CLEVELAND — Plans for the new Sherwin-Williams’ Headquarters in the heart of Downtown Cleveland are giving residents a closer look at how those new structures will fit into the neighborhood.
The Plan
The office tower itself will sit on part of the surface parking lot at the corner of Superior Avenue and West 3rd Street. Plans suggest it will be around 36 stories tall, potentially making it shorter than both Key Tower and 200 Public Square.
A two-story pavilion is proposed for the surface lot directly to the west of Public Square. A parking garage with retail on the ground floor is planned for the surface lot to the north of the proposed HQ building.
Pedestrian bridges are in the plans above street level to connect the HQ to the pavilion and the parking garage. Sherwin-Williams ia also asking for the city to vacate Frankfort Street between the two parking lots with plans block off that street from West 3rd Street and use it as a loading entrance.
Plans also show the western parts of the lots remaining undeveloped for now, leaving the southern lot for a future Sherwin-Williams expansion and the northern lot for other commercial retail, office, and living space on the corner of West 6th Street and St. Clair Avenue, where the Warehouse District picks up.
See a detailed breakdown of the plan here.
The Impact
55 Public Square
The plans confirm what 55 Public Square owners were banking on when they purchased the building in February of 2021 after trying for years to buy it from Optima Management. The plan is to renovate the building’s parking garage, create new office space and 156 new apartment units.
The new headquarters will bring at least 3,000 Sherwin-Williams employees just across the street from the new office and residential space, while the two-story pavilion won’t block the view from 55 Public Square’s new restaurant space in the former John Q’s Steakhouse location.
“This building in front of us will only be two stories,” said K&D Group CEO Doug Price, pointing out of the windows in 55 Public Square’s lobby. “According to what I’ve seen, so 55 keeps its real high profile in the square.”
Price said he hopes the restaurant and a renovated 55 Public Square will help bridge the gap between the Euclid Avenue corridor and East 4th Street and the Warehouse District.
Right now, there are limited options for food and entertainment between the southeastern tip of Public Square and West 6th Street, with the two massive surface parking lots in between. The hope is that a restaurant at 55 Public Square and a new high-rise with it’s own retail nearby will make that distance feel shorter while offering additional attractions to see.
75 Public Square
The new HQ will have a similar impact on 75 Public Square next door. That 15-story building is being renovated into 114 units with two retail locations on the ground floor and a slew of amenities, including a rooftop deck.
Construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2021 with the first residents moving in soon after.
Filter
Just around the corner at the Perry-Payne building, Kyler Smith is building out Filter, adapting the idea from destinations he’s seen in Miami and Los Angeles with curated locations inside the venue to encourage people to post their experience to social media, essentially working as free marketing for the restaurant.
“Just around the city, it’s going to be that place that you want to go because it’s going to be popular,” Smith said.
Smith said he started that project during the pandemic on the faith that after COVID-19 subsided, people would be eager to go out again once it was safe.
The Reactions
Early push-back has been targeted mostly at the second floor pedestrian bridges, comparing them to the proposed pedestrian bridge on the other side of Public Square that could connect the JACK Casino to a parking structure. Community members pushed back against that bridge when it was first introduced.
A skyway over W 3rd is straight up unacceptable. https://t.co/yK9apSV3Rc
— Jeffrey Weston Sleasman 🔰 (@jeffsleasman) July 2, 2021
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