Baker Building to be The Fidelity Hotel, speakeasy

Tall but small can be contradictory, but not in the case of the Baker
Building. The skinny building measuring just over 50,000 square
feet will be reborn as The Fidelity Hotel with 71 rooms and suites
restored to the building’s original Gilded Age flair. Permits were
issued last week for the start of the building’s rebirth with more
details to come soon. This view of the building was captured in
July 2021 (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

The 11-story Baker Building, 1900-1940 East 6th St. in downtown Cleveland, has received a construction permit so crews can begin work to prepare for the next stage in the 102-year-old building’s life — a mix of boutique hotel rooms and suites plus ground-floor retail/restaurants. To be called The Fidelity Hotel, the name refers back to the structure’s original name and owner — the Fidelity Mortgage Building. A design-review case at the City Planning Commission for the project was opened today.

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Kan Zaman expands, Ohio City parking crater endures

Kan Zaman Middle Eastern restaurant has been a fixture on West 25th
Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood for 14 years. The nearly
5-acre parking lot behind and to the right of it has been around even lon-
ger. But there are rays of hope that the lot could be developed in the com-
ing years if funding can be found for a parking garage containing up to
900 spaces (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

When people in Cleveland’s real estate sector heard Kan Zaman will open a new location on the east side of downtown, their immediate reaction was — are they vacating the old site in Ohio City for a new development?

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Cleveland’s new police HQ, mounted unit, fire station all start

Cleveland city officials hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new
Division of Police Headquarters Dec. 16 at East 75th Street and the
Opportunity Corridor on the city’s East Side. It was one of three new
public safety facilities for which groundbreaking ceremonies were held
last week (City of Cleveland). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

City officials broke ground for three major developments for the Department of Public Safety last week, in the waning days of Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration. They were a new police department headquarters, a relocated Mounted Police facility and a new Fire Station No. 26, replacing Cleveland’s longest-operating fire station. All three new developments are located on the city’s East Side.

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Opportunity Corridor cold storage to boost local biz

The northwest corner of the planned Cleveland Cold Storage ware-
house, nearest to the corner of Opportunity Corridor Boulevard and
East 75th Street, will include a 4,000-square-foot office building that
will be “bumped out” from the warehouse to be closer to the street
and the all-purpose trail along the Opportunity Corridor to give the
building a better street presence and pedestrian access for workers
coming from nearby public public transportation (GMA).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Opinions varied on the physical appearance of a large new warehouse, as approved Friday by Cleveland’s City Planning Commission. But the project was lauded as the kind of catalytic development that’s needed for Cleveland’s food manufacturing sector, one that belongs on the newly opened Opportunity Corridor Boulevard. Construction of the distribution center is due to start this winter.

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Great Lakes Brewing Co. to start Scranton Peninsula work

Looking north across Scranton Peninsula toward downtown Cleveland,
Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s proposed production facility would rise on
 leveled land in the foreground. At the far left, a property acquired this
past summer by the brewery would also be cleared and graded, but for a
brewpub/tasting room. Leveling and removing trees from the perimeter
 of the two properties is the subject of a permit application submitted
yesterday to the City of Cleveland’s Building & Housing Department.
(Aerial Agents). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Great Lakes Brewing Co. (GLBC) has asked the city of Cleveland for permission to begin site preparation work prior to the expansion of brewing facilities on to Scranton Peninsula near downtown. A permit application submitted yesterday doesn’t reveal when the actual expansion work would begin, saying instead that the work would prepare for “future use” of the Flats site. However, the permit request hints structural construction for the expansion could begin in about six months.

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Ten Cleveland schools OK’d for new uses

The Audubon Middle School, 3055 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.,
in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, is one of 10
school properties that are due to be repurposed in the coming
years with new uses. In the case of this landmark, century-old
building, it will be renovated by Boston-based TCB Ohio Inc.
and the Burten Bell Carr Community Development Corp. with
107 affordable apartments for seniors plus office and community
spaces in the school’s restored ballroom and library (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

City Planning Commission today gave city and school officials authority to enter into agreements with multiple proposed purchasers and real estate developers to acquire and repurpose 10 Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) properties. The disposition of those 10 properties is part of a larger effort to sell and reuse more school sites.

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Midtown development sites to double in size

Demolition of the closed MPC Plating Inc. plant on both sides of East
63rd Street, between Euclid and Chester avenues, in Cleveland’s Mid-
town neighborhood opens the door to the expansion of mixed-use de-
 velopments that were built or underway along East 61st and East 66th
streets. The MPC Plating properties are outlined with black lines
(Merritt Chase). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A Midtown Cleveland development site is about to get twice as large. Even better, a developer is ready, willing and able to construct mixed-use developments on it, assuming a demolition request is approved. Community development officials said they are excited about the outcomes of clearing and cleaning the site left vacant by a former industrial user.

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