After Shock Closing of Heinen's Downtown, City Leaders Say They'll Work Quickly to Secure Replacement Grocery Store

Tom and Jeff Heinen made a gigantic bet on Cleveland when they opened up their 22nd grocery store in a historic downtown building on the corner of East 9th and Euclid in 2015.

They invested $10 million to convert the then-vacant Ameritrust Rotunda into a stunning two-floor full-service shop, accepting help from the county, tax credits from the state, and a quarter million dollar boost from City Hall in the process.

“It’s a big risk,” Jeff Heinen told the Plain Dealer/cleveland.com in February 2015. “We’re definitely ahead of the population curve.”

But 11 years later, the Heinen’s brothers stunned Downtown residents, workers and city leaders when they announced heartbreaking news that they would not be renewing their lease at 900 Euclid and would be shuttering the store on July 31.

It is the first store Heinen’s has elected to close in four decades, according to Heinen’s marketing manager Jackie Shultz.

The difficult decision came down to pure financials.

“The Downtown store was not profitable for us,” Shultz told Scene in a call on Friday. “It wasn’t breaking even, it wasn’t sustainable long-term. We were losing money.”

Co-owner Jeff Heinen echoed the same lament in a statement earlier on Friday morning. “Despite ongoing adjustments, the store did not reach the level of long-term sustainability needed to continue operating,” he said.

Heinen’s decision to cut its losses downtown has both practical and cultural implications for a city that’s relied on the grocery chain to bolster its own bets on a city center revival. Its glittering makeover of the 1908 Rotunda wowed visiting athletes, tourists and travel writers for the New York Times.

Kathleen Crowther, the head of the Cleveland Restoration Society, called it the “most beautiful grocery store in the world.”

But despite the store being at the forefront of adaptive reuse, a necessity for Downtown’s growing resident base, and a popular lunchtime spot for commuters, Heinen’s barely passed the 11-year mark.

Those interviewed pointed to a flurry of reasons: a stubborn remote worker base post-pandemic; high food prices amid growing inflation; the 2020 George Floyd riots; and a new reality for how Clevelanders now get their groceries. (Ninety percent of people today shop online and in-store, according to the Food Industry Association. Heinen’s began offering pickup and delivery in 2023.)

The Downtown Heinen’s on Friday. Many shoppers told Scene they wonder where they’ll get their groceries once the store closes later this summer. Credit: Mark Oprea

“This is a very, very different environment than the one Heinen’s entered 10 years ago,” Downtown Cleveland Inc. President Michael Deemer told Scene, adding that “no stone was left unturned to help maintain Heinen’s presence at that location.”

Downtown’s population has grown to 21,000 people—with $1.5 billion of new apartments, proposed amphitheaters and entertainment centers completed or in progress—since Heinen’s opened the doors in 2015. But that population is just as willing to order groceries or dinner off an app as stroll down the street.

Heinen’s simply failed to adapt to the market needs of Downtown Cleveland, Deemer said.

“Downtown is a great market,” he said. “I’m fully confident we’re going to be able to find the right operator in the right space who can provide affordable, convenient grocery options for residents, workers and visitors.”

Mayor Justin Bibb, who reminded Clevelanders on Friday his office threw the Heinen brothers $250,000 of support over the past 11 years, echoed Deemer’s disappointment and optimism in a statement on Friday.

“We will continue working alongside our downtown stakeholders to expand access to high-quality food options and strengthen the services and amenities that residents, workers, and visitors deserve,” he wrote.

Downtown residents, meanwhile, are left without an option for now.

“It’s sad. I guess there’s nothing I can really do,” Tony, 34, who lives at The Bell five blocks north, told Scene shopping in the cleaning products aisle on Friday. “I don’t know? Shop online and get my groceries delivered?”

David and Megan Borges, a married couple in their late twenties who moved into an apartment on Bolivar Road from Boston earlier this year, were eyeing wines in the Rotunda on Friday. They sighed when they heard the news.

David said Heinen’s being two blocks away was one of the reasons they chose to rent at Ten60 while he waits to start a job at the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office. Meaning, as he learned recently, not having to drive out of Downtown.

“Here I feel like you can walk to places,” David said. “You could do that old school, archaic kind of thing. You know, leave your house and walk to the grocery store.”

“Now, you gotta grab your car,” he said.

With Heinen’s gone, many pointed to Constantino’s Market on West 9th Street, or Dave’s Supermarket in the middle of Ohio City as remaining options.

Constantino’s spoke directly to the issue in a post on Instagram shortly after Heinen’s made its closure announcement.

“Here is the good news, neighbors: Downtown still has its grocery store,” they said, adding they’ve been in the Bingham on West 9th for two decades. “And we are not going anywhere.”