CLEVELAND — On a Saturday night in mid-August, George Kimson strolls the boardwalk at the Flats East Bank.
Music is pouring out of the bars along Old River Road. The patio at Barflyy is packed. But the party’s just getting started at FWD, an outdoor club with a pool deck that becomes a dance floor after dark.
Patrons wearing everything from lace bodysuits to business suits pass a pair of Cleveland police officers, who are surveying the scene.
It’s late summer, near the end of the busiest season for this riverfront entertainment district. And this year, that season has been a bit different.
There’s a new security plan in place, drawn up by the property owners and City Hall. There’s a traffic-management strategy, involving street closures and dedicated pick-up locations for Ubers and Lyfts. There’s a marketing budget — and a renewed push to bring crowds down to the Flats for daytime events, not just at night.
“Everybody has the same goal,” said George Kimson, the chief operating officer for Heritage Development Co. “Everybody wants people to be safe. Everybody wants people to be here.”
That cohesion — a shared sense of purpose — didn’t come easily. The Flats East Bank project has been through seismic shifts over the last six years, from the economic blow of the pandemic to a post-COVID crime surge that roiled Cleveland and other major cities.
And in May 2022, developer Scott Wolstein died, six months after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. His death, at 69, set off a wave of mortgage defaults and foreclosures in the Flats, ultimately splintering the ownership of the district.
“Scott was a certain persona,” said Kimson, who has worked for the Wolstein family for decades. “And we certainly can’t fill those shoes.”
Now the 23-acre project isn’t being guided by one man’s vision. It’s split across five ownership groups.
A New York-based lender owns the roughly 240-unit apartment building. The Cleveland International Fund, another lender, took over a cluster of riverfront retail buildings last year.
A development group based in Chicago is sitting on a parking lot in the middle of the site, once earmarked for apartments, a high-end movie theater and co-working. Cleveland-based Ethos Hospitality Group controls some of the freestanding retail buildings, including Alley Cat Oyster Bar, the Lakehouse and the former Margaritaville, which closed last year.
Kimson works for Wolstein’s 97-year-old mother, Iris, who managed to hang onto the first phase of the project. That includes the Oswald Tower office building, which is 93% full; the Aloft hotel, right next door; a handful of retail spaces; and parking.
“You could have financially made a great argument to exit,” Kimson said. “But, you know, that wasn’t the object at that point in time. … This is a legacy project.”
That ownership shakeout, and sorting through Wolstein’s estate, took a toll.
“You probably had a good two years there — two full years, two full seasons — where the eye was not on the ball of making the district better, but it was on individual situations,” said Steve Strnisha, the Cleveland International Fund’s CEO. “Now, we can move forward.”
‘Still recovering’
On Sept. 7, 2025, shots rang out in the district.
It was a Sunday evening, after the Cleveland Browns’ home opener against the Cincinnati Bengals. Security-camera videos show patrons ducking at Play Bar & Grill off West 10th Street. Several people were injured.
The city swooped in, boarding up the bar. And within days, Kimson terminated the business’s lease, citing multiple incidents at or near the bar over several months.
WATCH: Landlord terminates Play Bar & Grill lease after shooting at the Flats East Bank
The response was swift. But the damage was done.
“It was a rough day for the Flats,” Kimson said. “And in a lot of ways, we’re probably still recovering from that.”
Foot traffic dwindled. Restaurants and bars hunkered down. Some retailers, already struggling to get by, closed their doors at the end of the season.
“It was not anecdotal. It was empirical,” Strnisha said of the blow to business. “The operators rolled their sleeves up and tightened their belts where they could to survive. And for the most part, everybody did.”
Property owners in the district describe the shooting as a turning point.
It forced them to work together, spurring tough conversations with city officials and leaders at nonprofit organizations Downtown Cleveland Inc. and Flats Forward. During the winter, the group came up with plans for more effectively managing security and traffic.
That new approach was on full display over the summer, with lighting, cameras and police stationed at key intersections, supplemented by off-duty officers, sheriff’s deputies and security guards paid for by property owners and businesses.
