CLEVELAND — It turns out that the big farewell to the I-X Center in March was a bit premature.
The Cleveland Auto Show, Great Big Home and Garden Show, Progressive Cleveland Boat Show and other gatherings are headed back to the massive building thanks to a new agreement — a late-in-the-game revival play led by Haslam Sports Group, the owner of the Cleveland Browns.
It’s the latest twist in a saga that’s been going on for more than a year, as developers and public officials try to reimagine the publicly owned — but privately controlled — building next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Now, even as a push continues to attract a manufacturer to the property, the exposition center will reopen, hosting familiar events.
Haslam Sports Group recently struck a three-year lease deal with a group of real estate developers who control the I-X Center. That agreement covers roughly 530,000 square feet of event and meeting spaces — less than a quarter of the 2.2 million-square-foot structure.
The goal is to host major consumer shows and other events at the property through 2029. That’s when the Browns expect to move into a new, enclosed stadium in neighboring Brook Park — a stadium where Haslam Sports Group envisions a lot more than football.
News 5 first reported in June that Haslam Sports Group was in talks with Industrial Realty Group and Industrial Commercial Properties, the real estate developers in charge of the I-X Center.
Major event producers have been holding out hope that they’d reach a deal.
RELATED: ‘End of our rope:’ I-X Center producers speak up after year in limbo
The management team at the I-X Center announced the reopening early Wednesday, issuing a written statement that didn't mention the players involved — or explain what prompted the sudden reversal.
"What I can say ... is that there are so many moving parts to that question, alone," Scott McGorty, the I-X Center's marketing manager, said during an interview. "And there are a lot of things that happened behind the scenes."
After a turbulent year, he's just glad to have some clarity.
"We could not be more grateful for everyone's patience and time and energy that it took to make all of this possible," he said. "And that being said, we are excited that we are gonna be able to welcome back thousands of Northeast Ohioans who have just loved the I-X Center for more than 40 years."
A Haslam Sports Group spokesman said the organization is pleased to see the shows continuing in Northeast Ohio. Beyond that, he declined to comment.
The parties aren’t disclosing the terms of their agreement. And they don’t have to.
The city of Cleveland owns the I-X Center, but Industrial Realty Group and Industrial Commercial Properties have a long-term lease on the building. That lease gives them wide latitude to sublease space at the complex.
The new arrangement allows the developers to hand over the events business — while bringing in rent. And Haslam Sports Group will get an up-close look at how consumer shows work, tapping into a pipeline of prospective events for the future stadium.
Show producers, meanwhile, say they’re getting a lifeline.
"It's critical," said Lou Vitantonio, president of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association, which puts on the annual auto show.
"I love Cedar Point,” he added. “I don't like roller coasters. And this one has been a definite roller coaster.”
'It was people's jobs'
When the I-X Center closed, major show producers faced an existential crisis.
Their only alternative was the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, a downtown complex with limited dates, much tighter schedules and a lack of dedicated parking.
The Cleveland Auto Show, for example, was looking at a three-and-a-half-day show downtown, compared with a 9.5-day run at the I-X Center. The home and garden show was in a similar bind, forced to downsize from 10 days to three.
"The commercial calculus was that these shows would rapidly fail downtown,” said Tom Baugh, chairman of Marketplace Events, the Beachwood-based producer of the home show, the Cleveland Home and Remodeling Expo and Cleveland Christmas Connection.
The convention center’s staff did everything possible to accommodate a downtown auto show, Vitantonio said.
But the facilities have such different models and locations. The convention center is geared toward meetings and trade shows that bring lots of people to Cleveland from out of town, filling hotel rooms. The I-X Center attracts a regional audience, where proximity to parking matters a lot.
Plans to close the I-X Center surfaced in June 2025, during a Cleveland City Council discussion about the developers’ hopes of returning the one-time manufacturing powerhouse to its industrial roots. The venue’s staff shut the doors last spring, after a “final drive” send-off to the long-running Piston Powered Auto-Rama show.
And that seemed like the end of the story.
RELATED: I-X Center’s days as an exhibition space coming to an end
But behind the scenes, event producers kept lobbying to get back inside.
Vendors were told to leave their equipment at the I-X Center, in case something changed. And the staff at the venue, employed by management company Oak View Group, held steady, waiting for a possible reversal.
"It was people’s jobs. Many, many jobs,” said Michelle Burke, president of the Ohio Marine Trades Association, which puts on the boat show. “There is an economic impact to all of the jobs that the I-X Center has on a permanent basis, with its union labor, and all of the businesses that attend those shows.”
Burke has been an outspoken advocate for reopening the I-X Center. Behind closed doors, she urged Haslam Sports Group to get involved and create a "three-year bridge," keeping the shows in place until the new Brook Park stadium opens.
