CSU seeks to redevelop Wolstein Center site

The Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Center is a 13,610-seat indoor arena and event center loca-
ted on the Cleveland State University campus in Downtown Cleveland. A recent univer-
sity masterplan proposed demolishing the 34-year-old facility and redeveloping its 10-
acre site as the “Partnership District” (CSU). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cleveland State University is seeking to redevelop the Wolstein Center arena site in Downtown Cleveland and today issued a request for developers to submit their qualifications to do the job. But the request for qualifications leaves it to developers to decide whether the 34-year-old arena, 2000 Prospect Ave., should stay or go.

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Cleveland’s new hot spot: BVQ District. Here’s why…

A rendering for an early phase in the multi-building Hub 27 development at the north
end of Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. This section, between Interstate 90
and the Red Line, is the BVQ enclave, named after the streets Barber-Vega-Queen
in that area (BDCL). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

There’s an underutilized 50-acre area on Cleveland’s near-West Side dubbed the BVQ District. It is surrounded by Ohio City, Tremont and the La Villa Hispana section of Clark-Fulton. All of those neighborhoods have seen, and continue to see a lot of investment. BVQ has been walled off from that activity by Interstate 90 and the Red Line tracks. But like water overtopping a dam, soon that dam is going to break.

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Tick Tock Tavern leased by Sausalito On 9th owner

The former Tick Tock Tavern space in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood was
leased by Saravanan Chandrababu, owner of Downtown Cleveland’s Sausalito
on Ninth. Interior work is due to start soon as an interior demolition plan was
approved by the city (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A public record filed this week provided the first indication that the space which housed the Tick Tock Tavern in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood has a new lease on life. The owner of Downtown Cleveland’s Sausalito on Ninth was notified by the city that his plan to start renovating the recently closed, eight-decade-old tavern was approved.

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Charter bus operator to offer Midwest routes

Cleveland will be linked by bus to Akron, Columbus, Toledo and Detroit with direct,
one-seat rides plus other cities through connections to other routes (GOGO).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Starting this summer, GOGO Charters will begin offering regularly scheduled, daily bus services from Cleveland as part of a 15-city Midwest expansion. The new service promises fares as low as $10 for those who book early, similar to Megabus which operated popular routes to Cleveland prior to the pandemic.

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Cleveland soccer stadium to move forward

Looking south from the Inner Belt (Interstate 90) bridges, this revised proposal for a
Downtown Cleveland soccer stadium was announced today with the intentions of
getting it built before the October end of the 2026 Major League Soccer Next PRO
season. The view is disorienting because the downtown skyline is in the opposite
direction (CSG). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) today announced plans to build a stadium to host men’s and women’s professional soccer games in Cleveland in 2026, with the proposed development of a new 10,000-seat South Gateway Stadium in Downtown Cleveland. This is intended to coincide with a new announcement in the coming weeks regarding Cleveland securing a new women’s pro soccer team.

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McCafferty site redevelopment in Ohio City revealed

An early conceptual rendering of the potential size and shape of the senior affordable
housing proposed for the McCafferty Center site, as seen at the northeast corner of
Lorain Avenue and West 44th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood
(City Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Six weeks ago, city officials announced that they had picked Pennrose, LLC and its proposal to build senior affordable apartments on the current site of the Thomas F. McCafferty Health Center, 4242 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. Now, with a Pennrose-led development team submitting to the state its application for Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for the project, the public can see the developer’s proposed plan.

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GCRTA orders trains for Shaker-Waterfront lines

New trains for all three rail lines in the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
system have been ordered from manufacturer Siemens Mobility. The first trains could
start appearing in Cleveland for testing and training next year, but they won’t begin
 regular service until 2027 (GCRTA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has exercised an option to order an additional 18 new Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) from Siemens Mobility to replace their aging fleet of trains, according to GCRTA and Siemens today. This adds to previous orders, allowing GCRTA to, at minimum, provide a base-level of service on all three of its rail transit lines by 2028.

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Staff reductions to hit Sherwin-Williams HQ

Sherwin-Williams’ new headquarters tower just west of Public Square in Downtown
Cleveland is due to open later this year. But there may be fewer employees moving
to it from the old HQ several blocks away, according to employees who say the
company is reducing JQ staff (The Sherwin-Williams Company).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

With Sherwin-Williams due to move into its new headquarters tower in Downtown Cleveland later this year, there may be fewer managers making that move. That’s according to two company sources who told NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity that Sherwin-Williams is downsizing its headquarters staff, primarily through early retirements and/or voluntary layoffs.

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Shaker Square demolition to avail housing site

An early concept for a multi-family building on the southeast corner of Cleveland’s Shaker
Square district was shared with the Landmarks Commission prior to its approval of the
demolition of a decayed retail strip facing Van Aken Boulevard at right, and Drexmore
Road at left (Paran). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Although the demolition of an historic retail strip in Cleveland’s Shaker Square district was on Landmarks Commission’s docket, much of the panel’s discussion focused on what might follow the demolition. Ultimately, the commission unanimously approved razing the two-structured Van Aken Plaza located at 2742-2782 Van Aken Blvd. for a landscaped greenspace — for now.

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Senior affordable housing deal OK’d in Cleveland Hts

A senior affordable housing development is planned for this city-owned parking lot at
the corner of Euclid Heights Boulevard and Lancashire Road in Cleveland Heights. An
apartment building stood here until it was demolished in the 1970s. Beyond is a church
and another city-owned parking lot that will be part of the development (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

City officials in Cleveland Heights today announced they have entered into a purchase agreement with National Church Residences (NCR), a Columbus-based non-profit senior housing developer, to acquire two city-owned properties for a planned $22 million, 71-unit, senior affordable-rate apartment building.

