Good Company To Relocate With Two New Locations in Gordon Square and Ohio City

This article was published through an exclusive content-sharing agreement with neo-trans.blog.

If you haven’t heard of Good Company restaurant, then that’s the reason why they’re making a move — two actually. And if you have heard of it, you may be glad to learn there’s going to be twice as much of it.

The restaurant, set on the ground floor of the Shoreway Apartments, 1200 W. 76th St., has had a strong following within its vibrant Battery Park neighborhood overlooking Edgewater Park in Cleveland. But its owner is about to make a big investment to expand its visibility and accessibility.

Recently filed public records show that the owner of Good Company will invest more than $1 million to build out two new locations. The first is what is called a “flagship” restaurant measuring 4,810 square feet and costing about $650,000 on the ground floor of the new Welleon apartment building, 5454 Detroit Ave. in the Gordon Square neighborhood.

“Scope (of work) to include new partitions, restrooms, ceilings, millwork, furniture, kitchen equipment and associated mechanical, electrical, plumbing work to accommodate a typical restaurant fit-out,” wrote Gabriel Fey, a principal at Cleveland-based HSB Architects + Engineers, in filing the plans with the city.

The second part of the investment involves a second location, called Good Company’s “2098 Bakery Kitchen,” to be located on the ground floor of an historic, four-story brick building at 2104 W. 25th St. constructed in 1885. It is best known for having a “Greetings from Cleveland” postcard-like mural on it.

About $350,000 of interior improvements are planned for the 3437-square-foot space, Cleveland Building Department records show. The site is in the busy Market District of Ohio City where hundreds of apartments were recently added with many more coming.

Planned is an “Interior fit-out for a new commercial production kitchen space with small front-of-house for pick-ups,” Fey wrote for this permit application. “Scope includes architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural modifications.”

The leasing listing for the space, which includes 2098 W. 25th next door, says the ground-floor space is “fully equipped with a new hood, walk-in coolers, sprinklers, and all necessary mechanical and plumbing systems.”

In October 2024, RAP 2098 W 25TH LLC acquired 2098 and 2104 W. 25th for $240,000 from United Twenty-Fifth Building LLC, an affiliate of AJAPPJR LLC whose managing member is Jori Maron, Cuyahoga County property records show.

The new property owner also intends to make $150,000 worth of storefront improvements to the structure’s exterior, featuring a new, glassy façade, according to city records.

The “RAP” in the ownership’s name is an acronym for Rico A. Pietro, a principal with Cushman & Wakefield-CRESCO Real Estate. He operates a small development company with CRESCO Vice President David Leb. Ohio City-based restaurateur Sam McNulty advocated for the project in the community.

“Our small development company is excited to have come to terms with a complementary retail occupier that is net additive to the Ohio City market,” Pietro said. “We appreciate Sam McNulty’s support of our project and hope to continue to work with the Bibb Administration, specifically (Chief of Staff) Bradford Davy who has been amazing. Cleveland can’t wait!”

Neither he nor Leb would comment specifically on Good Company’s plans or mention the end-user by name yet. Leb didn’t respond to recent e-mails from NEOtrans.

“Our conversations with city government have been positive, and we seem to have their support in activating this stretch in Ohio City to build on the momentum of their planned investment to the West Side Market,” Leb told NEOtrans in an e-mail earlier this year when storefront renovation plans for 2104 W. 25th were first filed.

Good Company was founded by Brett Sawyer and opened in 2019. But in 2022, his friend Will Hollingsworth, who owns the Buildings & Food hospitality group, acquired the restaurant. Hollingsworth maintained the restaurant’s original diner concept and staff.

A message left for Hollingsworth at Good Company’s Web site was not responded to prior to publication of this article. The general contractor for the construction work is Loomis Companies of Euclid.

Buildings & Food also owns other Cleveland and Akron businesses including Prosperity Social Club in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, La Cave Du Vin in Tremont, Peristyle Coffee business-to-business roaster, Old 86 bar in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway, To The Bar Co. clothing, plus Spotted Owl Tremont and Spotted Owl Akron.

J Roc Development LLC is building a 13-story luxury apartment tower next door to Good Company and updating the original, four-story Shoreway Apartments that contain the restaurant.

In 2014, J Roc repurposed the then-vacated building into apartments from the 1918-built Globe Machine and Stamping Co. Next to the building, a pedestrian underpass connecting the neighborhood to Edgewater Park was refurbished in the mid-2010s, dramatically boosting foot traffic.

Many townhomes and apartment buildings also have popped up near Good Company before it opened and since. But the foot traffic in this corner of Battery Park doesn’t rise to the tens of thousands of vehicles, bikes, pedestrians and transit riders that pass by their new locations on Detroit and West 25th.

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