She still can’t quite believe that's happening.
"They're visionaries. And they listened," Burke said.
"I believe, I guess, where there was a will, there's a way," she added. "Which sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't. I am very grateful that, this time, it worked out."
And, of course, Haslam Sports Group’s playing a long game.
'We all might be very surprised'
The new stadium is expected to cost $2.6 billion, with roughly $1.75 billion coming from private sources. The funding also includes a $600 million state grant and a potential commitment of $245 million from Brook Park.
To justify that investment, the stadium needs to host more than just 10 home games a year. The new Huntington Bank Field is being designed with wide concourses and the flexibility to accommodate everything from large concerts to smaller gatherings.
During interviews and public events, Haslam Sports Group executives have described the building as a "365-day-a-year" venue.
"Knowing how enthusiastic the Haslams are to have the stadium be an economic driver when football is not happening, I think we all might be very surprised with the quality and quantity of events that might be interested in going to the stadium,” Baugh said.
Marketplace Events produces more than 130 shows across North America. Some of those events already take place at enclosed NFL stadiums and neighboring facilities.
Baugh believes the interim deal at the I-X Center and the long-term opportunity at the stadium will create paths for the consumer-show industry to grow in Northeast Ohio.
At the I-X Center, Oak View Group will continue to run the event space, ensuring a smooth transition.
"It's not even just about the shows," Burke said. "It's also about all of the employees that work in this building — some of whom have worked there for 40 years."
The Progressive Outdoor Fall RV Fest is scheduled to take place in the parking lot from Sept. 10-13. The Cleveland Christmas Connection will be resurrected Nov. 20-22. And the boat show will set sail Jan. 14-17.
The home and garden show will return Jan. 29 through Feb. 7. The auto show is set for Feb. 26 to March 7. The home and remodeling expo will take place March 19-21.
"Like everything about the I-X Center, it's been complicated. It's been hard," Baugh said of reaching this point. "But I think all parties have come together. Not to get a perfect solution. But a solution we can all live with in the short-term."
'The shows won't be a stumbling block'
The I-X Center revival deal doesn’t put an end to the push to transform the building into something else. The developers and the city keep pursuing potential tenants.
During a council committee hearing in late June, members of Mayor Justin Bibb’s team said an unidentified manufacturer is considering the I-X Center for a deal that could bring 700 jobs and $72 million in annual payroll to the city. The company initially would need only 500,000 square feet.
Cleveland’s still trying to land that business.
RELATED: Cleveland says a manufacturer could bring 700 jobs to the I-X Center
Event producers acknowledge that consumer shows aren’t necessarily the best use for the unusual building. But right now, it’s sitting vacant, despite years of marketing.
"A dollar in the hand is better than nothing,” Vitantonio said.
In the reopening announcement, the I-X Center team said events will resume "while preserving ownership's flexibility to accommodate a future job-creating manufacturing user."
Lichter, of Industrial Realty Group, did not respond to an interview request.
"The shows won't be a stumbling block," Baugh said. "We get it. We understand the realities going into this. And we're willing to accept it."
The last year proved that events weren’t the biggest barrier to remaking the building. Instead, a longstanding tax-sharing arrangement made it tough for Cleveland to incentivize companies to move in.
That deal, part of a decades-old legal settlement, earmarked most of the tax revenues from the I-X Center for Brook Park.
RELATED: What’s really going on at the I-X Center? The situation’s more complicated than it looks
Cleveland and Brook Park recently revised that settlement, ending a long legal fight and parting ways on several key properties. Now Cleveland will get all the upside from the I-X Center, along with all the municipal tax revenues from a nearby business park that was also subject to tax-splitting for decades.
In exchange, Brook Park is getting 34 acres of former residential land back within its borders, along with guaranteed cash payments from Cleveland for 33 years.
Brook Park City Council signed off on the revised settlement in June. Cleveland City Council approved the deal in mid-July.
RELATED: Cleveland, Brook Park reach deal to end land fight, position I-X Center for redevelopment
Industrial Realty Group and Industrial Commercial Properties control the I-X Center for up to 13 more years, into 2039. The developers want a major lease extension, though, to justify spending millions of dollars on renovations at the building.
Last year, City Council authorized the Bibb administration to extend that lease term to 49 years. The city and the developers are still negotiating over the details, though, trying to agree on a framework that lays out expectations and protections for both sides.
City officials have said they have no control over what happens with events — and no objection to bringing shows back. But they want to see progress on industrial leasing.
"Our priority is getting high-quality jobs into the facility, right?” Tom McNair, the city’s chief of integrated development, told council members during a hearing in mid-July. “And so as long as they do not feel that operating shows in a portion of that building would interfere with attracting those types of tenants, that is fine for us.”
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.
