment.
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| It’s a rendering that’s led almost every article about Bridgeworks, the elusive but promising mixed-use development proposed at the northeast corner of the Detroit-Superior Bridge and West 25th Street near downtown. But there is activity swirling about the project, perhaps more so now than in years (Geis). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
It looks like it’s finally happening. After more than seven years of project development, multiple redesigns, financing shortfalls, and occasionally dim prospects, demolition, site preparation and construction of Bridgeworks is due to start in the middle of June.
