CLEVELAND — “Our goal is to save the building from demolition and bring it back to life,” said Ashley Shaw, the Executive Director of MidTown Cleveland Inc.
The Warner and Swasey Building on Carnegie Avenue is closer to becoming mixed income apartments, with 140 units and commercial space on the first floor. The former factory has been abandoned for 40 years. This month $1 million was granted through the city’s Revenue Recovery Fund thanks to Councilman Richard Starr. Leaving less than $5 million to raised, to be fully funded.
“We’re adding more housing in our neighborhood where there's a strong demand for housing, especially that middle income price point that this would bring to the market,” said Shaw. “It also brings a significant building back to life with deep history in Cleveland.”
MidTown Cleveland and their development partner Penrose have spent 10 years on the project.
The Polymer Industry Cluster in Akron received a big honor. The U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration granted it Tech Hub status, 1 of only 31 in the country, for it work in sustainable polymers.
“We're incredibly thrilled. It's an elite status,” said Brian Anderson, the Vice President of the Polymer Industry Cluster.
What does it mean? It opens doors on the state and federal levels to bigger opportunities.
“One of which is an exclusive invitation to apply for $70 million worth of funding to implement the planning projects that our consortium has been developing over the past few years,” said Anderson.
The Greater Akron Chamber that powers the cluster, will know by summer they are one of first tech hubs to receive funding. The cluster has grown from 35 to 50 organizations over the year.
The Cleveland Water Alliance continues to expand and improve their smart buoy network that gathers vital information. This year they collected 10 million data points. The system that makes Lake Erie the world’s largest digitally connected body of freshwater.
“There's nothing like it anywhere else in the world, and we have an opportunity to continue evolving that so that we're hosting world class innovations here for the next 50 years,” said Ebie Holst, the Director of Clusters and Innovation for the Cleveland Water Alliance.
The buoys create a test bed, attracting companies developing new freshwater technology. And by partnering with Team NEO and other organizations, the alliance hopes to bring industries that use large amounts of water to the region.
“We launched the program over the last year to actually start attracting large water intensive companies here,” said Bryan Stubbs, the Executive Director and President, Cleveland Water Alliance. “To go out worldwide and say what companies use a lot of water, and if we're attracting them here, how do we do that as a collective system?”
This would include items like EV batteries, semiconductors, food, metals and polymers.
