Cleveland announced The Midline, an initiative to redevelop 350+ acres of long-vacant East Side industrial land into an employment hub – a vision that could take years to become reality.
The Midline’s goal is to attract larger-scale employers in the manufacturing, research and development (R&D) and office and administrative support sectors to a hub with more than 2,500 jobs. The project’s boundaries include neighborhoods such as Central and Fairfax, which have long struggled with high unemployment. Leaders say some of the contaminated land will be restored and woven into green spaces such as trails and parks.
It will take roughly $80 million to $100 million to make the Midline shovel-ready for redevelopment, Brad Whitehead, managing director of the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund (SRF), which is partnering with the city on the project, said in an email to Signal Cleveland prior to Wednesday’s news conference unveiling the project.
The Midline has already spent $11 million on land acquisition, environmental testing and demolition, he said. Most of that came from pandemic era federal funding the city received. Whitehead said project partners have also applied for grants, he said adding, “We’re turning over every stone that we can.”
The Midline’s partners hope to announce development agreements this year, but he said it could take up to a few years before buildings are constructed and businesses actually move in. Wednesday’s news conference about the project was held on Ashland Road in Central near long abandoned and deteriorating industrial buildings.
“It’s a multi-year journey, but we’re not waiting for everything before we get going,” Whitehead said after the news conference. “We’ve got an active pipeline of companies and an active set of conversations with developers that we’re looking forward to sharing more about in the coming months.”
One Cleveland’s ‘most ambitious’ neighborhood revitalization efforts, mayor says
Though the project will be years in the making, Mayor Justin Bibb is already predicting its impact.
“When industry left, and jobs disappeared, contaminated land was left behind — creating barriers to opportunity that held these neighborhoods back for decades,” he said in a news release. “Today, we are changing that. This is one of the most ambitious neighborhood revitalization efforts Cleveland has undertaken.”
Bibb sees Midline as fostering a return to a time decades ago when many Central and Fairfax residents could find good-paying jobs in the neighborhood. He said the project is an example of his Cleveland ERA, or Economic Resurgence in Action plan, which includes industrial revitalization and strengthening neighborhoods through such things as building affordable housing and creating “vibrant public spaces.”
The Midline will encompass swaths of industrial and commercial land from Euclid Avenue on the north, roughly between East 55th and East 71st streets in Fairfax. Further south in Fairfax, it expands to land near East 79th Street into Central. It ends at the industrial and commercial space along the Opportunity Corridor in Central.
The Midline Greenway is scheduled to be developed in sections, eventually adding more than two miles of a multi-use trail and 9 ½ acres of public green space.
Demareio Edwards, 15, an East Tech student and Central resident, who spoke at the news conference, said that he was looking forward to more greenspace in the neighborhood. He has seen its impact in other communities.
“I think that it’s important that we have places to go, like recreation centers and parks, where families and kids can feel safe while actually enjoy being outside,” he said.
“When we got the chance to look at different parks and walking spaces..it was fun, but it also made me think about what our neighborhood could look like in the future,” Edwards said.
The Midline takes in about 150 acres of industrial and commercial land with existing businesses. They include Pierre’s Ice Cream, SNAP Gourmet Foods, Orlando Baking, Nor-Am Cold Storage and Miceli Dairy Products.
How the project has come together
The partnership between Cleveland and SRF to create the Midline appears a likely union. In 2023, the city set aside $50 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to start a fund to make former industrial land ready for redevelopment.
In 2024, the Cleveland Foundation started the Site Readiness Fund Endowment with this public money and with its own $10 million commitment, according to SRF. The organization and the Cleveland Foundation have partnered with the goal of growing the endowment to $100 million through philanthropic and donor contributions.
The industrial land group has spent $14 million of the ARPA money on its land reutilization efforts in the city, Whitehead said. Most of it – $9.5 million – has gone to The Midline. The project also has received $1 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation and $500,000 from the Fund for Our Economic Future, which Whitehead once headed.
SRF’s mission includes returning 1,000+ acres of former industrial and underutilized land to productive use and creating 25,000 jobs. (See the other projects underway.)
“This project is about taking land that has sat idle for decades and making it usable again in a way that works for the city and its residents,” Whitehead said in the news release. “When we prepare sites like this, we are attracting investment, creating real pathways to jobs and economic mobility for Clevelanders.”
Council Member Richard Starr, who represents Central, said it is fitting that the neighborhood is part of the Midline initiative.
“For too long, Ward 5 has carried the burden of contaminated, vacant land while waiting for real investment,” he said in the statement. “I support this designation but let me be clear: this cannot just be another plan on paper. This project area must lead to real cleanup, real jobs, and real opportunities for the residents who live here today.”
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