Housing, social services proposed for 9 Cleveland schools closed earlier this year

Cleveland has picked teams it hopes can reuse nine shuttered Cleveland schools to benefit their neighborhoods — including as affordable and senior housing projects or space for social services. 

The selections follow a seventh-month-long process that began with neighborhood listening sessions in February. The city received 29 proposals from developers, nonprofits and other groups seeking to reuse 12 of the 18 schools closed by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Eight groups were selected, including a mix of real estate developers and nonprofits. 

The projects are far from done deals. The school board must first approve land swaps transferring the properties to the city. Real estate developers or other partners would then have to secure financing — an often lengthy and uncertain process, particularly for large projects involving old school buildings.

The city and CMSD are also on the clock to firm up these land trades. Once school buildings sit empty for a year, it becomes more difficult for districts to skirt the Ohio law that says they must sell their buildings to charter schools first. City officials have said they hope to avoid that outcome. 

“We have a game plan immediately for the 18 school sites that are closing to repurpose them, to advance neighborhood and community development,” Mayor Justin Bibb said at a town hall about the school closures in Collinwood last year. “Because I don’t want reckless charters that we can’t hold accountable to take over these school sites.”

Other school buildings have been set aside for other public reuse. Over the next few weeks, the school board will consider trading three of them to the city for use by the fire and EMS departments. A vote on the first proposed swap is scheduled for the Sept. 29 board meeting.

City and district officials have said they want resident feedback to lead the reuse process. 

“It was important to us to lead with what the community wanted to see happen on these sites, so we integrated their feedback to shape the entire process,” Matt Moss, the deputy director of Land Strategy & Asset Redevelopment, said in a press release from the city. 

In February they heard from around 230 residents during listening sessions and via an online survey. City officials also say that community feedback won’t end with these decisions. The project teams they chose are expected to offer residents chances for feedback throughout the reuse projects. 

What groups were picked? 

There are three buildings, Adlai Stevenson School, Alfred A. Benesch School and Louisa May Alcott Elementary School, the city did not find developers for in its process. CMSD, alongside city planners, will work on plans for those schools, a city spokesperson told Signal Cleveland. 

For seven sites, the plan is for CMSD to swap the building for another piece of city property. Then the city would strike a deal to give that building to the chosen developer. In the materials shared with potential partners, the city notes that the projects could receive help in the form of residential tax abatements — when a developer doesn’t have to pay property taxes for a certain number of years on new housing —  or grants from the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund for affordable housing projects.

Michael R. White: For this building in the Glenville neighborhood, the city selected ThirdSpace Action Lab, a local research and consulting group focused on racial equity that operates a community hub and reading room nearby. 

Collinwood High School: City planners picked Winn Development, which specializes in mixed-income housing, and First Interstate Bank to work on reusing the 100-year-old high school that is also an historic landmark. 

Charles A. Mooney and Mary Church Terrell: MCM Co., a local woman-owned real-estate development firm, was picked to tackle converting these two West Side elementary schools. The firm has experience with converting historic buildings into both housing and retail space, including converting the Our Lady of Mercy Church in Tremont to house their business headquarters in 2014. 

Kenneth W. Clement Boys’ Leadership Academy: The city picked The Finch Group, which has developed both luxury and market-rate housing in the Cleveland area, to reimagine the former all-boys school. 

Tremont Montessori: The city tapped Sustainable Community Associates (SCA), the development firm that converted the Nathaniel Hawthorne Elementary School into apartments, to breathe new life into a school at the center of the neighborhood. The group already has completed multiple projects, including the Fairmont Creamery, Wagner Awning Building and Tappan buildings. 

Dike School of the Arts: The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) was selected for Dike. 

With two other groups, the district plans to use a “sale and lease back” agreement.

That’s where CMSD sells the building to the selected group but rents back space for school-district use. The manufacturing training group MAGNET has this kind of agreement with CMSD for the old Margaret Ireland school, which hosts the nonprofit’s headquarters along with high school robotics club meetings and other programming for students. 

The two buildings picked for this type of agreement are: 

Bolton: Canopy Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization that serves victims of domestic violence, plans to purchase the elementary school in the Fairfax neighborhood. 

Hannah Gibbons-Nottingham: The school in Collinwood will be bought by Rehoboth Cares. 

What schools could be used by the city or CMSD? 

The school board will vote on whether to transfer three additional schools to the city for use by the public safety department at its Sept. 29 board meeting: 

Miles: The school board could sell Miles to the city for use as the headquarters of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services departments. It will, through the agreement, rent back part of Miles for a “School of One” site. 

Valley View: The district will swap this school in the West Park neighborhood for the city to use for emergency services. In exchange, the district will receive city property that borders a number of East Side elementary schools. 

The Brooklawn building: The district will trade this building, which held New Tech West High School before the consolidations, to the city for use as for emergency services.