A significant research laboratory is planned by the Cleveland Clinic and other partners at the southeast corner of Opportunity Corridor Boulevard and East 79th Street where a fading neighborhood stood until recently. At left is the elevated Norfolk Southern railroad, alongside which the East Side Trail is proposed. This is an unofficial rendering but is based on conceptual parameters for the project (Google/ChatGPT/NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
ODOT availing next development sites
Elton John once sang “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” when his songwriter Bernie Taupin bid adieu to city living in his ambitious, fast life, trading it for the quiet lifestyle of tending to a rural farm. Cleveland is heading in the opposite direction by welcoming the start of a new journey.
Of course, the original iconic reference of Yellow Brick Road is from The Wizard of Oz (1900 book and 1939 film) representing a designated path toward a goal or self-discovery. For Cleveland, it has a new meaning.
A 25-acre plot of land being assembled by the city for a proposed Cleveland Clinic laboratory and research complex at the southeast corner of the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard and East 79th Street, has been dubbed the “Yellow Brick Road site,” according to public records secured by a formal request of NEOtrans.
The Clinic is a glassy Emerald City at the east end of the Opportunity Corridor. The Oz references go further, with the Wicked Witch of the East played in the 1939 movie by Clevelander Margaret Hamilton. She performed early in her acting career at the Cleveland Playhouse — demolished by the Cleveland Clinic.
Another proposed new path is the East Side Trail alongside the elevated Norfolk Southern (NS) railroad tracks. The trail will head north from the Opportunity Corridor to the Cleveland Business Campus, touted by Mayor Justin Bibb as “the largest industrial redevelopment in Cleveland’s history.”
The Yellow Brick Road site at the southeast corner of the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard and East 79th Street is shaded in blue but doesn’t include the Intercity Truck and Car Wash at the bottom of this satellite view. On the YBR site is the conceptual footprint of a two-story, 250,000-square-foot Cleveland Clinic laboratory facility (Google-NEOtrans).
That business park, extending north from the Opportunity Corridor to Cedar Avenue will encompass roughly 220 acres surrounding the NS tracks and East Side Trail alongside it. The goal is to offer shovel-ready development sites of 10 acres or more to compete with exurban greenfield sites for jobs.
That’s where the City of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Land Bank and the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund are assembling a significant collection of properties for commercial redevelopment. Bibb and other public officials will announce the campus, including its first tenant, at a Wednesday press conference.
But the amount of land being assembled for redevelopment along the Opportunity Corridor is not insignificant. It represents another 135 acres is in various stages of property assembly, clearance and commercial redevelopment.
Of that, 35 acres has already been redeveloped in this area, once called the Forgotten Triangle of Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood. And the Yellow Brick Road, or YBR, site appears to be next.
For the Clinic, the proposed use of the YBR site is that of discovery — a laboratory/research facility that could measure about 250,000 square feet, two sources said on the condition of anonymity.
Many properties remain to be acquired by the city along the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard so they can be returned to productive use. Those shaded in blue are properties owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation and will be divided up into fragments — those within the boulevard’s right of way and those that are excess and will be sold to the city (City of Cleveland).
Suitors seeking to build the lab may come up with cost estimates that could cause the Clinic to adjust the proposed scale. But this is the first NEOtrans has learned of the lab facility’s potential size.
So far, officials at the Clinic aren’t ready to discuss the project. Angela Smith, senior director of corporate communications at the Cleveland Clinic told NEOtrans “At this time, we don’t have any information to share.”
Out of 100 parcels assembled at the YBR site by the city, the Site Readiness Fund and Burten Bell Carr Development Inc., only one apparently is not in the process of being acquired. That’s the 0.7-acre Intercity Truck and Car Wash at 8126 Holton Ave. which is shut down for lack of payment of four annual safety inspections by the city.
Through a public records request, NEOtrans secured multiple documents regarding the city’s acquisition of properties along the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard, a 3-mile-long, $330 million roadway built by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) in 2021. That includes ODOT properties needed for the YBR site.
One of those documents was an April 17 memo by John Fahsbender, the city’s brownfields and site coordinator, sent to Cleveland’s Deputy Director for Land Strategy and Asset Redevelopment Matt Moss regarding the acquisition of ODOT parcel fragments that extend more than 70 feet from the road’s centerline.
What the Yellow Brick Road site at the southeast corner of the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard and East 79th Street looked like last year before several structures in that area were demolished (Google).
“In the years leading up to construction of the Opportunity Corridor (OC), the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) acquired multiple parcels along the intended roadway’s path, many of which now extend into the OC right of way,” Fahsbender wrote. “ODOT considers those portions of parcels falling outside the right of way as excess land.”
The parcels are divided and the fragments recorded with Cuyahoga County. ODOT gives the City of Cleveland first opportunity to acquire excess parcels along OC. The city’s Economic Development Department was authorized by City Council to acquire excess land along the OC from ODOT for a purchase price not to exceed fair market value.
“ODOT has recorded excess land plats for parcels along OC between E. 73rd St. and E. 79th St. and between E. 93rd St. and Carnegie Ave., and six parcels along E. 79th St. on the Yellow Brick Road site,” Fahsbender wrote, meaning that those parcels are ready to be sold to the city.
He also noted that ODOT is in the process of preparing such plats for other locations along the OC, including near-term work affecting parcels between East 79th and Evarts Avenue that will ultimately become part of the future expansion of Miceli Dairy. Miceli plans to double its plant size, production and employment.
“The City is actively working with ODOT on acquiring parcels between E. 79th St. and NS RR for (the) YBR site and E. 90th & Evarts adjacent to Miceli’s property,” Fahsbender said. “As noted above, ODOT is in the process of preparing excess land plats along this stretch of OC, but any acquisitions are on hold until these plats are recorded.”
This is the parcel split and transfer status of some Ohio Department of Transportation-owned properties along the Opportunity Corridor as of April 20. The Kingsbury Run area is at upper-left. The Yellow Brick Road site is at lower-left. The Miceli Dairy site is at upper right. And the section between Buckeye Road and East 93rd Street is at lower-right (City of Cleveland).
But not all properties recently or in-process of being acquired belong to ODOT. The largest single property that needed to be acquired at the YBR site was a 3.64-acre collection of parcels transacted just last week. That held the former offices and warehouse for construction contractor McTech Inc., 8100 Grand Ave.
Acquiring it was the Site Readiness Fund, a nonprofit organization at the intersection of the city, the Cuyahoga Land Bank and the Fund for Our Economic Future that’s creating “shovel-ready” sites in Greater Cleveland for development.
The Clinic’s interest in the YBR site shows the Opportunity Corridor is open for business — all kinds of business. So far, it has been a home for Cleveland’s robust food industry. In addition to Miceli, Orlando Baking is here along with the new 156,000-square-foot Nor-Am Cold Storage facility.
But the Clinic lab facility is on a path to be the largest development yet on the Opportunity Corridor for exploration and innovation into the health care, medical and biotechnology fields — regardless of how that path is paved.
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