The former Medical Mutual headquarters is going under the knife to be converted from office building to a mix of residential, hotel and ground-floor restaurant-retail uses. Sidewalks on Prospect Avenue and East 9th Street were closed off and streets narrowed to allow work to begin (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Barriers set up on sidewalks, streets for work
A clear sign of a project getting underway is when street barriers and fencing go up around that project’s site. In this case, it’s the vacated Medical Mutual of Ohio headquarters, 2060 E. 9th St. in Downtown Cleveland, that’s about to see work get started.
The barriers went up this week for Project Scarlet along the sidewalks and traffic lanes of East 9th and Prospect Avenue surrounding the 10-story, 378,000-square-foot, 1902-built Rose Building, a city-designated landmark structure.
Project Scarlet is a $120 million conversion of the former Medical Mutual HQ into 154 residential units, plus ground-floor retail and restaurant spaces. The neighboring six-story Sloan Building, 819-823 Prospect Ave., is to become a 123-room Marriott Tribute hotel.
Leading the project is the Rose Building’s owner Spark GHC (Green Harvest Capital) of Solon. Bhavin ‘B’ Patel is principal for the property owner Spark GHC which has partnered with general contractor Cleveland Construction Inc. of Mentor.
Street/sidewalk fencing along Prospect Avenue is becoming ever-present with four major projects between East 4th and East 9th streets. At left is the six-story Sloan Building that will become a Marriott Tribute hotel. The 10-story Rose Building is just beyond it (NEOtrans)
“We’re starting on the interior nonstructural demo at Project Scarlet,” said Shawn Zbasnik, director of marketing at Cleveland Construction. “The street fencing and barriers are in place to manage the debris removal and prepare for the full buildout.”
Cleveland Construction, which has a storefront office on Prospect just west of the Rose Building, was awarded a permit on Dec. 11 for “interior demolition and select structural alterations” estimated at $4.25 million, according to records from the Cleveland Building Department.
But no permit applications have been submitted yet for the full buildout of Project Scarlet. Such applications for large projects like this usually take months of reviews and back-and-forth corrections and refinements before a permit is issued.
“As for the schedule, we’re still finalizing details with the SparkGHC,” Zbasnik said. “We’ll share updates as things progress.”
A ground-floor view taken last month from inside the Rose Building, looking out at the busy intersection of East 9th Street and Prospect Avenue (Cleveland Construction).
Cleveland Construction opened an office here because it has been busy lately in this part of downtown. It is the general contractor for K&D Group’s conversion of the Electric Building, 700 Prospect. This 12-story building received three certificates of occupancy from the city in the past week.
The next block north at 776 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Construction built the 23-story Skyline 776 mixed-use tower. And in the mid-2010s, before it opened its downtown office, it renovated the historic Schofield Building, 2000 E. 9th, into apartments and a Kimpton Hotel. That building is right next door to the Rose Building.
With Project Scarlet getting underway, Prospect may be a difficult place to walk for a while. It will now have four large development projects causing barriers to be erected along its sidewalks, prefacing a big expansion in sports/entertainment and restaurant/bar venues.
The Rose Building is in very good condition as this interior photo from last month portrays. Medical Mutual modernized the building to the tune of $35 million shortly before the pandemic hit in 2020 (Cleveland Construction).
One is right across Prospect — a new Urban Meyer’s Pint House opening in The Point Building at 820 Prospect. The other two are the Electric Building including a Tom’s Watch Bar and Bedrock’s Rock Block/Cosm near East 4th Street.
By January 2023, Medical Mutual had closed its downtown headquarters and consolidated all staff into the former American Greetings HQ in suburban Brooklyn. Just before the pandemic hit in 2020, the insurance company had modernized the building for $35 million, leaving it in very good condition.
Spark GHC bought the property in December 2024 for just $11 million. The company is a minority-owned, U.S.-focused private real estate firm focused on developing, acquiring, and operating hospitality, multifamily and commercial assets.
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