Downtown retail revival plan announced

By Ken Prendergast / November 2, 2023

Downtown Cleveland, Inc. today shared its Downtown Retail Strategy, designed as a roadmap to create a thriving retail environment in the urban core. Unveiled by Downtown Cleveland, Inc. President & CEO Michael Deemer during the 2023 State of Downtown at The City Club of Cleveland, the plan is one of Reimagining Downtown Cleveland’s near-term economic priorities. It aims to fill gaps in the city center’s marketplace and serve existing residents and businesses.

Big-name downtown tenants are on the move

By Ken Prendergast / September 18, 2023

Several major downtown Cleveland tenants are in the market for new homes and where they land could shake up the office market in the central business district. The moves come at a time when many companies are shrinking their office footprints and downtown office building owners are fighting to keep what tenants they have. Interestingly, several major tenants that are on the move are looking for larger space than what they have now.

Apartments-over-library gets funding boost

By Ken Prendergast / September 3, 2023

Delayed for more than a year, the proposed Karam Senior Living apartments over a new Walz Library branch at Detroit Avenue and West 80th Street in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, just received the first of two funding boosts to address rising construction costs. While this funding, $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds awarded by the city of Cleveland, will close half of the funding gap for the residential portion, the remainder is still being finalized by Cuyahoga County. But it’s apparently enough to re-bid the project this fall to see what the construction numbers look like, officials said.

GCRTA stations: lots of opportunity

By Ken Prendergast / August 3, 2023

In recent months, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has served notice that its rail system isn’t going anywhere. And that could be interpreted in one of two ways. In one way, GCRTA plans to invest $540 million by the end of this decade to rebuild its 34-mile rail system including a new, standardized light-rail fleet plus rebuilt tracks and stations on the Red, Blue and Green lines. Greater Cleveland’s “Rapid” is sticking around for decades to come. But taking it another way, there are no expansion plans while ridership on GCRTA buses and trains fell nearly 60 percent from 2013 to 2021 “led” by its rail system which fell even farther, from 9.3 million boardings in 2013 to 2.9 million in 2021.

Progressive’s office spaces to be slashed

By Ken Prendergast / July 26, 2023

All Progressive Insurance employees received a notice this morning announcing that, due to remote working, the company would be slashing the square footage of active office spaces and attempt to sell or lease those it will no longer occupy. As a result, about 850 employees who continue to work in the office will be consolidated into the company’s Campus 2, 300 North Commons Blvd. It will also move the corporate headquarters from Campus 1, 6300 Wilson Mills Rd., but remain in Mayfield Village.

Greater Cleveland office market still struggling

By Ken Prendergast / April 11, 2023

Newmark, one of the world’s leading real estate services firms, issued its first quarter 2023 (23Q1) office market report for Greater Cleveland today and it continues to show a worsening situation in the region’s office sector. While only one submarket within Greater Cleveland showed an increase in office occupancies, none are taking it on the chin more than the central business district (CBD), its retailers, restaurants and transportation providers. But that data may have been disproportionately affected by a major deal.

Berkadia to expand at Key Tower

By Ken Prendergast / March 27, 2023

By the end of this year, commercial loan originator Berkadia Commercial Mortgage will be showing off its greatly expanded offices on the 14th floor of Key Tower, 127 Public Square. And that expansion offers a couple of statements about Greater Cleveland’s economy in general and downtown Cleveland in particular.

More downtown firms making moves

By Ken Prendergast / March 5, 2023

Three legal and financial service firms in downtown Cleveland are on the move to new addresses in the central business district, with two firms seeking smaller spaces as part of an ongoing trend by many office-based employers to downsize their work spaces after the pandemic. The third firm moved to accommodate significant new growth in Cleveland. And each firm is staying downtown, investing in their new office locations, with none of the three seeking a reduction in employment. Indeed, even as some office spaces shrink, the number of employees at those tenants’ aren’t shrinking. Instead, they are taking advantage of remote working and web-based contact with clients.

EY moving across downtown

By Ken Prendergast / February 14, 2023

Although rumored for weeks, the announcement that EY (formerly Ernst & Young) is moving its offices out of one of only two trophy-class buildings in downtown Cleveland still came as a surprise to some longtime real estate executives. The 23-story office tower at 950 Main Ave. at Flats East Bank that bears Ernst & Young’s name has been one of downtown’s most expensive and successfully leased since it opened in 2013.

Clinic unveils Innovation District buildings

By Ken Prendergast / February 14, 2023

Two years ago, Gov. Mike DeWine announced hundreds of millions of dollars to launch the Cleveland Innovation District — a program to advance health care, research and related activities in the Greater Cleveland area. This week, one of the largest and most visible outcomes of that initiative will be unveiled in the form of plans for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation’s next phase of its Global Center for Pathogen and Human Health Research at its Main Campus in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood.