CLEVELAND — With the obligatory tossing of ceremonial shovels of dirt, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame begins this day with a new era. Groundbreaking on the Hall's $100+ million expansion project.
Joining Rock Hall and local government and corporate leaders were 1992 Inductee Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, 1995 Inductee Martha Reeves of Martha & the Vandellas, 1998 Inductee Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas, 2021 Inductees Charlotte Caffey and Gina Schock of The Go-Go's. The latter four got the crowd going with impromptu acapella verses of three of their hits during their introductions.
The 50,000-square-foot addition to the hall is about a one-third increase of its current space. It will be built into the hillside between the Hall and the Great Lakes Science Center. It does so while complimenting the original I.M.Pei design, preserving its connection to the lakefront and securing its place as the home of Rock and Roll.
"This going to connect the front of our museum to the lakefront really seamlessly," said Rock Hall President and CEO Greg Harris. "It gives us a much better place to hold events, larger events at the museum that we couldn't hold before, and it's just important for us to invest in this project and bring this home for Northeast Ohio."
On hand were plenty of Northeast Ohio Rock Hall supporters like the Horvats of Concord. They weren't missing this.
"Oh, it was very important to see the expansion," said Dave Horvat sporting a Beachland Ballroom t-shirt. "We were here for the very first one. Our son included in utero, but we enjoyed it so much we felt like we had to be here when we had the time."
Yes, they were here for this the original groundbreaking in June of 1993. So too, was long-time Rock manager David Spero who said they had no idea back then just how big the Rock Hall would become.
"I mean, when we first started having meetings about it, it was going to be, you know, we didn't really know what it was going to be, and then all of a sudden, I.M. Pei is going to be the architect and all of a sudden all of the musicians around the world are like saying well that's a cool thing," Spero said.
Cleveland raised eyebrows when it bid for the Rock Hall, pledging to cover $65 million of the hall’s $92 million cost. The return on that investment? More than $2 billion in economic activity in the form of a half million visitors a year, 80 percent of whom come in from out of town. Spending an average of $349,000 a day.
The expansion not only builds on those financials, it builds on the lakefront footprint at a time when the city is looking to do the same.
"Not only are we going to create a brand new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to advance and expand that mission and that vision," said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb. "But we are going to remake America's North Coast with the best in class lakefront for the first time in nearly a hundred years as well. And this place will be that new front door."
The investment in the Rock Hall's future is indeed an investment in Cleveland. Any major event the city has landed over the last several decades has won with the help of the Rock Hall. It is also an ever-growing point of connection between the people of Northeast Ohio and the rest of the world. None of which seemed probable for longtime Cleveland concert promoter Jules Belkin who remembers the headwinds they faced 35 years ago.
"It was a lot of hard work," said Belkin. "It took five years to get it off the ground. A lot of 'no, no, no, no, no,' but we prevailed, so that's Rock and Roll."
Construction on the expansion will begin shortly, with completion set for 2026.
