CLEVELAND — When the construction of Progressive Field forced Gallucci's Italian Foods to relocate in 1988 from what become the Guardians' third base side, they found a spot at East 66th Street and Euclid Avenue.
"My grandfather was so excited to have a Euclid Avenue address,” said Marc Kotora, a fourth-generation Gallucci. “Because he said ‘John D. Rockefeller had a Euclid Avenue address.’”
Euclid Avenue at that time, though, was a far cry from Rockefeller Millionaires’ Row days.
"When we first moved in, there was an abandoned hotel; it was called the Hotel Bruce, that was kind of catty-corner to us," Katora said. "And directly across the street was an old warehouse. Yes, between Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Clinic, there wasn't much on Euclid."
The $200 million Euclid Corridor Project, which broke ground in 2004, looked to change that with a Field of Dreams type “if we build it, they will come” type promise. What would later become the Healthline promised a new type of transportation on a redesigned roadway. It promised to not only connect Public Square and University Circle but do it in a way to encourage growth in between. But 15 years after its completion, what's the payoff on that $200 million project?
"There have been over $10 billion of investment along the Euclid Corridor since the Healthline opened almost 15 years ago,” said Ashley Shaw, executive director of MidTown Cleveland.
Key has been the investments in the area from East 55th Street through East 66th Street and the tearing down of old warehouses to make way for new growth.
"Link 59 brought office space, healthcare, full-service grocery store to the neighborhood. Dave’s Market has a teaching kitchen on-site,” Shaw said. “That was one of the first investments we saw along the corridor.”
And at East 66th Street, you'll find the new headquarters for the Cleveland Foundation. It sits directly across from Gallucci's on the old warehouse site, and on the old Hotel Bruce site, construction is underway on what will be the MidTown Collaboration Center featuring office space, research and training centers.
“It will have a handful of different institutional non-profits, tenants including Jump Start, Economic and Development Community Institute, Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals, Hyland Software will move an office in which will be their first presence in the city of Cleveland,” Shaw said. “So the intention is to pull and spark innovation with the proximity of all of these different partners.”
This transformation of Euclid Avenue now finds a lunchtime crowd eating outside at Gallucci’s, many of who remember what it was like 20 years ago.
“Like a warzone, that's what it looked like,” Frank Bihari of Cleveland said. “We wouldn't have been eating out here."
Twenty years ago, Glenn Dills said that he lived just a few blocks away.
"And I could have walked here, but probably then I wouldn't walk here, but now I would," Dills said.
MidTown will be hosting a community celebration of the growth they've seen this Saturday with a neighborhood festival and block party. It's a rebirth Kotora has had a front-row seat for at Galluci’s, though it’s something he wishes he could share with his grandfather.
"I wish that he was alive today to see the transformation because I think that's how he saw it. He always looked at as Millionaire Row," he said.
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