Paving for opportunity along a new corridor

Slicing through mostly urban prairies depopulated of residents and
employment over the last 50+ years, the Opportunity Corridor promises
to repopulate what has been called The Forgotten Triangle. This Oct. 2,
2021 view looks west from East 79th Street with downtown Cleveland
in the distance. Aerial views are from a video posted here (Taco
Slayer Aerial). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A few days after the ribbon is cut at 2 p.m. Nov. 3 for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) new Opportunity Corridor Boulevard, the first traffic will enter the roadway and its parallel multi-purpose trail. That traffic will pass through 1,000 acres of what was a crowded, uneasy mix of neighborhoods and heavy industries until the 1970s. Today, it is a mostly peaceful setting that has gone back to nature.

It has been derisively dubbed The Forgotten Triangle. Its residential population and industrial workforce had all but vanished, leaving behind a mostly empty shell behind. And it got its triangular description due to the arrangement of its principal streets — Kinsman Avenue, Woodland Avenue and Woodhill Road.

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Developer acquires lakefront industrial site for housing

A large property close to Edgewater Park and downtown Cleveland
sold yesterday to Property Advisors Group, a developer with a 45-
year history of investment in Greater Cleveland. The sale could offer
a new lakefront housing development and cause more real estate
dominos to fall in what has been an industrial area for more than
a century (Cresco). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Some real estate developers join a parade already in progress. Others start the parade. Property Advisors Group (PAG) appears to be in the latter category with their acquisition yesterday of a large property at 8400 Lake Ave. on which it intends to build housing.

PAG is starting what some expect will be the arrival of more investors and more residential developments along and north of Lake Avenue, between Detroit Avenue and Clifton Boulevard. This is an area that hasn’t yet seen the kind of investment activity as Gordon Square to the east or the stability of the Edgewater neighborhood to the west.

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Townhouse, apartment project announced near University Circle

Park Lamont proposes to add 77 housing units divided
nearly equally between apartments and townhouses
at East 97th Street and Lamont Avenue. The site is just west
of University Circle and north of the Upper Chester neighbor-
hood (GLSD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

More Eds-and-Meds jobs in and near University Circle means more housing in the same areas. The latest proposed housing development is Park Lamont on Lamont Avenue at East 97th Street. It offers a unique mix of townhomes and apartments in the same project, and in the same phase.

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Sherwin-Williams HQ construction materials start to arrive

The first construction materials for Sherwin-Williams new headquarters
began arriving today at the HQ site west of Public Square in downtown
 Cleveland. This view looks east from the HQ site toward Public Square.
The truck is parked on Frankfort Avenue which will be vacated as a
public right of way for the new HQ (Scott Muscatello).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

With nearly three weeks to go before Sherwin-Williams (SHW) plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for its new global headquarters, construction materials began arriving today at the future HQ site in downtown Cleveland.

And that groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled two weeks before the coatings giant hopes to receive final approval from the City Planning Commission for its HQ plans. The ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. Nov. 16 on the so-called “Jacobs Lot” on the west side of Public Square.

The folks who desire to cover the Earth in their paints sure do seem eager to start covering nearly 7 acres of downtown Cleveland with their new HQ.

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Chester Avenue becoming apartment row

Six years ago, the Finch Group started a trend of adding modern
apartment buildings along Chester Avenue. At left is their mixed-
use Innova Development, between East 97th and 101st streets. At
right is the construction crane for what will be University Circle’s
tallest tower — the 24-story Artisan Apartments. West of here, be-
hind the camera, hundreds more apartments are planned or under
construction (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

As long as the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and other local eds-and-meds employers keep adding jobs, new housing is going to keep getting added to nearby neighborhoods. Hough is one of those neighborhoods, and Chester Avenue is the street that is attracting much of the investment.

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Apartment tower groundbreaking waits on property transfer

The 23-story City Club Apartments on lower Euclid Avenue in
downtown Cleveland is making progress toward a groundbreak-
ing, said a city building department official. But no visible con-
struction work can apparently begin until a property transfer
occurs first (Vocon). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

For more than two months, an approved construction permit for the foundation of a high-rise apartment tower in downtown Cleveland has sat at the city’s Department of Building & Housing office, ready for the architect of record or general contractor to come pick it up.

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Near-downtown bowling alley to become entertainment venue

In a neighborhood filled with old industrial buildings and ware-
houses, a cutting-edge entertainment complex called Euphoria
Restaurant & Oxygen Lounge is gradually opening up with new
uses and one old one — a bowling alley. The alley is open now
and the restaurant is under construction. The oxygen lounge will
follow later (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A large, historic, two-level bowling alley that was once an industrial building has found new life with a new owner. Or at least a portion of it has found a new purpose and will provide something that Cleveland doesn’t apparently yet have.

Partners Christopher Brooks and Thomas Norris Jr. acquired the former Twin Lanes Bowling, 1820 E. 30th, in August under the name Euphoria Restaurant & Oxygen Lounge, LLC with a slightly different address — 1812 E. 30th. And with that new name, you know the old bowling alley is heading in a different direction. But not entirely.

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