Conceptual plans for the African Town Retail Plaza on Cedar Avenue in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood were approved today by the Design Review Committee of the City Planning Commission (JL Myers). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Site to be ’embassy’ for African community
With work underway to redevelop the former Cedar Branch YMCA to become African Town Plaza, its developer James Sosan is now looking for his next real estate project. He didn’t have to look far.
Just across Cedar Avenue, between East 76th and 78th streets, is 1.4 acres of city land bank-owned parcels that are vacant after a community garden recently relocated. There, Sosan, a Nigerian immigrant, plans to build a two-story, roughly 23,000-square-foot business incubator and community center for new immigrants from Africa.
Planned are 38 leasable commercial units of up to 600 square feet each with maximum monthly rents of $1,000 but often far less for new-start businesses. At the center of the building will be a common area with a community gathering area where tenants can display their products and information.
Sosan’s conceptual plans for the development won conditional approval today from the Design Review Committee of the Cleveland Planning Commission. Presenting the plans were Sosan and Joe Myers of Willoughby-based Joseph Myers Architects. The new plaza will be more of a community center than just a retail or office building, Sosan said.
“So we’re going to have an area in the building that’s dedicated to my group, the Nigerians,” Sosan told committee members. “They are going to hold their meetings there. They will have an office there. And that’s just Nigeria. The Ghanaians are going to do the same thing. So it is going to be like an embassy in Cleveland.”
This conceptual site plan for the African Town Retail Plaza features 61 parking spaces around the perimeter of the building whereas 41 spaces are required. Despite having extra parking, the site also has enough room for a food truck park at the southeast corner of Cedar Avenue and East 78th Street. North is at the bottom of this image (JL Myers).
He said that new immigrants from Africa could go to the new retail plaza, visit an office for the country they are from and get assistance on how to settle down in Cleveland. The services of the new-construction building will also work in conjunction with African Town Plaza in the former YMCA across the street.
The 82-year-old, 47,816-square-foot building at 7515 Cedar Ave. is being renovated for about $5 million. It will have 10 leasable offices in the basement and first floor, an athletic court-turned-event space, a multimedia studio and a commercial kitchen to help incubate new businesses.
Surrounding the high-ceiling event space will be 19 apartments on the second and third floors. It will also have an African theme to it with the events Sosan wants to host at the building, said Myers.
“It’s straight across (the street) from the other event center so the sidewalks tie in,” Myers said. “It really works for the community to bring the people in. There’s a pad out front for a food truck that would actually work in conjunction with the kitchen in the event center across the street.”
Location of the planned new African Town Retail site, in blue, in relation to the former YMCA being renovated into the African Town Plaza, in yellow (JL Myers).
“Staff is in support of this development,” said a Planning Commission staff summary. “The investment in this area can bring catalytic change to the physical and economic landscape. The concept was well received by (Euclid Corridor-Buckeye) committee members with many ideas expressed on how to treat the façade fronting Cedar.”
Yesterday, the Euclid Corridor-Buckeye Design Review Committee urged, when planning is refined to the schematic stage, that attention be given to circulation between the two projects on either side of Cedar.
The neighborhood-level committee also suggested using some African-specific colors for exterior materials, plus adding windows on the east and west sides, and defining how the interior courtyard will be secured after hours.
Committee Chair Lillian Kuri asked if will there be exterior designs like with awnings or other features that display flags and their colors of African countries. Sosan replied that there will be artwork and displays outside that, when you see them, you will immediately know that it is something from Africa.
North elevation facing Cedar Avenue of the planned new-construction African Town Retail building. Planning Commission members suggested it use exterior colors associated with Africa to give it a sense of place and identity like the new Latino Centrovilla in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood (JL Myers).
“We’re using brick at the base and then above we give it a industrial and contemporary look (that) brings fresh ideas to the area because the area is down right now,” said Sosan, owner of JOS Development of Twinsburg.
Committee members mentioned Centrovilla25, for example, on West 25th Street in La Villa Hispana in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. The mercado is painted on the exterior with bright, vivid colors that are often associated with Latino cultures.
Sosan is an experienced developer, especially in redeveloping historic structures including the Metro Lofts in Tremont, the Detroit Lofts in Ohio City and transforming the former West Side YMCA into apartments.
Sosan is also a mentor in CDA’s Cleveland Equitable Development Initiative (CLE-EDI) program which launched in 2023 and is aimed at bolstering the ranks of successful minority real estate developers in the region.
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