Cleveland pursues $260M federal grant for lakefront infrastructure despite uncertainty over Browns Stadium location

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Uncertainty over whether the NFL Browns will remain at Cleveland’s lakefront stadium or move to suburban Brook Park hasn’t slowed the city’s plans to transform the downtown shoreline.

In April, the city applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation for $260 million in funding to help pay for a $440 million revamp of the downtown section of the Ohio 2 Shoreway and to build a lakefront “land bridge” from the Mall to North Coast Harbor.

The application marked the city’s first big effort to seek federal funds as it pursues building a more beautiful and accessible downtown lakefront after a century in which numerous previous efforts have failed.

City officials discussed the grant application and other lakefront initiatives earlier this week, in part to dispel any notion that uncertainty over the future location of Browns Stadium is hampering efforts to transform the lakefront.

Jeff Epstein, the city’s chief of integrated development, and Scott Skinner, appointed in March as the first director of the city’s new private, nonprofit North Coast Waterfront Development Corp., outlined the status of the city’s ongoing work on the lakefront, and how it will continue over the next year.

Epstein and Skinner emphasized that revamping the Shoreway and building the lakefront connector, or land bridge, are essential to the city’s plans, regardless of the outcome on the stadium location.

“We hope the stadium remains on the lakefront, but these are essential pieces of the century-long dream of connecting and activating our lakefront,” Epstein said of the Shoreway reconfiguration and the elevated pedestrian link that would extend from the north end of the downtown Mall to North Coast Harbor.

Epstein said the work on the Shoreway and the lakefront connector are also needed, regardless of whether Burke Lakefront Airport is closed and made available for future development. The city is nearing completion of two studies on the future of Burke, one examining implications for regional air traffic and the other focusing on economic development.

Stadium uncertainty

Jimmy and Dee Haslam, owners of the Browns team, helped jumpstart the latest round of lakefront planning in 2021 with a $1 million proposal that centered on building a large “land bridge” extending the downtown Mall across rail lines and the Shoreway to North Coast Harbor.

Earlier this year, the Haslams raised new questions about their intentions when they announced they wanted to explore building a $2.4 billion domed stadium as part of a larger entertainment district in Brook Park. The Haslams have been eyeing more than 170 acres of vacant industrial land east of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on the site of a former Ford engine plant.

The Browns are also continuing to discuss remaining in the city-owned lakefront stadium, where their lease runs out in 2028. The expected cost of that renovation would be about $1 billion, with taxpayers chipping in a substantial portion of it.

Peter John-Baptiste, the spokesman for the Browns, said the team supports the city’s ongoing work, regardless of the decision on where the stadium will be built.

“We have stated continuously how we feel about the lakefront and how we feel something needs to happen down there with our stadium or without,” John-Baptiste said. For example, he said, the team has been “working with city officials and have helped advocate for and written letters of support” for grant initiatives “because we very much believe the Cleveland lakefront needs to be developed.”

The city’s relatively low profile on lakefront planning information in recent months may have created the impression that uncertainty over the stadium location is stalling its efforts. But that’s not the case, Epstein and Skinner said.

They described a timeline of work and projects that will unfurl over the rest of the year, regardless of the discussion on the stadium location, and said the public will be involved.

“If the Browns decide to leave, we will have extensive public input on what’s to become of the stadium footprint,” Epstein said. “Our efforts right now are focused on both moving forward on all the pieces of lakefront planning and connectivity we think need to happen regardless of the Browns decision.”

The city’s lakefront efforts include:

- The planned release on Monday of a $125,000 request for proposals to plan “placemaking” projects and special events to activate 22 acres of parking lots north of Browns Stadium, which now lie inactive much of the year. Skinner is spearheading the effort.

- Formation of a New Community Authority by the end of 2024 as a companion agency working with the recently formed private, nonprofit North Coast Waterfront Development Corp. The new authority would be a public entity empowered under Ohio law to borrow money in the capital markets as part of the funding for any big projects. A draft of the proposal states that “near-term interventions implemented on this site over the next several years will contribute to the vibrancy and destination appeal of the space and allow for continued public involvement as plans evolve for large-scale capital improvements.”

- Continuation of planning for the downtown waterfront, augmented with up to $140,000 approved by City Council in April. The money is paying for additional design work by New York-based Field Operations, which in January completed a 60% complete plan. The goal is to finish the preliminary design work by the end of the year, after a fresh round of public meetings and feedback. At that point, Skinner said, the city and the lakefront development corporation will hire consultants to begin designing detailed, engineered drawings for the project, as they continue to seek construction money.

- Public meetings that will be scheduled in July to reveal and seek public comment on more than three years of analysis on how to reconfigure the Shoreway to create more developable land and pedestrian- and bike-friendly connections from downtown to the waterfront. The city and the Ohio Department of Transportation are splitting the $5 million cost of that work. The studies could include recommendations on whether the eastern Shoreway continues to have a direct connection to the Main Avenue Bridge, or whether traffic will flow through some other configuration. A multi-modal transit facility will also be included. Epstein and Skinner declined to discuss details until the city is ready to release the study.

- Upcoming completion of the two major studies on the future of Burke Lakefront Airport. Epstein said the studies will be ready for public discussion soon. Skinner said that any impact on development around North Coast Harbor would unfold more than a year from now, after the city is ready to begin seeking developers on land north of the Shoreway.

The $260 million grant sought by the city would come through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Mega Grant Program, which supports “large, complex projects that are difficult to fund by other means and likely to generate national or regional economic, mobility, or safety benefits,” according to the agency’s website.

Epstein said that Mega grants are highly competitive, and that the city will continue seeking such grants whether or not it succeeds in its first attempt.

Skinner said that his agency has hired AECOM, a Cleveland engineering and planning firm, to explore a wide variety of potential federal funding grant sources that could provide money for specific aspects of the lakefront plan. Such elements would include nature-based green infrastructure, transportation infrastructure and utilities.

Skinner also said that federal officials view the city’s recently created downtown tax increment financing district as a plus. The district is designed to divert part of the increment in rising property taxes to help pay for infrastructure that will, in turn, encourage new development.

“The TIF district is seen as something uniquely qualifying as we’re moving forward with grant requests both in the form of having skin in the game and in having innovative financing tools that are being utilized,” Skinner said.

Skinner said that President Joe Biden’s administration “has been incredibly supportive of large transformational projects, especially ones that create jobs.”

But he said that the city’s lakefront team feels political support will remain strong, regardless of the outcome of the November presidential election.

“We have really strong support on both sides of the aisle in Columbus and DC.” Skinner said. “I am confident that the merits of this project, both from an equitable access perspective and an economic development perspective, will continue to be looked at favorably by folks on both sides of the aisle.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized an idea to renovate Browns stadium as a proposal from the city. The city has not yet made public any proposals that have resulted from negotiations with the Browns.