A decade ago, before the pandemic spurred remote working, an office building and plaza were planned at this city-owned lot at the northwest corner of Warrensville Road and, at lower left, Chagrin Boulevard, at the end of the light-rail Blue Line. This design was also panned by transit advocates who complained it would block a Blue Line extension south or eastward for decades (RMS). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Sites ID’d for transit-oriented development
Two of Cleveland’s first-ring suburbs served by rail transit won federal grants this week. The awards will help them develop construction-ready plans in partnership with real estate firms for transit-oriented developments at several sites next to their rail services.
Brook Park and Shaker Heights won the grants from a highly competitive program that awarded funds to 45 out of 107 applicants nationwide. The grants were from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Innovative Finance and Asset Concession (IFAC) grant program.
The funding is designed to help public entities evaluate and structure high-priority, revenue-generating development projects within one-quarter-mile of a fixed-guideway transit service such as subway, light-rail or bus rapid transit.
Brook Park won a $1 million grant and Shaker Heights won $945,000. Neither city had to offer local matching funds to leverage the federal funds. Usually a local match of anywhere from 20 to 50 percent is required win federal grants via other programs.
The proposed Red Line station at the new Huntington Bank Field stadium could turn from this conceptual rendering into construction-ready designs thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (Bowen).
Brook Park’s award will allow the suburb to “evaluate how to structure, finance, and deliver high-priority transportation infrastructure” connected to two major, neighboring projects on the Airport-Downtown-Windermere light-rail Red Line.
One is the new $3.6 billion Huntington Bank Field stadium and supportive development and the other is the $1.6 billion phase one makeover of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
The Haslam Sports Group, owner of the Cleveland Browns, and its Primacy Development LLC plus HSG BP Development LLC, are developing the stadium. Additionally, Lincoln Property Company serves as the lead development partner for an adjacent, planned mixed-use entertainment district.
To serve their stadium and development, the Haslams are seeking design work and funding for the construction of a new, $40 million station on the Red Line, between the existing Brookpark Road and Hopkins Airport rail stations. But construction funding requires a construction-ready plan first.
This map shows the transportation improvements sought for the new Huntington Bank Field and related mixed-use developments in Brook Park. Hopkins International Airport is at upper left and a proposed rapid transit station is to the right of it (Osborn).
And, a new subway station is planned and funded as part of the Hopkins Airport modernization effort. The rail station will be below a new 6,000-space parking garage and ground transportation center, built on the site of the airport’s 1,080-space Orange Lot.
NEOtrans reached out to Brook Park Mayor Edward Orcutt for comment and more information about the use of the grant but he hasn’t yet responded. Brook Park and Shaker Heights were the only two awards granted in the state of Ohio.
In Shaker Heights, May David Weiss and other city officials hailed the federal IFAC grant award and congratulated city staff for their win at a June 22 City Council meeting.
Shaker’s application was titled “Transforming underutilized assets into transit-oriented assets” by studying the potential to activate two city-owned properties as transit-oriented development.
Highlighted in red are the two transit-oriented development sites in Shaker Heights that will be the subject of the planning work funded by a newly awarded federal grant (MyPlace.CuyahogaCounty.gov).
“Not only is this a significant amount of funds but there’s also no city match which means we could put more directly into the project,” Weiss said.
The two city-owned sites in Shaker Heights are both along the light-rail Blue Line which travels through the suburb in the median of Van Aken Boulevard. It links the Van Aken District TOD on Warrensville Center Road with Downtown Cleveland.
“The grant is made to explore a transit-oriented development (TOD) all within one-quarter of a mile of fixed rail, so it’s very specific about who is eligible. But we did meet the requirements,” Weiss explained
In fact, one of the two sites that is the focus of the IFAC grant is the expansion of the Van Aken District onto a 2-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Warrensville Center and Chagrin Boulevard. It is used for parking and construction staging for the Arcadia Apartments across the street.
Just beyond the Lee-Van Aken Blue Line station is the Colonnade in front of five pine trees and the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center to the left. That site will the subject of planning work for transit oriented development (Google).
The Van Aken District site to be studied was previously proposed for a new office building and a public plaza but the office market nationwide, be it in downtowns or in suburbs, is depressed following the rise of remote working since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also transit advocates panned the proposed office building because its placement on the site would have blocked for decades any future consideration of extending the Blue Line either east to Interstate 271 near Harvard Road or south to North Randall.
The extension was studied a decade ago, which showed its projected ridership and cost-benefit ratio would fall just below federal funding eligibility standards.
But that was before Pinecrest was built at I-271 and the massive Amazon distribution center was built at the former Randall Park Mall. Each added about 2,000 jobs.
Although the Van Aken District continues to densify and add vibrancy to the east end of the Blue Line in Shaker Heights, it has yet reached up to the intersection of Chagrin Boulevard and Warrensville Center Road (Google).
The other TOD site for which planning will be funded by the IFAC grant will be at the Blue Line’s Lee Road station. That’s where the city would like to redevelop and reactivate the underutilized Stephanie Tubbs Jones (STJ) Community Building and its adjacent Colonnade.
The Colonnade is an outdoor performance and events space adjacent to the STJ Community Building, 3450 Lee Rd. It is part of a larger, city-owned parcel that measures 5.6 acres includes the main branch of the Shaker Library, 16500 Van Aken.
The actual redevelopment site may be much smaller, perhaps 2 to 2.5 acres, but could allow a new mixed-use to be built up to the street corner like an historic mixed-use building on the southeast corner of Lee and Van Aken.
“Hats off to our team, both planning and economic development,” Weiss sad. “So these will help us continue our economic development and projects at the Van Aken District and the west end of town as well. So great work by a number of different departments. It’s nice to get good news from time to time.”
END
