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Construction permit applications were filed this week with the city of Cleveland’s Building Department so contractors can start digging and installing foundations for the first phase of Bedrock’s Downtown Riverfront development. That first phase is the Cleveland Clinic/Cleveland Cavaliers Global Peak Performance Center, touted as one of the world’s largest training facilities.
Measuring 210,000 square feet, the facility will also be home to the National Basketball Association Cleveland Cavaliers’ new headquarters and practice facility as well as sports health and wellness programs for the public. The building will bridge over a soon-to-be-revived Eagle Avenue ramp linking Ontario and West Third streets.
The streets, bridges, public spaces and other infrastructure associated with the overall riverfront development will be substantially funded by a new $1 billion tax-increment financing (TIF) district approved by City Council two weeks ago. Bedrock will be responsible for raising $75 million of that from public and private sources to cover the infrastructure work.
When all riverfront phases are taken into account, the total projected investment for Detroit-based Bedrock, other private investors and the public sector is estimated at $3.5 billion. Planned is more than 12 acres of public spaces along the Cuyahoga River, 2,000 new housing units, and more than one million square feet of office space, retail and entertainment.
City officials said they anticipate an economic impact of more than 30,000 new direct jobs and over $10 billion in new taxes generated by the riverfront development in the next 30 years. The TIF district will begin generating is first revenue stream after the Global Peak Performance Center is due to open in 2027. The TIF district will conclude in 2069.
The construction permit for footings and foundations supporting the Global Peak Performance Center was submitted to the city on Aug. 21 by Kansas City-based architect Populous. The general contractor for the center is The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company of Cleveland. Bedrock’s project-specific affiliate Aquila Developer LLC will oversee it.
Estimated cost of the construction for this permit application is $7,126,000, according to the filing. It covers a site measuring approximately 74,722 square feet. Interestingly, the address of the work site is listed as “0 Eagle Avenue & West 3rd.” While a total construction cost for this first phase has not been publicly released, based on current construction costs for this market, it probably is in the $75 million to $100 million range.
One reason for the project’s cost is the depth that the new building’s foundations have to be dug. A three-dimensional image of the foundation work was included in the permit application and shows that pilings for the Global Peak Performance Center have to be driven about 60 feet down into the earth next to the Cuyahoga River. That’s deeper than the four-story building is tall.
This follows site preparation work that began late last year. That includes nearly $10 million worth of new riverside steel bulkheads around the outer part of a hairpin turn in the river, called Collision Bend. The 340 linear feet of bulkheads have tie rods and anchors that extend 45 feet away from the river bank to support the shoreline and the buildings behind.
Additional site preparation work is underway farther away from the river, including the removal of a parking lot along West 3rd, installation of sewers, and leveling of the land. More work will come soon with the demolition of the long-closed Eagle Avenue lift bridge over the river.
Another key piece of infrastructure work will be the removal of the Stones Levee Road truss bridge over the former CSX railroad right of way which was abandoned for the riverfront development. Stones Levee will be replaced by a newly built Eagle Avenue ramp, partially built on earthen fill and partially on a bridge over the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority tracks. The ramp will restore direct vehicular, pedestrian and bike access between downtown and the Flats South area.
North of the Eagle ramp, Canal Road will be rerouted on the former CSX right of way. South of Eagle, the CSX right of way will be absorbed into the Global Peak Performance Center site. Canal will continue south of Eagle on its current routing. The old route of Canal north of Eagle will become a service road for the Bedrock development.
However, it may be several years before all of these components can be constructed, since the TIF funding won’t start flowing until 2027. But there is grant funding already available including $10 million earmarked for the riverfront project in the state’s newly passed capital budget. That can be used to leverage federal infrastructure grants and expand the site preparation work.
The Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Cavaliers were eager to get started on building the Global Peak Performance Center as soon as possible. So it was pulled out and put ahead of a larger phase one of the riverfront development, planned around the other side of Collision Bend near Tower City Center where infrastructure work has yet to start. The prior phase one is now called Phase 1B with the Global Peak Performance Center called Phase 1A.
According to Bedrock presentations submitted to the City Planning Commission, Phase 1B is proposed to have separate buildings for entertainment and hotel/hospitality, mixed-use retail and affordable and market-rate housing, class A office space plus community facilities.Bedrock says its vision is to “Concentrate density and utilize compact development to promote walkability and create a vibrant and complete neighborhood after each development phase. Increased density and height are encouraged, but the design should consider the existing context, buildings, riverfront views and pedestrians.”
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