In a secured public record, more details are coming to light about the owner of the Cleveland Browns, the Haslam Sports Group’s (HSG), proposed mixed-use development in suburban Berea. That includes specifications for the features in the new 500,000-square-foot development which will be built around a small, new sports stadium, dubbed a community field.
The new development dubbed “District 46” — referring to the year 1946 when the Cleveland Browns were founded — could see construction start before April 2025 on 16 acres of land it owns immediately west of the Browns’ CrossCountry Mortgage Campus which is the team’s headquarters and practice facilities at 76 Lou Groza Blvd.
HSG is buying from the city of Berea 3 acres of land at the southeast corner of Front Street and Lou Groza Boulevard for $1 million. The city may also receive $4 million over four years from the development team from payments in lieu of taxes for creating a tax increment financing district. Second Avenue may be vacated and possibly a portion of Pearl Street which was a residential street until the last house was bought and razed in May.
On Nov. 7, Berea Planning Commission approved consolidating 38 other parcels nearby, acquired in recent years by HSG affiliates, into four larger plots of land for District 46. No plans have been formally presented to the city for approval yet.
The centerpiece of District 46 will be a new community sports facility, some might call it a small stadium, offering more than 6,500 seats according to public records. At a special meeting of the Berea City Council on Oct. 28, HSG’s Director of Business Operations Monica Lince told council the stadium could offer up to 7,000 seats but be part of a second phase, Sun News reported.
The aforementioned public record, provided by the Ohio Department of Development, was an application for Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) tax credits. The requested amount, $2 million, is relatively small compared to the size of most TMUD awards, which tend to be in the $5 million to $15 million range. Up to $40 million can be requested.
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It was requested by Berea Mixed Use Project LLC, an affiliate of the DiGeronimo Companies of Independence which is developing District 46 for HSG. It is also developing the mixed-use Valor Acres in Brecksville that will soon be home to DiGeronimo’s new headquarters and received a $10 million TMUD tax credit for it in January.
This fourth of four TMUD rounds opened in late August; the tax credit award winners could be announced at the end of December, based on the four-month duration it has typically taken the state to decide them. TMUDs are dubbed the “megaproject tax credit” because they can be requested only for large-scale developments.
NEOtrans sought summaries of all of the TMUD applications to the Ohio Department of Development but specifically requested information on the Berea Mixed Use Project LLC request. The applications contain privileged internal business information which must be redacted before shared publicly.
“We are continuing to redact applications pursuant to the Ohio Revised Code,” said Mason Waldvogel, deputy chief of media relations at the department. “I hope to be able to fulfill your request soon.”
The District 46 TMUD request is also pretty small in the context of the larger scale of HSG’s proposed development which could cost up to $221 million. Earlier this year, HSG and the city of Berea unsuccessfully sought $15 million in state capital budget funds for the project, with another $206 million in private-sector funding.
But since that $15 million could not be secured, a new $5 million recreation center and a multi-purpose sports fieldhouse costing $10 million may have to wait for a second phase, Lince told City Council. For the first phase, District 46 appears to have a $150 million price tag. It is not known what is included in the first phase.
Peter John-Baptiste, chief communications officer at HSG and for the Browns, did not respond to an e-mail seeking more information prior to publication of this article.
But in its entirety, at least five structures are planned to join the proposed community field and an “outdoor fan experience area” at District 46 plus the existing two buildings at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus. The multi-sport field is planned to measure 86,400 square feet which equates to a football field plus about 30 feet back on both sidelines.
At the north end of Pearl Street, next to the Browns’ existing practice fields will be Building 3, a three-story, 45,000-square-foot sports medicine and healthcare facility operated by University Hospitals Health System (UH) plus ground-floor mixed uses.
The UH building will have 10,500 square feet of sports medicine facility, 20,000 square feet of office space, 3,500 square feet of restaurant space, a 3,500-square-foot retail space, and a 7,500-square-foot media/entertainment studio.
Across Pearl from UH’s facility and overlooking the future community field will be Building 4 – a five-story major flag hotel with 136 rooms. The hotel is proposed to measure about 96,365 square feet. The identity of the hotel brand isn’t publicly available.
But it was previously described by the Browns as an “upscale hotel” to be developed in partnership with Dublin, Ohio-based developer Crawford Hoying and operated by Shaner Hotel Group of State College, PA. The same team is building a 136-room AC Hotel by Marriott at Valor Acres.
Two 75-unit, four-story apartment buildings, dubbed Buildings 5 and 6, are planned on each side of the new community field. One is proposed to measure 68,517 square feet and the other 81,714 square feet. Both apartment buildings are proposed to have one 5,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor of each. The building on Front may have indoor parking on its first level, renderings show.
The last structure identified in public records, Building 7, is actually a three-level 102,000-square-foot parking garage between Pearl and the Browns’ existing practice fields. It is proposed to have enough parking for approximately 200 vehicles.
The public record doesn’t jibe with the renderings that were released publicly , however. They show a sixth structure, a three-story building, south of the community field. That structure appears to be an office building. Plans are still in the early stages and subject to change.
Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said the city is finalizing terms of a Tax Increment Financing package with the District 46 development team. A TIF captures new tax revenues to be generated by a development in a specific district for use in servicing debt raised to pay for infrastructure and other associated development costs.
Revenues proposed for the District 46 TIF are new payroll taxes, event admissions taxes and hotel bed taxes from the development, he said. Other revenues the city will receive are four payments in lieu of taxes of $1 million each in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029, or $4 million total.
The plan is to dedicate this revenue to pay down city debts, including about $22 million in loans and bond obligations. The city will also receive 100 percent of the income taxes from new residential construction. It will also cap the building permit fees associated with this development at $1 million.
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