The south end of West 47th Street is due to look very different by this time next year, featuring Urban Community School’s new Little League Ballpark. But all of West 47th, seen at left in this south-looking rendering, is looking different these days with more than $11 million worth of capital improvements underway (Kaczmar). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Capital work along W47th totals $11M this year
For leaders of the Urban Community School (UCS), West 47th Street has been a street of dreams. But those dreams are becoming a reality in 2025, with more to come by the end of the year – including a new baseball field of dreams.
By this time next year, the scenery along West 47th where Ohio City meets the Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood will bear little resemblance to the street that was studded with small, aging, single-family homes just a few years ago.
“Our capital construction activity in 2025 is all about West 47th,” said UCS President Thomas Gill. “We’re putting in a lot of investment there as the school continues to grow.”
And grow it has. With these additions, the UCS campus, 4909 Lorain Ave., has expanded to more than a dozen acres. It’s in response to the school’s growing enrollment. It now has more than 800 students in grades K-8 enrolled for the 2025-26 school year. Five years earlier, it had 612. In 2011, it was home to 435 students.
For UCS, the biggest project on West 47th is a new $9 million multi-purpose athletic center. It is rising on the east side of the street, just south of Lorain.
Although this graphic highlights the new Little League Ballpark in green, it shows all of the latest plans and projects along West 47th Street. Compare this image with the 2014 overhead view below to see how much the Urban Community School campus has changed in the past decade (Kaczmar).
Work is well underway on the 30,636-square-foot athletic center with an eye toward a November opening – weather permitting. The center will have three full-length courts for basketball, volleyball and pickleball plus classrooms.
It will augment the heavily used gym attached to UCS’s main school building one block west and Urban Squash Cleveland’s busy facility at the southwest corner of Lorain and West 47th.
In the north wing of the new athletic center will be the permanent home of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. The hall is led by President Bob DiBiasio who is also senior vice president of public affairs of the Cleveland Guardians.
Farther south on the same side of West 47th, a brand new House of Champions will be built and allow the afterschool program to grow by 33 percent. It built 2059 W, 47th, its first new house on the UCS campus in 2019. Knez Homes of Painesville is the builder of both homes. The program is run by Sr. Mary Kay Conkey of the Order of Saint Ursula.
Across the street is where the new baseball diamond will be constructed, according to plans submitted to the city last month. It will host Near West Recreation little-league baseball teams and potential UCS teams, Gill said.
Under construction on Urban Community School’s expanding campus is a new athletic facility. It is being sought to address space constraints in the school’s growing programs plus those of Near West Recreation and other campus partners (Kaczmar).
“That really completes West 47th Street,” he noted. “The goal is to expand opportunities for kids. The demand for baseball has been there for some time, especially among our Hispanic student body.”
For now, Near West Recreation plays its “home” games at multiple fields – Brookside, Fairview Park and sometimes Clark Field. Given the league’s success, it will continue use many fields and the UCS field will be a nice addition. UCS doesn’t have a baseball team yet but it’s being considered, Gill said.
Plans for a baseball field were recently bolstered by a $500,000 gift from a local family that wishes to remain anonymous at this time.
The donation amount equals the cost of building a new turf field that’s sized for little-league players aged 10 years and younger, called U-10. Site preparation work could start as early as this spring. F. Buddie Contracting, Ltd. of Cleveland Is the general contractor.
In 2014, Urban Community School’s campus was primarily between West 48th and West 50th streets. Today, it has expanded eastward by more than a block, from the diagonal Lorain Avenue south to the railroad tracks (Google).
Plans show the new baseball field will have two sheltered dugouts for players and a small set of bleachers set up behind home plate. Spectators may also set up their own personal seating along the fences that will surround the field.
Other work associated with the new baseball diamond include demolishing the old House of Champions, 2066 W. 47th, relocating an underground water line, construction of a new curved driveway off West 47th Street, and relocating 10 parking spaces to along the east side of the Early Childhood Center where three more spaces will be added.
The total investment on the block will be nearly $11 million this year including the cost of athletic center, House of Champions, Little League field, and site work.
Five properties were secured for the baseball field in 2022. UCS is also vacating Turn Avenue along the southern edge of the campus, west of W. 47th. It already acquired the entire vacated public right of way per an easement with the other adjacent property owner – Norfolk Southern Railroad.
This content appears as a courtesy of its sponsor, Urban Community School. All rights reserved.
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