CLEVELAND — Real estate developers and other groups hope to reimagine nine former school sites in Cleveland as everything from housing to community spaces to social services facilities.
City officials are recommending eight project teams to tackle properties including the historic Tremont Montessori building on the West Side and the landmark Collinwood High School to the east. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s board still needs to sign off on the real estate transactions, and many deals will require City Council approval.
The selections are the result of a process that started early this year, as the district prepared for a massive wave of school consolidations and building closures. Responding to a years-long enrollment slide, a looming deficit and other challenges, CMSD slashed its staff, moved students around, shuttered 18 of its buildings and dropped five leases.
WATCH: Remaking old school buildings isn't an easy task.
The city plans to use three of the former schools for new fire stations and a public safety complex. The district is hanging onto three other properties to meet its own needs, including swing space during school construction projects.
That leaves a dozen buildings earmarked for redevelopment. The city is announcing Friday that it has potential takers for most of them.
“That feels really, really good,” Matt Moss, the city’s deputy director of land strategy and asset redevelopment, said during an interview. “We feel like it’s a huge success — with more work to come.”
The district has until the end of the current school year to reach agreements for the properties. After that, under state law, CMSD will be required to offer the vacant buildings to charter schools — and, potentially, auction them off.
Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration is trying to maintain some control over the future, with the goal of preventing key properties from languishing for years.
“We have a game plan immediately for the 18 school sites that are closing to repurpose them, to advance neighborhood and community development,” Bibb told a crowd of teachers, students and neighbors during a public meeting at Collinwood High School late last year. “Because I don’t want reckless charters that we can’t hold accountable to take over these school sites.”
Moss stressed this week that the administration is just trying to offer some certainty.
“The number one thing we heard from folks was they didn’t want these buildings to be vacant,” he said of conversations with neighbors, former students and educators.
WATCH: How Cleveland started this process
In May, on the heels of a series of community meetings, the city asked developers to submit their pitches for remaking 12 of the schools. The request focused heavily on project teams’ skills and experience instead of detailed designs and funding plans.
The city received 29 responses. News 5 has filed a public records request for all of the submissions but has not received them yet. A selection committee comprised of city and district representatives ultimately interviewed 12 teams before making suggestions.
Three of the former schools — Alfred A. Benesch, at 5393 Quincy Ave.; Louisa May Alcott, at 10308 Baltic Road; and Adlai Stevenson, at 18300 Woda Ave. — don’t have takers yet. They’ll be the subject of ongoing talks between the city and the school district.
At seven properties, the Bibb administration is recommending land swaps to make way for deals with developers.
The city would trade unidentified properties with the district to gain control of the following sites, before negotiating deals with the developers:
Stonebrook-White Montessori: ThirdSpace Action Lab, a consulting group focused on racial equity and stopping disinvestment, is the recommended taker for this property, on 6.6 acres off East 92nd Street in the Glenville neighborhood.
ThirdSpace Action Lab is already located in Glenville, with a reading room and event space on East 105th Street. The group views the closed school as another community hub.
Collinwood High School: A partnership between WinnDevelopment, out of Boston, and First Interstate Properties, based in Lyndhurst, plans to take on this rambling landmark property in the Collinwood neighborhood.
At nearly 350,000 square feet, the century-old building is the largest of the schools CMSD recently closed. It sits on 5.4 acres off St. Clair Avenue, at a major intersection.
WinnDevelopment has experience with affordable housing and historic restoration. The team’s concept for Collinwood High School includes affordable senior housing.
First Interstate’s past projects include the Legacy Village and Steelyard Commons shopping centers and the One University Circle apartment tower. The company is exploring redevelopment opportunities for another Collinwood property — the former Dave’s Markets grocery store site and adjacent land on Lakeshore Boulevard.
Charles A. Mooney: MCM Company, a woman-owned real estate company based in Cleveland, is in line to remake this former school site in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
The Mooney building sits on 4.6 acres off Montclair Avenue. It could be repurposed as workforce housing, with newly built townhomes on the parking lot next door. MCM is also talking to an unidentified “institutional client” about filling some of the space.
“We like to be in places where we feel like there’s kind of soul and spirit going in,” said Melissa Ferchill Swingos, MCM’s president. “And then hopefully what we end up doing only takes that neighborhood personality, that neighborhood character, and takes it to the next level.”
