CLEVELAND — The producers of the Cleveland Auto Show, the Great Big Home and Garden Show and other longstanding consumer events are fed up, after a year of uncertainty about the future of the I-X Center and what it means for their shows.
Now they’re speaking out, sharing details about behind-the-scenes efforts to keep events at the I-X Center for the next few years — and complicated real estate negotiations that, at this point, make a compromise seem unlikely.
“We’re at the end of our rope. I think we feel a moral obligation, and … if we didn’t say something now, we would regret it forever,” said Tom Baugh, chairman of Marketplace Events, the Beachwood-based company behind the home and garden show, the Cleveland Home and Remodeling Expo and Christmas Connection.
Baugh and Lou Vitantonio, president of the Cleveland Auto Show, were blindsided a year ago when news broke about big changes coming to the I-X Center, an enormous city-owned building that’s leased to a group of industrial real estate developers.
During a Cleveland City Council meeting in June 2025, city officials revealed that the developers were chasing a major tenant. The renovation plans would end the property’s 40-year run as an exposition center right next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
RELATED: I-X Center's days as an exhibition space are coming to an end
The I-X Center hosted its last consumer show, the final Piston Powered Auto-Rama, in March. Since then, the building has been sitting silent.
The city is working with developers Industrial Realty Group and Industrial Commercial Properties LLC to bring employers to the site, in hopes of landing hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in annual tax revenues.
RELATED: What's going on at the I-X Center? The story's more complicated than it seems.
With that goal in mind, Cleveland and neighboring Brook Park are trying to end a tax-sharing agreement that’s made it difficult to redevelop the property and offer incentives to companies considering a move there.
Brook Park City Council recently approved a revised deal between the communities. Cleveland City Council is still considering the proposal.
RELATED: Cleveland, Brook Park reach deal to position I-X Center for redevelopment
But for months now, there’s been a separate conversation going on — about whether it’s possible to bring shows back temporarily, at least, until a real project comes together.
Baugh and Vitantonio said those talks include Haslam Sports Group, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, and the prospect of keeping events at the I-X Center through 2029, until the shows can move to the team’s new, enclosed stadium in neighboring Brook Park.
The idea is that Haslam Sports Group would rent space at the I-X Center for roughly three years and sign contracts with the shows, Baugh said. The deal would bring some money to Industrial Realty Group and Industrial Commercial Properties while allowing the shows to stay put — avoiding a move to downtown, where they’d have to shrink to fit into the schedule and footprint at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.
But at this point, that proposal seems like a Hail Mary pass.
Vitantonio and Baugh said discussions about the shows are snarled up in lease-extension negotiations between the developers and the city. After getting a discouraging update this week, the two event producers decided they needed to say something publicly.
“We don’t want to stand in the way of progress on the building in the future. That is not what we want to do,” Vitantonio said of the I-X Center. “We’re just looking for a little bit more runway while it’s still empty.”
What other people are — or aren't — saying
Stu Lichter, founder and chairman of Industrial Realty Group, did not return phone calls this week about the I-X Center. A Haslam Sports Group spokesman did not respond to inquiries about the organization’s role in conversations about trying to maintain the events.
But in email exchanges with News 5 dating back months, Haslam Sports Group has acknowledged its interest in bringing consumer shows to the new Huntington Bank Field.
“We’ve had some preliminary conversations (about) how we could help ensure these events continue to have a home in Northeast Ohio and don’t lose any of the momentum they have with their long history at the I-X Center, but it would be inappropriate to go into any of the details on those discussions at this time,” Peter John-Baptiste, the top spokesman for the Browns and Haslam Sports Group, wrote in an email in February.
He added, “Preserving and growing these events should be important to everyone in the region.”
Industrial Realty Group and Industrial Commercial Properties stepped into the I-X Center lease in 2021. They have the flexibility to rent out space there to all kinds of tenants.
