An occasional gull flew close to the Nautica Queen. A red tugboat slowly passed, and a pleasure boat skimmed Lake Erie alongside the sightseeing ship. The Terminal Tower and Key Tower dominated Cleveland’s skyline. But the private-party passengers aboard the Nautica Queen looked further than the familiar views of Cleveland’s lakefront. Members and guests of the Institute of Real Estate Management searched the shoreline beyond Shooters and FirstEnergy Stadium for the future.
Richard Pace, CEO and president of Cumberland Real Estate Development, is an architect and real estate developer, and on that particular recent afternoon he also was an unofficial tour guide. He fielded questions about Cleveland’s present lakefront and presented his vision. Cumberland Development and Trammell Crow Co. of Dallas were selected in 2014 by the City of Cleveland to develop 20 acres of lakefront that will dramatically change the face of Cleveland.
“It’s a dream project for me,” says Pace, whose ambitious plans are finally being reeled in like a walleye on a hook.
Lake Erie is the 11th largest lake in the world by surface area. Its fresh water provides navigation, commerce, power and recreation. If Cleveland can connect all the dots this time in our quest for a more accessible and productive lakefront, then the city — all of us — can say the big idea wasn’t the one that got away.
Here are the dots:
City of Cleveland/ Cleveland Airport System
Lakefront mission:
to see Cleveland become a more connected and vibrant city by improving what we have and adding new development.
“It’s not just one particular entity that can makes the changes, but government, businesses and the philanthropic community,” explains Freddy Collier, director of planning for the City of Cleveland. “Cleveland has always rallied to address the issues that matter. Historically the city developed with the railways and the Shoreway. Now it is focused on creating a continuous, seamless waterfront that helps better connect neighborhoods to the water.”
Collier points to the 57 acres at I-90 Shoreway and East 72nd Street, where the former FirstEnergy Lake Shore power plant that overlooks Lake Erie is going through the permitting process for demoltion. The property is ripe for residential, retail and open spaces, says Collier, who hopes cooperation between Cleveland’s government officials, business and other leaders guides the property to “the highest and best use for 57 acres that will add to the vitality for future waterfront efforts.”
Despite 25 years worth of rumors, Burke Lakefront Airport along North Marginal Road is not closing, says Fred Szabo, the Department of Port Control’s interim director. The airport does not serve commercial airlines. It is used for corporate airfare, but the goal is to gain new tenants in the corporate aviation market.
“The mayor has made it very clear that Burke will remain an airport and that it is a viable airport. Air traffic is growing,” says Szabo, adding that Burke’s latest improvements will help draw more people to the area. “There was a feeling that Burke was just for the elite, but that, too, is changing.”
What’s new at Burke? Improvements to the terminal, landscaping with benches and a friendlier, more comfortable environment, says Szabo, adding that Signature Aviation, a $6.7 million terminal and hangar, recently opened. Burke was always “a public space,” but now it’s acting more like one.
Cumberland Real Estate Development
Lakefront mission:
to create a mixed-use waterfront development along
the North Coast Harbor.
“We don’t lease 60 feet from the water’s edge. That area needs to be a place where everyone can go and walk,” explains Pace, describing the North Coast Harbor property he has been entrusted to transform.
It is an unusual situation. North of the rail lines, the area had been Lake Erie. The State of Ohio owns the lakebed, but Cleveland owns the surface landfill. To create development here, leases had to be obtained from both owners. Historically, it has been like developing a field of land mines with physical challenges, a varying amount of City Hall support, lack of investors and an economy that wanted to deep-six the whole lakefront plan.
“But I am confident Mayor Jackson is behind this. And there is market demand. People want to live on the lake. They want to work on the lakefront. A lot of businesses want to have locations there, which will attract those who don’t want to do a reverse commute to the suburbs,” says Pace. “The thing we don’t have any control over is interest rates. That’s the one thing that worries me.”
But Pace seems unflappable. And his vision is materializing. Phase one of his plan is under way, “activating,” as he says, North Coast Harbor. Sand volleyball courts, bocce ball courts, a kids’ playground and an “urban beach” at Voinovich Bicentennial Park at the East 9th Street Pier — “To have a beach downtown would be great,” says Pace — are realities or in the works.
