Haslams acquire Brook Park land for stadium

Earlier this week, 179 acres of land in suburban Brook Park transferred to an affiliate
of the Haslam Sports Group for a new sports and entertainment complex that will be
the site of the Cleveland Browns’ home football games (Myplace.cuyahogacounty.gov).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Although the deed transfer was signed June 24, the document transferring 179 acres of land to an affiliate of the Haslam Sports Group for a new stadium in Brook Park didn’t become public until today. Nonetheless, this is the deal that helps set the stage for the construction of a new $3.6 billion enclosed stadium and proposed supportive development for the new home of the Cleveland Browns.

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Hough senior housing tests first new zoning in 96 years

At the southeast corner of Hough Avenue, left, and East 89th Street, CHN Housing
Partners plans to build Hough Senior Independent Living. This project was rapidly
approved by the city and improved in its design because it is located in one of Cleve-
land’s four new Form-Based Code zoning pilot areas (HD+S).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cleveland City Planning Commission today approved designs for a 55-unit affordable senior housing development in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood. While that isn’t such a big story anymore, given the heightened pace of investment in this former poster child enclave of urban decay, it is when you consider the plans for this project were submitted to the city only in May.

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Development near Edgewater Park revived

A two-phase, 72-unit development is planned on Lake Avenue near Cleveland’s Edge-
water Park. A larger project was planned here previously but proved too expensive to
construct. The city’s new form-based zoning may allow this project to proceed
(Horton Harper). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Three years ago, a team led by Beachwood-based Property Advisors Group (PAG) planned to build a large residential development at 8400 Lake Ave., overlooking Edgewater Park in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. But with construction costs and interest rates rising, the timing wasn’t right. While costs are still high, the city’s new form-based zoning code may make a scaled-down project achievable and in a timely manner.

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Fenn Tower leads historic tax credit winners

A $50.4 million renovation of Fenn Tower at the east edge of Downtown Cleveland by
Cleveland State University got a big boost today by the Ohio Department f Develop-
ment when it awarded a maximum $5 million historic tax credit to the project (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Northeast Ohio did well in the latest round of Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program awards, garnering nearly half of all awards in terms of dollar amount and total number of projects aided today. By contrast, only one project in fast-growing Central Ohio was awarded historic tax credits by the Ohio Department of Development.

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Ports of Cleveland, Shannon Foynes to link USA, EU

The routing of ships between Cleveland, Ohio, USA and Shannon Foynes, Ireland, EU
will be a direct route via the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway and North Atlantic
Ocean. That puts Cleveland closer to Ireland’s second-largest port than all of the
USA’s East Coast ports south of New York-New Jersey (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Officials from the Port of Cleveland have signed a strategic agreement with those of Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), Ireland’s second-largest port operator, to strengthen trade ties and unlock new business and economic opportunities between the Great Lakes region and Europe.

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Sinito walks away from running Millennia

Key Tower is owned by and is the headquarters of The Millennia Companies, one of the
largest affordable housing property owners and managers in the United States. It is re-
ducing its affordable housing portfolio, expanding into market-rate multifamily pro-
perties and, this month, went through significant leadership changes (NEOtrans).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Frank T. Sinito, founder of Millennia Companies, has stepped away from managing the day-to-day business of one of the nation’s largest owners and managers of affordable housing properties. In announcing this and other leadership changes, the company said it will be selling off parts of its affordable housing portfolio and expanding investments into market-rate housing.

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Downtown Cleveland won’t miss the Browns

Downtown Cleveland’s lakefront will be much more vibrant and publicly accessible
year-round without the massive Huntington Bank Field blocking its use to the public
on the public’s schedule. This unofficial rendering also assumes that Burke Lakefront
 Airport would be closed so that high-rise structures could be built on or near the
lakefront (Ardoonave). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A downtown is a horrible place for a National Football League (NFL) stadium. It’s why half of the 32 NFL teams don’t play their home games at downtown-based venues. And when the Cleveland Browns leave downtown for suburban Brook Park, it will be Downtown Cleveland that gains the most their move, not Brook Park. The reasons for this are many.

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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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