But the companies are asking Cleveland for a major lease extension. The current arrangement gives the developers control of the property for up to 13 more years, through August of 2039. They're asking for a much longer lease term — 49 years — before they spend millions of dollars on renovations to attract new occupants.
City Council approved that lease extension last year, when it looked like there was a major tenant lined up with more than 200 jobs and $23 million in annual payroll.
But a deal hasn’t happened yet. And city officials haven’t followed through on extending the lease.
During an interview in February, a top official told News 5 that Cleveland isn’t going to add decades to the I-X Center lease for just any project. The city is looking for deals that will bring in high-quality jobs in manufacturing or aerospace and defense.
Using part of the space for car shows, home shows, boat shows and RV shows doesn't seem to be part of that equation.
"I don't think the city is open to that at this point, and I think it's a major miscalculation," Baugh said.
In an email Wednesday, a City Hall spokeswoman said Cleveland does not operate the I-X Center “and does not have authority over decisions regarding the future of trade shows.”
She said the 2.2 million-square-foot building, which began its life as a bomber plant, is generating “significant interest” from tenants across the country.
“We have a lot of empathy for a lot of these trade show operators, and I think that they add value to our community,” Tom McNair, the city’s integrated development chief, said during an interview with News 5 in February. “And we want to continue to work with partners and figure out ways that they stay in the region.”
'Where human connection matters'
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno sent a letter to Mayor Justin Bibb, urging him to keep the auto show at the I-X Center for the “foreseeable future.” Moreno, a Westlake Republican, owned luxury car dealerships before he moved into politics.
“Given its scale and economic impact, the Cleveland Auto Show belongs at the I-X Center. There is no comparable venue in the city capable of hosting it at this level,” Moreno wrote, noting the show kicks off the spring car-shopping season across Northeast Ohio and, this year, brought in more than 100,000 people over its 10-day run.
During an interview with News 5 on Wednesday, Moreno said he hopes the city and the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers' Association can find a way to work together. But, he said, bringing a manufacturer and jobs to the I-X Center needs to be everyone’s top priority.
“We absolutely do not want to do anything that would interfere in that process. … But if there’s an opportunity to do both — have an auto show early next year, call it January, February or March — that does not interfere with the plans of a new user that could really take that place and make it the cornerstone of a strong manufacturing commitment, then let’s do both,” Moreno said.
Matt Dolan, the CEO of regional economic development group Team NEO, said his organization is seeing interest in the I-X Center from a handful of companies. He wouldn’t talk about the details, citing non-disclosure agreements.
The pending deal between Cleveland and Brook Park, to clean up financial and legal snarls around the airport, will make it possible for some of those opportunities to advance.
“We need to meet companies’ timelines, and availability for a building immediately is essential to them,” Dolan said.
Now, event producers are facing tough decisions.
Vitantonio has been waiting to announce the auto show’s anticipated spring 2027 dates at the convention center, in hopes that a solution will emerge at the I-X Center.
He and Baugh said limited dates, a tighter schedule and a lack of dedicated parking will be big challenges for them downtown, at a facility focused on trade shows and events that draw travelers and fill hotel rooms — not on regional shows that mainly cater to people who live within driving distance.
“We have to cut our business 70%,” Baugh said of fitting the Great Big Home and Garden Show into the convention center. “We go from 10 days to three. Our pricing goes down. We have less parking. There’s no commercially viable way for sustained success downtown. It’s not the building’s fault. It’s not the venue’s fault. It’s just the reality.”
He and Vitantonio acknowledged that consumer shows aren’t the best long-term use for the I-X Center. They know manufacturing, or some other sort of industrial redevelopment, is the future.
But while the building’s sitting there, vacant, they can’t help but stew.
“Why would you cut your nose off to spite your face?” Vitantonio said, adding that the shows helped pay the bills while putting people to work and generating tax revenues.
“In a world where everything’s becoming digital, where human connection matters more, we’re going to kill these shows?” Baugh asked. “It just seems counterintuitive.”
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.
