Ohio teams support DeWine’s stadium funding plan

Two existing sports and entertainment facilities plus one proposed venue are seen in
this view of the Gateway district from Terminal Tower. In the foreground is Rocket
Arena, followed by Progressive Field. To the right, just beyond the rapid transit tracks
and Inner Belt highway is the site of a professional soccer stadium (NEOtrans).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Fifteen of Ohio’s professional sports teams from among the major and minor leagues joined together in sending a letter to state leadership, expressing support for Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed process to allocate funding for sports facility projects through House Bill 96 and the Ohio Unclaimed Funds proposal. But, noticeably absent were the two teams with the largest stadium funding requests.

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University Circle site offered for mid-rise apartments

This AI-generated rendering shows a potential 11-story residential development for
Cleveland’s University Circle at Cedar Avenue and East 107th Street. The property,
zoned for a 60-foot building height, is surrounded on three sides by zoning allow-
ing for taller buildings (Cresco). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A small piece of land in University Circle with big possibilities is being offered for sale or redevelopment in partnership with the current owner, Rico Pietro, a well-known local real estate broker. But no construction is imminent as the current user, a contract ambulance service for Cleveland Clinic, is only halfway through a 10-year lease on the site.

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Warner & Swasey faces $2M gap, needs help

Someday, this perspective of Downtown Cleveland could be the view from someone’s
home. But for the last 40 years, Mother Nature has been steadily reclaiming this property
from its prior use, the Warner & Swasey Co.’s machine tool factory on Carnegie Avenue
near East 55th Street. That decay can end and the building be restored if just $2 million
more can be found to close a financing gap (NEOtrans).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Perhaps as early as Monday, affordable housing developer Pennrose LLC will get a deed and the keys to the hulking mass of brick. concrete, steel and memories that is the Warner & Swasey Co. factory, 5701 Carnegie Ave. The hope since 2018 has been to turn this long-vacant site into affordable housing. But if money was as abundant as hope for this property, its redevelopment wouldn’t have experienced a new, $2 million setback.

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Bedrock to prep Downtown’s ‘Rock Block’

Here, at the corner of East 4th Street and Huron Road, Bedrock Real Estate will begin
site preparations for a large new development called The Rock Block. However, details
of what this development entails are still a mystery (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Site preparations for a significant new development called the “Rock Block” are sought in the Gateway District of Downtown Cleveland. But the permit application outlining the proposed preparations offers more questions than it provides answers as to what may rise here and when. There are some answers and, of course, rumors.

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Midtown Lofts advances with support, concerns

NRP Group’s Midtown Lofts will be designed similarly to another project by NRP — A
Place For Us apartments at Madison Avenue and West 116th Street in Cleveland. Mid-
town Lofts will have two four-story buildings like this and will be marketed to families
and others who earn up to 80 percent of the area’s median income (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Asiatown was a neighborhood that was on the upswing 20 years ago. There were new restaurants, shopping venues like Asia Plaza, Tyler Village and other commercial developments, multiple new housing offerings such as the Asian Evergreen and Body Block Arcade apartments, plus several longstanding grocers including Dave’s Market, 3301 Payne Ave., had renovated their properties.

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Port OK’s $92M for Cleveland, Brecksville projects

Thanks to financing from the Port of Cleveland, a new AC Marriott Hotel at Valor Acres
in Brecksville is due to start construction as early as next month. The $42.9 million hotel
will add to the mixed-use offerings at Greater Cleveland’s newest lifestyle center
 (Meyers+Associates). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A trio of projects — two in Cleveland and one in Brecksville — got a total of $92 million in financing approved by the Port of Cleveland to help get them closer to construction. Two are mixed-use housing developments in Cleveland totaling 355 residential units. The third is a new, 136-room AC Marriott hotel at Valor Acres, the former Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital site in Brecksville.

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Capitol Theatre may need a new plot written

The Capitol Theatre, with its marquee facing West 65th Street in Cleveland’s
Gordon Square neighborhood, has an uncertain future. A new board was
formed to help make that future more certain and more enjoyable for the
community (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

It’s a tough time for the film industry, and an even tougher time for historic theaters like the Capitol Theatre, 1390 W. 65th St., trying to pay its bills. The 104-year-old venue in Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District has an uncertain future regardless of its owner trying to spin the creation of a Capitol Theatre Stewardship Board as “an exciting new chapter” in a press release issued today.

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Industrial user lined up for Highland Hills site

An empty street in an undeveloped part of suburban Highland Hills is attractive to an
industrial user seeking a rare, large patch of Cuyahoga County land. The land, seen here
across Millcreek Boulevard, is being sold, cleaned up and added to a joint development
zone with the city of Cleveland (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

NEOtrans has learned that the developer of a 30-acre spread of land in suburban Highland Hills isn’t marketing the assembled parcels to a new, job-rich end-user. The reason is that the developer already has one lined up for the land, located in the 22700 block of Millcreek Blvd.

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Bedrock to add steam plant site to Riverfront plans

Bedrock Real Estate wants to demolish at least part of this closed steam heating plant
for its Riverfront redevelopment in Downtown Cleveland. The fate of the four-story
building in the foreground remains unclear. Meanwhile, the Greater Cleveland Re-
gional Transit Authority plans to refurbish its Canal Road overpass, at left, as
early as next year (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

If you like what Bedrock Real Estate has planned for its huge Riverfront Development in Downtown Cleveland, expect more of it at the site currently occupied by closed Cleveland Thermal steam heating plant, 2274 Canal Rd. That’s what public records reveal in the application for Ohio Brownfields Program funding that was awarded last week. But not all of the steam plant may be affected.