Kenneth W. Clement: TFG Housing Resources is pursuing this former boys’ school for a project that would mix new construction, demolition and renovations. The company’s proposal calls for transforming the gym into a community space and razing the rest of the school, making room for roughly 70 affordable senior apartments.
The adjacent green space would be preserved as a park. The property is located on Woodworth Avenue at the southern end of Collinwood, near the East Cleveland border.
“Every neighborhood in Northeast Ohio needs more affordable housing. I’ve yet to go into one that doesn’t,” said Dan Scheinman, chief financial and investment officer for TFG Housing Resources. “But the data definitely spoke to us for this neighborhood needing affordable housing for people of all generations – not just elderly, but for young people as well. And we found that this site was very attractive, based on the site layout.”
TFG is the successor company to the Finch Group, a developer with a track record in the city. The business has decades of experience in affordable and mixed-income housing and has worked closely with Cleveland on other projects, including the restoration of Park Lane Villa in University Circle and a turnaround at Livingston Park Apartments.
Mary Church Terrell: The selection committee also recommended MCM to remake this former school, a West Side landmark on Bosworth Road. The historic building is likely to become modestly priced apartments, with the potential for new, single-story homes — a for-sale product — on the parking lot.
“Churches and schools are the anchor of every neighborhood, and to not have these properties be vibrant and alive … kind of sucks the soul out of the neighborhood around it,” Ferchill Swingos said. “And the reality is, they’re also beautiful buildings with a ton of potential. And if you use a little bit of creative muscle, you end up doing something that’s really special.”
Mary Church Terrell, on roughly 3 acres, is one of a few recently closed schools that are eligible for federal and state tax credits for historic preservation. MCM hopes to begin construction on one of its projects by spring of 2028, but there’s still a lot to figure out.
“These projects rely on a lot of other funding programs, from the state and from the federal government – and that takes time,” Moss said. “And that’s why we’re trying to move quickly."
Tremont Montessori: Sustainable Community Associates is positioned to preserve this historic building, which occupies a 2.8-acre site off West 10th Street. The development group already has a significant presence in Tremont, with completed projects including the Fairmont Creamery, the Wagner Awning Building, the Tappan and the Lincoln.
The team also has experience repurposing former schools. Last year, Sustainable Community Associates finished an apartment conversion of the old Hawthorne school in the Jefferson neighborhood, on the West Side. That building had been vacant for years.
Josh Rosen, one of the co-owners of the business, said there’s potential for housing, community spaces and retail at the former Tremont Montessori building. There also might be room for new construction on the surrounding land. But that will depend on discussions with neighbors — and where the real estate market is headed.
“We’re thinking about what Tremont needs today and what a thriving neighborhood in Tremont looks like 20 years from now,” he said.
Dike School of the Arts: The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority is pursuing this former school property off East 61st Street in the Central neighborhood. The almost 2-acre site is located near other CMHA properties.
'A big effort'
City officials also are advising the school district to consider sale-leaseback deals at two former school sites. That means the district would sell the buildings and lease part of them back for classrooms or other educational uses.
CMSD has used that approach in other situations where there are opportunities to partner with nonprofit groups to revive buildings and share space. One recent example is a former school in Midtown, which is now home to a manufacturing group called MAGNET.
The two properties being considered for new sale-leasebacks are:
Bolton: Canopy Child Advocacy Center is interested in this building, on a 2.3-acre site off Quebec Avenue in the Fairfax neighborhood. The nonprofit helps families impacted by child abuse by offering therapy, victim advocacy, medical exams and other services.
Hannah Gibbons: The recommended partner for this property, in Collinwood, is the Rehoboth Temple Community Church. The religious organization hopes to use the building for its headquarters and community services, with programs for children and seniors.
The city and CMSD are working on additional land swaps and redevelopment plans involving former Cleveland schools that closed before the recent wave of downsizing.
Separately, the district is moving forward on demolitions of a few landmark school buildings that have been decaying for years.
That’s the outcome everyone’s trying to avoid with the latest batch of buildings.
“The city’s got their hands full,” Ferchill Swingos said. “This is a big effort, and an effort I commend and have been incredibly supportive of since it was originally announced. But it’s a big effort. And it’s a big change for them. And I think they want to do right by the community, too, which is the right thing to do.”
Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.