One thousand apartments will be built, along with 80,000 square feet of commercial space plus 40,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the plan is the possible creation of a K-8 grade school. Many residents would be between the millennials and empty-nesters and will have children.
“I grew up in Shaker Heights, where there were elementary schools with walkable neighborhoods around them,” says Pace.
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Lakefront mission:
economic growth and increased property values along the lakefront made possible by better access.
The harshest critics call it “The Bridge to Nowhere.” Others insist it must be inspired by Dutch artist M.C. Escher, whose staircases twist and turn and where up becomes down and down becomes up.
In this case, it’s not a staircase. It’s a planned pedestrian and bike bridge that spans from Cleveland’s malls and the Convention Center of Cleveland to the North Coast Harbor, Great Lakes Science Center and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
“There have been four or five fairly comprehensive studies about lakefront development, sponsored by the public sector, public/private partnerships and others,” says Joe Roman, president and CEO, Greater Cleveland Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce. “The one common factor in all those reports was some version of a better pedestrian route to the lakefront from our core downtown. The bridge would also open up properties around the lakefront, making them much more valuable.”
The cable-stayed design bridge (think Boston architects Rosales + Partners and the Cleveland engineering firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff) is expected to cost $33 million as of June 2016, but that figure is not set in stone. Funding for the construction comes mostly from public sources — city, county and state — and about 76 percent was in the pot by mid-May, according to Roman. Some funding was diverted to finish the transformation of Public Square, but Roman says things will move in 2017.
“We started our lakefront development years ago with public projects like the science museum and Rock Hall. And now it’s the private sector and people like Dick Pace who see the value of private investment. I think that’s a normal occurrence,” says Roman. “People say, ‘Look at Such and Such City. Why can’t we be like that?’ But if you study the history of those cities, you’ll (see) how long it took them to change their cultures, too.”
Roman believes part of the reason for the change here is that more people are interested in the environment and recreational outdoor activities. “If you ask most of our peer cities what they would pay for a lake like ours, they would say it was priceless,” says Roman.
But with that new mindset also came the desire to protect the lake, which resulted in entities such as the State of Ohio and federal agencies, having a say in changes, Roman says. The boatload of restrictions is intimidating to developers.
“But as we see more and more development, it will become easier and easier for developers,” he says. “Ten years ago no one thought of Fred Geis, the Wolsteins or K&D as major downtown developers. And now, look.”
Campus District
Lakefront mission:
an improved and expanded green loop to connect the Campus District to the lakefront.
While there is a limited, narrow, 3-foot-wide path, bikers and walkers must dodge fire hydrants and telephone poles on their way to the lakefront. That’s why residents in the city’s Campus District and other East Side neighborhoods cheered when the Cleveland Planning Commission adopted the Lakefront Greenway and Downtown Connecter plan in April. The $24.5 million plan includes 7 miles of new and improved existing paths along North and South Marginal Roads, connectors and two bridges. The city’s Division of Port Control has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to move a chain-link fence 3 feet along portions of the proposed greenway loop to accommodate the wider path.
It is important that the new paths be of regulation width (10 feet) in order for the plan to qualify for federal funding, according to Bobbi Reichtell, executive director, Campus District Inc., one of the community development groups that backed the plan. She believes the federal share of the project will be about 80 percent. If approved, federal funds would not be available until 2021 and beyond, but, Reichtell says, “You have to start somewhere.”
“Our goal is to provide the same connectivity to the lake to East Side neighborhood that the West Side neighborhoods have,” says Reichtell. “I live in the Detroit-Shoreway area. I am just a 10- or 15-minute walk from the lakefront. It is such a great asset.”
Port of Cleveland Cleveland-Europe Express
Lakefront vision:
the Port of Cleveland begins a new era as the most successful port on the Great Lakes, generating opportunities for Ohio businesses and creating jobs.
Containers. Containers that carry everything from grain, paint, medical machinery, automobile and airplane parts to high-end Italian purses. The huge cargo “boxes” that are carried by ocean-going vessels, and which are now more frequently moving in and out of the Port of Cleveland, are the key to the port’s health. That’s the view of William Friedman, president and CEO of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.
