Property owner The Cleveland Foundation has reached a letter of intent with Signet Real Estate Group to develop land at the northeast corner of Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood. This is an early conceptual rendering of what is envisioned here (TCF). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Cleveland Foundation, Signet eye Hough
The Cleveland Foundation says it wants to do for East 71st Street at Euclid Avenue what it has done for East 66th Street — transform it. From the foundation’s perspective, that requires demolishing a structure from the city’s industrial past. And the Cleveland Foundation will reveal this Friday a vision of that next transformation.
Part of that revelation is that East 71st’s proposed transformation now has a development partner — Signet Real Estate Group of Akron. The same group developed Foundry Lofts across the street at 7220 Euclid and leased out both phases in less than a year each. Signet also plans a 159-unit apartment complex at 4209 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland’s Midtown.
But the City Planning Commission has been reluctant to let The Cleveland Foundation demolish the former showroom and warehouse of the Baker Electric Car Co., 7107-7113 Euclid Ave. to make room for its vision. Whether a letter of intent and some sexy renderings are enough to convince the commission that vision is solid may be determined this Friday.
That’s when Cleveland Foundation representatives will present its conceptual plans for East 71st. In August 2025, the commission postponed the foundation’s requested demolition of the vacant Baker Electric Car structure, used most recently by A1 Hotel Liquidators.
Planning Commission Vice Chair August Fluker said last August that he didn’t feel as though The Cleveland Foundation was being transparent with the commission. But he and the other commission members tabled a decision on the demolition rather than deny it.
Desired features of the development site are numbered. Item 1 is active, ground-floor commercial spaces, 2 is an activated street corner, 3 is parking behind the building and 4 is a landscaping barrier with the One MidTown Townhomes (TCF).
Fluker stood in as chair of the Aug. 1 meeting for the vacationing then-Chair Lillian Kuri who is also president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation. Citing a heavy workload at the foundation, she stepped down last month after serving for 20 years on the commission.
Demolition includes removing murals launched by a community effort called “2021 Cleveland Walls!” The commission and a neighborhood-level design-review committee suggested a portion of the building be retained or design elements of the structure preserved for reuse in the foundation’s plans for East 71st.
Instead, The Cleveland Foundation secured a deal with Signet that includes conditions about the site. Additionally, the foundation has consulted with muralists whose work appears on the south and west façades of the building and documented the artwork for preservation and archival purposes.
“We’ve executed a letter of intent with Signet to develop the property, contingent on demolition of the A1 Building, and delivery of a clean, shovel-ready site,” the foundation’s presentation notes. “An early prototype project has been created to show the quality, vibrancy and street activation that will guide future development on this site.”
The foundation said that requiring a developer to retain portions of the century-old, 50,000-square-foot building and address hazardous materials and structural concerns would likely reduce interest and prolong redevelopment. The building is not a designated historic landmark.
The former Baker Electric Car building was used until 2019 by A1 Hotel Liquidators. Its south and west walls, both visible here, have murals resulting from a community effort. The site is next to a station on the HealthLine bus rapid transit (Google).
Signet would lease up to 3.2 acres of property from The Cleveland Foundation which, in turn, has a cooperative agreement with the property’s title holder, the Port of Cleveland. That agreement is for the foundation to pursue development of the site, located in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood which is seeing a lot of new construction.
Proposed is a multi-story residential building with active, ground-floor spaces that front Euclid and East 71st with parking concealed behind. A landscaped buffer is planned between the future development and the One MidTown Townhomes immediately east of this site.
A $325,000 grant was awarded by the Ohio Department of Development to demolish the A1 structure. The grant required a partial financial match of $108,000 from The Cleveland Foundation. The foundation has asked the state for an extension of the demolition grant to July. It was due to expire at the end of 2025.
The funding is also to be used for cleaning up the site. The foundation says he building structure contains asbestos and PCBs. Plus, the two-story structure with a basement sustained $415,000 worth of roof damage from a weak tornado in August 2023. The damage is not covered by insurance, the foundation said.
An updated plan for the A1 building site is included in the presentation. Foundation representatives said its proposed development here will align with the MidTown Vision Plan adopted by the City Planning Commission in 2021.
The northwest corner, at left, of Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street and the northeast corner, at right, are owned by the Port of Cleveland, under a cooperative agreement with the Cleveland Foundation for future development (Google).
“Similar to East 66th Street, owning both corners of Euclid and East 71st positions us to plan another neighborhood anchor and expand resident and partner access to resources,” The Cleveland Foundation said. “Our goal is to replicate the catalytic impact of East 66th on East 71st.”
The development of East 66th between Euclid and Chester avenues included The Cleveland Foundation’s 80,000-square-foot, 2023-built headquarters, 6601 Euclid. Next door is the 100,000-square-foot MidTown Collaboration Center, 1974 E. 66th St., also built by the foundation. It opened in May 2025 and is nearly fully leased.
But the foundation said the final building type, design and program at East 71st may vary based on findings of their planning work and evolving market demand. Those details will be presented to the City Planning Commission at a future time.
“To advance our planning work, and to deliver on the development interest we’ve secured, we request approval for demolition of the A1 Building,” the foundation’s presentation concluded.
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