Renovations helping to preserve historic Ohio City

An historic mansion at 3117 Franklin Blvd. is being converted into apartments
as part of the Franklin Yards development (Harrison Whittaker).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A neglected building can drag down an entire block, but restoring an obsolete structure can do the exact opposite, creating renewed activity that cascades to nearby businesses. In Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, a wave of renovation projects could serve as a model for preserving the city’s dwindling stock of historic buildings.

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Westwood in Rocky River fetches $28.7M

 The L-shaped Westwood Town Center on Center Ridge Road in suburban
Rocky River has a new owner (JLL). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A popular, well-leased, strip-shopping center in Cleveland’s western suburbs was just sold by a local firm to a larger, national company based in New York City.

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Vacant lots may grow useful again

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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Complete lakefront master plan due in October

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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Two Downtown towers sell for $4.25M – total

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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Three big Cleveland developments advance

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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NEO fund to boost biz, job sites

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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‘The old Master Chrome building is down’

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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GCRTA delays levy decision to September

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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Slavic Village CDC hires new director

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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Next Lakewood developments take shape

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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Warehouse District lot buyer revealed

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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West Blvd shared use path advances

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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Greater Cleveland gets 2 TMUDs

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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GCRTA levy to appear on ballot

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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Housing maker finds home in Midline

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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Euclid, Solon to land new biz, 115 jobs

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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Cleveland landmark to fall

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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Shaker Hts, Brook Park win TOD grants

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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Downtown Heinen’s to close after 11 years

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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