A tired-looking stretch of East 185th Street at Canterbury Avenue, where Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood meets the City of Euclid, is due for an injection of fresh energy. That process is getting underway (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Land Bank wants large mixed-use project
As promised last year, the Cuyahoga Land Bank has issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for vacant properties it acquired along both sides of East 185th Street commercial corridor. The street straddles the border between the cities of Cleveland and Euclid.
As requested as part of the RFP, the Cuyahoga Land Bank is seeking newly constructed residential and/or commercial buildings that have ground-floor uses that includes retail, restaurants, community services, or other uses that contribute to street-level activity.
The buildings are desired to be complementary to the scale and character of existing structures on the corridor, with blank facades and auto-oriented designs discouraged.
“Proposals that benefit nearby residents, support local businesses, and offer affordable, community-oriented uses; and high-quality architecture that contributes to the corridor’s vibrancy” are sought, the RFP noted.
The RFP was posted two days ago on the new Cuyahoga Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Web site. The deadline for responses to the RFP is 5 p.m., Dec. 20, 2026.
The site along East 185th Street that’s the subject of the Cuyahoga Land Bank’s request for proposals straddles the border of Cleveland at left and Euclid at right. North is at the top of this view (CCLRC).
Cuyahoga TOD is a new effort to promote development along bus and rail lines so that more people would have access to jobs, housing, services and opportunity.
Because two cities are involved, it was less complicated for one entity with jurisdiction in both communities to take the lead on the redevelopment effort. That effort would reactivate 2.66 acres of land divided among multiple parcels that for more than seven decades had hosted car dealerships.
The land bank, known officially as the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp. (CCLRC), acquired nine parcels — five in Euclid, four in Cleveland — over the past year from public and private entities.
CCLRC is issuing the RFP on behalf of the cities of Cleveland and Euclid in collaboration with the nonprofit development organization Community Improvement Corporation of Euclid (ECIC).
Part of the former car dealership property is seen here on the Euclid side, at East 185th Street at Pasnow Avenue. in July. Across East 185th at right is the only remaining car dealership structure which was in the midst of a renovation of its exterior masonry (Google).
Cuyahoga TOD is involved because East 185th is served by two Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority bus routes, the Nos. 37 and 39. The neighborhood on the City of Cleveland side of this section of East 185th is Collinwood.
“East 185th Street is one of Northeast Ohio’s most distinctive urban corridors,” said the land bank in a written statement. “It has the pedestrian scale, building fabric, and community character that most commercial districts spend decades trying to achieve.”
The commercial corridor is home to locally owned restaurants and shops, the historic LaSalle Theatre, anchor institutions including Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School, the Hospice of the Western Reserve, and Cleveland Clinic’s Euclid Hospital, and direct access to Lake Erie.
In recent years, the cities of Cleveland and Euclid, along with community partners, invested in a major streetscape improvement project along East 185th, including sidewalk reconstruction, lighting and façade work.
In the early 1980s, Jackshaw Chevrolet occupied both sides of East 185th Street and did so for 42 years. The only remaining dealership building is seen across East 185th at left in this view looking north (reprinted with permission of EuclidEvolution.blogspot.com).
Several years ago, the City of Euclid developed a development masterplan with public input and issued an RFP. But there was a lack of developer interest because the Euclid-only site wasn’t big enough.
So the Cleveland side of the former Lake Shore Chevrolet dealership, which closed in December 2008 during the Great Recession, was included via a memorandum of understanding with the Cuyahoga Lank Bank.
Lake Shore was the fourth Chevy dealership on this northern portion of East 185th going back to 1933. The dealership that stayed in business the longest was Jackshaw Chevrolet, operating from 1956 to 1998.
A part of the dealership that’s still standing is at East 185th and Rosecliff Road. It is privately owned, recently renovated and not part of the Cuyahoga Land Bank’s RFP.
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