An ambitious development project in East Cleveland, Ohio, is still moving forward despite losing fiscal support from Cuyahoga County. Nonprofits Euclid Circle, Inc. and the Olympia Foundation seek to transform a 43,000-square-foot former Department of Developmental Disabilities building at the intersection of Euclid and Superior avenues into a light industrial space, a charter vocational school, market, credit union – and eventually apartments on adjacent land. When the proposal came before a Cuyahoga County Council Economic Development and Planning Committee meeting in January, council members expressed support but also voiced skepticism. On one hand, councilmembers acknowledged East Cleveland is in dire need of investment and the services that Euclid Circle seeks to provide there. On the other, some councilmembers expressed worry the nonprofits were trying to do too much given the building’s footprint – about a quarter of the size of a Walmart Supercenter. Despite the concerns, the developers are close to finalizing a deal to own the building and plan to make up for the loss of county money through private investment, said David Garland, who founded both Euclid Circle, Inc. and the Olympia Foundation. “We still want to work with the county moving forward with this project,” Garland said. The project’s first phase, to ready the building for its planned use, was expected to cost more than $3 million, which organizers hoped would have been funded by $1 million from a JobsOhio grant, a $1.2 million loan from Cuyahoga County’s Department of Development, $567,000 in equity and a $20,000 planning grant from JobsOhio, according to the legislation. However, after one of three tenants withdrew, Cuyahoga County’s Department of Development – which had initially approved a $1.2 million loan to Euclid Circle – also backed out, county spokeswoman Kelly Woodard said in an email. “After reviewing the changed situation with the County’s loan committee, which includes outside members with private-sector lending expertise, the Department of Development informed the borrower that we cannot proceed with the loan at this time,” Woodard said. After the Department of Development backed out, Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell, who sponsored legislation seeking $250,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars for the project, now seeks to withdraw that proposal. Asked if she still believes in the project, Conwell said, “It will be good in the long run for the City of East Cleveland, but it will not meet our deadlines at the end of the year for ARPA money.” Cities and counties have until the end of 2024 to place ARPA money under contract and until the end of 2026 to spend it.
East Cleveland Development Project Moves Forward Despite Losing County Funding
