If foot traffic is the lifeblood of a thriving city center, the work-from-home movement has bled the streets of Downtown Cleveland dry since 2020.
Sherwin-Williams announced in July that it was doing away with a hybrid work model. Starting in 2026, employees are required to return to work in the office five days a week. Michael Deemer sees it as a solution to that missing component to a vibrant downtown. The president and CEO of Downtown Cleveland Inc. says that, while visitor foot traffic is concentrated toward nights and weekends, and residential traffic is more dispersed throughout the week, office-generated foot traffic drives up much-needed daytime activity.
“That’s how a healthy downtown operates,” says Deemer. “That daytime foot traffic that is so important to supporting small businesses has been the piece that’s been lagging.”
The move by Sherwin-Williams coincides with the final steps in finishing its new headquarters, which includes a 36-story office tower, parking garage and pavilion. The company estimates that the move-in of more than 3,100 employees will start in the last quarter of the year. Many employees are not looking forward to returning, as expressed on Reddit, social media and to Cleveland Magazine.
But Rocco Whalen can’t wait. Whalen, the famed local chef, opened Fahrenheit two years ago in 55 Public Square. The space underwent an $80 million renovation to become a mixed-use project featuring his two-story restaurant (including rooftop seating), retail and 190 apartments.
The new Fahrenheit — for more than two decades, the restaurant was in Tremont — is in a historic spot, formerly home to John Q’s Steakhouse. Whalen appreciates the history, but the attraction of the location was its proximity to Downtown skyscrapers, including the new Sherwin-Williams HQ.
“It’s the global headquarters for a Fortune 500 company,” Whalen says. “And I want to be their cafeteria.”
Whalen said he started offering lunch when the restaurant opened in 2023, with the idea that Sherwin-Williams would open the new headquarters soon. He’s hoping that the new headquarters and the back-to-the-office mandate encourage others to do the same. Robert Dorr, director of sales, marketing and events for the Hyatt in the Arcade, says the hotel, which currently offers breakfast and dinner, is considering the return of a lunch menu.
“Lunch is coming on like a herd of turtles,” Whalen says. “Twenty years ago, Downtown used to get a heavy lunch crowd and then go right into a good happy hour and dinner crowd.”
Jason Beudert, CEO of Hangry Brands, which operates Geraci’s Slice Shop, Lionheart Coffee, Jolene’s and the Society Lounge Downtown, says that the lunch market has changed. There’s less demand for power lunches but more for fast-casual type places.
“There’s definitely a lunch demand here,” he says.
Deemer says Downtown foot traffic looks a lot different than it did even five years ago, thanks in no small part to COVID-19 leading a lot of corporations to send employees home. Even before COVID, Downtown was becoming a place not just to work but to live. A CBRE study last year said that Downtown Cleveland led the country in office conversions to residential space, with more than 3.5 million square feet since 2016.
But that’s a different kind of traffic. A kind that cannot support small businesses and restaurants on its own.
“There is no doubt that the slowdown in office traffic has impacted small businesses, restaurants in particular,” Deemer says. “There’s an economic impact to bringing workers back Downtown. Sherwin-Williams’ move sends an important signal to the market. It really is a pole-setter.”
Beudert says he’s still waiting for the renovations to finish at Progressive Field, anticipating hundreds of Guardians employees back to work in the office complex that’s part of the ballpark.
Whalen notes a general livability Downtown, with amenities on Public Square, including a new light show and regular concerts, in addition to ballgames, concerts and other events that bring people Downtown — or bring out the people who already live Downtown.
“In the past two years, there’s been a vibrancy Downtown that I’ve never seen,” Whalen says. “And I think it’s going to only get better.”
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