March 27, 2023 Cleveland lawmakers OK’d a $90 million renovation proposal to turn a historic city building into the new police headquarters, which should be ready by spring or early summer.
By Courtney Astolfi Source cleveland.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
CLEVELAND—Cleveland City Council on Monday night approved Mayor Justin Bibb’s plan to renovate Superior Avenue’s historic ArtCraft building into Cleveland police’s new headquarters.
Council’s approval paves the way for Bibb to finalize his proposed agreement with the building’s current owner, developer TurnDev, to renovate the building at 2530 Superior Ave. at a maximum expected cost to taxpayers of $90 million.
Once the work is complete and Cleveland police are ready to move in — expected to happen by spring or early summer 2025 — TurnDev will transfer ownership to the city.
Bibb pivoted to a renovation of the ArtCraft building after shelving former Mayor Frank Jackson’s plans to build a newly constructed headquarters on city-owned land along Opportunity Corridor. Among other reasons, Bibb prefers the Superior Avenue site because a renovation would cost less than new construction, police can move in more quickly, and the site is closer to downtown.
Council President Blaine Griffin – referencing the Opportunity Corridor plans, and a previous plan that would’ve renovated the former Plain Dealer building on Superior Avenue – expressed reservations during a Monday afternoon committee hearing about switching plans yet again. Griffin also said he would’ve preferred new construction over a renovation.
Despite the hesitancy, Griffin liked the lower price tag for the ArtCraft plans, and agreed to move the legislation forward.
“We just hope this third time is the charm,” Griffin said.
Council’s safety chair, Mike Polensek, has repeatedly emphasized the long-term stakes of the decision, noting that Cleveland’s last two police headquarters each served as the department’s home for 50-year spans.
Carter Edman, manager of architecture and site development, said Monday that the city hopes police will occupy the site for at least 50 years, and ideally longer. Architecture plans for the ArtCraft building include flexible space, so it can be adapted to future policing trends and practices, Edman said.
The ArtCraft building – which was built in 1920 and has served as a long-time home for Cleveland artisans – was purchased in May by TurnDev Development, a partnership between Cleveland lawyer Jon Pinney and Cross Country Mortgage CEO Ron Leonhardt Jr.
TurnDev also served as developer on Cross Country’s new headquarters in a renovated building at 2160 Superior Ave. Council members toured that site in February to get a sense of what the future police headquarters might look like.
The ArtCraft building was among six proposals pitched to the city last year as Bibb was reconsidering the Opportunity Corridor site. Other contenders included the former Plain Dealer building, the complex on Superior Avenue known as Tyler Village, the Warner & Swasey complex on Carnegie Avenue, the former Wilson Junior High School building on East 55th Street, and two plots of land north of downtown – one near the Ernst & Young building, and the other on Lakeside Avenue east of the FBI headquarters.
The ArtCraft building beat out the competition due largely to its cost and location, Edman said. The city also wanted to ensure that it would own the headquarters building, and be its only occupant.
City officials say the aging ArtCraft would undergo a “gut rehab” renovation to accommodate police, which will include new building systems, a new floorplan, roof and exterior, and the construction of a new parking garage behind the building.
Once renovated, it will replace the current headquarters, located inside the county-owned Justice Center complex. Cleveland had owned the roughly 295,000 square-foot headquarters building, but sold it to the county in 2017, as the city eyed a new home for police. Since then, the city has been paying the county rent for continued use of the space. The current annual rent is around $3 million, according to a presentation to City Council.
Bibb cites those rent costs as one of the reasons why he landed on the ArtCraft building as his preferred site for the police headquarters. With construction slated to end by mid-2025, the police department can move out of the Justice Center sooner. Had the city stuck with its Opportunity Corridor plans, the new headquarters wouldn’t have been complete until late 2026, officials have said.
Another selling point for Bibb was the ability to house more police functions under one roof. The ArtCraft building is 250,000 square feet and can accommodate all functions that are currently in the Justice Center, plus additional functions currently housed at 2001 Payne Avenue, the former Third District building now used for other police business.
The Opportunity Corridor site could’ve cost tens of millions of dollars more than the ArtCraft building — upwards of $126 million, according to late 2022 city estimates — and it wouldn’t have been large enough to accommodate everything that the ArtCraft building will be able to, officials have said.
Factoring in all the costs – which would include a new headquarters building on Opportunity Corridor, plus another building to accommodate everything currently housed at the Payne Avenue building – the total price tag could’ve climbed to $162 million, city architect Carter Edman told a council committee last week.
Under Bibb’s $90 million ArtCraft plan, police functions currently located at the Justice Center and Payne Avenue can be consolidated into one site, officials said.
City leaders haven’t said what they intend to do with the Payne Avenue building if police vacate the site as planned, though a November news release said the move would allow the city to pursue “other potential revenue-generating uses” for it, as well as the city land on Opportunity Corridor.