In 2013, the port authority signed an agreement with the Spliethoff Group of Amsterdam, one of the Netherlands’ biggest shippers, to create the Cleveland-Europe Express. Cleveland became the first Great Lakes city to offer regularly scheduled container and cargo shipping to Europe via the St. Lawrence Seaway.
“This is our top priority. This is where we have been focusing our efforts for the past three or four years,” says Friedman, who has been with the Port Authority (established in 1968) since 2010. “There should be a busier shipping lane between the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the rest of the world. But our real idea is not just to make the port busier and more viable.
“We can help companies that export out of Ohio by lowering their transportation costs and making supply chains more successful. It’s here for Lubrizol and Lincoln Electric and a lot more companies [that] you might not recognize because they aren’t necessarily making consumer products,” he says.
Increased international trade has kept America’s coasts busy, and land and air transportation costs are high. Cleveland’s port is primed for being a more competitive gateway into the Midwest.
Friedman believes “bad regulatory policies that piled up on top of one another, creating barriers” and favoring other modes of transportation resulted in the port serving only a small amount of companies. But Friedman says the port “came up with a business model that overcame those disadvantages and created service features customers looked for.”
“But now cargo that is rightly ours is coming here instead of New Jersey or Maryland,” says Friedman. “What distinguishes the Express is the regularly scheduled service. All other ships going in and out of the port aren’t scheduled. But the Cleveland-Europe Express is at least every two weeks.
“This is a game changer on the Great Lakes if we can make this a stable business and make Cleveland the hub. Then we really start to drive jobs. There’s a lot of payroll associated with this service.”
Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve
Lakefront vision:
to maintain a natural area for all Clevelanders, but especially for urban children who may otherwise grow up without ever walking a nature trail.
From 8,000 junk cars to beautiful butterflies with names including spicebush swallowtail, pearl crescent and painted lady. From 1,000 noisy garbage trucks a day unloading tons of rubbish to an Audubon Ohio-designated Important Bird Area where passionate birders raise binoculars to see 280 species of birds, including snow goose, ovenbird, scarlet tanager and dark-eyed junco.
The Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve is a fairytale story. It began its life along the shoreline of the city-owned Gordon Park where Clevelanders thought nothing of dumping solid waste into Lake Erie. In 1962, two coal-powered freighters, built about 1900 and each about 500 feet long, were sunk offshore to stop beach erosion. From 1979 to 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used the shoreline or open lake up to the location of the freighters as a “confined disposal facility.” Named Dike 14, it received dumped dredged material from the bottom of the Cuyahoga River. In 1965, the City of Cleveland also declared the area a landfill.
A manmade peninsula from the accumulation of the waste grew throughout the decades of abuse. Today the area measures 90 acres. The Army Corps declared the dismal disposal spot “de-commissioned” 15 years ago, according to Friedman. It returned the land to the control of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, its original owners.
Left alone, the land was adopted by Mother Nature. It began “to green itself,” as Friedman describes the transformation of the landfill, into grasslands, woodlands, meadows and wetlands.
“Groups of citizens and places like the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes said the area should be turned into a park or preserve,” recalls Friedman. “The Corps had been kicking the can down the road on that decision. It seemed to me there was no reason not to do it. So, in 2011, we said let’s take the paddock off and open the gate.”
Today the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve offers a 1.75-mile Perimeter Loop Trail and smaller trails that bisect the property, but purposely little else in the way of manmade interference.
“What I like best is the dedication to keeping the preserve natural and undisturbed,” says Friedman. “It’s not a place for anything but the most quiet interaction with nature. We don’t allow bikes, grills, dogs. The preserve is in an urban center where, unfortunately, a lot of residents in that area have never experienced anything like it.”
Cleveland Metroparks
Lakefront vision:
enhanced lakefront parks and greater public access to Lake Erie.
Brian Zimmerman, CEO of Cleveland Metroparks, is facing a challenge, that was mostly non-existent a decade ago.
“We are trying to meet the increased demand from people trying to re-engage with the lakefront,” says Zimmerman, whose Northeast Ohio parks see more than 17 million visitors a year.
