BROOK PARK, Ohio — The city of Brook Park is preparing to rezone the 176-acre site where the Cleveland Browns hope to build a new stadium and entertainment district.
Mayor Edward Orcutt says the zoning change will be discussed for the first time at a special planning commission meeting at 6 p.m. on July 8. The city is ramping up its public process just a few days after Haslam Sports Group closed on the $76 million purchase of the Brook Park land.
RELATED: Haslam Sports Group pays $76 million for future Browns stadium site in Brook Park
“We want to make sure it’s a place that you can live. That you can also work. You can be able to be entertained there. Put restaurants,” Orcutt said during an interview Monday at Brook Park City Hall. “We wanted to see a variety of things. … We wanted to make sure that we open it up for the investors to be able to provide almost a city within a city.”
The 12-page proposed addition to Brook Park’s planning and zoning code centers on a sports complex but still allows for a wide range of uses – from hotels and restaurants to warehouses, hospitals and government buildings. The only things it specifically excludes are adult-entertainment businesses, like strip clubs, and smoke shops.
The language would give Brook Park’s planning commission a vote on many aspects of the project, but only an advisory role when it comes to stadium design.
Haslam Sports Group’s plans call for a $2.4 billion enclosed stadium surrounded by parking lots and roughly $1 billion in mixed-use development, including apartments, retail, hotels and offices. The Browns aim to start construction in Brook Park early next year, with hopes of kicking off the 2029 NFL season at the new stadium.
But there’s still a lot of work to do. Even with the land sale, this isn’t a done deal.
Last week, Republican state lawmakers included a $600 million stadium grant in a massive spending bill. On Monday afternoon, Orcutt was waiting to see where Gov. Mike DeWine – who has line-item veto power – would land on that provision and other language in Ohio’s next two-year operating budget.
“Obviously we have to wait for the governor’s signature,” Orcutt said. “But all in all, we are very, very positive about this becoming a reality here in Brook Park.”
The state cash, dubbed a “performance grant,” would come from unclaimed funds – missing money Ohio is holding from people’s old bank accounts, uncashed checks, utility deposits, life insurance payouts and stocks and bonds.
The budget bill calls for the state to take ownership of unclaimed funds that have been sitting for a decade, in a proposal that’s getting pushback from national unclaimed-property experts and some lawmakers.
RELATED: National experts raise red flags about Ohio lawmakers' plan to take unclaimed funds
The architects of that plan believe the state will more than recoup the $600 million through new tax revenues from the entire Brook Park stadium district.
“What it first tells us is that the state looks at this as a great investment,” Orcutt said of the budget proposal. “They see that this is going to bring visitors to our state, and it will generate more revenue for not only Northeast Ohio but a good portion of the state. … The mechanism that they came up with, I believe, is responsible.”
Orcutt is still hammering out Brook Park’s deal with the Browns. On Monday, he was reluctant to say too much, citing the confidential nature of those talks.
“This is a private company that’s coming to the city of Brook Park that we’re still negotiating with,” he said. “So we’re going to be careful with what we share.”
He said the city and Haslam Sports Group are looking at a wide range of ways to pay for building and maintaining the $2.4 billion stadium. Team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have committed to putting up at least $1.2 billion in private money and covering any cost overruns during construction. They’re asking taxpayers to cover the rest of the tab.
Brook Park is also seeking a $71 million state grant to pay for roadwork around the site, a former Ford Motor Co. manufacturing property between Interstate 71 and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, north of Snow Road.
“We have to make sure that we’re utilizing any incentives that are out there that can make this a reality,” Orcutt said.
The state budget includes at least two other provisions that could be helpful to the Browns, who say the new stadium is likely to be owned by a quasi-governmental entity called a new community authority and controlled by the team through a long-term lease.
A last-minute addition to the budget says that such new community authorities will be eligible for property-tax breaks on the sports facilities they own.
Another late-stage amendment to the budget says new community authorities could participate in contracts with counties to build and run sports facilities financed using bonds tied to sales-tax revenues.
Orcutt declined to discuss those pieces of the funding puzzle.
“When it comes to the sales tax and things of that nature … I’m not comfortable with talking about any of the things that we’ve worked with the Browns themselves (on) that are behind the scenes,” he said.
But Orcutt hasn’t given up on getting Cuyahoga County’s buy-in for the deal, despite steady pushback against the project from County Executive Chris Ronayne.
The Browns have asked Cuyahoga County to borrow $600 million for the stadium by issuing bonds, debt the county would have to pay back over decades, with interest.
The team suggested that the county could make debt-service payments using new admissions-tax, income-tax and parking-tax revenues from Brook Park, along with money from a new countywide rental-car fee and an increase in the bed tax that visitors pay at hotels.
In May, a Haslam Sports Group executive said it’s possible to build the new stadium without the county’s support – though the Browns clearly still want Ronayne to sign on.
Last week, Ronayne urged members of Cuyahoga County Council to stick with him on rejecting the project and urging the Browns to stay Downtown, instead.
“Hold the line,” he said during a news conference about the state budget bill. “Don’t let our taxpayers get fleeced. Don’t put us in an overly risky position.”
Orcutt said he and Ronayne have a cordial relationship. And the mayor doesn’t mind the scrutiny and tough talk.
“It’s not easy, what he has to do,” Orcutt said of Ronayne. “And I think he’s trying to look out for everybody in this, especially people in Brook Park. And as we get closer and closer to our negotiations and with what the state budget becomes, then I think we’ll sit down and talk a little bit more about ‘Hey, this is a reality. And let’s talk about this coming to Brook Park and seeing what kind of role we can all play together as a team.’”
But that’s a conversation for another day.
Right now, all eyes are on DeWine and the action in Columbus.
And Brook Park, a city of 18,000 residents, is bracing for something big.
“We’ve been putting in cameras all over town,” Orcutt said. “We’ve been investing in police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, computers and tools for our service department. We’ve been working on this, knowing that we had an opportunity to be able to host the first domed stadium in the state of Ohio.”
