Today on a few acres of a former steel yard near downtown Cleveland, the first store in Steelyard Commons opened up: Home Depot. Okay, so another Home Depot opened up. Big deal.
But if you look at where this Home Depot is located, it is a bigger deal than what you think.
A local real estate developer in 2004 purchased land that was used as part of a former steelmill near downtown Cleveland. This land has just been sitting there as an eyesore for people from Cleveland's westside driving to downtown. By the end of the year, a Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and many other stores will be opening up in this location, just a 5 minute drive from downtown Cleveland and other inner city neighborhoods.
So why is this a big deal?
The City of Cleveland, until now, has not had a shopping complex with national box stores selling everything from home repair items to groceries to home electronics. If you lived in Cleveland and wanted to shop at one of these stores, you had to drive to the suburbs. It's a good 20-25 minute to the closest shopping complex similar to Steelyard Commons. Now, those living in the growing neighborhoods of Tremont, Ohio City and even those living downtown just have to drive 10 minutes to get these items from these stores.
Many members of local goverment and groups fought this new complex. They felt it would hurt the local businesses. But it went through and now we're seeing the center come to life. If the shopping center wasn't going to go through, the land would probably still be sitting there with vacant warehouses and vacant parking lots from a steelyard that is no longer open.
I think this is GREAT news for the City of Cleveland! These neighborhoods full of great, beautiful homes now see some growth in their neighborhood. (the home used in the movie "A Christmas Story" is just a few blocks north of here... which was just recently remodeled to the look of it in the movie and is now a museum!) People are moving back into the city and we're seeing these large national brands investing in the growth of these neighborhoods. I don't think Wal-Mart would have fought to build a supercenter store if they didn't think it would make some money.
This is good for many other cities that are looking at doing projects similar to this. Would it work in your city if it works in Cleveland? Retail developers look at the growing suburbs of large and major markets to build large, modern shopping centers. This is a big experiment for everyone, not just us Northeast Ohioans.
I'm excited to see this city that I love and that has given me so much start to move in the right direction. This is good news for real estate in general for Cleveland!
UPDATE: Just to clear something up... the "big box stores" are not new to the Cleveland area. We've had them in the suburbs just like everyone else. But this is the first time we're seeing this type of retail growth in the actual City of Cleveland, and especially this close to Downtown Cleveland.
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