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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