Playhouse Square is Restoring Cleveland's Historic Greyhound Station

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Work is due to start in a couple of weeks on preparing the vacated, historic Downtown Cleveland Greyhound station, 1465 Chester Ave., for its next role. That role is to become a leading actor in the future of the Playhouse Square district’s experiential economy.

Just after Labor Day, passersby may start to notice that work, projected to total about $2.33 million among all phases. It will begin with reroofing the 1948-built station, designed in the Streamline Moderne style of Art Deco to protect the building’s interior from Cleveland’s climate.

Station owner Playhouse Square Foundation hired West Roofing Systems Inc. of LaGrange, OH to replace the roof and gutters while adding spray foam roofing and silicone. Cost is estimated at $391,605, public records show.

And that’s just the start of the repair work, according to Nathan Kelly, president of real estate at Playhouse Square Services. Next up is to replace the building’s parapet windows plus plaster walls and ceiling materials.

“Right now, we’re restoring it to 1948,” Kelly said. “We want to make it a secure envelope so that the property is available to the public for pop-ups, special events and more.”

Those are interim uses, for now. Long range — happening years from now — foundation staff are considering a food venue, cabaret, concert space, or a museum.

The latter may include exhibits to honor Cleveland’s significant place in the Great Migration — the move of 6 million Black Americans from the rural South to the urban North from 1916 to 1970.

The greatest surge was in the two decades after World War Two, when Cleveland’s new Greyhound station was a gateway to the booming manufacturing city. About 200,000 Black Americans moved to Cleveland in the postwar decades. Bus service to the downtown station ended Feb. 4.

All Greyhound, Barons Bus, and GoBus services including a new route across Northern Ohio, are now based in a modular facility at the east end of the parking lot for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Brookpark Red Line station, 17510 Brookpark Rd.

Funding for the repairs to the historic Greyhound station downtown are coming from a $1 million authorization through the State Capital Budget. The funds were administered by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, Cultural and Sports Facilities Projects.

A grant agreement was signed in April by Laura Smith, chief operating officer of the Playhouse Square Foundation and Joy Bledsoe, executive director of the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, to use the funds for the Greyhound station project.

“The project sponsor plans to use the grant to transform a former Greyhound bus station into a theater at the facility,” the agreement states. “The construction project will be known herein as the cultural project for the purposes of this agreement. This project supports culture through the presentation of the dramatic and musical arts.”

If realized, the station will become Playhouse Square’s 13th performance venue. The largest venues are its five historic theaters — KeyBank State, Connor Palace, Mimi Ohio, Allen and the Hanna.

It is also seven smaller venues and studios — City Club of Cleveland, Kennedy’s Cabaret, The Helen, Outcalt Theatre, Playhouse Square Plaza, Westfield Studio Theatre, and the Upper Allen.

Playhouse Square Foundation in 2024 acquired the 36,580-square-foot Greyhound station and its surrounding 2.2 acres of land for $3.35 million to expand its holdings to the north of its tradition epicenter.

Later that year, the foundation also acquired several adjacent properties along East 17th Street for $1.6 million, including the former Cleveland Institute of Electronics building, public records show.

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