Buckeye's Moreland Theater Gets Pivotal Financial Boost from Cleveland City Council

City Council just backed Buckeye’s largest public art project, a restoration of the century-old Moreland Theater, with an added $300,000. Credit: Google

The 2020 Census showed that Cleveland’s well-developed neighborhoods were the least likely to lose population in the past decade.

And then there was the inner-ring East Side: thousands of people fled neighborhoods historically battling issues such as lead poisoning, unsafe streets and perpetual disinvestment. Buckeye-Shaker, with its 1,100 that fled, was one of them.

On Monday, City Council discussed and later approved funds geared around an attempt to reverse some of that disinvestment, agreeing to give $300,000 to the ongoing restoration of the Moreland Theater off East 116th and Buckeye Road.

Spearheaded by Burten, Bell, Carr Development for the past six years, the project to bring back a nearly century-old theater and retail cluster in the heart of Buckeye grew as a major node in BBC’s plan to resurrect the area with a power shot of good development. That is, eventually funneling $18.7 million into ten buildings—apartments and storefronts propped up mainly by a new version of the Moreland.

That’s the angle BBC director Joy Johnson sold Council on on Monday, one revolving around bringing the Moreland back as a theatrical hub for a neighborhood that really hasn’t seen one close by since the 1960s.

The plan stems back to 2019 and included the blocks surrounding the Moreland, an area that was renamed the Buckeye Arts Innovation and Technology District.

“On the east side, you don’t see a lot of public art,” Johnson told Scene. “And a lot of times it’s because we have other sorts of basic needs—but it doesn’t mean that we don’t want public art. It’s always a kind of afterthought.”

And those basic needs are often made public. Following concerns about rising crime, Huntington Bank threated to close a location down the street off East 117th until neighbors protested. In July, Huntington announced the bank would stay open.

Burten, Bell, Carr director Joy Johnson at City Council on Monday. Credit: Mark Oprea

Council’s faith in the Moreland’s restoration follows a $3.9 million forgivable loan awarded to BBC back in July. That money, along with the $300,000 green-lit Monday, should help finance construction for four of the ten buildings, BBC Director of Real Estate Mike McBride told Scene. BBC was also able to replace the Moreland’s roof this fall.

First opening in January of 1928, the Moreland Theater was a centerpiece for what used to be the largest hub for Hungarian immigrants in the United States. The theater was so well-renowned in the community that Count Michael Karolyi gave a speech on its stage in 1931.

The Moreland Theater was a gem of Cleveland’s Hungarian community in the first half of the 20th century. Credit: Cleveland Landmarks

Come the 1950s and 1960s, the block tried on a wide form of identities. It was sold to new owners, then became a dinner theater, Players Theatre Café; then the Beach Party Room, with three inches of sand; then the Second Shadow Lounge; then a Church of God in Christ for following three decades.

It was sold to the Buckeye Area Development Corporation for $390,000 in 2007.

As for what exactly might be the Moreland’s next phase, Johnson was hesitant to say. She said BBC is in talks currently with a “museum concept” with national reach, and hinted at a theme of local music. McBride also suggested a children’s theater could also occupy the space.

Attracting a potential tenant is what seemed to convince Council to shell out the $300,000, which came from the remainder of American Rescue Plan dollars allotted to East Side councilpeople.

“Right now, we’re in the phase of trying to stabilize it, restore it, bring it back to use,” Council President Blaine Griffin said at the Monday meeting, “then we really need to try to find out how we actually program it. Because that’s where I see a lot of these theaters [succeeding]—from the programmatic side.”

The restoration of the Moreland fits into a city-wide effort to both save and reuse its aging neighborhood theaters, from the La Salle Theater on East 185th to the Variety Theater off West 117th and Lorain Avenue, which is now again for sale.

Whatever tenant ends up occupying the Moreland will be moving in next summer, if everything goes to plan, McBride said.