CLEVELAND — A nearly $1.3 million state grant will help lay the groundwork for a major makeover at the West Side Market, one of Cleveland’s best-known landmarks.
The historic market won money Tuesday from a state program focused on cleaning up old buildings and contaminated land. Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Development announced $29 million in brownfield awards, plus $23.3 million in grants to tear down dilapidated structures and prepare fallow sites for redevelopment.
At the West Side Market, the state money will go toward removing and disposing of asbestos. It also can pay for demolition as part of the broader renovations, which will touch everything from the mechanical systems to the places where people shop, gawk and sit.
The Cleveland Public Market Corporation took over management of the city-owned property earlier this year.
The new nonprofit is raising money for a $60 million to $68 million project, with hopes of starting construction in late 2025.
The grant is a significant step toward that goal, said Rosemary Mudry, the nonprofit’s executive director.
“Each time a different agency recognizes the project’s importance, it helps us tell that story, that the market isn’t just an entity one group or person cares about,” she said, describing the 112-year-old food hall as an economic engine for the city and the region.
A master plan for the market, released in mid-2023, calls for turning a long-unused locker room on the mezzanine level of the main hall into a teaching kitchen, seating area and event space. Early renderings depict a reimagined produce arcade, with a food hall filling part of the L-shaped building. They also show a new plaza and covered connections between the two market buildings.
The plans include new bathrooms; better access for shoppers with wheelchairs, walkers or strollers; and a complete overhaul of the antiquated heating, cooling and ventilation systems.
Sketches of the basement show reconfigured food preparation and storage areas. That part of the project will require some demolition, making it necessary to get rid of old asbestos insulation and tiles, Mudry said.
“Any building of our size and age has asbestos in it unless it’s already undergone a full gut-renovation,” she said. “This was an opportunity to help close that gap.”
The Cleveland Public Market Corporation has raised over $25 million for the overall project. That includes $20 million from the city, a $2.4 million state capital grant, an anticipated $2 million Congressional earmark and the new state brownfield grant.
Mudry said the nonprofit also is seeking federal historic-preservation tax credits and New Markets Tax Credits, which are designed to attract private investment to economically distressed communities. Collectively, the tax credits could bring $10 million to the project.
“We have several foundation and corporate asks that are in,” she said, “and are just really doing a lot of relationship-building. … We’ve only been at the fundraising for a couple of months, so that piece is going to take a little bit more time.”
The state grant comes from Ohio’s Brownfield Remediation Program, which is doling out awards based on applications submitted in late 2023. The governor’s office announced a much larger round of grants in August, for projects including the cleanup and demolition of the sprawling National Acme Co. plant on Cleveland’s East Side.
This time around, 10 Northeast Ohio projects won awards for environmental studies or clean-up efforts. County land banks submitted most of the grant requests on behalf of a mix of public, private and nonprofit property owners.
In Cleveland Heights, WXZ Development won $2.1 million to clear out asbestos, old dirt, mold and lead paint at the Taylor Tudors, three vacant buildings on South Taylor Road. The properties will become apartments, with retail and live-work spaces downstairs, in the first phase of a much larger development near the eastern end of Cain Park.
In Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood, the African Town Plaza project won $251,517 for asbestos remediation and demolition. Developer James Sosan plans to turn a former YMCA at East 75th Street and Cedar Road into apartments, commercial space and an arts and cultural center. The building has been vacant for years.
In Berea, a $60,630 grant will go toward cleaning up an old gas station and car wash site on Front Street. The project includes removing an underground storage tank on the property, which is city-owned.
A $321,115 grant will go to a project in Ashtabula County to eliminate asbestos and other hazards at a former automotive service station. And the state awarded $120,700 to deal with contaminated groundwater at a shuttered dry cleaner in Richland County.
Early-stage assessment grants are flowing to a 20-acre industrial site in Lake County, an old gas station in Portage County and two Summit County properties – a former muffler shop in Tallmadge and industrial buildings on Brittain Road in Akron.
The governor’s office also announced grants from the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program to tear down buildings that aren’t environmentally tainted.
Ashtabula County will receive $1.38 million to tackle 28 properties. Lake County will get almost $2 million to clear 13 sites.
In August, the Cuyahoga Land Bank won $23 million from the same demolition program to tear down more than 1,100 structures.
