A former commercial laundry in several buildings on Lexington Avenue in Cleveland’s Goodrich-Kirtland Park neighborhood will be the new home of the Cleveland Print Room. The photography-oriented nonprofit is joining the spread of arts-based organizations heading east from downtown (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Photography nonprofit to renovate former laundry
Increasingly, artist studios and nonprofit arts organizations have been moving eastward from downtown into Cleveland’s Goodrich-Kirtland Park neighborhood and St. Clair-Superior. But few are making as big of an investment as that which the Cleveland Print Room (CPR) plans by acquiring and renovating a former commercial laundry at 4730 Lexington Ave.
That’s where CPR intends to invest about $4.5 million to renovate several brick structures totaling about 18,000 square feet as well as improve the grounds of the 0.56-acre property for a photographic gallery and community darkroom for traditional film-based photography. That doesn’t include environmental remediation of the site or the property’s purchase price, said Kerry Davis, CPR’s creative director who has been working on this project for about two years.
CPR acquired the two-parcel property in January through a quit-claim deed from the Cuyahoga Land Bank after the property went into foreclosure. So there is no immediately available public record of the sale price. For tax purposes, the county valued the land and buildings at $234,700.
“The total costs for the total project are still being estimated but that number ($4.5 million) is within range excluding some of the remediation costs,” Davis said, acknowledging it’s a heavy financial lift for an arts-oriented nonprofit. “I do not wish to acknowledge any particular (financial) supporters at this time, but if you know some dickensesque philanthropist, we are open.”
The nonprofit lists its multiple foundations, partners and other funders on its Web site including the Cleveland Foundation, George Gund Foundation and Ohio Arts Council plus Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College. It also engages in “Robust education programs, cross-sector partnerships and accessible art spaces” as noted in a summary provided by CPR.
Looking east from East 47th Street, much of the façade of the original, 1920-built structure on the site is visible. This 12,000-square-foot building will house the Cleveland Print Room’s gallery, darkroom and educational programming (Google).
In December 2022, CPR received $97,327 in Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program funds for a site assessment. According to its application with the Ohio Department of Development, the first commercial building on the property was a 12,000-square-foot structure constructed in 1920 by Ohio Mechanics Laundry, one of the state’s largest commercial laundries at the time.
The laundry and dry-cleaning operation occupied and used detergents and other substances at the site from 1923 until 1974. The facility was sold to Coyne Commercial Laundry in 1975, which immediately closed it. In 2005, the property was then occupied by Minority Electric Company and used it for storage until about 2017. The site, just southeast of Asiatown, has been vacant since.
“For clarification, we received a Brownfield assessment, but our application for remediation has not been granted; it is being cured,” Davis said.
Remediation will start with environmental assessments, installation of groundwater monitoring wells and one deep-monitoring well, plus asbestos surveys and abatement. Following remediation, CPR will relocate and operate its community darkroom, gallery and educational programming at the redeveloped site. Although their Web site already lists the Lexington site as CPR’s address.
For a decade prior to March 2023, CPR was located in the ArtCraft Building, 2550 Superior Ave., in the Superior Arts District on the east side of downtown. Other artists were located in the hulking building, too, before they were forced out by an affiliate of new owner TurnDev which is redeveloping the former garment factory as the new Cleveland Division of Police headquarters.
Cleveland Print Room is devoted to photography as an art form, particularly traditional film-based photography that requires a darkroom to develop the film and equipment to print the photos. It needs space for both, plus a gallery to present the art and a place to teach it (CPR).
Those and others like Ingenuity, the Cleveland Play House Production Center and Zygote Press Inc. have settled in former industrial buildings north of St. Clair Avenue, east of downtown. In fact, CPR’s founder, Shari Wilkins, met in 2012 with Liz Maugans, one of the founders of Zygote Press, about her found photo business and she mentioned that they were looking for someone in Cleveland to take their darkroom. She planted a seed that grew into CPR.
At the Lexington site, CPR’s project also plans a small addition to an two-story existing structure, according to a filing by Cleveland-based architect Jonathan Kurtz last week with the city’s Building Department. The main two connected buildings — the 1920 building and another built in 1952 — will receive envelope updates primarily consisting of new windows and doors. Masonry repair will occur as required.
The rear, larger building will be renovated as the CPR’s new home. The front, smaller building will be shell space for future tenant opportunities. The new addition will include a new code-compliant egress stair serving both buildings. Also included in the renovation will be a new elevator installed within an existing shaft that will similarly serve both front and back buildings.
The entire structure will be fitted with sprinklers. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing updates will be added. Plus a sub-slab depressurizations system will be installed, according Kurtz’s filing with the city. JTL Construction of Garfield Heights is the project’s general contractor. There is a third building on-site, a 3,200-square-foot former shop built of brick in 1949 which may be used for storage.
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