NEWS

Restaurant and park to highlight changes on Euclid Avenue

BY VINCE FRATIANI

The Best Steak and Gyros Building at 1910 Euclid Ave. will soon be converted into an urban park, adding green space to the development projects taking place north of Cleveland State University’s academic campus core, according to Ed Schmittgen, university architect and executive director of capital planning.

Right next door, the Morse Graphics Building is slated to undergo some changes of its own.

“The Morse Graphics Building will be converted into some kind of retail dining (by a private developer) and this site will allow for some outdoor seating,” said Schmittgen

Under a recently finalized legal agreement, CSU leases the lot with an option to buy, according to Vice President for Business Affairs and Finance Jack Boyle.

“The price including purchase would be $800,000,” Boyle said.
With development rights, CSU will tear down the building and landscape the space, “while we search for a compatible use,” Boyle explained.

The CSU Board of Trustees approved the acquisition and future development of the 1910 Euclid Ave. property in line with the campus Master Plan in April.

It was originally intended to serve as the site for a sensors engineering center for the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering (WCSSE). WCSSE is a $23.8 million grant collaboration of businesses and higher education institutions working to create synergy around sensor technology. CSU was awarded the grant for this center in late 2006.

Under the Wright Center plan, CSU was designated to use its urban and economic development expertise to lead a consortium of state universities that would work with different companies to develop new sensor technologies and spark economic growth in Northeast Ohio, according to Vice President for Research Rick Steiner.

CSU could not acquire and develop a site quickly enough to meet state deadlines for a number of reasons and received a highly publicized notice of default. In response, Steiner proposed a reorganization to save the grant and the center that placed the main sensors packaging center on the Lorain County Community College campus in an existing building. The decision left the Best Steak and Gyros Building unused until now.

The newest incarnation of the campus Master Plan includes continued development of the south side of Euclid Avenue. Mostly, private contractors will do the bulk of the development, generating a mix of retail and housing to continue the growth of the CSU neighborhood.

Evidence of such development is already underway and evidenced by the University Lofts under construction across the street from the Music and Communication Building at East 21st Street and Euclid Avenue.