Metroparks buying more Cuyahoga Riverfront land

On Whiskey Island is a 4.5-acre piece of riverfront land, across the Cuyahoga
River from Downtown Cleveland. The Cleveland Metroparks is seeking
to buy the property just beyond its new Wendy Park Bridge, overhead,
to expand its waterfront recreation offerings (Google).
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Adding 4.5 acres of land along the Cuyahoga River is a relatively small contribution to the 1,000 acres the Cleveland Metroparks has acquired in just the past three years. But this latest addition may be one of its most visible and strategic. The site the Metroparks is acquiring is located in Cleveland on Whiskey Island, between the river and the park system’s new Wendy Park Bridge.

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Irishtown Bend Park design features unveiled

Design features of the Irishtown Bend Park include the Coal Docks site
featuring foundation remnants of the Erie Railroad Coal Derrick and
the Iron Power Building, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps show. Such
workplaces employed Irish and other immigrants 100-150 years
ago. This is at the north end of the planned park, next to the
Cuyahoga River and the Detroit-Superior Bridge (Plural).
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Tomorrow, the board of the Cleveland Metroparks is expected to authorize requesting a $10.8 million grant from the state to pay a significant portion of the construction costs of the planned Irishtown Bend Park in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The proposed improvements and their projected costs are based on designs that were released today.

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Cleveland suburban office market ‘bloodbath’

This is one of two office buildings for Hyland Software in Westlake that’s
on the market. And it’s just one of multiple office buildings that are either
for sale or for sub-lease. The peaceful, bucolic-like setting belies the tur-
moil in the local, regional and national office markets that isn’t limited to
downtown central business districts. Suburban areas are taking equally
big hits (CBRE). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The numbers are downright ugly. High office vacancy rates and even higher availability rates exceeding 20 percent owing to a big jump in office spaces available for sub-lease. Numerous Class A office buildings are for sale with few if any interested buyers. For those in a buying mood, their lowball interest may be only for the land to hold for a possible conversion to new uses or for the hopes that better days may return to the office market — someday.

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Downtown Cleveland’s recovery accelerated in 2023

Downtown Cleveland is where Greater Clevelanders converge to enjoy
festivals and big events like Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day parade which,
according to TheIrishRoadTrip.com, is America’s fifth-largest. At Su-
perior Avenue and East 21st Street, the parade assembled yesterday
for its 182nd annual march through downtown (The GBX Group).
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In a data-heavy report released today, Downtown Cleveland, Inc. (DCI) outlined its achievements in continuing the recovery of Cleveland’s business and hospitality center and one of Cuyahoga County’s fastest-growing residential areas. The data, contained in the 2023 Downtown Cleveland Economic Development Report, says the recovery of Cleveland’s central business district is outpacing that of its peer cities in Ohio and the Great Lakes region.

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Flats On Pearl OK’d, Row On Garden tabled

Landmarks Commission members approved this updated design of the Flats
On Pearl, a new-construction apartments-over-retail building next to the 134-
year-old, to-be-renovated Kerns Building at the corner of West 25th Street and
Garden Avenue. Behind the Kerns office building are four houses in varying
degrees of decay that developer Kostas Almiroudis plans to demolish (Brandt).
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A next step for developer Kostas Almiroudis went forward when the Cleveland Landmarks Commission approved plans for the mixed-use Flats On Pearl. But the commission didn’t take as many steps forward as Almiroudis wanted, in requesting the demolition of four neighboring, decayed houses and a small townhouse development that would replace them.

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New design for Cleveland Shoreway tower OK’d

The developer of a planned residential tower overlooking Edgewater Park
redesigned it based on market analysis and a need to control costs. The end
result was a new design that won more praise and support from the Cleve-
land Landmarks Commission. This view looks southeast from above upper
Edgewater Park (EAO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A desire to make a proposed residential tower overlooking Cleveland’s Edgewater Park more viable produced a design that won for it more praise from a city review panel. The proposed 13-story Shoreway tower grew from 95 apartments to 112 and shrunk its floorspace from 204,400 square feet to 140,000. In so doing, its grid-like exterior gained an intentionally distorted and sculpted appearance that earned it unanimous praise.

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Hamilton Brown, Niro to lead St. Clair-Superior CDC

The St. Clair-Superior neighborhood of Cleveland is located near the Lake
Erie shore east of downtown to the Glenville neighborhood. This view looks
 west above St. Clair Avenue from East 60s toward downtown (SCSDC).
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A well-known name in Cleveland development circles this week has lost the “interim” prefix to her job title as executive director of the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation (SCSDC) in Cleveland. Not only did Terri Hamilton Brown become the Cleveland neighborhood’s new permanent director, Michael Niro was named chair of the development corporation’s board by unanimous board votes, announced today.

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