CLEVELAND — The head of a nonprofit tasked with bringing life to Downtown Cleveland’s lakefront says losing the Browns to the suburbs will hurt private development, delaying projects like hotels, apartments and restaurants until 2031 or later.
Scott Skinner says the North Coast Waterfront Development Corp. will make a long-awaited lakefront transformation happen regardless of what the Browns do. But the timeline for that development will be much more drawn out – and much less certain – if the team leaves for a new enclosed stadium in Brook Park.
“We are moving forward, with or without a stadium,” he said during an interview Monday. “But it needs to be acknowledged – and I think civic leaders and legislators need to have a conversation – about just how difficult that is without a stadium.”
A former development executive who took the helm of the North Coast nonprofit last year, Skinner has been talking about city-owned lakefront property with local, national and international real estate investors. With help from the CBRE brokerage, his group plans to solicit formal proposals from would-be waterfront developers this summer.
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So far, the feedback he’s getting is nearly unanimous: Builders are interested in sites in a 25-acre district north of a renovated stadium. But they’re skittish about investing near a huge pro sports complex that’s set to go dark and be torn down, leaving twice as much land to fill.
“Realistically, you’re looking at 2031 or 2032 to even start construction – best case scenario,” Skinner said of bringing housing, a boutique hotel and other new buildings to property that’s a sea of parking today.
“You’re looking at a 50-acre site without an anchor in a challenging real estate market. … I’m gonna have a very, very hard time convincing hotel builders, convincing apartment builders to come invest hundreds of millions of dollars to start their construction before the Browns leave, when there’s gonna be a stadium demolished behind them three years later – or just as they’re leasing up,” he added.
But if the Browns stay, developers could begin moving dirt next year, Skinner said.
“We’d be able to start construction very quickly,” he said. “We could probably be under construction in 12 months.”
Skinner said it’s not his job to decide where stadiums should go.
But he wants to be clear about the trade-offs on Lake Erie, at a moment when the debate about the Browns and the public’s role in helping to pay for a new Brook Park stadium is dominating headlines – and fracturing longstanding ties among civic leaders.
“Different organizations are allowed to have their opinions on what is actually better off for lakefront development,” he said. “I’m just stating facts.”
The Browns declined to comment on Skinner’s statements Monday.
In open letters to fans and court filings over the last year, team owner Haslam Sports Group has argued that the lakefront will be better off, long-term, without the stadium.
“The Brook Park proposal frees the city and its taxpayers from any stadium funding obligations, as well as the substantial expenses the city incurs as a result of operations on Browns game days,” attorneys for Haslam Sports Group wrote in a court filing last month, as part of a legal fight between Cleveland and the Browns over the team’s potential move. “A new stadium in Brook Park would also expand the city’s options for redeveloping the lakefront – by freeing up prime lakefront real estate currently occupied by the stadium for other public and commercial uses.”
The team’s lawyers also keep questioning the viability of Cleveland’s lakefront efforts.
“Despite years of discussions, the city still does not have an actionable plan for connecting the lakefront to Downtown on any timeline,” they wrote in late May.
Skinner points out that his organization, working with the city and other partners, has lined up $150 million in federal and state grants to pay for major infrastructure work, including a land bridge that will link the lakefront to the heart of Downtown and a conversion of the Shoreway into a 35-mph boulevard as it slices through the central business district.
Construction on those projects, between West Third and East 12th streets, is set to start in 2027 and wrap up by 2030. That first phase of work could cost roughly $284 million. The rest of the money is likely to be a blend of local funding and a federal, low-cost loan.
The city is still seeking funding to help pay for additional road work to the east and a new bus-and-rail station next to the land bridge. That second wave of construction could cost $163 million, bringing the total price tag for lakefront infrastructure to nearly $450 million.
Skinner says those projects are essential, even if the Browns leave. To bring private development and public spaces to the barren land north of Huntington Bank Field, the city needs to make it easier to reach that property.
“One of the many big reasons this site hasn’t been developed over a very long time is access,” he said. “You can’t really see it. And it’s really hard to get to.”
Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam were early cheerleaders for a land bridge, before Haslam Sports Group shifted its focus to building a stadium surrounded by mixed-use development on a 176-acre site in Brook Park.
Now the Haslams are seeking $600 million from the state for a new, $2.4 billion suburban stadium, with the goal of moving in 2029.
The Ohio General Assembly and Gov. Mike DeWine are considering make-or-break funding for that project as part of the next state budget, which lawmakers need to approve by June 30. Separately, the Browns are negotiating with Brook Park over local assistance for the deal.
Cuyahoga County Executive has flatly refused the Haslams’ request for help, saying the Brook Park project is too expensive and risky for taxpayers to bet on. He’s still urging the Browns to stay put and renovate Downtown instead.
The team’s lease on the existing, city-owned stadium ends in early 2029. The Haslams have said they still plan to support lakefront development, even if they move the team. Dave Jenkins, Haslam Sports Group's chief operating officer, sits on the North Coast Waterfront Development Corp.'s board of directors.
Skinner says that slice of the Downtown lakefront needs an anchor, a destination to build around and draw people down to the water. The nearby Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Great Lakes Science Center are big draws, but they're not enough.
“We’ve done some planning on what scenarios could look like if there’s no stadium there,” he said of the land where Huntington Bank Field now stands. “We’d be stupid not to, right? But it’s not something that I think we’re ready to talk about publicly quite yet.”
Bringing in a new anchor to replace the Browns will take time, and could require a developer or tenant to wait five years or more to get started. At that point, Skinner said, who knows how the economy or the local civic landscape will have changed?
“There’s a saying in real estate,” he said. “Time kills deals. And we’re talking about a long period of time.”
