The Haslam Sports Group, their Cleveland Browns football team and multiple partners plan this mixed-use development next to the Browns’ headquarters and practice facility in the Cleveland suburb of Berea. This view looks south on a new Pearl Street from near Lou Groza Boulevard (Architecture, Design, & 3D Renderings by AODK Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Deal with city yielded yesterday’s announcement
When the Haslam Sports Group, owners of the Cleveland Browns, yesterday announced their plans for a mixed-use development next to the football team’s suburban Berea headquarters, it was the result of a tentative deal with city officials and other project partners. A summary of that deal was since revealed by Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem in a social media post.
The development, estimated at up to $221 million, is called District 46 at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus. The campus is the Browns headquarters and practice facilities at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. District 46 is proposed to include a medical building, hotel, apartments, parking, retail and a community football field. The “46” in District 46 refers to 1946 — the year the Browns were founded.
However, there is still much more work that needs to be regarding the city-Browns deal which has to be approved by Berea City Council. Kleem noted that features in the tentative deal are “points of negotiation that are currently being finalized between the city of Berea and the Cleveland Browns and their partners,” he said.
One of the centerpieces of that deal was the agreed-upon sale, but not yet deeded land from the city and its Berea Land Reutilization Corp. to an affiliate of the Haslam Sports Group. The sale affects about 3 acres of city-owned land located at the southeast corner of Front Street and Lou Groza Boulevard.
The city acquired and vacated this former mix of commercial and residential land in 2008 to elevate Front on bridges over the busy Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation railroad tracks. That grade-separation project was completed in 2011.
Properties owned by affiliates of the Cleveland Browns and the city of Berea are color-coded on this parcel map. The city-owned properties, measuring 3 acres, south of the Ohio Nut & Bolt Co. on Lou Groza Boulevard will be sold to the District 46 development team (MyPlace.CuyahogaCounty.Gov and KJP).
Kleem said the city will receive $1 million in a lump sum for that land which it temporarily leased starting last month to Berea Mixed Use Project LLC. The lease, which was to continue no later than Dec. 31, 2025, was needed in order for the development team to gain site control and thus be eligible to apply for a Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) tax credit from the state, now pending.
NEOtrans has yet to hear a response to its request from the Ohio Department of Development regarding the amount of tax credits requested by Berea Mixed Use Project LLC, an affiliate of District 46’s developer DiGeronimo Companies. The largest TMUD tax credit that a project can receive is $40 million. However, most awards are in the $5 million to $15 million range.
DiGeronimo and its associated companies Independence Construction, Independence Demolition and Independence Excavating are currently based in Independence. They will soon move to Valor Acres, a lifestyle center DiGeronimo is building on the former site of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brecksville. DiGeronimo won a $10 million TMUD for Valor Acres in January.
Kleem said the city is finalizing terms of a Tax Increment Financing package with the District 46 development team. A TIF captures new tax revenues to be generated by a development in a specific district for use in servicing debt raised to pay for infrastructure and other associated development costs. Revenues proposed for the District 46 TIF are new payroll taxes, event admissions taxes and hotel bed taxes from the development, he said.
Other revenues the city will receive are four payments of $1 million each in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029, or $4 million total. The plan is to dedicate this revenue to pay down city debts, including about $22 million in loans and bond obligations. The city will also receive 100 percent of the income taxes from new residential construction. It will also cap the building permit fees associated with this development at $1 million.
Once the city of Berea sells its land to an affiliate of the Cleveland Browns and their owner the Haslam Sports Group, all of the proposed structures between the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus seen at left and Front Street at right will be built on Browns’ land (AODK).
“The city of Berea and Mayor Kleem have been incredible partners to us at the Browns and the Haslam Sports Group, and we’re thrilled to work with them on this expansion project that will benefit so many members of our neighborhood,” said Haslam Sports Group Chief Operating Officer David Jenkins in a written statement.
As part of the deal with the city, the Browns agreed not to exercise the opt-out clause on its current lease with the city on their headquarters for the years 2039 and 2040. The Browns lease approximately 18 acres of land from the city, both north and south of Lou Groza Boulevard and east of Pearl Street.
Currently, the Browns’ lease runs through 2040, but the National Football League team can opt-out of that lease in 2038. Kleem said that, under the new agreement, the Browns will stay in their lease for two more years — 2039 and 2040.
“We estimate the revenue to the city of Berea to be approximately $14.4 total for the two extra years,” Kleem said.
The Browns also agreed to two five-year lease extensions at their discretion for their continued use of the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus. The first optional extension would be from 2041-2045 and the second would be from 2046-2050.
This is the proposed community football field, seen from Lou Groza Boulevard, just east of Front Street in Berea. Surrounding it is a hotel, at left, market-rate apartments and a University Hospital medical center. At far right, just beyond the south end of the field, a new street will link Front and Pearl streets (AODK).
“We estimate the revenue to the city of Berea to be approximately $38.8 million for the first five years, and $43.6 million for the second,” Kleem added.
An upscale hotel will be developed in partnership with Dublin, Ohio-based developer Crawford Hoying and operated by Shaner Hotel Group of State College, PA. District 46 is proposed to have a sports medicine facility operated by the Browns’ health-system partner, University Hospitals (UH). A field house for community use, a parking garage, plus 30,000 square feet of retail space will support the planned pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.
Other properties acquired by the city on the west side of Front for the railroad bridge project do not appear to be involved in District 46. However, the Haslams did acquire in recent years 2.6 acres on the west side of Front, south of the city-owned land near Depot Street. This land is proposed to be used for surface parking, according to renderings by the project architect, AODK Architecture of Lakewood.
Those renderings also show that the 5 acres of land north of Second Avenue, between Front and Pearl streets, and the 6 acres south of Second could be combined by vacating Second, adding more land. Another 3.2 acres of land was acquired by the Haslams on the east side of Pearl. Nearly 40 homes were acquired and demolished by the Haslams along with a church and the Serpentini Collision Center.
The 5 acres of land north of Second includes 2 acres already owned by the Haslams plus the 3 acres the city will be selling to the Haslams, as noted at the start of this article. Replacing a vacated Second would be a new street linking Front and Pearl. It is proposed to be built at the south end of the new community football field, or about 400 feet south of the Lou Groza Boulevard-Depot Street intersection of Front.
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