Confirming news first reported here at NEOtrans two weeks ago, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne informed county staff that he will introduce plans to Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday to lease the former Plain Dealer building downtown for the new Board of Elections (BOE) offices. In a memo circulated today to certain county employees, he also outlined plans for additional real estate moves by the county.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Cuyahoga Land Bank gets $10M from Cleveland
Cleveland City Council has awarded $9.9 million of remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the Cuyahoga Land Bank to build and renovate homes in three wards that include four historically disinvested neighborhoods including Central, Clark-Fulton, Collinwood and Glenville. The targeted wards are five, 10 and 14.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Metroparks buying more Cuyahoga Riverfront land
Adding 4.5 acres of land along the Cuyahoga River is a relatively small contribution to the 1,000 acres the Cleveland Metroparks has acquired in just the past three years. But this latest addition may be one of its most visible and strategic. The site the Metroparks is acquiring is located in Cleveland on Whiskey Island, between the river and the park system’s new Wendy Park Bridge.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Irishtown Bend Park design features unveiled
Tomorrow, the board of the Cleveland Metroparks is expected to authorize requesting a $10.8 million grant from the state to pay a significant portion of the construction costs of the planned Irishtown Bend Park in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The proposed improvements and their projected costs are based on designs that were released today.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Cleveland suburban office market ‘bloodbath’
The numbers are downright ugly. High office vacancy rates and even higher availability rates exceeding 20 percent owing to a big jump in office spaces available for sub-lease. Numerous Class A office buildings are for sale with few if any interested buyers. For those in a buying mood, their lowball interest may be only for the land to hold for a possible conversion to new uses or for the hopes that better days may return to the office market — someday.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Downtown Cleveland’s recovery accelerated in 2023
In a data-heavy report released today, Downtown Cleveland, Inc. (DCI) outlined its achievements in continuing the recovery of Cleveland’s business and hospitality center and one of Cuyahoga County’s fastest-growing residential areas. The data, contained in the 2023 Downtown Cleveland Economic Development Report, says the recovery of Cleveland’s central business district is outpacing that of its peer cities in Ohio and the Great Lakes region.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Flats On Pearl OK’d, Row On Garden tabled
A next step for developer Kostas Almiroudis went forward when the Cleveland Landmarks Commission approved plans for the mixed-use Flats On Pearl. But the commission didn’t take as many steps forward as Almiroudis wanted, in requesting the demolition of four neighboring, decayed houses and a small townhouse development that would replace them.
Friday, March 15, 2024
New design for Cleveland Shoreway tower OK’d
A desire to make a proposed residential tower overlooking Cleveland’s Edgewater Park more viable produced a design that won for it more praise from a city review panel. The proposed 13-story Shoreway tower grew from 95 apartments to 112 and shrunk its floorspace from 204,400 square feet to 140,000. In so doing, its grid-like exterior gained an intentionally distorted and sculpted appearance that earned it unanimous praise.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Hamilton Brown, Niro to lead St. Clair-Superior CDC
A well-known name in Cleveland development circles this week has lost the “interim” prefix to her job title as executive director of the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation (SCSDC) in Cleveland. Not only did Terri Hamilton Brown become the Cleveland neighborhood’s new permanent director, Michael Niro was named chair of the development corporation’s board by unanimous board votes, announced today.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Cleveland’s new Bridgeworks plan takes next steps
Bridgeworks, a mixed-use development proposed in Cleveland’s Hingetown section of Ohio City and that’s gone through several iterations, will be back in front of city design-review panels this month in the hopes of getting construction started this year. If approvals are granted, demolition of existing buildings at the northeast corner of West 25th Street and the Detroit-Superior Bridge could start in the coming months.
Streetcar deck of Detroit-Superior Bridge wins $7 million for bike/ped path
Cuyahoga County won $7 million in federal funds today for the reactivation of the streetcar deck of Detroit-Superior Veterans Memorial Bridge linking Downtown Cleveland and Ohio City. But instead of bringing back streetcars for the first time in 70 years, the funding would start planning for permanently reopen the deck as a pedestrian-bike path protected from rain, snow and fast-moving cars, trucks and buses on the roadway deck above.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Cleveland, other climate havens win Bloomberg bucks
Cleveland was selected today by Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of 25 U.S. cities to join Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities (BASC) and be the recipient of $200 million divided roughly equally among them. BASC is a three-year initiative designed to leverage historic levels of federal funding to incubate and implement transformative local solutions to build low-carbon, resilient, and economically thriving communities.
Monday, March 11, 2024
Adding ridership generators to the Waterfront Line
Over the next two months, a Cleveland State University study will identify untapped lands in Downtown Cleveland along the inactive light-rail Waterfront Line and consider how to encourage their development for the benefit of the lakefront and the transit line. The findings could ultimately be incorporated into the city’s lakefront plan which has yet to be finalized.
Friday, March 8, 2024
Elections board to the ex-Plain Dealer building?
While not as controversial or as impactful as the county’s pending moves of its consolidated jail or courthouse facilities, the new site of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (BOE) could boost its new surroundings. With up to 200 permanent employees, plus hundreds more at election time and many more visitors for early voting, the positive and negative impacts on the BOE’s new surroundings could be significant.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Browns continue to add land in Berea
Property acquisitions in the Cleveland suburb of Berea appear to be nearly wrapped up for a large, mixed-use development featuring an expanded headquarters for the Cleveland Browns and its ownership, the Haslam Sports Group. Only one or two homes need to be acquired to make way for a new headquarters office building, the professional football team’s practice facility, hotel, shops, restaurants and community recreation facilities, first reported by NEOtrans.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Hough health center ready for $19.5M rebuild
On May 19, 2021, shortly after the Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services Inc.’s (NEON) Hough Health Center, 8300 Hough Ave., closed for the night and employees went home, an apparent electrical fire sparked. The resulting flames spread throughout the building, causing millions of dollars in damage.
North Coast Waterfront Development Corp. names its first executive director
Over the decades, one of the biggest barriers to developing Downtown Cleveland’s lakefront with public and private amenities was the lack of a staff dedicated to that purpose. That barrier began to come down today with the hiring of the first staff-person to lead the new North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation (NCWDC).
Monday, March 4, 2024
Slavic Village’s Olympia Building to be renovated
Increased interest in reviving historic structures around the mostly intact Broadway-East 55th intersection in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood has expanded to include the 113-year-old Olympia Building, 3335-3361 E. 55 St. That building will feature renovated apartments over existing storefronts and the preserved lobby for the Olympia’s adjacent movie theater demolished long ago.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Royal Docks Brewing comes to Cleveland
In a couple of months, Stark County-based brewpub chain Royal Docks Brewing Company plans to expand to Cleveland by opening a location in Ohio City’s booming Hingetown neighborhood. Ohio City is a community with a half-dozen brewpubs already in operation. But with their planned Royal Docks Tied House + Kitchen, the proprietors are confident they can offer something the others don’t.
Jones Day’s downtown offices on the move?
Aside from a few rarities like Sherwin-Williams, not many corporate citizens stay in one office building for multiple decades. They are constantly growing or shrinking, their buildings get new owners, their corporate culture changes, or their biggest clients move. Another rarity is Cleveland’s largest law firm, Jones Day, which is entering its fourth decade in the same building, 901 Lakeside Ave., called North Point I.