From Highway to Boulevard: Inside Phase One of the Lakefront Plan: CLE Daily

⛅️ 62°; Mostly cloudy

🍻 Condado Tacos’ Founder Buys Tremont’s Edison’s Pub: Joe Kahn, who started Condado in Columbus in 2014, bought the nearly 40-year-old Tremont bar and its adjoining pizzeria space. Kahn once managed Edison’s and met his wife there, and the bar is staying open and keeping its name, though a temporary closure for improvements isn’t ruled out.

🎨 A MacArthur "Genius" Is Creating the First Thing You'll See at the CMA: Brooklyn artist Teresita Fernandez has been commissioned to make two floor-to-ceiling ceramic murals, built from thousands of tiny glazed tiles, for the Cleveland Museum of Art's Outcalt Family Concourse. Soil Horizon (Cleveland), inspired by Ohio landscapes and the museum's collection, debuts in February with a free lecture by Fernandez on Feb. 19. 

🍗 A Rotisserie Chicken Spot Is Coming to Lakewood: The team behind Birdietown plans to open Sundaybird in mid-November at 15027 Madison Ave., roasting chickens in a 48-bird glass-front rotisserie and serving them by the quarter, half or whole with potatoes cooked in the drippings, mac and cheese and collard greens.

🍫 How To Survive Halloween Candy Season: A Cleveland Clinic dietitian says skip the strict rules, feed kids a balanced dinner before trick-or-treating, keep the stash out of sight but not hidden and let it last for weeks. Chocolate with nuts or peanut butter beats gummies, and slap bracelets or pencils are good options for kids with allergies.

ICYMI: Remember Two One Thrift? Rebecca Maxwell spent nearly seven years upcycling Cleveland sportswear before legal and online setbacks forced a reinvention. Now she’s sewing lampshades and painting mirrors, and she says she’s never felt more creative.

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Today's Trivia

Seven brothers from Norwalk, Ohio, started a company that became a General Motors division with a large plant on Cleveland’s East Side and another in Euclid.

Development: The first $285 million lakefront construction package is going out to bid.

By Ken Prendergast, NEOTrans

The city of Cleveland holds a pre-bid meeting Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Huntington Convention Center for construction companies and other vendors interested in Phase One of the Downtown lakefront plan, the first of several construction packages. Mayor Justin Bibb says “we have the resources to make meaningful progress.”

• What’s in It: Phase One includes converting the Shoreway into a boulevard from roughly West Ninth Street to 1,000 feet east of East Ninth Street, along with related infrastructure and a land bridge. A pedestrian bridge over the lakefront tracks and a Lake Erie Plaza north of the Great Lakes Science Center are also planned before the current stadium is demolished.

• How It’s Paid For: The city cites more than $150 million in federal and state grants. Demolishing the current Huntington Bank Field, by 2032, will cost about $30 million, paid from the $100 million Haslam Sports Group settlement, with the other $70 million going to community benefits.

• What’s Next: Funding is in hand to start the Shoreway conversion and land bridge next year, and construction could begin by the end of 2027. Phase Two would run from east of East Ninth Street to the Innerbelt Curve once its funding is secured.

Worth Noting: DiGeronimo Development of Brecksville was chosen in December 2025 as the master developer for the lakefront buildings.

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

Shaker Heights is selling two of its historic train stations. It's the first time the city has put Coventry Station on Shaker Boulevard and Lynnfield Station near Van Aken up for sale. Both have been vacant for more than a decade, and any buyer has to rehabilitate them for commercial use. 

Cuyahoga River paddlers will soon get LED warning lights. A $110,000 Knight Cities Challenge grant will put real-time condition indicators at river access points that match the CUYAC online map, flagging rapids, no-paddle zones and low-flow areas before people get in the water.

Apollo's Fire is bringing back a familiar face to help run the orchestra. Allison Richards, the Grammy-winning baroque ensemble's general manager from 2013 to 2021, returns as managing director as the group marks its 35th season and heads to Carnegie Hall and venues in London, Paris, Brussels and Madrid next month. Retired Cleveland Clinic attorney Michael Meehan also became board chair in September.

NEON workers who sued over unpaid wages are finally getting paid. Nearly 20 current and former employees of the Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services won wage theft judgments in July, and NEON didn't object. Workers can collect through garnishment, though not all have yet.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has a 10-year plan to protect Ohio's rarest plants and animals. The museum already manages nearly 13,000 acres of preserves across northern Ohio, and its new strategic plan calls for expanding and connecting forests, fens and bogs, protecting habitat for rare species like the cerulean warbler and opening select preserves to more visitors.

Development: A new Downtown garage is meant to clear the way for more building near Cosm.

By  Ken Prendergast, NEOTrans

An eight-level, 600-space parking garage is proposed for the second phase of the Rock Block, the Bedrock Real Estate site bounded by Prospect Avenue, East Fourth Street and Huron Road. Two anonymous sources told NEOtrans that the garage is meant to support nearby development rather than carry a building on top of it.

• Replacing Lost Spaces: The garage would replace the 170 surface spaces lost to Cosm, the $86.5 million immersive venue across Huron from Rocket Arena that’s due to open in summer 2027. It would include about 27,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space along the East Sixth Street walkway and require demolishing 618 Prospect.

• What Could Follow: It could free up an 81-space lot at Prospect and East Fourth for the Rock Block’s third phase, a mixed-use development, and could make it possible to tear down some or all of the 1,650-space Gateway East Garage at 650 Huron.

Worth Noting: The city’s Downtown/Flats Design Review Committee was set to review the plans Oct. 23, and its feedback is non-binding. Bedrock says “info will become more available once we are ready to share,” and the Guardians declined to comment. 

Read the full story.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

Cleveland Trust President Frederick Goff was instrumental in the founding of this organization, regarded as the first of its kind in America and a mainstay in the community today. The Cleveland Foundation

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

Downtown is about to look different. A new garage at the Rock Block is just one piece of what’s coming. This week, the city starts taking bids on the first $285 million of the lakefront plan, including turning the Shoreway into a boulevard. 

The Cleveland Clinic’s Global Peak Performance Center opens in early 2027, a riverfront amphitheater is planned, and a debate over expanding the convention center is heating up, with an MVRDV update expected soon. Add Cosm next summer and the Browns’ departure in a few years, and the skyline is in flux.

Keep your eyes up, and tell me what you’d most like to see built Downtown next.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what is on your mind at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

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