CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers hope to break ground on a new Downtown practice facility before the end of this year, putting the project on track to open by late 2027.
On Tuesday, the NBA team and its partners unveiled new images of the complex, a roughly 210,000-square-foot building on the East Bank of the Cuyahoga River. The project, called the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, will blend elite training with sports medicine, nutrition and other wellness services.
The Cavs, who currently practice in Independence, are recommitting to the city after nearly two decades in the suburbs. With the Clinic, they’ll anchor the first new building in a $3.5 billion development dreamed up by Bedrock, the real estate arm of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s Rock family of companies.
"This project is the first step in creating a more vibrant and growth-oriented neighborhood, transforming the look and feel of Downtown," Gilbert said in a written statement.
Bedrock, based in Detroit, controls 35 acres of riverfront property and large pieces of the Tower City complex up the hill. The developer released an ambitious master plan for the area in late 2022 and is gathering public and private money to realize that vision.
“If this is the beginning of the plan, we can only imagine what the end will be,” Kofi Bonner, the company’s CEO, said during a Tuesday event at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. “Because this just raises the level of excellence.”
The training facility will sit near West Third Street and Eagle Avenue, at the southern end of Bedrock’s curving site. Renderings show that the building will straddle Eagle, which turns into Stones Levee as it travels west.
The building will be surrounded by walking paths and flanked by public spaces and a kayak launching ramp. The images, crafted by design firm Populous, show a structure that plays off its industrial and maritime surroundings, with abundant glass to let light inside.
“It’s nice to see an anchor sports team that is now going to anchor further progress,” Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne said during the unveiling event, which drew a crowd of business leaders and public officials.
“If Cleveland and our Downtown doesn’t go, then our region doesn’t go,” he added. “We need this Downtown to thrive.”
The Cavs announced their project last fall but did not release polished images of the building until this week. The Cleveland City Planning Commission is expected to review schematic designs in April, giving Bedrock the ability to move toward a building permit.
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Separately, Cleveland City Council will see a tax-increment financing proposal for the building. That arrangement would let Bedrock fund the project, in part, by pledging future property-tax revenues from development to paying off construction debt.
“It is incredibly important for us to show the city and our public partners that this is how we think about the city,” Bonner said of Bedrock’s aspirations. “Because we absolutely need that public-private partnership.”
He declined to provide a price tag for the complex.
The Cavs’ announcement followed the city council’s decision to create an unusual tax-increment financing district across Downtown. That district will let the city borrow against future property-tax growth to pay for public infrastructure projects along the riverfront, the lakefront and in between.
Money from that TIF district can only be used for things like sidewalks, green space, utilities, roads, riverfront retaining walls and public parking garages. It’s a new funding tool in Cleveland and a key piece of the city’s plans for improving the central business district.
The novel financing tool is a key part of the city's revitalization strategy.
“For far too long, we’ve talked about riverfront development and lakefront development,” Mayor Justin Bibb said Tuesday. “But now we finally have a real plan.”
Bibb said he and Koby Altman, the Cavs’ president of basketball operations, started talking about a potential Downtown training center two years ago. The mayor described the project as a symbol of the city’s comeback and the resurgence of a once-polluted river.
“My first question,” Bibb said, “was ‘How quickly can we cut ribbons and get cranes in the sky?’”
Altman said the project illustrates the team’s focus on innovation, wellness and technology. The facility will offer testing, training equipment and care from specialists in orthopedic surgery, cardiology, pulmonology, genetics, psychology and other areas.
And it won’t just be open to NBA players.
“This was not just going to be a normal practice facility,” Altman said. “This is going to be a sustainable hub of resources where any athlete – size, age, skill level – can come to Cleveland and find their best self.”
Dr. Tom Mihaljevic, the Clinic’s president and CEO, echoed that.
“The importance of sports really transcends, is not only just focused on our youth. … The importance of physical activity also goes in the later stages in life,” he said.
“For us,” he added, “as a health care provider, the suite of services that we will be providing over here is going to allow people to continue to enjoy active and productive life.”
