Downtown Cleveland in July 2024, prior to Oswald Companies putting up its naming rights sign on the silver Flats East Bank tower near the center of this image. Their new and old buildings are both making news at the turn of the new year (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
New, old Oswald buildings making news into 2025
At the start of the new year, employers are expanding, relocating, renovating and otherwise retrofitting their office spaces. Ironically, the current and former Oswald buildings in Downtown Cleveland are the addresses where most of these investments are planned, according to public records. As NEOtrans reported last week, 2025 may be the year that Cleveland returns to the office.
Expanding in the current Oswald Tower, 950 Main Ave. at Flats East Bank, is Edgewater Research, an independent equity investment research provider and market intelligence company. Founded in 2018 by CEO Daryl Boehringer and President Kevin Rottinghaus, the company continues to expand and gain national attention, including guest appearances on CNBC.
Edgewater Research is adding about 1,800 square feet, growing to a total of approximately 6,000 square feet on the seventh floor of the Oswald Building, Rottinghaus said. The young company’s first office was at the IMG Building, 1360 E. 9th St.
The company moved to the then-E&Y Building at the start of 2020. Now, according to city Building Department records, Edgewater is investing approximately $150,000 on the expansion to retrofit its new space to accommodate more staff.
No longer the Oswald Centre, 1100 Superior’s largest current tenant is Clearstead, a fast-growing financial advisory firm whose office footprint is now double the size of what it was prior to the pandemic (Google).
“We had seven employees at the start and have grown to 18 — 16 of which are in Cleveland, and our 19th employee will be joining our Cleveland office in May,” Rottinghaus said.
“We will also have three to five interns joining us in the summer with hopes of some full-time hires from that class as well,” he added. “We currently have one opening in our sales/operations team which we hope to fill early in 2025. By summer we should to have 20-25 people in the Cleveland office on a regular basis.”
Rottinghaus’ former employer, market and equity research firm Cleveland Research Co., is also investing in its office space, located on the 27th floor of One Cleveland Center, 1375 E. 9th St. in Downtown Cleveland.
It is adding about 2,500 square feet to fill out the entire floor, according to a Building Department filing. Total investment associated with Cleveland Research’s interior renovations amount to approximately $200,000.
The silver chisel of One Cleveland Center on East 9th Street is seeing investment from the expansion of tenant Cleveland Research Co., an independent market and equity research business (KJP).
Erbach Architects Inc., of Chagrin Falls, is designing both of those renovations and administering the permits, public records show. It also is the architect of record for a major renovation pending for Clearstead, an independent financial advisory firm serving wealthy families and leading institutions across the country.
After the departure of Oswald last year, Clearstead is now the largest tenant at the former Oswald Centre, 1100 Superior Ave. The company has doubled its footprint in the last five years, from 24,546 square feet and 80 employees to about 48,000 square feet and more than 100 employees, according to the building’s leasing agent Colliers International.
Now Clearstead is adding nearly 7,100 square feet to a seventh-floor space, representing an investment of about $400,000, building department records show. The firm extended its lease last year to 2034 and added more than 7,000 square feet on the sixth floor of 1100 Superior, representing a investment of $320,500, according to public records.
Last year’s expansion followed Clearstead’s acquisition of Wilbanks Smith and Thomas (WST) Asset Management, a Norfolk, Virginia-based wealth and investment management firm. That deal closed in the spring of 2024.
Not only is the new Oswald Tower the new home of the insurer Oswald Companies, it also is home to the expanding market intelligence company Edgewater Research and the relocating insurance broker Taylor Oswald. The latter is moving from the old Oswald Centre on Superior (Google).
“Strategic and prudent mergers make us a stronger firm — each brings talent and capabilities to serve clients more effectively, which is our primary focus,” Clearstead CEO Dave Fulton said in a written statement.
In the last office investment, this time a relocation, both the old and new Oswald buildings are involved — and a different architect, Cleveland-based Vocon Partners LLC.
Minority-owned insurance broker Taylor Oswald will move from the 13th floor at 1100 Superior to the second floor at 950 Main. There, it will take nearly 12,000 square feet, resulting in $350,000 in planned renovations, a permit application shows.
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