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CVSR pursues Downtown Cleveland link with CSX

CSX Transportation Inc. pulled up its railroad tracks into Downtown Cleveland north
of the Lorain-Carnegie Hope Memorial Bridge, which is where this view was captured
on May 29. However, south of the bridge, the tracks were still in place as of yesterday.
At left is the new Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center including a
practice facility for the Cleveland Cavaliers (Mark Schwinn).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

On March 16, family, friends and colleagues of Thomas V. Chema received horrible news. The 78-year-old leader of civic causes and institutions died suddenly at his home in Downtown Cleveland. Chema was in the midst of excitedly pursuing his latest civic endeavor — the extension of Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad trains into downtown.

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Great Lakes Brewing Co. looks to the suburbs, again

This is the location near the Columbia Road-Interstate 90 interchange in Westlake to
which Great Lakes Brewing Company reportedly could move. Although it’s not a
done deal yet and Cleveland city officials are trying to keep the brewer and its
200 jobs in the city (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In the latest episode of “where are they looking now,” Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) reportedly has its eye on a site in suburban Westlake near the Interstate 90-Columbia Road interchange for a new craft beer production facility. But the deal isn’t done and the city of Cleveland reportedly is striving to keep one of Ohio’s largest craft brewers in the city.

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JFK High site to gain new life in Lee-Harvard

Although it’s too soon to have project-specific renderings of the JFK High redevelopment,
the 2024 Lee-Harvard Masterplan used this concept for the Avondale Estates’ Town Green
in Georgia as an example of a public space surrounded by mixed-use to show what could be
built here (APD Urban Planning + Management). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The largest redevelopment site in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard neighborhood now has a development team selected to repurpose it with a vibrant, mixed-use district of housing, neighborhood retail, civic uses and public spaces, according to a community vision crafted last year.

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Downtown’s historic Chancery Building to be renewed

The historic Chancery Building, built in 1888 and renovated in 1950, is part of
the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist at Superior Avenue and East 9th Street
in Downtown Cleveland. The cathedral is seen at far left (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

One of Downtown Cleveland’s oldest surviving buildings is about to see a structural renewal that also offer a more uplifting place for hundreds of people to work and visit. The Chancery Building, 1027 Superior Ave., was built in 1888 as a school but later was converted to offices. That use will be confirmed by a $15 million renovation.

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Downtown steam plant to be razed, redeveloped

To the right of the under-construction Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center is
the old, unused Cleveland Thermal steam heating plant for historic downtown office build-
ings. It is surrounded by Bedrock’s Riverfront development and is due to be demolished
for new uses (Harrison Whittaker). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Eight redevelopment project sites won a total of nearly $18 million from the Ohio Department of Development’s Brownfield Program so the sites can be cleaned up and, in some cases, their existing structures are to be demolished. One of those where demolition is planned is the former Cleveland Thermal steam plant, 2274 Canal Rd., in Downtown Cleveland.

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Two new Hough developments sell for $30M

The new Park Lamont apartments are a short walk or bike ride to school or work in
booming University Circle. This property and also-new Lumos apartments were
owned by their developer and, now completed, were sold to a new landlord
 (Reynolds Asset Management). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a $30.6M deal, a national real estate investment firm added 119 newly constructed apartments in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood to its growing portfolio. New Jersey-based Reynolds Asset Management acquired Park Lamont, 9606 Lamont Ave., and The Lumos, 1866 E. 93rd St. Both are located a short walk or bike ride from jobs and classrooms in booming University Circle.

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I-X Center’s new use revealed

This is why the I-X Center is reportedly going to become a data center — a 25-
megawatt substation located on-site. Data centers are voracious consumers of
electrical power and the I-X Center has access to power (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, the International Exhibition (I-X) Center next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will become a data center. And, according to one of those sources, the end user is likely to be Amazon Web Services.

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Glenville Job-Ready Site more than doubles in size

Along Kirby Avenue, one-fourth of a mile from the interchange of Interstate 90 and
Eddy Road in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood, is this 36-acre property that’s being
cleaned up as a new job-ready site (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Too much is never enough. When you’re marketing land to new end-users, you can’t have enough clean, developable land in the urban core. And one of the largest, if not the largest in the city of Cleveland has just been assembled by the Cuyahoga Land Bank. The site is located at 12610 Kirby Ave. in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood, bordering on Collinwood.

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Bridgeworks shows new signs of life

At the west end of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, the long-planned Bridgeworks
development site could finally start to see some visible activity in the coming
weeks (GLSD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While the development team for the $84 million mixed-use Bridgeworks project in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood is finalizing construction permits with the city, the team decided to take a step that could accelerate the project and get it underway sooner.

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Banking on a large East Cleveland development

Signs of progress are visible at the Circle East District in East Cleveland, where new
homes and increased home ownership are getting a boost from a deal between two dif-
ferent kinds of banks — the Cuyahoga Land Bank and First National Bank. In the back-
ground on Woodlawn Avenue, historic homes are being renovated and new homes are
being built (Cuyahoga Land Bank). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cuyahoga Land Bank and First National Bank (FNB) have announced a new partnership to accelerate development in the Circle East District in East Cleveland by supporting homeownership. Since 2022, the land bank has been busily rebuilding this neighborhood next to University Circle from the sewers up.

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Polling data shows voters oppose Browns move

Concerns about being able to keep Cleveland’s existing stadiums in a state of good
repair apparently prompted a poll of likely voters to assess their views toward ex-
tending or expanding a Cuyahoga County sin tax. According to the poll results, those
concerns were justified (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

One day after the region’s chamber of commerce announced its support for the construction of an enclosed stadium in Brook Park, a poll of likely voters in Cuyahoga County was leaked to NEOtrans, showing most of those voters opposed the Cleveland Browns leaving downtown for the suburbs. The poll also said that opposition was putting at risk a county sin tax to repair facilities for all of Cleveland’s major sports teams.

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