Downtown Cleveland’s glimmers of hope

Downtown Cleveland Inc. reported that numerous metrics of office and residential
occupancy, foot traffic and other activities show Cleveland’s central business has
had one of its best months since the depths of the pandemic in 2020. This is the
food truck scene at Perk Park along East 12th Street, between Walnut and
Chester avenues (DCI). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While it seems like foot traffic is up in Downtown Cleveland since the pandemic four years ago, different organizations that measure the city’s central business district’s economic performance have numbers backing up that perception. And that’s also reflective of increased numbers of workers returning to their offices and more residential conversions and occupancies as well. But those numbers are still far from robust.

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Erieview, Shoreway towers win financing

Redevelopment of the Erieview Tower got a big financial boost today when the Cleve-
land-Cuyahoga County Port Authority authorized up to $55 million in bond for the
$78 million conversion of the 40-story office building to Marriott-branded
luxury apartments (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Today, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s board approved $144 million worth of financing toward development projects with a combined price tag totaling $206.1 million. The projects include one new-construction residential tower near Edgewater Park, one renovated and converted Downtown Cleveland office tower, and a major expansion and renovation of middle school facilities in Shaker Heights.

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Cleveland Port’s bulk terminal gets $5M for rehab

On July 12, two ships were working at the Cleveland Bulk Terminal on Whiskey
Island, just west of Downtown Cleveland. Although different types of aggregates
can be loaded and unloaded here, iron ore is unloaded from larger ships through
a conveyor tunnel to smaller ships and then sent upriver to Cleveland Cliffs’
steel-making facilities. That conveyor has reached the end of its useful and
must be rebuilt (Lance Aerial). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Last month, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority awarded nearly $1 million for design work to reconstruct the iron ore conveyor system at the Cleveland Bulk Terminal on Whiskey Island. This month, the Port of Cleveland got a big chunk of the funding necessary to carry out the reconstruction work over the next two years.

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Cleveland’s Public Square gets $750K for improvements

Albeit a beautiful setting, Downtown Cleveland’s Public Square is often
a quiet setting outside of special events. Downtown Cleveland Inc. and LAND
Studio hope to change that by making Public Square more active more often
with new and more frequent programming that includes increased safety
to bring more people out (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The work to improve Cleveland’s centuries-old Public Square, a New England-style community commons, is never done. In the latest effort, Downtown Cleveland Inc. will receive $750,000 in funds from the Ohio legislature’s one-time Strategic Community Investment Fund for a more welcoming, engaging and inclusive Public Square for all.

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Downtown dealmaking takes time, new approaches

One of the biggest pending deals in Downtown Cleveland is for the Ohio
Savings Plaza which actually consists of two office towers. This 18-story
building on East 9th Street, which is the larger of the two for-sale buildings,
is proposed to be converted into residential (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Although the real estate listing for Ohio Savings Plaza, 1801 E. 9th St. and its associated Park Plaza, 1111 Chester Ave., show their transaction status as “under contract,” it’s been that way for many months. It will retain that status for at least two more months. What’s going on behind the scenes reveals the complexities and even creative new ways of pursuing big deals in this market at this time.

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Stockyards nuisance is finally coming down

Southwest of downtown Cleveland in the Stockyards neighborhood, the former
box factory is being cleaned up and demolished after decades of being a neigh-
borhood nuisance, city officials say (Cleveland Building Department).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

By the end of this month, a former box factory turned nuisance at 7275 Wentworth Ave. in Cleveland’s Stockyards neighborhood will be visited by the wrecking ball. But crews are already on site cleaning up the long-vacant building that has been used by vagrants, drug users and dealers and reportedly by the property owner’s affiliate for illegally storing millions of fluorescent light bulbs before and after a suspicious 2018 fire.

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Circle East improvements continue, more due

This occupied home on Brightwood Avenue in East Cleveland was renovated by the
Cuyahoga Land Bank as part of its Circle East redevelopment. Circle East is a 30-
acre district that’s closest to University Circle, one of the largest and fastest-growing
employment hubs in Ohio (CCLRC). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a 30-acre area of targeted investment called the Circle East District, located in East Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Land Bank announced it has completed major features of its first phase to revive the neighborhood. The multi-phase $95 million effort led by the Cuyahoga Land Bank to rebuild the neighborhood from the sewers up began two years ago. However, a commercial component to the redevelopment has hit a legal snag.

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