WICKLIFFE, Ohio — The City of Wickliffe is building its future from its past with a residential community called Old School Village.
According to the city’s mayor, Joe Sakacs, this marks the first new single-family home construction in the city in about a decade.
The Old School Village development, built on the sites of former elementary and middle schools, represents a significant milestone for the Lake County community.
Sakacs said the project addresses a critical housing shortage that was forcing families to leave Wickliffe.
"A lot of 1950’s and 1960's bungalows and ranches that if you have more than 2.5 kids you were moving to Kirtland, Mentor, Willoughby and so step up housing is what we needed," Sakacs said.
The development's success has exceeded some expectations. There will be 36 single-family homes in the neighborhood, and 28 have been sold since they went up for sale at the end of August.
"It's the fastest selling community that Lake County has ever seen," Sakacs said.
The single-family homes start in the low $300,000s, and townhouses will also be part of Old School Village. Sakacs believes this residential growth will attract new businesses to the area.
The neighborhood is expected to be completed by next summer.
In 2022, we reported that then-Wickliffe superintendent Joe Spiccia outlined the vision for the project, explaining that the old school buildings would be demolished and returned to green space before being sold to a developer for single-family home construction to keep families in the community.
In 1994, there was a shooting at the middle school, and the school custodian came face-to-face with the shooter while trying to protect the children. He was killed. A street in the new development is expected to be named in his honor, Pete Christopher.
