Three years ago, plans were unveiled to upgrade East 4th Street and bring it into 21st century relevancy.
Lighting would be updated. Public art would be installed. And its valet nook, packed tightly on the street’s southern side, would be relocated to make room for a Guardians-themed outdoor bar and ice cream shop, The Dugout.
Alongside those moves, East 4th would become Cleveland’s first designated outdoor refreshment area, as City Council okayed in June 2023.
Downtown could be a lot livelier, East 4th’s owners argued, with a DORA.
“Part of the goal of this plan is to be a pilot,” Ari Maron, the co-founder of MRN, the majority owner of East 4th’s properties, told Scene in 2023. “And that our hope is that it expands to a greater part geographically, a greater part of Downtown.”
Three years later, East 4th’s makeover is still pending while some seismic shifts have occurred downtown. A new asphalt mural and bike lanes have made the city center safer and more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. Work is underway on the Memorial Bridges Loop Trail. But Heinen’s closed, Clevo Books shuttered in July, and further retail struggles remain ongoing issues.
The closings have left the area between East 4th and Playhouse Square a relative no man’s land, especially on the south side of the street. About 40 percent of storefronts between these two districts are either empty or inactive, a recent Scene analysis found.
With a limited DORA approved for Playhouse Square and East 4th’s debuting some time, some have wondered whether bridging them might help connect the two nodes and fill in the retail gaps.
“Yeah, ideally you would have a citywide DORA,” Craig Hassal, the president of Playhouse Square, said on a recent stroll downtown. “But having what we’re doing is at least giving a chance for activation in the streets of the district.”
Hassal’s talking about Playhouse’s own DORA, which was approved by City Council in July, but not without hesitation. Several council members, including Ward 5’s Richard Starr, scrutinized Playhouse’s DORA as either redundant or too limiting. After all, as proposed, drinkers wouldn’t be able leave Playhouse’s buildings with a drink in their hands save for the five to six times a year its “extended” DORA is activated.
Nate Kelly, Playhouse’s real estate chief, argues Playhouse took a “conservative” approach in its DORA design mostly because of safety concerns and costs. Using it during the BorderLight Festival or Tri-C JazzFest makes sense, but connecting the district to others would be ideal.
“I do agree with the councilman,” Kelly said, strolling alongside colleague Hassal on the eastern tip of Huron. “The island-fication of Downtown is contrary to having a good and vibrant Downtown. We want these districts to bleed into each.”
Hassal stopped and pointed north, past U.S. Bank Plaza, to Euclid Avenue. “If you have a whole string of vacant shops, there’s no breadcrumbs,” he said. “So, we are trying, at least in the bit we control, to make sure there are breadcrumbs.”
Do expanded DORAs increase retail density? There’s some evidence.
There are 180 DORAs in Ohio and counting, and data has started arriving. Proven increases in foot traffic have been reported in Middletown, Canton, Westerville and Hamilton. Middletown saw 18 new businesses open in or near its DORA district since it opened. And Canton created an entire downtown party—First Fridays—around its DORA district, one that’s given participating businesses up to 30 percent increased sales.
“I’m all for it,” said Emily Kovach, the owner of Intro Boutique, situated a block east of East 4th.
Even if a spike in browsers means potentially inebriated ones. Those that, hypothetically speaking, could spill their plastic glass of red wine or IPA on one of Intro’s white sweaters.
“We don’t see that now. We don’t see people leaving dinner and, like, coming and just being like rowdy,” she said. “I’ll take the bad stuff with like all the good it could bring.”
A dearth of foot traffic in between East 4th and Playhouse was blamed, at least partly, for Clevo Books‘ and Heinen’s exodus. Which seems pretty obvious. Businesses, especially those that don’t promote online shops or do delivery, need people inside their store to make sales.
Marcie Gilmore, a real estate agent for CRM Companies, which owns and leases out storefront space on Euclid Avenue, told Scene she would welcome a larger downtown DORA if it had the right safeguards in place.
1110 and 1030 Euclid, she insisted, are not East 4th and Playhouse Square. Gilmore’s denied proposals for bars or clubs to occupy ground-floor spaces for this very reason.
“Obviously with more foot traffic comes the potential for more leads for leasing space,” Gilmore said. “The downside is people walking around with open containers. I think I would struggle with having open containers up and down Euclid Avenue.”
In an phone interview, Councilman Starr shared a similar sentiment. Although he sees a combined DORA wrapping East 4th and Playhouse as a boon to Downtown, due diligence should be done first before that larger area is designed.
He hinted at the handful of Playhouse Square bars that felt left out by the District’s decision to go forward with what they felt might hurt their business in the future.
“I do support having a DORA. But the door has to actually fit within the scope of what Cleveland wants,” Starr said.
“Canton and other cities are far different,” he said. “And in Cleveland, we are sometimes late to the party. I don’t want us to be late to the party on what people are doing. I want us to make sure that we get it right so we don’t have to continuously redo things.”
Playhouse Square’s DORA could go into effect later this year. Jonathan Seeholzer, MRN’s vice president of operations, told News 5 in April that East 4th’s could begin operating this fall or in 2027.
Starr said he’s interested in how DORAs on East 4th and in Playhouse Square translate to foot traffic and business before he entertains any ideas of expansion.
“That’s something definitely I’m going to definitely look into,” Starr said.
On Scene’s walk with Nate Kelly and Craig Hassal, the two walked briskly with their coffees west on Huron, pointing out potential plans during days of the future DORA.
“I mean, on game days, definitely,” Hassal said, with pep, directing with his coffee cup. “You pop in to Playhouse, park down there, pop into Parnell’s, get a beer, wander along here, and end up at Wild Eagle, which is over there.”
The two approached the corner of East 9th and Euclid. Crowds whizzed past in Guardians gear. Jackhammers throbbed at PNC Plaza. “This is the most people I’ve seen on Euclid Avenue in about three years,” Hassal said.
“I mean, we’re not splitting the atom here,” Kelly said. “A DORA increases foot traffic, and foot traffic increases retail presence.”
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