Downtown Cleveland Inc. Cites Retail Plan Progress Despite Average Storefront Openings

The May Company Building welcomed the Museum of Illusions in 2024, which was one of 28 new storefront openings last year. Downtown Cleveland has seen some 31 openings annually since 2019. Credit: Mark Oprea

A little more than a year ago, in November 2023, Downtown Cleveland Inc. released its most ambitious and well-funded foray into bringing Downtown’s street life more into the 21st century, a five-year plan for best revitalizing everything retail.

That plan, helmed by New York-based design firm Streetsense, prescribed DCI some 15 recommendations for buffing up Downtown’s public realm. Add pop-up stores. Bring back night markets. “Create and prioritize bike and micro mobility.” “Invest in a Euclid Ave. refresh.”

On Wednesday, DCI felt compelled to announce a milestone checklist, filled with year-end recaps on new happy hour markets, park designs, street makeovers and a new hire, VP of Economic Development Silvia Iorio, to steer all of the Retail Plan’s prescriptions.

“The goal is to establish a kind of well-oiled machine of retail tenant attraction,” Audrey Gerlach, DCI’s chief operating officer, told Scene. “And that includes engaging brokers, property owners, civic partners—to anybody who’s involved at any stage of attracting tenants.”

As far as attracting tenants in 2024, however, DCI and Downtown Cleveland in general had somewhat of an average level of performance, according to five years’ worth of market reports.

In 2024, 29 storefronts welcomed new businesses, from the Museum of Illusions on Public Square, to Hi 5 in the Flats, to Flight Social in the former Chocolate Bar spot on Euclid, to The Astro where Hard Rock Café was until 2011.

On average, Downtown has seen some 31 new retail spots per year since 2019. Almost ironically, the move-in rate peaked two years into the pandemic—45 new storefronts opened up, from Lost to Filter and Green Goat, in 2022. (The same number of stores have closed since late 2019.)

But 2024’s slight dip in openings occurs alongside hard attempts to beautify Downtown’s streets, sidewalks and parks to further convince future retail clientele that the city center is worth investing in.

The U.S. Bank Plaza kiosk, set to host a café and deli, has sat vacant while its owner waits for a liquor permit to finalize. It’s a good metaphor for Downtown’s long struggle with full occupancy, a market beset by opening delays, property owner skepticism and an industry heavily leaning on food and bars. Credit: Mark Oprea

That includes, but is not limited to: new wayfinding signage to pair with the pre-existing electric kiosks; a new Meet Me Here Park (with a playground!) across from the Cavs mural on Ontario; new greenery and benches in the Gateway District, designed by LAND Studio; and wrapping Public Square with protected bike lanes.

But will new sidewalk concrete or white delineators for Cleveland’s cyclist clique actually translate into empty storefronts–those dusty, dark tombs–being filled by 2026?

Today, roughly 20 to 25 percent of Downtown’s storefronts are vacant, according to the Retail Plan findings. The reason is somewhat hard to pin down: building owners often are wary of okaying businesses that have vague startup plans or shifty finances. Others just don’t like what brokers pitch them altogether.

It’s this tough calculus, paired with post-pandemic shopping habits and the sheer ease of one-click ordering, why swaths of Euclid Avenue remain quiet to pedestrians strolling by.

“I think you obviously have some property owners that are more aggressive than others in making deals,” Gerlach said. “People that are willing to give rent concessions or similar incentives to lease space. And of course that varies from owner to owner.”

Gerlach didn’t provide any specific timeline or groundbreaking for Downtown’s newest park or Public Square’s new bike lanes.

But she stuck to her main premise, that public realm betterments are directly tied to private realm investments: build a park, get a shoe store.

“All of this has such a big impact on whether or not a customer chooses to walk down the block, open their wallet,” she said, “or hurry back to their car and leave Downtown.”

“The same,” she added, “is true for a business owner looking for a storefront.”