Southwest of downtown Cleveland in the Stockyards neighborhood, the former box factory is being cleaned up and demolished after decades of being a neighborhood nuisance, city officials say (Cleveland Building Department). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Ex-box factory was site of illegal activities
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.
Yesterday, a demolition permit application was filed with the Cleveland Building Department by C&J Contractors Inc. to take down the main structure at the 2.25-acre site owned by NDHMD, Inc. The cost of abating asbestos and demolishing the structure is estimated at $1.1 million. The building was apparently too heavily contaminated to be redeveloped with residential uses.
The application followed an emergency order issued by the department’s Bureau of Demolition “to abate and demolish a public nuisance structure” starting on June 20. Fencing is up around all of the buildings on site and crews were visibly working. But it isn’t clear how much is to be demolished. In addition to the order referring only to the main structure, the permit application says that the work area is a 90,000-square-foot structure.
Cuyahoga County property records note that nearly 170,000 square feet of buildings are on the site. An e-mail sent by NEOtrans to Chief Building Official Tom Vanover was not responded to prior to publication of this article to clarify what buildings will be demolished and if the property owner will be billed by the city for the demolition.
The former box factory property at 7275 Wentworth Ave. is outlined in red on this property map. To the left, or west of the property is West 73rd Street and the Norfolk Southern railroad is to the right. Denison Avenue is at the lower left (MyPlace.CuyahogaCounty.gov).
According to an e-mail from Le’Kisha Robinson, information control analyst at the Cleveland Department of Public Health, demolition approval was granted to C&J Contractors on July 5. Demolition is to begin on or after July 30. Expiration of the demolition authorization is Nov. 30. county tax records show NDHMD owes $59,059 in taxes and city water bills including $10,834 in delinquent charges.
NDHMD lists to George W. Dietrich Jr. of Cleveland Heights. His tenant, Fluorescent Recycling, Inc., also lists to Dietrich, according to state records. An e-mail seeking more information was sent to Dietrich using the address fluorescentre@aol.com associated with him and posted in Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public records. But it was returned to NEOtrans as undeliverable.
Dietrich’s companies reportedly stored millions of used fluorescent light bulbs on the property. Each bulb contains toxic mercury. Dietrich’s companies were cited by the Ohio EPA in 2016 for unlawful establishment and operation of a hazardous waste storage and disposal facility.
The agency said Fluorescent Recycling established and operated a hazardous waste storage facility without first obtaining a hazardous waste installation and operation permit. The company also was cited by the Ohio EPA for security violations as it “failed to prevent unauthorized entry of persons into the facility. During the inspection, Ohio EPA found signs of unauthorized entrance by vandals.” And it was cited for the design and operation of the facility.
The box factory property has been fenced off and asbestos abatement crews are working on site, with a loader visible at lower-right. Demolition work will follow on or about July 30 (KJP).
Two years later, a suspicious fire significantly damaged the property, including areas where the spent bulbs continued to be stored in violation of the Ohio EPA’s orders. State officials removed the bulbs and cleaned up the mercury, costing taxpayers about $1.4 million, according to a media report.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records show that a $284,600 judgment lien requested by the state was approved by the court. Nothing has been paid by Dietrich or his companies, records show. No legal actions were filed this year in Cuyahoga County against the property owner.
City officials hope that this and other properties can be returned to productive use again to create jobs for their surrounding neighborhoods, many of which are impoverished. This Stockyards neighborhood, with its many boarded-up storefronts, abandoned factories and vacant lots, suffers from a lack of opportunities and quality, affordable housing. That could soon change.
On 2 acres of land across Neville Avenue, on the south side of the abandoned factory, plans are afoot to build The Cleveland West Veterans Housing development, 3311 W. 73rd St., by CHN Housing Partners of Cleveland. The 62-unit, 54,581-square-foot, $20.28 million development is designed to serve veterans experiencing homelessness.
At the end of World War Two, the Great Lakes Box Co. offered job opportunities on a streetcar line to young people, something that is needed even more so in the Stockyards neighborhood today. This was an ad in the June 7, 1945 James Ford Rhodes High School newspaper (Old Brooklyn Historical Society).
Conditional approval to receive Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for the project was granted in May by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. All of the units in the three-story apartment building will be one-bedroom homes. The Veterans Affairs Northeast Ohio Healthcare System will provide on-site supportive services to residents.
The factory complex was built in stages with the largest structure constructed in about 1917, according to county records. Early users of the property were the Great lakes Box co, Cleveland Corrugated Box Co., Rayon Machinery Corp. and Nu-Di Products Co., a 1937 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows. Sears Roebuck & Co. had a warehouse on the site but it was destroyed in a fire in 1935.
Later, county property records show that General Container Corp. owned the property until 1979 when it was purchased by Simkins Industries Inc. The property fell into state forfeiture in 2009 during the Great Recession. NDHMD acquired the site the following year.
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