The article is published as part of an exclusive content-sharing agreement with neo-trans.blog.
Site preparations for a significant new development called the “Rock Block” are sought in the Gateway District of Downtown Cleveland. But the permit application outlining the proposed preparations offers more questions than it provides answers as to what may rise here and when. There are some answers and, of course, rumors.
The 3-acre parking lot site east of East 4th Street between Prospect Avenue and Huron Road is where Stark Enterprises tried to build its nuCLEus megaproject for nearly a decade. The Cleveland-based company sold it to Detroit-based Bedrock Real Estate, one of billionaire Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures family of companies in 2023 for $26.5 million.
What Bedrock and its civil engineering consultant Osborn Engineering of Cleveland laid out in a permit application filed June 13 with the city’s Building Department shows a large development footprint of just over 1 acre on the southwestern one-third of the site. Bedrock plans to build phase one of the Rock Block using the address 522 Prospect Ave.
General contractor Whiting-Turner of Baltimore will dig the acre-sized pit 15 feet deep, north of Huron and east of East 4th. Then it will fill the pit with 7 feet of stone gravel. Cost of the work is estimated at $300,000, according to the application, but may be a low number.
In that application, the outline of a new structure is shown for the site. According to Google mapping software, the building outline measures just over 30,000 square feet. But the outline is as much as the plans reveal. Other than the retaining walls for the pit, no descriptions of new structures, supportive caissons or other future developments are suggested.
“This pad prep permit set delivers a construction-ready site for phase one of the Rock Block development,” wrote Osborn Engineering’s Kostadina Kozanas in a summary accompanying the application.
Normally, a request for such work accompanies detailed plans for a structure to be built on top of it. But in this case, the site preparations are being pursued independently because they are as much of a fact-finding mission that will help determine the final form of a vertical development as they are to create a pad for it.
“There was a lot of demolition in that block before we got the Lower Prospect Historic District in place,” said Tom Yablonsky, former executive director of the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp. “When the Gateway (Sports and Entertainment Complex) site was cleared, there were a lot of old foundations that weren’t documented.”
Some of those demolitions go back to the early 1980s when the Greater Cleveland Domed Stadium Corp. began buying and assembling land, as well as demolishing numerous structures in advance of the never-built Central Market Domed Stadium. Instead, the Gateway complex was built on much of that site.
So Bedrock and its team are going to dig for them and other below-ground structures and either remove them or fill them in. Some of these structures go back to Cleveland’s early-American development more than 200 years ago.
“The location of all abandoned in-place facilities may not be shown on these plans,” Osborn’s permit application reads. “Potential abandoned items such as basements, floor slabs, foundations, storm structures and sewers, sanitary structures and sewers, steam tunnels or chambers, water lines, gas lines and miscellaneous conduits from previous construction activities and projects may be encountered.”
“If discovered within the construction limit of proposed items, the abandoned items shall be removed as directed by the design engineer,” the filing continues. “Basements or structures may contain material considered unsuitable to support new foundations, floors slabs or pavements and therefore additional subgrade preparation and engineered earth fill may be required as directed by the owner or engineer.”
After the excavated site is partially filled with stone gravel, the site will be tested from multiple locations to gather samples of soil and pre-existing structures if left in place. They will be checked for concrete compression, slump, air content and temperatures, public records show.
A construction staging area for phase one is planned next to Prospect, east of East 4th. A mid-block walkway on the right of way of the former East 6th Alley, linking Prospect to Rocket Arena and Progressive Field, appears as though it will be preserved. So will existing trees around the perimeter of the site.
While this proposed work is already more than what Stark undertook during its nine-year ownership of the site, there is a possibility that the large pit may remain in place for a while. The reason is so the impacts of compression and slumping can be measured and building plans designed based on the results of those tests.
Yablonsky said Bedrock, because of its track record in delivering large, complicated projects and the city’s already established partnership with them on the 35-acre, $3.5 billion Riverfront Development, will likely get a long leash from the city to refine and carry out its Rock Block plans.
It’s already letting out the slack on that leash. Two years ago, the City Planning Commission approved Bedrock’s demolition of a decrepit parking garage at 611 Huron Rd. Replacing it is a “temporary” 36-space surface parking lot that opened in early 2024.
Planning Commission gave Bedrock permission to operate that 0.4-acre lot for one year. If Bedrock wanted to continue operating it for a second year, it had to submit a development plan for the entire 3-acre “Rock Block” with a timeline on when it would start construction. There are no public records of such plans being submitted.
The absence of plans fuels speculation. There are rumors that Bedrock plans different uses for the Rock Block — from a fusion sports-entertainment venue with restaurant/retail amid a big parking garage to a smaller version of Bedrock’s 685-foot-tall, 49-story Hudson’s Site skyscraper in Downtown Detroit.
Right now, there is more evidence of the former in phase one than the latter. The use group for the phase one site is shown in Osborn’s permit application as “Mercantile – Stores / Markets / Retail.” It is also affected by the Cleveland Guardians purchasing the Gateway East Garage with the expectation that some or all of it would need to be demolished for a potential ballpark village.
David Blitzer has an option to acquire Paul Dolan’s majority ownership by 2028. Blitzer has shown interest in developing real estate at venues for several other teams in which he has a majority stake. If some or all of the Gateway East Garage is to be demolished, another new parking garage may first need to be built nearby to fill the parking void.
NEOtrans reached out to Bedrock Vice President of Communications Lora Brand and Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack for additional information. Neither responded prior to publication. This article will be updated if additional information is provided.
For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.
Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.
