CLEVELAND — Cleveland took a significant leap Wednesday on the road to remaking its lakefront.
The city won almost $60 million in federal grants to help convert the Shoreway into a slimmed-down boulevard as it cuts through Downtown. That road work is part of a massive infrastructure project – a plan to demolish and build roads and bridges to link the center of Downtown to the lakefront and make it easier for Clevelanders to touch the water.
All that construction, including a land bridge and a new transit hub, could cost roughly $450 million. Now, the city has raised about $80 million of that, between the federal funding and $20 million set aside earlier this year by state legislators.
Mayor Justin Bibb said his administration is pursuing other federal money.
“We are going to transform our lakefront,” he said during an interview with News 5. “Clevelanders have been talking about this for generations. The time has come to meet the moment. And I’m committed to doing just that.”
The mayor said he heard about the grant awards late Tuesday from U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown’s office. Brown and members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, lobbied for the funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The city applied in March for $260 million in grants through a group of competitive transportation-department programs. Cleveland ultimately received 23% of that funding.
“It’s a big first step,” said Scott Skinner, the executive director of the North Coast Waterfront Development Corp., a nonprofit working with the city to develop the lakefront.
Bibb said the city is seeking a $100 million grant from another federal transportation department program called Reconnecting Communities. Officials are also talking to the Build America Bureau, the department’s financing arm, about a large-scale, low-interest loan.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Cleveland over the summer.
“I hosted Secretary Buttigieg – I still call him ‘Mayor Pete’ – on the rooftop of the Hilton,” Bibb said. “And he said, ‘Mayor Bibb, you have the most underdeveloped waterfront in America.' And I said, ‘Well, Mayor Pete, let’s do something about it.’”
The $60 million grant is coming from the department’s INFRA program, which funds highway projects that make it simpler and safer to move people and freight around. The city can reapply for more money from INFRA and related mega-grant programs next year.
The INFRA grant will pay for utility work, road demolition and construction between West Ninth Street and the eastern end of Huntington Bank Field. The city plans to slow and trim down the Shoreway, turning it into a 35 mph, tree-lined boulevard.
Bibb said he’s intent on moving the project forward, regardless of what happens with the Cleveland Browns. The NFL team is seriously considering a move to Brook Park to a new, domed stadium on land near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
“Listen,” Bibb said Wednesday, “we’ve had very productive conversations with the Haslams and the Browns. I’m committed to exploring every option, along with the county executive, to keep the Browns Downtown in the city of Cleveland, playing football on our lakefront. But if the Browns go to Brook Park, we will develop our waterfronts.”
Construction on the lakefront infrastructure projects, collectively called the North Coast Connector, could start in 2027. The land bridge will open up roughly 25 acres of city-owned land for development, from a hotel and apartments to expansive public spaces.
“We now have real momentum to implement a truly inspired vision,” Chris Ronayne, the Cuyahoga County executive, said in a written statement. “The North Coast Connector project will improve and expand upon multi-modal transportation options, promote equity and inclusion by removing barriers to our waterfronts for our residents and further establish Cleveland as a world-class destination.”
Another batch of funding is expected to come from a new city financing tool, a tax-increment financing overlay district that spans Downtown. That district will capture some of the new property-tax revenues from development and real estate appreciation, allowing the city to use that money for public infrastructure on the lakefront – and on the riverfront, another major priority.
“We are serious about finally making Cleveland a two-waterfront city,” said Bibb, who attended a groundbreaking Monday for a new Cleveland Cavaliers training facility on the Cuyahoga River, where a $3.5 billion mixed-use development is on the drawing board.
“I’m feeling very optimistic that, over the next several years, we’ll be able to break ground – and Clevelanders can see real progress on our transformation of the lakefront,” the mayor added.
