Lakefront park expansion advances

Masterplan map for the Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience
Strategy (CHEERS) project, located just east of downtown Cleveland
along the city’s Lake Erie waterfront. The project will increase access
to recreation, expand sanctuaries for wildlife, protect Interstate 90 from
wave action from storms and possibly promote development of the
former First Energy Lakeshore Power Plant, west of East 72nd Street
 (Cleveland Metroparks). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While there’s been lots of studies about how to improve Cleveland’s lakefront, one is actually moving forward into formal design and construction permitting — the last step before acquiring funding and construction for an expanded lakefront park just east of downtown. And although the detailed design and permitting work will continue through to the end of 2024, a big piece of funding for lakefront park expansion will be decided by voters next month.

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Downtown Cleveland’s ‘office market needs help’

Downtown Cleveland has lost 30 percent of its leasable office space to
adaptive reuse projects, mainly residential. The leased space that remains
is only 60 percent full on any given day following the pandemic and its
instigation of remote or hybrid work policies. Public incentives are being
sought to boost the office market downtown with a recognition that it may
never be the same again (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

This week, global real estate brokerage Newmark released its third quarter office market report for Greater Cleveland and the news wasn’t good, especially for downtown Cleveland. While three of five submarkets in the metropolitan area saw declining occupancies of office spaces in July-September, none suffered a greater loss than the central business district. That district includes everything from Ohio City east through Downtown to Midtown.

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Will Sherwin-Williams’ HQ be a pretty bunker?

This rendering of the proposed gardens in front of Sherwin-Williams’ new
downtown headquarters shows people standing around. They’re not sitting
because the global coatings giant did not want any benches to be included
in its gardens which face Public Square. Security concerns about attracting
homeless people led to a compromise with the city by providing leaning
 and sitting railings at locations around the new headquarters complex. The
railings aren’t wide enough to allow someone to lie down on them (The
Sherwin-Williams Company). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

To sit or not to sit, that was the question that caused the biggest debate today among members of a design-review panel of Cleveland’s City Planning Commission prior to supporting landscaping and site amenity plans for Sherwin-Williams’ (SHW) new global headquarters. The question became a point of debate over concerns of whether adding benches to the outdoor areas of the downtown HQ would attract homeless people to sleep there as is already the case at locations throughout the adjacent Public Square.

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City reveals MetroHealth’s West 25th plans

An updated elevation view shared exclusively by NEOtrans shows the
west side of West 25th Street showing the proposed senior apartments,
at left, and new Metrohealth police station at right. This image pro-
vides greater relevance to current plans compared to the outdated
images shared last week, which were the only views available at
that time (CPC). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Conceptual plans made publicly available this week for the next phase of development near the MetroHealth medical center along West 25th Street show a slightly scaled-back design compared to previously released massings by the MetroHealth System and shared by NEOtrans last week. Specifically, a proposed new headquarters for the hospital’s police department will be built next to rather than on the first floor of a new 60-unit senior apartment building at the northwest corner of West 25th and Trowbridge Avenue in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. A future apartment building at the southwest corner may be considered at a later date.

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MetroHealth starts West 25th development work

Pre-development work is starting on two new mixed-use buildings that are
planned along the west side of West 25th Street, across from the MetroHealth
System’s main campus that is undergoing a $1 billion makeover of its facilities.
This is a conceptual rendering of the proposed development with a market-
rate apartment building in the foreground and the senior apartments over
the police station in the background (RDL).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

MetroHealth System, developer NRP Group and RDL Architects Inc. have begun conversations with the City Planning Commission on the early stages of advancing the development of two large buildings on the west side of West 25th Street, across from the hospital’s main campus. The two buildings, to be located in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood, would provide market-rate apartments and affordable units for seniors, plus a new police station and ground-floor commercial uses along West 25th’s sidewalk.

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It’s official: Cleveland-Dublin flights start May 19, 2023

Cleveland-Dublin flights will be offered by Aer Lingus, the flag carrier
of Ireland, starting Friday, May 19, 2023, according to the airline’s Web
site. The flights were added to its reservation system today and trips can
now be booked by prospective customers. Aer Lingus will be using a
variant of the Airbus A321 plane that seats approximately 200 passen-
gers in two classes — business and economy (Aer Lingus).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

With backing from Cleveland’s civic and business community, Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus has made it official today — Cleveland-Dublin nonstop flights were added to the airline’s reservation system and direct trips to Europe can now be purchased. The nonstop flights, the first to Europe from Cleveland since before the pandemic, will start Friday, May 19, 2023, according to the airline.

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Half of ex-Westinghouse plant to be razed

Looking north from Cass Avenue and the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway,
the tower of the former Westinghouse plant stands out. It will be saved
and redeveloped to residents and guests unobstructed views of Lake
Erie, downtown and the north end of the Gordon Square neigh-
borhood (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Planning documents submitted to the city yesterday reveal that slightly more than half of the former Westinghouse plant overlooking the West Shoreway and Lake Erie could be demolished in preparation for the redevelopment of the surviving structures. According to sources familiar with the project, the surviving portions at the plant at 1200 W. 58th St. in Cleveland are proposed to be redeveloped as a boutique hotel, apartments and leasable commercial spaces plus parking.

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