Home to more than 100 eclectic and creative ventures, the Screw Factory is Lakewood’s enviable hub of artist studios, event venues, fitness enthusiasts and incubator-like spaces for local entrepreneurs.
Originally built as the Templar Motors plant, where only a few thousand luxury cars were produced in the early 1900s, the factory was eventually taken over by Wasmer Fasteners in 1927, which operated as Lake Erie Screw — hence the nickname.
Today, the Lake Erie Building — as it is officially known — includes the popular CLE Clothing Co., gorgeous event and wedding venues Biographie and the Lake Erie Room as well as a towering indoor rock-climbing gym, Nosotros.
Here’s a look inside this historic space.
Lake Erie Building Events (LEBE)
Open for about a year, Lake Erie Building Events provides a truly unique wedding experience, offering almost 13,000 square feet among two event venues and a full, five-day rental with total access to the site.
Owned and operated by three sisters, Amanda, Allie and Laura McGreer, LEBE is an airy, white industrial space popular with people who want freedom to decorate and personalize their event to their exact vision.
“LEBE is 8,660 square feet and is attached to the McGreer, an additional venue at 3,220 square feet. So when brides and grooms book for a wedding, they get both venues to host their weddings,” says Melissa Upton, event coordinator with LEBE. Upton has her own studio down the hall from the event space. There, she runs her niche perfume business, Yates in Leo, where she makes her own perfumes and teaches perfume workshops.
“What makes LEBE stand out from the majority of the other venues in and around Northeast Ohio is an extended time period from Wednesday to Monday to come in and set up and decorate and get everything the way that you want it,” Upton says, adding that the venues are also open to networking events, corporate events, banquets and fundraisers.
Nosotros
After being located in the basement of Lakewood Baptist Church for seven years, Nosotros rock climbing gym is soaring to new heights at its new space in the Screw Factory.
Relocating in early April, Nosotros doubled the fun for area climbers, expanding to 6,400 square feet by 16 feet tall.
Everything in the gym is new: climbing walls, climbing folds, volumes, weights, pads and even programs such as personal training, Zumba, climbing clubs and leagues for adults, and a new youth team. Nosotros offers day passes, punch passes, 2-week trials and monthly memberships.
“The cool thing about the Screw factory is it’s the best of both worlds,” says founder Peter Stancato III. “It’s big, double the size of our old space, and there’s foot traffic with 100 tenants and events going on every weekend, so it’s perfect.”
Stancato says Nosotros is welcoming to climbers of all ages and aptitudes.
“I opened the gym thinking that we were going to be for kids, and I found it’s mostly adults. The majority of our customers are 30 to 40 probably,” he says. “A climbing route is solving a problem on the wall. We set new routes every week, so it’s always new, and people continue to come back every week and for them, it’s like Christmas morning with a new problem to solve.”
Biographie
Bathed in an abundance of natural light from large, sweeping picture windows facing Madison Park, Biographie is located on the first floor of the Screw Factory on Athens Avenue. This is the third venue for serial entrepreneur Maureen Koopman, who created CoLab Concepts, which offers two smaller Lakewood boutique event spaces, the Parlor and the Lounge, says the nearly 2,000-square-foot space exudes industrial elegance with a signature, enhanced flair.
“We love to call the space an elevated blank canvas that we have intentionally kept neutral enough to allow our hosts to come in with their vision,” says Koopman, who also created the “Home for the Holidays” annual pop-up store for local artists.
Ideal for wedding ceremonies and receptions, birthday parties, showers, anniversaries and engagement parties, Biographie is perfectly named with “a beautiful connection to hosting life events and milestones,” she says. “It’s your biography that you’re writing out within our space.”
Easily accommodating up to 100 guests, Biographie requires a minimum 6-hour booking, which is $900 and includes tables and chairs, a bar, high-top tables, speakers, WIFI and a complimentary 1-hour planning meeting. Hosts can bring their own food and drinks with a licensed bartender (if serving alcoholic beverages).
“We sit down with the hosts and talk about what their vision is for the day and help bring that to life,” she says.
CLE Clothing Co.
For a decade, CLE Clothing Co.’s warehouse and online fulfillment center located in the Screw Factory has been designing and delivering Cleveland-inspired T-shirt designs into the hands — and onto the backs — of proud natives.
Owner and founder Mike Kubinski, along with his wife Laura, who is the director of operations, run their family business from offices that have grown, expanded and relocated multiple times during their tenure in the building.
“We jumped at the chance when we had another opportunity to find real offices upstairs where everyone had their own space. There was a common area, a meeting room and lots and lots of natural light and windows,” says Kubinski, noting that in addition to the 5,000-square-feet of space in the Screw Factory, CLE Clothing Co. has four retail stores in the area, including its flagship on the corner of East Fourth Street and Euclid Avenue.
“We’re Lakewood residents, so we could walk to work on nice days or ride a bike,” he says. “Our kids go to Harrison Elementary, which is right there in Birdtown. There’s also a great community within the building, and beyond that, Lakewood itself is a great community.”
