Collaboration is key at the new 100,000-square-foot building at East 66th Street and Euclid Avenue. Stepping inside the space, which stretches down the length of 66th with colorful picnic tables and lawn games alongside it, and you’ll see offices for Case Western Reserve University, Hyland, Cleveland Institute of Art, University Hospitals and more.
At the end of the building, one open area with a patio features three concepts: Pearl’s Kitchen, Black Frog Brewery and The Sixty6, a music lounge and venue.
Welcome to Midtown Collaboration Center, the Cleveland Foundation’s latest stake in the neighborhood, and located just across the street from the organization’s expansive headquarters, which opened in 2023.
The new $32 million building, as its name suggests, centers around teamwork. The tenants can share their spaces and approach challenges in new ways with help from their neighbors.
“One of the reasons why we were so confident this is going to work is because before the building was even built, the tenants were meeting to figure out ways that they could share resources and opportunities for collaboration,” says Victor Barbalato, the Cleveland Foundation's vice president of real estate.
The office spaces are primarily for tenants, but the music venue, brewery and restaurant are for the community. Originally, the Sixty6, Black Frog Brewery and Pearl’s Kitchen weren’t in the plans for the Midtown Collaboration Center, Barbalato says, but during community engagement sessions, nearby residents said that they most wanted a space to gather, eat and drink and listen to music.
“That amenity wasn't in their neighborhood, and that's difficult to hear when you consider the rich history of music in Hough and Midtown,” Barbalato says. “All of those music lounges and clubs that used to be along Euclid that no longer exist, so we thought it was a really important amenity to bring back to the community.”
With both the Midtown Collaboration Center and the Cleveland Foundation headquarters anchoring East 66th and Euclid, more development will soon be in the works, Barbalato says. The Cleveland Foundation owns 10 and a half acres of land stretching from East 63rd Street to East 66th, and has a total of eight buildings planned for the area. It also aims to create a greenway pedestrian path to connect all eight buildings.
“This is a district, a campus, that will eventually be here,” Barbalato says.
We'll have to wait to see what those buildings are. The Cleveland Foundation plans to establish a community arm for the designs of new developments in the Midtown space.
“Something we always talk about, internally at least, is that this development has to be catalytic, but it has to be equitable,” Barbalato says. “We're not here just to build eight buildings, but it's really to create a district that is a reflection of our community and shares the wealth.”
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