Top 10 NEOtrans news stories of 2022

The Cleveland Browns’ football stadium could move from the
lakefront depending on studies now underway of the existing
FirstEnergy Stadium and of the Shoreway highway. If the latter
is moved away from the stadium site, the city and the Browns
could renovate the existing stadium. Two NEOtrans stories about
this subject were among the most-read articles of 2023 (AODK).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The end of the year is a good time to look back and take stock of everything that’s happened in the past 12 months. For a local journalism outlet like NEOtrans, that means taking a measure of what articles resonated with the community the most. This year-end top-10 list of our most-read articles is how we’re measuring what resonated.

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Cleveland Clinic sees a busy 2023

Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus, looking west toward downtown
before numerous major construction projects began (CCF).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For several years, NEOtrans has been following the emergence, planning and development of major projects at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation’s Main Campus on the city’s East Side. In 2023, shovels will go into the ground for several of those projects which, in total, will rival the global health system’s last big building boom that occurred about 15 years ago. NEOtrans interviewed two of Cleveland Clinic’s leaders to learn more about the Clinic’s $1.3 billion construction program.

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Postmortem on Medical Mutual’s HQ decision

Medical Mutual of Ohio’s headquarters since 1947 has been in the
Rose Building in downtown Cleveland. Located at East 9th Street
and Prospect Avenue, the building will be vacated starting next
month (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The decision for Medical Mutual of Ohio to abandon its downtown Cleveland headquarters for suburban Brooklyn was apparently less of a strategic move and more of a matter of which city’s public incentives got used first. And according to a local real estate insider, it was a short-term decision that could end up biting the Fortune 1000 company and downtown in their hind ends in the long term.

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Circle Square: looking ahead

This official, conceptual massing is based on the city-approved masterplan
for Circle Square along Stokes Boulevard in Cleveland’s University Circle. The
 nearest buildings are part of phase two which is already in the works (Bialosky).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

When Circle Square won a megaprojects tax credit earlier this month from the state, it helped set the financial foundations for the next structures in the massive undertaking in Cleveland’s University Circle. Already, Circle Square’s developers have forever changed the skyline of Cleveland’s second downtown. But more is about to come along Stokes Boulevard, between Euclid and Chester avenues.

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Old Brooklyn development plan wins support

A conceptual rendering of a proposed mixed-use development at the
northwest corner of Pearl Road and Memphis Avenue in the business
district of Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn. It features a market-rate apart-
ments over ground-floor commercial spaces, at left, a renovated St.
Luke Church and a community spaces along Pearl, at right (Desmone).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Plans for redeveloping the northwest corner of Pearl Road and Memphis Avenue in the heart of Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood were set in motion yesterday when a Pittsburgh-based architecture and development firm and its conceptual plan were selected by the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corp. (OBCDC). Desmone, OBCDC and other neighborhood stakeholders pledged to work together in the first quarter of 2023 to turn the proposal into an active project.

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Boost in historic tax credits benefits Ohio projects

The underperforming Erieview Tower office building and its Galleria retail
center received the maximum historic tax credit from the state for its $100
million redevelopment into modern offices, apartments, shops, restaurants
and a five-star W-brand hotel. At left is 45 Erieview, rebranded as The Bell
for its now-underway conversion to apartments. It won historic tax credits
at this time last year (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Ohio announced state support for 54 rehabilitation projects that will restore 57 historic buildings across the state including eight redevelopment projects in Cleveland. According to state officials, the projects statewide are expected to leverage approximately $1.01 billion in private investment. The projects were awarded funding as part of the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program (OHPTC), administered by the Ohio Department of Development. In total, 21 communities across the state are receiving awards, which total $64,132,847 in tax credits with $14.5 million of that going to Cleveland projects.

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Plans for $49M renovation, expansion of convention center revealed

An addition to the former Medical Mart, as part of its conversion to provid-
ing additional meeting and event spaces for the Huntington Convention
Center of Cleveland, extends the ground-floor use converted to a ball-
room out to Ontario Street, at left (TVS Design-Moody Nolan).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Plans for renovating, expanding and converting the ill-fated Global Center for Health Innovation into additional meeting and event spaces for the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland were made available to the public this week. They were released ahead of their scheduled review Thursday by the Cleveland Landmarks Commission. Those plans show the 120,000-square-foot former center, commonly referred to as the Medical Mart, would increase in size by more than 23,000 square feet so it could serve a new and hopefully more productive purpose.

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