Superman statue, creators’ tribute plaza near to landing in Downtown Cleveland

Cleveland native Superman will gain a permanent home in Downtown Cleveland
at a newly landscaped plaza at the corner of Ontario Street and St. Clair Avenue,
outside the expanded Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. This exhibit
on the creation of Superman by two Cleveland natives is on display at the Cleve-
land Public Library downtown (CPL). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

There’s lots of stoic statues around downtown honoring Clevelanders and others who helped make the city and the United States great during their lives. But there could soon be a new statue and plaza downtown for a man who never lived at all except in comic books, on television and in movies. The statue of Superman is as much about honoring two men who did live — native Clevelanders Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster who created one of America’s first and most beloved superheroes.

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Rocky River apartments to open May 1

Workers are putting the finishing touches on the Orris apartments on Center Ridge Road
in Rocky River. Most of the interior work is done, meaning that residents could start
moving in as early as May 1 (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In recent years, Cleveland-based Krueger Group has been busily adding new apartments in Cleveland’s hottest neighborhoods in the urban core. But on May 1, they and partner RHM Real Estate Group of Lyndhurst are due to open ORRIS, 22655 Center Ridge Rd., the first new apartment building in suburban Rocky River in a decade.

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Renovated Odeon in Flats to reopen this year

 Old River Road in Cleveland’s Flats East Bank has been relatively quiet since The
Odeon Concert Club closed more than a year ago and the neighboring Frozen
Daiquiri Bar & Restaurant soon followed. But the volume is due to rise again
later this year after planned renovations are made to the three-decade-
old concert venue (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

With a new owner, a new venue manager and some freshening up planned in the coming months, The Odeon Concert Club, 1295 Old River Rd. on the East Bank of Cleveland’s Flats, is due to begin hosting new live performances again, perhaps before the end of this summer.

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Park Place Tech seals HQ deal

Park Place Technologies plans to renovate the former Progressive Direct Insurance’s
Alpha Campus for its own headquarters needs. This is what the renovated east
entrance to the new Park Place headquarters could look like (Park Place).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

After a year-long search for a new headquarters, Park Place Technologies has closed on its deal to acquire Progressive Direct Insurance’s Alpha Campus in Highland Heights. Consummation of the purchase agreement sets the stage for renovating the multi-building campus and ultimately relocating to it 500 headquarters employees from neighboring Mayfield Heights. Warehouse operations in Solon will also be consolidated on the new site.

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Phase 2 awaits: Innovation Square, Fairfax Market

Looking north on East 105th Street toward the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, the
Aura at Innovation Square is in the foreground and the Medley at Fairfax Market just
beyond represent the first phase of their developments. But their second phases
may not be imminent (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Two mixed-market-rate apartment developments that just opened along East 105th Street in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood have phase-two projects proposed. But construction on the pair of follow-on projects may not occur for a year or more as lending remains tight and leasing activity has been uneven. But things could accelerate next year after interest rates fall and hiring starts for thousands of permanent jobs at several large Cleveland Clinic buildings under construction nearby.

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Cleveland’s Greyhound/Barons Bus station futures

Likely to be the new home for the foreseeable future of Greyhound’s
and Barons Bus’ Cleveland arrivals and departures is the Stephanie
Tubbs Jones Transit Center. But the long-term station site may be
a planned multi-modal transportation center on downtown’s lake-
front (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While city-to-city bus services have vacated traditional downtown stations for remote, curbside boarding locations in Ohio cities like Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Cleveland travelers may be spared that treatment in a plan being worked out with the city. But city planners and advocates say the long-term station site may be a new multimodal transportation center linking all modes of intercity and intracity transportation elsewhere in Downtown Cleveland.

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Fairview Hospital unveils North Campus options

In this massing — an image intended to show only the location and scale of
proposed structures — Cleveland Clinic shows how a new Medical Office
Building (MOB) and Cancer Center north of Lorain Avenue might overlook
the Rocky River valley and extend east with two floors below a new multi-
level parking garage (CannonDesign). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

At a community meeting this evening at Fairview Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Foundation officials showed five design options for developing a new clinical building containing the Moll Cancer Center and medical offices plus a new parking garage on Fairview Hospital’s North Campus, north of Lorain Avenue. While there were some variations in the scale and shaping of the clinical building, the greatest difference between the options was where and how to construct a new parking garage or three.

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