The Women Religious Archives Collaborative Heritage Center started rising in Cleveland’s Campus District after the nearby St. Vincent Charity Medical Center closed its doors (Harrison Whittaker). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Progress Pics: Juvie Center, St. Vincent demolitions, Women’s Religious Archive Collaborative, more
University Circle and Ohio City might be Cleveland’s most recognizable development hotspots. But in the southern Campus District, which straddles the Central neighborhood and eastern edge of downtown, a handful of large-scale demolitions and relocations are setting up more than 50 acres for redevelopment next door to the central business district.
At the corner of Central Avenue and East 22nd Street, the former Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center is wrapping up demolition to make way for a proposed redevelopment of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority’s (CMHA) Olde Cedar public housing complex.
The remains of the former Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center on East 22nd Street (Harrison Whittaker).
The courthouse complex, built in 1931 and expanded with a detention center in 1964, was razed despite being locally designated with landmark status. County officials spent years trying to find a new use for the 4.4-acre site.
Redeveloping the site with new housing would allow some residents of the 1931-built Olde Cedar to be relocated so that its demolition can begin. In total, redevelopment of the public housing complex could deliver 880 mixed-income units — hundreds more than the 550 that exist today.
A recently repaved section of Interstate 71 in Tremont, before it joins Interstate 90 to become the Innerbelt Freeway. The Innerbelt is planned to see major upgrades in the coming years (Harrison Whittaker).
In the meantime, the cleared property will be used as construction staging for a $328 million rebuild of the I-90 Central Interchange as part of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Innerbelt Modernization Plan.
As part of the controversial project, the section of Cedar Avenue west of East 22nd Street will be realigned across the former juvenile center site, removing a bridge span across the Innerbelt Freeway.
A sign advertises the future St. Vincent Charity Health and Healing Hub on the site of the demolished medical center. At left, St. Vincent’s HCC building could be repurposed as a Neighborhood Family Practice Branch (Harrison Whittaker).
Across Central Avenue to the south, demolition of the former St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is nearly complete. The closure of the hospital, whose roots in Cleveland date back to 1851, frees up approximately 10 acres for development.
In its place, the Sisters of Charity Health System (SCHS), who oversaw the hospital and its demolition, have outlined a vision for its future as the St. Vincent Charity Health and Healing Hub.
The WRAC Heritage Center is quickly rising across East 22nd Street at Community College Avenue (Harrison Whittaker).
The first noticeable sign of the hospital’s transformation is the $13 million, 31,167-square-foot Women Religious Archives Collaborative (WRAC) Heritage Center underway at 2490 E. 22nd St. — a former parking lot southwest of the demolished medical center. Bostwick Design Partnership is the project’s architect, while Regency Construction Services, Inc. is its general contractor.
On the main hospital site, a Goodwill grocery store and Opportunity Center are planned. The hospital’s sole remaining Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) assessment building is proposed to become a Neighborhood Family Practice.
The fourth phase of Sankofa Village, as it wrapped up on both sides of a newly constructed East 26th Street (Harrison Whittaker).
To the east of the St. Vincent’s site, project partners including CMHA, the City of Cleveland, Pennrose, and Falbo Group LLC recently celebrated the completion of the final, fourth phase of the 236-unit, $115 million Sankofa Village affordable housing development. The project was designed by City Architecture and built by Mistick Construction.
For more construction updates around Greater Cleveland, check out NEOtrans’ other Progress Pics articles.
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