After owning the property for 50 years, the city of Cleveland Heights says they have finally found the best developers to transform a popular four acre parking lot.
"Something for everyone, residential, commercial, retail restaurants, also hotel use," said the Cleveland Heights director of economic development, Tim Boland, about the potential new space.
Right now, the land is being used as a parking lot, but pretty soon it could boast several restaurants, luxury apartments and maybe a boutique hotel. It’s what officials are calling the "Top of the Hill" project.
"The district is already very successful, but having a project of this magnitude go into our city, it allows the ability to elevate the entire district," Boland said.
But Cleveland Heights residents have heard this before.
"There’s been a number of starts and stops in terms of developing," Boland said.
The city tried to develop the four-acre piece of land in 1972, 1982, 1990, and most recently in 2008 when the financial crisis hit. All of those projects either fell through or the proposals were rejected.
But Boland thinks the fifth time just might be the charm, because of the developers involved this time around.
"They’ve had successful, tremendous success in developing mixed use throughout the country, very well known in the Midwest, so we think that really bodes well for the development of the project," he said.
The developers are now in the design phase and are hoping to break ground at the end of this year or early next year.
