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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| A parking lot at the corner of West 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Downtown Cleveland’s Warehouse District may indeed be the subject of a vertical development based on the workers in the background drilling for core samples at locations around the lot this week (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
A large parking lot in Downtown Cleveland’s Warehouse District that’s been up for sale twice since 2019 apparently is now under a purchase agreement with a buyer who seems interested in developing it.
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| According to plans filed with the city, the owner of the 54-year-old 1100 Superior, Brady Sullivan Properties, is converting floors 3-5, 9, and 13-15 from office spaces to 160 apart- ments. It just won a maximum historic tax credit from the state to help finance its work (CBRE). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM. |
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik today announced more than $86 million in historic tax credits to support the preservation and revitalization of dozens of historic buildings across the state. Of that, nearly $18.5 million was awarded to seven projects in Cuyahoga County.
