CLEVELAND — One of the busiest intersections by the Cleveland Clinic is preparing for a large mixed-use development, bringing almost 200 new apartment units and a new grocery store right in the middle of one of the region’s food deserts.
The plan got schematic approval from the City of Cleveland Planning Commission earlier this month. Plans call for a 40,000 square foot Meijer grocery store on the ground floor with 190 apartments above it, right on the corner of Cedar Avenue and East 105th Street. Farther south on East 105th, there is a three-level parking garage with about 100 spaces for the apartments and 105 spaces for the grocery store.
Early designs show the apartments being set back from the edge of the building in an attempt to make walking on the 8-foot sidewalks below more comfortable for pedestrians near the roughly 3-acre plot of land.
Plans for the future
The new development could break ground next year at a time when the Fairfax community it sits in is getting a lot of development attention. County Records show The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation own much of the land around the development. Plans for Innovation Square promise to build a new mixed-income community with a variety of housing options to fill in what are now vacant plots of land.
I'm sure some of you are curious about the new Opportunity Corridor. I am going to tweet 3 clips in this thread showing the entire drive from end of I-490 at E55 to Cedar and E105th just south of the Clinic. This first clip is from E55th to East 75th. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/Up2sNn4l35
— Mike Vielhaber (@MVielhaber) November 15, 2021
The Opportunity Corridor just opened south of the intersection, connecting University Circle to East 55th Street and I-490 and creating plenty of space for future development and revitalization.
The Community’s history
The corner used to be the location of the Calvary Hill Baptist Church. The group’s website says it moved to that location at East 103rd Street and Cedar Avenue in March of 1956 before relocating in 2017.
Nearby, residents who still live in between the plots owned by development organizations say they sometimes struggle to find the resources to make home repairs. A year ago, News 5 explained how there are a series of obstacles for homeowners in neighborhoods like Fairfax because of a history of redlining and limited modern-day resources.
Have you ever noticed something interesting in Northeast Ohio and wondered, “Hey…what’s going on there?”
Us, too. We love learning more about what shapes the world around us -- the buildings, the spaces and the ways we move between them.
Next time you're wondering about some building, project or piece of land, send me an email at Kevin.Barry@wews.com and I'll look into it for a possible story.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
