Shooters On The Water restaurant at Cleveland’s Flats West Bank has a new operator, a company associated with singer and songwriter Machine Gun Kelly who grew up in Cleveland. The 37-year-old restaurant on the Cuyahoga River will be renovated but will keep the name Shooters (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
New operator linked to MGK takes over restaurant lease
If there was anyone who would be a perfect fit to take over the operation of a restaurant named Shooters, it would be a guy named Machine Gun Kelly. The riverside restaurant will reportedly be the singer and songwriter’s second establishment in Downtown Cleveland’s Flats entertainment district and is due to be renovated and reopened in the summer of 2025.
Two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the casual “Florida-fare” restaurant with live music will keep at least a semblance of its full name, Shooters On The Water. Instead, it will be called Shooters Yacht Club, a reference to a restaurant and club in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
But the 37-year-old Cleveland restaurant, with its popular patio on the Cuyahoga River is in need of refreshing. Shooters is located at 1148 Main Ave. on the Flats West Bank and has been “temporarily closed” since the end of Labor Day weekend.
The sources said a busy Beachwood-based real estate developer TurnDev will oversee the restaurant’s interior demolition and its renovation. While demolition is about to begin, architectural plans for the renovation have yet to be submitted to the city for review and approval.
Among its many projects citywide, TurnDev is currently developing the new Cleveland Division of Police Headquarters in the historic ArtCraft Building, 2540 Superior Ave. The firm is also developing other nearby properties in the Superior Arts District.
MGK talks to employees at his first Cleveland establishment 27 Club Coffee, located on West 10th Street on the Flats East Bank in Downtown Cleveland. The second will be located across the Cuyahoga River on the Flats West Bank (thetraveladdict.com).
One of the sources said TurnDev is in partnership with “a high-profile entertainment group” but declined to say who the group is. The second source confirmed over the weekend the group included Machine Gun Kelly, renamed simply as MGK.
A third source told NEOtrans several months ago that MGK and local restaurateur Pat D’Onofrio of Velvet Tango Room, Slyman’s Tavern and Inferno Flats (East Bank), were jointly pursuing Shooters but was unable to comment further since.
According to public records, Shooters On The Water Inc. leases a 14,970-square-foot, two-level space in the 50,000-square-foot Sugar Warehouse from Nautica Entertainment LLC. That firm, led by developer Jeffrey Jacobs, also owns the Powerhouse, Jacobs Pavilion and the Lady Caroline dinner cruise ship.
Ohio Secretary of State records show a new partnership SYC JC LLC was formed in March and acquired the lease rights on or about Nov. 13, the source said. SYC refers to “Shooters Yacht Club.” In February, Shooters Yacht Club LLC was incorporated with Andre Cisco listed as the registered agent and 1148 Main as the address. Cisco is a Cleveland entrepreneur who contributed to MGK’s first album.
The assignment for the tradename Shooters on the Water was changed Nov. 13 from Shooters’ founder and longtime owner Roger Loecy of Chardon to SYC JC LLC. The statutory agent for SYC JC is Andrew Wilber, a partner at Korman Jackson Krantz, public records show.
The land side of Shooters is not as interesting as the river side, although the long-locked upright Baltimore & Ohio railroad bascule bridge add a distinctive Cleveland flavor to the Florida-inspired restaurant and live music venue (Google).
Velvet Tango Room is owned by Cleveland-based CrossCountry Mortgage CEO Ron Leonhardt Jr. TurnDev is a joint venture between Leonhardt and Jon Pinney, managing partner of Cleveland law firm Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP. Pinney is the designated spokesman for TurnDev.
NEOtrans has reached out to these principals for official confirmation and comment but has yet to hear back from them. NEOtrans also reached out to MGK’s publicist Natasha Dubin-Collatos at Rogers & Cowan PMK in Beverly Hills, CA but hasn’t heard back from her either.
This would be MGK’s second establishment in Cleveland. On the other side of the Cuyahoga River on the East Bank of the Flats district, he opened 27 Club Coffee, 1215 W. 10th St. in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The restaurant and coffee shop’s name 27 Club Coffee is a nod to the “big six” musicians who died at the age of 27 — Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse.
Shooters On The Water will become Shooters Yacht Club now that a partnership headlined by MGK has taken over the lease. Renovations will be made and the new restaurant is due to open in the summer of 2025. When this photo was taken from the Flats East Bank in June 2019 heavy rains had turned the Cuyahoga River a muddy color (Google).
MGK was born Richard Colson Baker in 1990 in Houston. His parents were both Christian missionaries and lived around the world. He came to Cleveland in the 2000s, living near Shaker Square and went to Shaker Heights High School. MGK has said he considers Cleveland to be his hometown despite in living many other places.
Cleveland is where he discovered and honed his musical abilities. But after high school, his father kicked MGK out. So the aspiring rapper went to the famed Apollo Theater in New York City and won an Amateur Night Audition, making him the first rapper ever to win. It sent him on to stardom.
Shooters Yacht Club has other company. The 50,000-square-foot building at 1148 Main, called the Sugar Warehouse, also contains the Music Box Supper Club as well as the Funny Bone Comedy Club & Restaurant.
The two-story building was constructed in 1987 by developer Jacobs and contained a trendy dance nightspot called Club Coconuts as well as Jillian’s Billiards. But only Shooters has continuously stayed in business there since the Sugar Warehouse was built.
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