CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — It’s been a little more than a month since a massive fire broke out at the Cedar-Lee-Meadowbrook development, which caused the Cedar-Lee Garage to temporarily shut down. But it’s now open again.
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While the costly fire didn’t touch the Cedar-Lee Garage, the City of Cleveland Heights closed it off as the blaze created a hazard for the parking structure.
Since the closure, we’ve spoken with a handful of businesses who say the lack of parking has resulted in fewer customers.
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“It got to the point where we put valet on the weekends and that kind of helped but even then, [the valets] didn't know where to park the cars anymore, so that just created more issues,” Cozumel General Manager Andres Aguirre told me.
Boss Dog, even posting a notice on its front door and social media saying it will be closed on Mondays and Wednesdays “due to the circumstances in our neighborhood” until further notice.
As of last Friday, the garage is open to the public again.
The north side of the garage is boarded up to ensure the safety of visitors and parked vehicles.
I checked back in with some of those businesses Monday night to see if the reopening of the garage boosted foot traffic over the weekend.
“We had the best Saturday that we've had probably since November, so we did have a very good Saturday. My staff did a great job in looking at the receipts. We had a very strong Saturday which was great, which was wonderful, and I’m very grateful for that,” the Owner of CLE Urban Winery, Destiny Burns said.
Cozumel said it also had a lot of business on Saturday.
“That was probably the busiest Saturday we've had since [the garage] was open. We had to wait for that day. Everyone was coming out to support, and it was good to have that back,” Aguirre said.
We want to thank the businesses and, at the City, the Building and Fire Departments, the State Fire Marshal, and everyone who worked with us for this stop-gap solution. We want to encourage people to shop and let them know this is not the end. We are definitely going to rebuild. Our absolute certainty is that this project will be a benefit to the City of Cleveland heights and the Cedar-Lee Business District.
While the foot traffic has increased over the weekend in the Cedar-Lee District, both CLE Urban Winery and Cozumel claim there has been a lack of communication getting to this point from the city.
“There’s been no communication. People ask us, ‘Hey, what's going on with them?’ We don't know. We find out through Facebook like everyone else does which it was kind of odd, but the city hasn't really come by to explain even when they closed the parking garage. We didn't know it was going to close or when it was going to open. I didn't know it was going to open until I saw it on Facebook. We're the ones that are directly affected by it. You think that more communication would be done,” Aguirre stated.
Burns said she found out less than 24 hours before the reopening.
“These are all really important things that are happening and important milestones that we need to know about. The business owners here, especially on this part of Lee Road where we're directly affected by the construction site and by the demolition coming up, we should be treated as stakeholders,” she noted. “I've had a really hard time getting access to information, getting access to any kind of planning or anything like that. I keep asking and I will keep asking.”
I spoke with Cleveland Heights Director of Communications, Jessica Schantz, Monday night regarding the concerns some businesses are having.
“While it’s not ideal, we are putting forth a great deal of effort to make sure that people are visiting the business district,” Schantz said. “From the city’s perspective, we’re keenly aware of how this impacts the businesses. They’re very much on our minds.”
Schantz explained that the city was working in real time to reopen the Cedar-Lee Garage.
Once the city knew it could reopen the garage, Schantz said the city “rushed to communicate that out” to businesses.
“It would just really help us plan and prepare so that we can be ready, and our customers will be less impacted by us having to pivot, pivot, pivot every five minutes to try to keep up with what's coming at us,” Burns said. “I'm scared. I am scared. We're all just holding on. It's been really, really tough not just for us here in Cedar-Lee but for the entire hospitality industry in Cleveland.”
According to the City of Cleveland Heights, both the city and state fire investigations are complete. The city is now waiting on private insurance companies that cover the developer to go through their inspection.
“We must allow them the time they need to go through a proper inspection,” Schantz said. “As soon as we get the green light, we will enter into conversations about the process of deconstructing.”
No timeline for the final inspections is available at this time, according to the City of Cleveland Heights.
