Cleveland Clinic to demolish ex-Cleveland Play House

Featuring three theaters around a central rotunda, the 1984 renovation
of the Cleveland Play House and inclusion of the former Sears depart-
ment store resulted in the largest regional theater complex in the Uni-
ted States totaling nearly 300,000 square feet. But since CPH moved
to the Allen Theater downtown in 2011, Cleveland Clinic Foundation
has struggled to find a new use for the facility which is to be razed
(Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Redesigned by a world-famous architect in his hometown. Site of the first stage performances by the Clevelander who made The Wicked Witch of the West famous. Shaker Heights native Paul Newman and many other notable actors also got their starts at the place once called the 86th Street Theater.

According to two sources, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation will seek to demolish all structures that were once part of the Cleveland Play House (CPH), 8500 Euclid Ave. That includes the adjacent former Sears department store along Carnegie Avenue. Demolition could occur this winter.

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Fairfax Market development wins financing

For now just vacant land, the southwest corner of East 105th Street
(at left) and Cedar Avenue (at right) will likely be a very different
place soon. With construction due to start early next year on the
Fairfax Market and many other developments nearby, this part of
the Fairfax neighborhood may be a vibrant, urban neighborhood in
just two years (Bialosky). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Financing was awarded to the first phase of a mixed-use development on the southeast corner of East 105th Street and Cedar Avenue that aims to capitalize on the many infrastructure, health care and residential developments nearby.

Using the working titles of Cedar Avenue Mixed Use and/or the Fairfax Market, Fairmount Properties’ won $37 million in bond financing from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority for the $59 million, 190,000-square-foot building and attached three-level, 209-space parking garage.

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Two Tremont markets fade in a rite of passage

If left unattended for one growing season, the vines would surely
swallow up the Fairfied Food Market in Tremont. The dive is a
reminder of Tremont’s working-class era as well as the years be-
fore gentrification began to take hold at the start of the 21st cen-
tury. But gentrification swallowed up the market before the
vines could (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Tremont doesn’t have a grocery store but it does have tiny neighborhood markets. And two gritty members of that shrinking fraternity are about to fade into history.

The demise of the Fairfield Food Market and the Abbey Market & Grocery are a rite of passage as Tremont continues its transition from a rough and tough neighborhood of Eastern European, African-American and Appalachian people who worked in the nearby mills and other Cleveland industries. Replacing them in the last few decades are a wide and gentrifying mix of young professionals, service workers and others who live in new or renovated townhomes and apartments.

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Downtown townhomes sell to out-of-state investor

For nearly $6 million, the 16-unit, for-rent Milton Townhomes sold
to an investor from Tulsa, Okla. who is acquiring properties of
similar value in markets throughout the United States (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

 

Yesterday, a 16-unit townhouse complex on the east side of downtown Cleveland and built five years ago was sold to an out-of-state investor. The buyer, Milton Townhomes LLC, acquired the for-rent townhomes and their 0.4-acres of property for just under $6 million from Jobu Needs A Refill LLC — referring to a line from the 1989 sports comedy movie Major League about the Cleveland Indians.

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Large apartment building planned in Lakewood

In addition to the redevelopment of the Phantasy Theater on Detroit
Avenue in Lakewood into Studio West 117, its developers would
like to construct a large apartment building on the site of the closed
National Tire & Battery service center seen at left in this August
2019 view. A few months after this photo was taken, the NTB
shop closed and was put up for sale. (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Site is across the street from Phantasy Theater

One of the surprise applicants to a new ‘megaprojects’ tax credit program was the Studio West 117 development, a project now under way at the east end of Lakewood. Until the tax credit applications were submitted Oct. 29 to the Ohio Department of Development, public information about the project showed it was limited to renovations of historic buildings.

Now, a significant new-construction apartment building for seniors is being added to the $75 million planned revitalization those historic structures into a hub of entrepreneurship, arts, culture, health and human services for Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ community.

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Ohio City project’s rejection to be appealed

Knez Homes’ second try at building townhomes on Bridge Avenue
in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood met the same rejection by a
planning panel as the first, despite making changes so it would
meet zoning code requirements. The developer said it would
appeal the rejection through the courts (Knez).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Despite meeting the requirements of the city of Cleveland’s existing and proposed zoning code, a planned townhouse development for the Ohio City neighborhood was shot down by the City Planning Commission. It is the second time a townhouse project by the same developer at this location was rejected by the same panel.

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Big commerce park planned for Slavic Village

A large warehousing, distribution and logistics development called
Commerce Park 77 is planned for Cleveland’s Slavic Village neigh-
borhood. It could add hundreds of jobs and hundreds of thousands
of square feet of new warehousing space on the east side Interstate
77 that’s accessible to labor including from the Broadway Avenue
transit corridor. This image is an example of the type of large-
scale warehouse structures planned for the site (ULI).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Due in part to the explosive growth in e-commerce, developers can’t build warehousing, distribution and logistics centers in Northeast Ohio fast enough to meet demand. The challenge for shippers, investors and community development officials is to find sites big enough and close enough to existing transportation routes and customer markets, as well as to an existing workforce.

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