CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Council has approved Mayor Justin Bibb's plan to turn the historic ArtCraft building on Superior Avenue into the site of the city's police headquarters.
Last month, Bibb asked for council's authorization to purchase the site at 2530 Superior Avenue from developer TurnDev in order to renovate it into the planned $90 million headquarters of the Cleveland Division of Police. The $90 million price tag includes the cost of the property, new equipment and furniture, the developer’s fee, and all costs related to the design and construction of the facility.
Ownership of the building will transfer to the city of Cleveland once the renovation is complete in early 2025.
Bibb announced in November that his administration had chosen the ArtCraft building as the preferred site of the police headquarters out of the six proposals considered. The city says that the 250,000-square-foot building will be able to be transformed into a "world-class home" for the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), while saving an estimated $40 million compared to the all-in cost for the originally proposed Opportunity Corridor site.
The city also says that the selection of the ArtCraft site will result in a faster delivery time, bringing CDP into the new headquarters 18 to 24 months before the Opportunity Corridor site would have been ready.
Police leaders tell 3News that their operations are spread out across the city and the new headquarters is all about unifying the department.
"We have some offices still inside the Justice Center," explained Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Dorothy Todd during an event at ArtCraft last month. "We want to bring everyone back together and have the opportunity for everyone to operate as we should be, instead of kind of broken up throughout."
You can see current views of the inside and outside of the ArtCraft building, plus the renderings that were released last month below:
