Downtown Heinen's Vacates Second Floor of Rotunda Partly to 'Reduce Operating Costs'

Heinen’s second floor will be vacated completely by the end of the year, in part due to increased operating costs over the past decade. Credit: Mark Oprea

After nearly a decade of proving that Downtown Cleveland can sustain an urban grocery store of scale, Heinen’s on Euclid and East 9th is deciding to downsize.

Following months of preparation, Heinen’s corporate is now moving to vacate its space on the second floor of the rotunda where the bulk of its wine and beer are currently sold.

By early 2025, that stock be integrated through the first floor, in tandem with a massive reorganization, a source familiar with the makeover told Scene.

Jackie Shultz, Heinen’s director of marketing, hinted at financial concerns underlying at least part of the store’s consolidation.

“As we’ve navigated the challenging economic realities of operating a grocery store in a downtown retail environment over the last decade, we recognized the need to reduce operating costs,” Shultz told Scene via an emailed statement on Monday.

“This updated single-floor store design will help reduce expenses, increase operational efficiencies, and continue to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”

The Geis-owned 9 building just a tad north of Heinen’s, Shultz said, will occupy the second floor space Heinen’s leaves behind.

Geis did not respond to phone calls for comment on Monday.

A source familiar with the renovation told Scene on Monday that despite some clear aesthetic changes, the downtown store won’t be losing too much of what it currently offers. (And that its grocery section in the 1010 building won’t be impacted at all.)

The store’s self-serve wine stations will be relocated to a new space on the north side of the rotunda, a source told Scene on Monday. Credit: Mark Oprea

Its wine racks and beer fridges will soon sit on the north side of the rotunda, which currently hosts a Mitchell’s Ice Cream outpost and a café Heinen’s operated until the pandemic. Its second-story bathrooms will be rebuilt in the corner where wellness products were sold. Its Joe’s Fresh Meats casing will be dismantled; meats will now be pre-packaged and sold individually adjacent to its to-go section.

None of the rotunda’s 50 or so seats will be taken away, the source told Scene on Monday. The remodel will also preserve, on that north side of the rotunda the same amount of self-serve wine stations—all 32—that are staples of networking events and lunch dates.

The news however gently rattles a Downtown that has increasingly come to depend on its only major, walkable grocery store. Though Heinen’s reps did not explicitly say the changes were tied to a rent raise, the scaling back is a reminder of the fragility of a Downtown that seems to see as many losses as it does gains.

Just as it seemed when the store opened.

“It’s a risky deal,” Jeff Heinen told the PD in 2015, a month before Heinen’s debuted that February. “We’re hopeful that the growth of population continues to happen. For this particular site, we’re willing to take the risk.”

Downtown has grown by about 5,000 to 6,000 people since Heinen’s opened up in the old Ameritrust Building. Organizations like Downtown Cleveland, Inc., have often listed the grocer as one of the reasons why downtown living works as it does for those who swear by it.

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