This century-old structure on Euclid Avenue at East 71st Street in Cleveland’s Midtown neighborhood is proposed for demolition to avail a future development site. But the demolition was postponed by the Planning Commission which sought more information. The site is next to a station on the HealthLine bus rapid transit (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
More detailed plans by Cleveland Foundation sought
Neither Mother Nature, the Cleveland Foundation or the Cleveland Planning Commission have so far been able to demolish a century-old building at Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street in Cleveland’s Midtown neighborhood. The tornado-damaged former showroom and warehouse of the Baker Electric Car Company, 7107-7113 Euclid, is in the crosshairs of a nearly four-acre redevelopment site.
But a lack of information about that redevelopment plan ultimately kept the Cleveland Foundation from finishing what a weak tornado in August 2023 tried to start. Planning Commission members voted Aug. 1 to postpone a vote on whether to demolish some or all of the two-story brick building until the Cleveland Foundation came back with more development details.
The development site includes land on both sides of East 71st. On the east side of East 71st, affiliates of the Cleveland Foundation and MidTown Cleveland Inc. acquired about 3.2 acres of land in 2019 extending north up to Chester Avenue with a sliver of land between Chester and Spangler Court going over to East 73rd Street.
The former Baker warehouse, measuring 50,000 square feet, is the only remaining building in that collection of properties. At the start of this year, the foundation won a demolition grant of $325,000 from the Ohio Department of Development. It required a partial financial match of $108,000 from the foundation.
Victor Barbalato, vice president of real estate at the Cleveland Foundation, asked the Planning Commission for approval to demolish the warehouse before the grant award expires at the end of this year. The property was used from the 1980s to 2019 by A1 Hotel Liquidators.
This is a conceptual site plan for the future development of the northeast corner of Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street. But there are no details as to potential end-users, an omission that prompted the Planning Commission to postpone demolition of a building on the site (Cleveland Foundation).
“In parallel with demolition efforts, the Cleveland Foundation will actively pursue a developer partner to lease the site for new construction,” Barbalato told the commission. “Leasing, rather than selling, ensures long-term stewardship of the property and alignment with our mission and evolving community needs.”
He pointed out that the estimates from 2023 to repair and replace the tornado-damaged roof totaled $415,000. The costs are not covered by insurance, Barbalato noted.
The site is several blocks east of the Cleveland Foundation’s 80,000-square-foot, 2023-built headquarters, 6601 Euclid. Next door is the 100,000-square-foot MidTown Collaboration Center, 1974 E. 66th St., also built by the foundation. It opened in May and is nearly fully leased.
Planning Commission Vice Chair August Fluker stood in as chair of the Aug. 1 meeting in the absence of Chair Lillian Kuri who, ironically, is also president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation. She was on vacation. And Fluker didn’t mince words in postponing the demolition.
“I think that what the Cleveland Foundation is attempting to do, it appears to be altruistic, but I don’t think that it is,” Fluker said. “As a resident, as an architect and as a planning commission member, I don’t know what your plans are. What is your overall strategy? I don’t think you guys have been overly transparent.”
The northwest corner, at left, of Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street and the northeast corner, at right, are owned by the Port of Cleveland, under a cooperative agreement with the Cleveland Foundation for future development (Google).
He urged the foundation to be more active in its outreach with the neighborhood. Fluker, who lives nearby at Euclid and East 82nd Street, said there needs to be more of a balance between informing the community of plans and having the community help shape those plans. Several other commission members concurred.
Euclid Corridor Buckeye Design Review, a neighborhood-level city planning committee, on July 17 urged the full commission to deny the demolition request because of the building’s historical importance as a former Baker Electric Car Company building. However, the building has not been registered as historically important or even submitted for consideration.
Neighborhood design review committee member Dick Pace, CEO of Cumberland Development whose headquarters are across the street in the former Baker Electric office building and factory, also said the building shouldn’t be demolished. He felt the building was not heavily damaged and could be restored, such as for residential.
Cleveland City Planner Kenya Gray said that, at minimum, the Euclid façade of the building could be preserved. The south and west facades feature murals from the 2021 Cleveland Walls! project, which have been documented for preservation.
“We do think it (the building) can be refurbished,” Gray said. “We also think the artwork on the sides of the building is very important to the community.”
Nearby, at East 66th Street seen here just north of Euclid Avenue, is the 2023-built Cleveland Foundation’s headquarters at left. At right is the Midtown Collaboration Center which opened in May (NEOtrans).
On the west side of East 71st, the Cleveland Foundation’s Civic Property Development LLC bought in April 2024 two parcels totaling two-thirds of an acre, including the former, 1916-built Euclid Gallery Building. NEOtrans, citing city records, reported in February 2024 that CLE Consulting Firm had sought to purchase the building for its own offices.
Then, in October 2024, the board of the Port of Cleveland voted unanimously to authorize a cooperative agreement with the Cleveland Foundation for the assembly and redevelopment of property.
Barbalato told the port authority board that the agreement is a tool to help create equitable economic and community driven development in Midtown and other areas of the city that have been historically underserved.
He also said that many of the properties are small and land assembly is a complex and lengthy process to amass enough land holdings in an area to actually make it worthwhile for development. He said it cannot be done without the port authority’s involvement.
So in December, the port took title to the nearly 4 acres of land on either side of East 71st. Sale amounts were not disclosed. Per the agreement with the Cleveland Foundation, the port is indemnified from liability even though the land is in the port’s name and the transactional costs are paid by the foundation as well, according to port board meeting minutes.
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