Downtown Tempe has one. Downtown Tampa has one. Downtown Cincinnati has one. And Downtown Indianapolis has one, too.
So, as a roomful of Downtown Cleveland residents vented last night on the third floor of the Cleveland Public Library, why can’t our downtown attract and keep a full-service grocery store?
Following news that Heinen’s would close its downtown location at the end of July, City Hall brought in two consultants from Streetsense to collect the thoughts and concerns from residents. And collect they did, from 65 miffed Clevelanders eager to get clarity from the consultants and city officials about when a replacement would arrive.
Lucas Reeve, a senior advisor to Mayor Bibb named grocery czar this summer, played the part, as well, reminding those who showed up or took the city’s grocery survey that careful data gathering was the right way of moving forward.
Rather than, he said, being in the same grocery scare five, ten years down the line.
“Mayor Bibb and the rest of the folks on our team take this incredibly seriously,” he told the room.
“This is not an issue that is just a Cleveland issue; many other cities across the nation are dealing with this two,” he added. “But I think this provides a unique opportunity for Cleveland to lead.”
A recent Scene story this month revealed, through emails and reports, that City Hall knew since February 2024 that Heinen’s downtown spot was in severe financial straits. Jeff Heinen told Bibb and development chief Jeff Epstein its Trust Building grocery was losing about $1 million a year.
A coaltion including the city, county and Downtown Cleveland, Inc. threw ideas of how to right Heinen’s troubled location—supplementing its expensive security staff, promoting curbside pickup, and covering its move to the first floor of the rotunda.
Those ideas were ultimately fruitless: in July, Heinen’s decided not to renew its lease.
By July 19, three weeks after Heinen’s announcement, the city hired two Streetsense consultants, Anya Chan and Alex Doherty, to drum up a solid, data-driven “roadmap” to replacing Cleveland’s grocery store that got away. Over two days, the two said they visited every grocery or food store in the city center, walked Downtown, and hosted Tuesday’s listening-slash-venting session. By then, their brief grocery survey had reached 1,300 respondents.
They said the feedback is essential.
“You are very critical to this process,” Chan told the room.
“Grocers are very risk-averse. They’re looking for a really strong understanding that they’ll drive foot traffic and sales,” she said. “Grocery is a very tight margin-driven market, and so there really isn’t a lot of wiggle room.”
As records show, the downtown Heinen’s lost roughly $1.5 million a year despite $11 million in annual sales. But it also spent the same amount in rent annually. It’s largest expense by far was labor—$3.2 million a year on 77 employees.
Downtown has some two dozen available ground-floor retail spaces, a Scene analysis showed. If Streetsense is right, the data they gathered on this week’s trip to Cleveland would narrow down those spaces to just a few—the ones brokers could pinpoint to showcase to other operators.
Attendees at the session provided feedback on what worked, and didn’t work, with Heinen’s.
“The parking situation at Heinen’s was terrible,” one woman said, as Doherty took notes. “The problem was that they had parking but they never promoted it.”
“I think the elephant in the room here is onling shopping,” another said.
“If any of you are the people who got all those packages in our lobby because you were too lazy to go down and buy your own toilet paper,” that woman said, “shame on you.”
Questions and suggestions flew. We need something convenient. We need something ADA accessible. Something that leverages DoorDash instead of trying to compete with it. And we need a place, as one man suggested, to grab a glass of red with our fellow neighbors.
“So, I guess what I’m hearing based on the question of what your ideal experience is, is a sense of community,” Doherty said.
Another man butted in. “I mean, at this point we just want food!” he shouted.
Others hollered in support.
“At this point, if you tell me it’s going to be local, a big chain, or whatever,” he said, “I think we would like — we’ll take anything.”
“That’s pretty much it,” one woman echoed. “We’re not that picky. But Heinen’s was nice.”
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