Cleveland’s fifth tallest building is now ready for its gigantic makeover.
Nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in financing was approved on Tuesday to convert Erieview Tower and the attached Galleria into Marriot’s experiment in the world of luxury apartments.
What’s now occupied by a few remaining handful of office tenants will look a lot different in the next few years. That slate-black tower, to be re-named the W Cleveland, will soon be home to 210 hotel rooms, 215 apartment units and a rooftop bar and restaurant spearheaded by a currently-unnamed “celebrity chef.”
Erieview’s drab lobby will be remade, renderings show, with milky granite floors and walls of brass-hued light. A 450-car parking garage and a fitness center will occupy the space inside the Galleria.
A closed deal on one of Downtown’s toughest hospitality and residential redevelopments spells good news for the city center amidst a string of setbacks.
Last week, Millennia Companies, the would-be overseers of the vacant Centennial Building, hinted the behemoth at East 9th and Euclid could become a tech hub instead of the suave living complex it was originally pitched as. The property is slated to go to auction at the end of the month if Millennia doesn’t come up with its own financing to repay outstanding debts.
But, five blocks up the road, that’s now a different story.
“This project has always been about more than one building,” Elias Kossouf, one of Erieview’s owners, said in a statement to NEOtrans.
“It is about honoring Erieview Tower’s legacy,” he said, “while creating new energy for East 9th Street and Downtown Cleveland for generations to come.”
Once a mid-sixties dream to act as a Tower City Center on Downtown’s east side, the Galleria and its attached tower hit setbacks after luxury clothing brands left the space in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2024, the Winking Lizard exited its longstanding spot off East 9th. Dollar Bank did the same in January. Today, the YMCA and the Browsing Room Bookstore are the space’s sole tenants.
What Erieview’s rebirth could do, along with the Rose Building’s six blocks south, is sell Clevelanders on Marriot’s luxury brand experiment while bumping Downtown during a tough year following Heinen’s exit in July.
In 2023, Cleveland City Council approved about $40 million in combined tax credits to “repurpose the entire city block, which needs new life,” a city spokesperson said at the time.
They’re not wrong.
On Tuesday, most of the Galleria’s entrances were either closed or wrapped in caution tape. Outside, its walls are cracked in several spots; its lights are broken; and grass and weeds have overrun its outdoor garden space. Inside, only noise from the Y reverberated around the former mall.
Construction is likely to take several years. The Kassoufs did not specify an opening date.
Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
