On Scranton Peninsula, a Great Lakes Brewing Company tasting room and beer garden was proposed between the Cuyahoga River and Carter Road in 2017. This is a conceptual image showing what that could look like and includes a concrete retaining wall left behind from a former Republic Steel mill complex. But it is not known yet what the company has in mind for the waterfront site (Coburn). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Riverfront development represents first phase
There’s still a lot we don’t know about Great Lakes Brewing Company’s (GLBC) vision for Scranton Peninsula in Cleveland. But NEOtrans has learned that there are once again plans for the independent craft brewery to make a big investment in Cleveland Flats rather than relocate to an exurban site along an interstate highway.
Those plans came this week in the form of a “site development” permit application to Cleveland’s Department of Building and Housing. The site preparation documents were submitted by Environmental Design Group of Akron on behalf of GLBC.
While the plans don’t come right out and say that GLBC will build on Scranton Peninsula a new production facility and hospitality-related offerings to the public, they come pretty close. And if you magnify the fine print at the edge of the plans, they read “Great Lakes Brewing … Scranton Road Brewery.”
The application was titled as “Scranton Road Redevelopment Phase One” and submitted for 1.873 acres of riverfront land at 1989 Carter Rd. That property was bought by GLBC affiliate Carter River Front LLC in 2021 for an undisclosed price.
Two areas of site improvement work, primarily the installation of water and sanitary sewer lines, is limited to just 0.15 acres of Great Lakes Brewing Company’s riverfront property along Carter Road on Scranton Peninsula (EDG).
Three years earlier, under the name Carter Inland LLC, GLBC bought 8 acres of land on the inland side of Carter that extends to within a couple hundred feet of Scranton Road. That may well be the next phase, especially since the overall project is referenced as “Scranton Road Brewery.”
That is an interesting reference since GLBC’s land doesn’t quite touch Scranton Road. Separating it is the abandoned tracks of the Flats Industrial Railroad and equally narrow parcels belonging to Scranton Averell Inc. to the north and the Cleveland Metroparks to the south.
But this new application, based on its site development plans, is limited to the riverfront land. There, GLBC anticipates spending $600,000 to prepare it for development. In the last eight years, GLBC has reportedly considered a riverfront brewpub, tasting room or similar public venue here.
“Site improvements necessary to make the property buildable for a future use,” are requested, wrote Jeremy Ousley, associate director of site development at Environmental Design Group in the permit application. “This includes minimal site demolition, grading, and installation of utility services including water, sanitary and electrical services.”
In the lower-left corner of each page of the site plans is this work product identification that includes “Great Lakes Brewing … Scranton Road Brewery.” The image is magnified several hundred times and turned 90 degrees to make it easier to read (EDG).
The work area identified in the plans is limited to an area of just 0.15 acres, primarily near the Centennial Lake Link Trail. That includes removing a section of sheet wall next to Carter and building a water vault. To remain on-site is a much larger concrete retaining wall, left over from the Republic Steel mill that occupied much of Scranton Peninsula well into the 1980s.
Additionally, the plans show that two new pipes will extend under Carter from the water vault. One is for a water line that will extend into a small part of the Carter Inland property where it will tap into an existing water line. The other, a sanitary line, extends only into Carter’s right of way to reach its sewer.
A sanitary sewer line also is proposed to be extended south about 93 feet from the Silver Hills apartment complex that’s under construction on the river-side of Carter. A Silver Hills affiliate called Flats Rivertrail LLC has a narrow sliver of property that extends south from the apartment complex and separates the GLBC land from the water’s edge.
NEOtrans reached out to Marissa DeSantis, GLBC’s brand marketing manager and spokesperson, but she is out of the office from Feb. 5-11. GLBC Social Media Specialist Lily Switka was also contacted for comment and clarification but she wasn’t available to respond prior to publication of this article.
A real estate insider who NEOtrans spoke with said that GLBC’s desire to install utilities to the site suggests that this isn’t for some indefinite future development. Instead, it is likely for a specific project that GLBC is ready to move forward on in the near term.
By contrast, in 2021, GLBC spent about $650,000 to level and grade the 8 acres of land on the Carter Inland site. But no utility work was involved. Some of the soil from the inland property was moved to the riverfront property to raise portions of it by about 3 feet. Afterwards, no further work was done on either site.
Scranton Peninsula is located along the Cuyahoga River in the Flats, between Downtown Cleveland and Ohio City. A great deal of development has been happening on Scranton Peninsula in recent years.
GLBC has had its offices, brewery and brewpub at 2516 Market Ave. in Ohio City since it opened in 1988. But the site is cramped and cannot be expanded in the dense, historic neighborhood where development continues to crowd the brewery.
This graphic from a Great Lakes Brewing Company consultant shows the two properties that the brewer owns on Scranton Peninsula. Together, they total about 10 acres but are separated from each other by Carter Road on the left and do not touch Scranton Road which is just off the right side of the map (EDG).
NEOtrans learned from two sources in September 2024 that GLBC was pursuing financial assistance from the city of Cleveland and possibly other sources to relocate its production and Strongsville canning facilities to Scranton Peninsula.
GLBC’s Steven Pauwels, who is co-CEO with Chris Brown, said at the time that the company was still keeping its options open. But he also didn’t deny the potential move to Scranton Peninsula, either.
After Mark King resigned as CEO in May 2024, the company abandoned his plans to build a 200,000-square-foot brewery and canning facility with a tasting room on Chester Road at Jaycox Road, next to Interstate 90 in Avon in Lorain County.
In December 2023, NEOtrans revealed the Avon plans that were soon confirmed by the company. More than 200 people work for GLBC in its offices, production facilities and hospitality business.
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