Cleveland names partners to reuse nine closed school buildings

The city said the choices followed a community-led process aimed at resident needs.

Feedback from the sessions and survey was turned into Engagement Reports.

The submission window closed in late July.

The city invited organizations and developers to submit qualifications, experience, and project visions.

The city offered tours of each site during the request process.

The city invited teams to a matchmaking session so newer and experienced groups could collaborate.

The city hosted an informational webinar on the request for qualifications.

Interviews with several teams concluded earlier this month.

Responses were judged on fit with resident feedback, community benefit, team experience, and other request criteria.

CMSD closed 29 schools and is operating 18 fewer school buildings.

The buildings went vacant after CMSD consolidated its footprint.

CMSD worked with City Hall to find new uses, including developers for some buildings.

Other land swaps are also planned.

Each site still must go through a land swap between the city and the district, or a sale-leaseback.

School officials billed Building Brighter Futures as a way to adjust to declining enrollment, save money, and improve academics.

CMSD started its first school year on the consolidated footprint in late August.

All nine sites are currently CMSD properties.

Collinwood High is at 15210 St. Clair Avenue.

Most of Collinwood was built in 1924 around South High, which was dedicated in 1907.

Michael R. White School sits on East 92nd Street at Pierpont Avenue in Glenville.

The largest school property in the city request, by land area, was the former Michael R.

MCM Company of Cleveland was the only respondent selected for two schools.

The largest West Side school getting a new use is the 200,000-square-foot Charles A. Mooney building.

WinnCompanies has transformed historic structures into housing since 1981.

Hannah Gibbons, built in 2006 on Larchmont Road at St. Clair Avenue, is one of the newest closed schools.

The 3.4-acre Clement site is not far from Collinwood High.

The White school is next to Stonebrook Montessori at 975 East Boulevard and nearly 3 acres of city land across from Rockefeller Park and the Cultural Gardens.

MCM focuses on urban niche development, historic tax credits, adaptive reuse, and healthcare facility planning.

The same firm redeveloped Nathaniel Hawthorne School in 2024.

Canopy is currently at 2806 Payne Avenue.

Stevenson was the newest school among the 12 offered.

Louisa May Alcott, a 55-year-old K-5 at 10308 Baltic Road in Edgewater, was renovated in 2013.

The Benesch school was built in 1977 and sits on 3.4 acres.

The CMSD board still has to sign off on the real estate transactions.

Many of the deals will require City Council approval.

The sites include historic Tremont Montessori and landmark Collinwood High School.

The district has until the end of the current school year to reach agreements for the properties.

CMSD was responding to a years-long enrollment slide, a looming deficit, and other challenges.

The city plans to use three former schools for new fire stations and a public safety complex.

The selections come from a process that started early this year as CMSD prepared for consolidations and closures.

CMSD cut staff and moved students.

CMSD dropped five leases.

The district is keeping three other properties, including swing space during construction.

The city received 29 responses.

Those buildings could also be auctioned.

A committee of city and district representatives interviewed 12 teams before making suggestions.

The Bibb administration is trying to keep some control so key properties do not languish for years.

The request focused on team skills and experience rather than detailed designs and funding plans.

The proposal would turn the gym into a community space and raze the rest of the school.

The plan would make room for roughly 70 affordable senior apartments.

The city would trade still-unidentified properties with the district, then negotiate with project teams.

News 5 has requested all of the submissions and has not received them yet.

The group sees the closed school as another community hub.

Mooney could become workforce housing, with new townhomes on the parking lot.

WinnDevelopment has experience with affordable housing and historic restoration.

First Interstate is exploring the former Dave’s Markets site and adjacent land on Lakeshore Boulevard.

The Mooney building sits on 4.6 acres off Montclair Avenue.

MCM is also talking to an unidentified institutional client about filling some of the space.

The historic Terrell building is likely to become modestly priced apartments.

The adjacent green space would be preserved as a park.

Mary Church Terrell is one of the recently closed schools eligible for federal and state historic tax credits.

MCM hopes to begin construction on one project by spring 2028, with a lot still unresolved.

There is potential for new single-story for-sale homes on the parking lot.

Mary Church Terrell sits on roughly 3 acres.

The business has decades of affordable and mixed-income housing work, including Park Lane Villa and Livingston Park Apartments.

Tremont Montessori occupies a 2.8-acre site off West 10th Street.

The team also has experience repurposing former schools.

There might also be room for new construction on the surrounding land.

Separately, the district is moving ahead on demolitions of a few landmark schools that have been decaying for years.

The group already has Tremont projects including the Fairmont Creamery, the Wagner Awning Building, the Tappan, and the Lincoln.

In a sale-leaseback the district would sell the buildings and lease part of them back for classrooms or other education uses.

One recent example is a former Midtown school that now houses the manufacturing group MAGNET.

That Hawthorne building had been vacant for years.

The city and CMSD are also working on land swaps for former schools that closed before this downsizing.

Demolition is the outcome people are trying to avoid with this latest group of buildings.

CMSD has used that approach before to partner with nonprofits, revive buildings, and share space.

Most of the selected projects focus on housing, including apartments in some former schools.

Tom Matia lives across the street from the former Tremont Montessori.

Mike Polensek shared an email from United Charter Schools of Columbus saying the group was denied.

Boards cover the doors at Tremont Montessori and a gate blocks the parking lot, as at other vacant former schools.

A land swap does not trigger that rule.

Historic Collinwood is another former school residents are watching.

Not every applicant was selected.

Construction will not begin right away.