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Cleveland competed for Canon — and won

By adding its logo last week to this building in Cleveland’s University Circle, Canon
Healthcare visually marked it territory — a site where it could expand south and east
with new research and manufacturing facilities in the coming years (Dwain Ross II,
Photographer, Untapped Visuals). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

When the Ohio Tax Credit Authority on Monday approved financial assistance to Canon Healthcare USA Inc. for its new headquarters in Cleveland, state officials revealed that Ohio wasn’t the only state that was focused on the Japanese-based imaging company. NEOtrans also learned details of Canon’s property lease with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation which helped secure the new HQ.

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St. Theodosius Cathedral restoration plan set

St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood looked
like this before a devastating fire last year and could look like this again following
its pending reconstruction (Bostwick). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A team of contractors, architects and structural engineers is about to start visible efforts of what is more than just a job, but a vocation. That calling is to restore the 114-year-old St. Theodosius Cathedral in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood to its former glory, from the ashes of a devastating fire that occurred on May 28, 2024.

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Canon Healthcare buys Cleveland building for HQ

Located on the southeast corner of Cedar Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland’s
University Circle district is the new headquarters for Canon Healthcare USA. The
former IBM Explorys building gained its new owner’s logo last week (Canon).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Canon Healthcare USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc., today announced its acquisition of an established building for its headquarters, adjacent to Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in Cleveland’s University Circle district. This purchase has been in the works for some time and NEOtrans had reported recent progress toward the deal earlier this month.

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Cole Eye Institute expansion opens today

In September 2024, the expansion of the Cole Eye Institute was just starting to get its
white cladding to cover up the green construction material. The original 1999-built
Cole Eye Institute is seen at right from the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East
105th Street (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cleveland Clinic Foundation continues to keep the ribbon-making industry in business as it cut another streamer today in opening the latest addition to its growing Main Campus near University Circle. The new building is part of a $172 million expansion and renovation of The Jeffrey and Patricia Cole Pavilion at Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute.

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Universities worldwide compete to redesign Cleveland’s Lake Shore Power Plant site

With Lake Erie and Interstate 90 in the foreground, the background is changed from
a polluted former power plant site into a dynamic urban community between Gordon
Park and East 55th Street. Thisconcept, by a partnership of Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was just one of 82 submitted to an international
design competition (Harvard-ULI). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

With deference to the classic movie “Casablanca,” of all the abandoned industrial sites in North America, the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Hines Student Competition picked Cleveland’s vacated Lake Shore Power Plant site as the canvas for its 2025 design competition. Four finalists were announced today in the competition that drew 82 entries from universities worldwide, with the winner to be named April 3 in Cleveland.

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Public Square info hub gets grant, design approval

A proposed programming hub for Downtown Cleveland’s Public Square was approved
today by the City Planning Commission and could appear this spring next to Superior
Avenue (LAND Studio). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Improvements to Cleveland’s Public Square took a step forward today when the City Planning Commission unanimously approved a temporary, yet robust programming hub. The hub, designed to replace tents currently used by staffers for downtown events would not only provide workers shelter and a place to store materials, but also function as a kiosk for posting event schedules and wayfinding.

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Watterson-Lake Apartments design approved

The corner of Detroit Avenue and West 74th Street in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway
neighborhood could regain more of its urban settings in a couple of years with the
construction of the Watterson-Lake project and encourage further restorations of
 the urban fabric in the area (Stantec). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Efforts by city officials to repopulate Cleveland neighborhoods don’t always go smoothly when residents and community officials have gotten used to not having people, density and activity around for decades. But a mixed-use project intended to restore some of that urbanity got approved today by the Landmarks Commission in a contentious meeting.

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Pioneer/Jaja restaurants at INTRO set repair plans

The area outlined in red including an elevator suffered structural damage from a car
crash early in the morning Oct. 31, 2024. Also, the bollard next to the arrow sign at
left was damaged along with the sidewalk. All of those items will be restored to their
original condition by September (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Just after 3 a.m. on Halloween 2024, an Audi crashed at high speed into a section of the INTRO mixed-use complex, at 2050 Gehring Ave. in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. While the driver wasn’t seriously hurt, the damage to the structure was so severe that two restaurants, Pioneer and Jaja, affected by the crash are still closed and repairs won’t be completed until 10 months after the initial impact.

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Rebuild Cleveland, FutureHeights unite to add housing

Modular home construction in Greater Cleveland is becoming increasingly popular
with improved manufacturing quality and housing styles. Such infill housing can
be affordably built on-site in a matter of hours once the foundation is in place
(Rebuild Cleveland). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Rebuild Cleveland, LLC and FutureHeights, Inc. have embarked on an official collaboration to bring transformative infill housing development to Cleveland Heights. This partnership leverages Rebuild Cleveland’s considered approach to residential development and FutureHeights’ extensive track record of creatively engaging the community to develop exceptional housing that is responsive to the community’s needs and respectful of its architectural heritage.

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Van Aken District’s next big project starts in March

The Arcadia at the Van Aken District in Shaker Heights is scheduled to see
construction start in March with completion set for Fall 2026 (RDL).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

When one project is completed at a megaproject district, a good sign of its health is to see another project in same area start soon thereafter. That’s what is due to happen in a couple of weeks at the Van Aken District in Shaker Heights, according to a Columbus-based developer.

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