Demolition crews showed up Wednesday evening to take down part of the closed Fridrich Bicycle shop in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, only hours after a building violation order was posted online (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Owner wasn’t notified of demo order
ARTICLE UPDATED MAY 21, 2026 WITH NEW PHOTO, CITY RESPONSE
The easternmost building of the closed Fridrich Bicycle was suddenly demolished by a city-hired contractor Wednesday evening, only hours after the city posted a building violation notice. A crowd gathered on the sidewalk across the street from 3722 Lorain Ave. to watch the 143-year-old building come down.
But neither the building owner, Charles Fridrich, or his attorney were notified by the city that the building was the subject of a city order to raze the structure. The rest of the former bicycle shop, much of which also dates to the 19th century, remains intact. The property was recently listed for sale.
In fact, when NEOtrans contacted Fridrich’s real estate agent Nick Reyes of Acclaimed Realty for comment and more information about the city’s notice issued today, it was the first time Fridrich, his attorney or Reyes had heard about the order. And after NEOtrans emailed it to them moments later, it was the first time they’d seen it.
“The Commissioner of Building and Housing does hereby declare the structure known as and located at the stated property address to be a public nuisance in that it constitutes and emminent (sic) danger and peril to human life and public health, safety and welfare, and that the aforesaid condition constitutes an emergency,” the city’s violations notice stated.
“Therefore you are hereby notified that the city of Cleveland pursuant to…the codified ordinances will summarily abate said public nuisance created as a result of said emergency by demolition of the structure if the violations listed in the attached noticed are not entirely corrected by the date set forth in said notice,” the city added.
Hours before the demolition of 3722 Lorain Ave. was carried out by a city contractor, this was the situation with Fridrich’s building façade (photo by Nicholas Conway).
The city’s building code violation notice was in response to six citizen reports made on May 18 and another on May 14 via the city’s 311 so-called nuisance hotline about a “collapsing structure.”
But four other reports of a “collapsing structure” dating back to July 2025 were listed for 3722 Lorain on the Building Department’s Web portal. In six years prior to that there were no other complaints on the Web portal about this property.
“It’s always a tragedy when we face a serious public safety threat that results in the loss of one of our city’s historic buildings,” said Sally Martin O’Toole, the city’s director of building and housing, on social media.
“The former Fridrich Bicycle shop on Lorain Avenue had a collapsing façade that had destabilized and started falling onto the sidewalk,” she added. “After years of citations and litigation, the problem remained and we were faced with an emergency situation. It was a hard call to make, but years of disinvestment left us with no other option.”
Demolition crews spray water to limit the dust coming from the demolition of the former Fridrich Bicycle shop on Lorain Avenue (NEOtrans).
Reyes said Fridrich was addressing the code violations through the city’s appeals process, with his attorney representing him in Cleveland Housing Court as recently as May 11. So the demolition came as a big surprise to Fridrich and his attorney, Reyes added.
“We would have wanted the option to make repairs to the building if we knew that they were going to demolish it,” Reyes said. The property is listed for sale at $2.9 million.
In the complaints submitted to the city in the past week, most were about bricks falling from the building. But that shouldn’t have come as a surprise as the city had closed the Lorain Avenue sidewalk days ago. Then an earthmover and dump truck showed up next to the building today.
Residents also began notifying NEOtrans today of the demolition equipment’s appearance. One of them noted that a brick wall recently began bowing outward, which is likely what triggered the emergency demolition.
Property owner Charles Fridrich, his attorney and realtor were on the site of the demolition shortly before crews starting taking down the easternmost building. A bowed-out portion of the building’s brick wall can be seen next to the Lorain Avenue sidewalk (Nick Reyes).
Ohio City Inc. (OCI) officials told NEOtrans that they helped Fridrich in recent years make short-term repairs to his buildings, especially to the roof. OCI also tried to get bicycle shop owners to buy his business to keep it going and sustain the historic property but to no avail.
On the other hand, some residents complained that they wished the city was as consistently quick to demolish decaying buildings in response to public complaints about their conditions. But sometimes even Safety Department warnings about the condition of buildings aren’t responded to on a consistent basis.
For example, in 2024, NEOtrans broke a story about the former Ambassador Theater, 12408-18 Superior Ave. in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood, collapsing into the street. A month earlier, a fire department official had urged the city’s demolition bureau to take the building down on an emergency basis.
City officials were unavailable late Wednesday for comment and more information. This is a developing story that NEOtrans will continue to follow.
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