North Coast Connector: ready for its close-up

    At the center of this image is the North Coast Connector land bridge.
It is also at the center of everything city and community development
officials want to do with the lakefront. Not only will the land bridge
more seamlessly link the central business district with the lakefront,
officials say it will also foster new development by relocating stadium
parking spaces from the water’s edge (at bottom) and by creating
new development sites next to the land bridge (AoDK).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The North Coast Connector — a project that’s considered by many city and community development officials as the key to unlocking the potential of downtown Cleveland’s lakefront — is starting to come together. The state is moving forward on a big piece of funding for its construction. The city is moving forward on funding for detailed architectural designs. And public involvement meetings to help shape those designs will be held starting this week. To quote Gloria Swanson in the 1950 classic movie “Sunset Boulevard,” the proposed land bridge is “ready for its close-up.”

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$208m Shaker Rapid rebuild down the line

The combined section of the Blue/Green lines west of Shaker Square
called the Trunk Line was completely rebuilt from the ground up in
2020. Over five years starting in 2024, reconstruction work will turn
to the branches of the Blue and Green lines east of Shaker Square.
That is projected to cost $115.6 million for renewed infrastructure
and $92.6 million for new trains or $208.2 million total (GCRTA).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Starting next year and continuing until 2028, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) plans to completely rebuild its two rail rapid transit lines in Shaker Heights, east of Cleveland’s Shaker Square. Called the Blue and Green lines, this would be their first major infrastructure rebuilding since 1980. But not everyone is on board with this $208.2 million initiative that is included in GCRTA’s proposed capital budget, scheduled to get a public hearing May 2.

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Millennia’s Centennial due this year

Once one of the busiest intersections in Ohio, Euclid Avenue and East 9th
Street may start gaining new life this summer as workers descend upon 925
Euclid to remove and store historic features and undertake selective demo-
lition of non-load-bearing walls, conduits and other building components
that will not be part of the renovation of the former Union Trust Building
into The Centennial (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Although a “groundbreaking” ceremony for the start of one of downtown Cleveland’s largest-ever building renovations may not happen until late summer, you may see work crews going in and out of the former Union Trust Bank, 925 Euclid Ave., even earlier. That’s because an interior demolition permit application was submitted to the city this week to prepare for construction work in converting the 1.4-million-square-foot behemoth into The Centennial, featuring nearly 600 apartments, 170 hotel rooms, plus retail, restaurants and a museum.

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CWRU’s $300m research center moves forward

Yost Hall at Case Western Reserve University is to be demolished this summer to
make way for a research center that could be five times larger than Yost. This is no
longer a theoretical project as the university is already making moves to relocate
classes currently at Yost Hall (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A proposed Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building with a construction budget roughly equal to that of the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters’ original tab is no longer just an idea for administrators, staff and students at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). The university is already making moves to relocate classes and other services and activities out of Yost Hall, 2049 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., so it can be demolished this summer to make way for the new research center.

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Little Italy, Tremont townhouses planned

Four townhouses are planned in Tremont at the southeast corner of Jefferson
Avenue and West 7th Street, following the proposed demolition of two
structures that are up to 150 years old. Another pair of townhomes by
the same developer are planned in Little Italy (Bialosky).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A Cleveland real estate firm that has been renovating homes in the metro area is entering the new-construction market by building new homes in Sandusky and seeking to construct new townhomes in two of Cleveland’s hottest neighborhoods. ParaPrin Construction, located on West 105th Street, wants to construct six new townhomes in Little Italy and Tremont if its vision passes muster with the City Planning Commission.

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Weston plans huge warehouse in Euclid

In its promotions for a proposed, massive new warehouse in Euclid, Weston
Group used this rendering of its 2.1 million square foot distribution center in
Walton Halls. The Euclid warehouse will be about one-third that size, but final
plans are not yet available (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Keeping Euclid’s industrial facilities modern and competitive to attract new jobs is the goal of a large, new warehouse/light industrial facility called Tech Park 90 that could see construction start as early as June, said a representative of its developer, the Weston Group. Even more impressive is that the project is being pursued as a speculative development, meaning that an anchor tenant hasn’t been secured prior to Weston’s decision to move forward on it.

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Chester 82 gets thumbs up

The addition of more apartments along Chester Avenue in Cleveland’s
Hough neighborhoods will continue, this time with the addition of
Chester 82, to accommodate the growing number of workers at Cleve-
land Clinic and other University Circle-area eds-and-meds institutions
(Sullivan Bruck). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

When the Cleveland Planning Commission gave final approval of design plans on April 21 for the Chester 82 development, 1898 E. 82nd St., it coincided with the federal government’s release of the latest jobs data for Greater Cleveland. That data offered a reminder of why Chester 82 and other residential developments in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood are happening.

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