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Construction work began last week to erect two large billboards along the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard on Cleveland’s East Side. The billboards are the result of litigation that will allow the demolition of a billboard and a decayed building that supports it, located at West 25th Street and Detroit-Superior Bridge in Cleveland’s Ohio City.
The two new billboards are considered as one installation by the George family yet are about one mile apart from each other. The first, a 25-foot-tall pole-mounted, dual-sided electronic billboard, is rising at the northeast corner of Opportunity Corridor at East 75th Street.
Its address is 2782 E. 75th St. It’s a tiny, 0.09-acre piece of city-owned land right at the corner, surrounded by land owned by the Orlando Baking Co. for its factory and offices.
The other sign is even taller. A 50-foot-tall billboard and supportive monopole is rising on the other side of the busy Opportunity Corridor, just south of Quincy Avenue.
The street address for that long, 9.78-acre property alongside the boulevard is 9525 Woodland Ave. It will likely be divided with the Georges acquiring a smaller, narrow parcel. The East 75th parcel will also likely be transferred to George as part of a land swap for the Ohio City property.
Fifty feet is the maximum height allowed for a billboard in Cleveland. A tall billboard was sought for the Quincy location so that it could be seen by motorists over the trees along the side of the road.
That made it the more expensive billboard to construct — estimated at $150,000, according to public records. Construction permits were issued by the city Jan. 31 for both locations.
The other billboard, at East 75th, has a projected cost of $125,000. Bowen Construction Services LLC of Cleveland is listed on the permits as the general contractor for the two billboards.
The permit applications show that the two electronic LED billboards will each be double-sided and measure 36 feet wide by 10 feet, six inches tall. That’s the same size billboard as the first one built as a result of the litigation.
That billboard was placed atop a 150-foot-tall pole, installed last year behind a fenced-in trash container at George’s property, 1146 Old River Rd., on which The Lakehouse-Flats restaurant has a ground lease.
That billboard is next to the Shoreway’s bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley downtown. A variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals and an OK from Planning Commission were required for the billboard and its monopole to exceed the 50-foot maximum height.
Three new billboards were approved to replace the one in Ohio City, all resulting from litigation. The third site, also involving two billboards, are located atop George’s Harry Buffalo restaurant in downtown’s Gateway District. Those were installed more than a year ago at a cost of about $200,000, according to city records.
In the settlement agreement, the city will swap parcels with the Ohio City land owned by George’s Westlake-based Mortgage Investment Group LLC. In 2018, the firm acquired a vacant building set on a 0.41-acre property at 1435 W. 25th St. for $248,000.
The George family acquired that site as public entities were assembling other parcels for the $110 million, 23-acre Irishtown Bend Park on a hillside to be stabilized above the navigable Cuyahoga River.
The public entities sought to acquire the George-owned parcel but couldn’t come to an agreement with the Georges. The family’s business interests reportedly are run by Tony George and his son Bobby George. They own or manage numerous area restaurants and hospitality businesses in Greater Cleveland.
The Port of Cleveland initiated an eminent domain proceeding against the Mortgage Investment Group in February 2022 to acquire the land, citing the need to stabilize the hillside before it slid into the river and blocked commercial shipping.
In October 2021, the Georges sued the entities involved in the park project — Port of Cleveland, City of Cleveland, Riverbed LLC, Ohio City Inc., Cleveland Metroparks and LAND Studio — and ultimately prevailed in March 2023.
Several media outlets reported that the George family will be paid $1.25 million for their hilltop property. Only after all three billboards are erected and operational can the vacant, former Ohio City restaurant and the existing billboard can be demolished, per the settlement agreement.
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