“There’s a police presence here all the time,” Kimson said. “Whether they’re on foot, whether they’re in a car, whether they’re on one of the four-wheel ATVs. They’re here. Even during the day. … The consistency of that has gotten rid of a lot of traffic that would come to the Flats just to be in the Flats but not really use or go to any operator.”
Lucas Reeve, a senior advisor to Mayor Justin Bibb, said stakeholders meet weekly about what’s working and what’s not.
“There’s a text thread going on where we can identify and deal with issues very quickly,” he said.
The designated rideshare pickup zones, on Old River Road and West 10th Street, cut down on congestion in the center of the district. On busy evenings, police block off certain streets to prevent backups and give pedestrians more space to move around.
“Public safety means a lot more than how to fight crime,” Reeve said.
He described the Flats East Bank as a pivotal building block, as Cleveland strives to realize its long-held dream of lakefront development, investors reimagine other parts of the riverfront and the city works to make downtown feel more connected and accessible.
After all, the office tower rose from the dirt after the Great Recession, supported by a complex web of public and private money. Apartments and retail followed. The boardwalk brought people back to the water, kicking off broader efforts to ensure public access.
“This is infrastructure that exists now,” Reeve said. “These are assets that don’t need to be built. They just need to be programmed correctly.”
‘An experience economy’
In mid-September, a pop-up market lined Old River Road on a Sunday afternoon.
Parents pushed strollers past a row of white tents. Shoppers browsed the displays of T-shirts, vintage finds and handmade goods. Children plopped down to eat ice cream on the edge of a planter overlooking the boardwalk.
After Wolstein’s death, marketing and programming weren’t significant priorities in the Flats. This year, though, property owners banded together, working with Flats Forward to host a series of daytime events.
“Where downtowns are headed now, it’s all about creating an experience economy,” said Michael Deemer, the president and CEO of Downtown Cleveland Inc.
“We’re competing with virtual everything,” he added. “We’re competing with virtual work, virtual entertainment, virtual shopping. And so it has to be all about the experience.”
Kimson and his fellow landlords know they have a lot more work to do.
Prominent retail corners are still sitting vacant across the district.
Agave Social Kitchen, a Mexican restaurant and tequila bar, opened on the first floor of the apartment building over the summer. Down the street, the former Punch Bowl Social space is empty, with leasing signs in the windows. Axonic Capital, the lender that owns the property, didn’t respond to interview requests about the Flats East Bank.
In the spring, Good Night John Boy expanded by moving into a large space in a shed-like group of buildings along the boardwalk. The 1970s-themed club now bumps hips with a country music bar called Welcome to the Farm, a sports bar and other nightspots.
The buildings, owned by the Cleveland International Fund, are 85% leased. Strnisha said the lender isn’t rushing to fill the remaining space.
“One of the things I learned from Scott,” Strnisha said of Wolstein, “is that tenants turn over. That’s just the nature of it. You don’t always get it right the first time.”
The Passov Group brokerage is marketing the former Margaritaville building, which might get divvied up for multiple tenants. A leasing brochure shows that Ethos Hospitality Group has conceptual plans for a “wheel park” on part of a nearby parking lot, with a Ferris wheel and simulators for pickleball, basketball, baseball and golf.
That project could launch next year.
“Getting the right mix down here and doing something besides restaurants and bars is still a challenge,” Kimson said, noting that retail is tricky across the center city.
Property owners also are looking for ways to stretch the season, giving people more reasons to visit the boardwalk when it’s cold outside. That might mean a food festival, trick-or-treating event or a holiday market.
“The key to successful retail is driving foot traffic — and having consistent foot traffic, having a strong, dense population of workers, visitors and residents,” Deemer said, adding that the vitality of the district is critical to the overall health of downtown.
“The Flats East Bank, in so many ways, is a microcosm of downtown Cleveland,” he said. “It’s mixed-use. It’s got hotel guests. It’s got apartments. It’s got workers.”
Kimson doesn’t know when the district’s potential will be fully realized.
“Construction costs are insane,” he said. “Borrowing money is difficult.”
There’s still room for hundreds of additional apartments and other development in the district. Wolstein had ambitious plans. But other people are shaping the vision now.
“It’ll be different,” Kimson said. “And I’m confident it’ll be better.”
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.
