Cleveland has designs on its waterfronts

The Euclid Beach Trail Connector in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighbor-
hood would be an important project on its own. But it’s just one of nine
waterfront projects the city is directing funding for final design work in
order to secure construction funding to build those proposed improve-
ments. The Euclid Beach Trail Connector will connect and protect the
Beulah Park, Villa Beach and Shore Acres neighborhoods from Lake
Erie erosion (CPC). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For much of the city’s 227-year history, public officials have been accused of ignoring Cleveland’s waterfronts and especially its lakefront. But now there’s a flurry of activity to turn conceptual ideas into blueprints which will not only help city officials apply for construction funding but to actually build what’s been proposed. Today, those funding allocations for nine waterfront projects were mostly recommended by the City Planning Commission for City Council approval although one was tabled until the next commission meeting. Several of those funding allocations are for construction or demolition to allow larger projects to go forward.

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GCRTA wins $130m for new trains

In 2014, then-Vice President Joseph Biden got a tour of the Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s already aging rail car fleet
at the Central Rail Facility near East 55th Street. Giving the tour was
former GCRTA General Manager and CEO Joe Calabrese along with
Cleveland’s previous Mayor Frank Jackson. Calabrese  informed
Biden that GCRTA needed more federal funding to replace its old trains.
The biggest chunk of that federal funding was awarded today (GCRTA).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In 2021, as chair of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over public transportation, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) championed the creation of a new federal program to fund the replacement of aging rail transit cars. Today, he shared the news that the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) was awarded $130 million from this program to narrow a funding gap in its $393 million effort to replace its four-decade-old rail car fleet. The award represents the largest single grant to the GCRTA in its 48-year history.

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Stokes West redesigned

Stokes West’s new design proposes the multi-family building to be a
continuous seven stories from the north end, at right, to the south end
along Stokes Boulevard in University Circle. Previously, an eight-
story building was at right, a six-story building at left, and a two-story
 building connecting them. That also adds two more townhouses behind
on Cedar Avenue (LDA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

It seems every real estate developer is having similar problems — supply constraints, rising construction materials costs and rising interest rates. Only those projects that are charging top-of-the-market rents, have investors with low expectations for returns on investment, or received a ton of subsidies are getting built. So when Stokes West, which intends to offer apartment rents that are 13-21 percent lower than its peers in and near University Circle, got design approval by City Planning Commission last summer, it was already facing an uphill climb. That changed when the development team joined forces with Geis Construction Inc. and found a way to deliver the project more affordably.

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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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