Translation: Many Northeast Ohioans have (re)discovered the incredible asset Lake Erie really is. Sure, you can drive to Cedar Point in Sandusky or take a ferry to the islands in the summer. Or, if you were one of the more fortunate, you could take your boat onto the lake and watch fireworks, an air show or cuddle up to a restaurant dock in the Flats.
But the idea of using a public Cleveland lakefront park all year to walk your dog, fly a kite with the kids or pick up driftwood in late fall was almost unheard of for most people. Until now. It started with the empty-nesters and millennials who moved into downtown Cleveland filling hip lofts, cleverly converted warehouses and, most recently, new construction. But we are human beings connected to nature, whether or not we know that, and we need green.
There were, of course, lakefront parks, owned by the City of Cleveland but managed by the State of Ohio since 1978. But inadequate restrooms, overflowing garbage cans, drug deals and littered beaches didn’t meet anyone’s expectations of a thriving city waterfront.
In 2013, the State of Ohio transferred the management of six lakefront properties to the Metroparks, creating the new Lakefront Reservation and adding existing parks to Euclid Reservation.
“You can go to Edgewater Park (part of Lakefront Reservation) now and see a strong representation of what Cleveland looks like,” says Zimmerman, adding that swimming and fishing are popular activities at the park. “We see families who are white, black, Hispanic, young and old. We see people of every social economic background. We’ve seen people in their 80s, courting each other and eating ice cream.”
Cleveland Metroparks 2020: The Emerald Necklace Centennial is a strategic plan that sets goals for the park district’s 100th anniversary in 2017 and beyond. It urges the Metroparks to play a key role in the success of the lakefront.
The park district has taken the plan to heart. Although the City of Cleveland still owns the property where the historic U.S. Coast Guard station is located, Cleveland Metroparks oversees the restoration and management of the facility. The cost for the project remains foggy — estimates range from $1 million to $9 million. It is expected to be achieved through public/private funding.
The building, constructed in 1940 at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, was used until 1976, when a larger Coast Guard station was completed at North Coast Harbor. Abandoned and neglected, the old facility‘s inhabitants have been invasive vines and spiders. Zimmerman says the future use of the building, which features a 60-foot lighthouse and an 8,000 square-foot boathouse, would be determine by community input. The station will be operated as part of Wendy Park on Whiskey Island, a property the Metroparks obtained at no cost in 2014.
Wendy Park opened as an official Cuyahoga County Park to the public in 2005, after years of expensive legal battles and a massive clean up. The Park has an ownership and management history as tangled as Lake Erie’s twisted “seaweed.”
But one player, Dan T. Moore, CEO of the company in Cleveland that bears his name and one of the three members of the Cleveland Metroparks Board of Park Commissioners, has always fought to make the park public.
Moore is intrigued by the planned 320-mile Ohio to Erie Trail which, when fully developed and connected, will stretch from the Ohio River in Cincinnati to Lake Erie’s lakefront, specifically ending at Wendy Park in Cleveland. Moore says he can see the Coast Guard Station and Wendy Park becoming an “appropriate ending” to the trek.
A pedestrian bridge, part of the Lake Link Trail that will link Whiskey Island with Ohio City, is expected to be completed in 2017.
The Coast Guard station restoration is fascinating to many Greater Clevelanders, but there has been some grumbling. With the Metroparks funding major projects in the City of Cleveland, some wonder if the Metroparks reservations in particular communities will suffer.
Zimmerman insists the park district is “diligently trying to rebuild and maintain” all its trails no matter where they are located.
“Our 23,000 acres are part of all of Cleveland’s long-term identity,” he says.
The Green Ribbon Coalition
Lakefront vision:
a connected ribbon of lakefront amenities that inspires Clevelanders to protect and enjoy Lake Erie.
This advocacy alliance of organizations acknowledges Lake Erie’s waterfront as a recreational and economic asset. It is helping identify the missing links along the lakefront and inventorying potential public access points. Under the direction of chair Dick Clough, the coalition seeks a balance of development and natural spaces along the lake.
The coalition’s work completes a picture inspired by the realization of just how important Lake Erie is to Cleveland. With all the dots connected, the picture that emerges is a powerful portrait of our future.