Will Shaker Square's $5-Million Makeover Be Enough to Sway Future Tenants?

On a recent Thursday afternoon, there was a cacophony of sounds emanating from Shaker Square. Construction workers in neon vests were smoothing out freshly-paved roads. Leafblowers worked down the block from contractors to clear weeds. Painters ran their white brushes up and down cracked facades.

"It's kind of like puzzle piece matching," says Michael Price, a contractor with Capretta who was shaping wood trim to match the aesthetic of the square's original. Price looked at a sill. "Some of this is 100 years old. It's really stood the test of time."

This Whitman-esque orchestra of machinery is proof that, since this past spring, Shaker Square's new owners and operators are working to reshape Cleveland's oldest outdoor shopping district as an appealing place for 21st century, post-pandemic shoppers.

But even more so, to fashion the octagon of retail off Shaker Boulevard as a safe bet for developers and new tenants eager to buy into such vision--even as inflation, high interest rates and competition with Amazon continues to loom.
That hard belief—that a modernized Shaker Square is necessary—is what drove Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and Burten, Bell, Carr to buy the square from its previous owner, Coral Co., for $11 million in August 2022.

CNP head Tania Menesse, who grew up nearby in Shaker Heights, said the pair of nonprofits' spending of millions to fix up outdated heating and electrical, install elevators, jazz-up wrought iron-wrapped patios could help prevent another foreclosure, a fate suffered by its previous landlords in 2021. The other option is to let the area linger at its very worst: a prewar relic battered by cracked paint and vacant storefronts.

"This just doesn't work in the market on its own," she told Scene, walking through the square on Thursday. "That's what the last 40 years has shown us; is that it just doesn't work completely on its own."

Menesse pointed to the paint jobs and trim updates around her as a signal of her severity: "It should be that a private owner ultimately says, 'Yeah, I buy into this and I want to be part of it.'"

For decades in Cleveland, the historic retail gem on the city's East Side battled the highs and whims of shifting shopping patterns, met with idealistic developers starry-eyed at Shaker Square's original value as a public place-to-be. Just like Downtown's Public Square and the near-west side's Gordon Square before it.

A value that has ultimately rested on the shoulders of restaurateurs, bar owners and retail store operators.

Shortly after a $20-million rehab in 2000, Douglas Katz opened his award-winning restaurant Fire Food and Drink on the southeast side of the square. Later, Yours Truly, there since the early 1990s, re-upped its lease. In 2005, Dave's Market was convinced to open up a location on the southwest quadrant.

And thanks to an agreement with CNP to split a $700,000 bill for repairs, Dave's made a commitment to re-up its lease for another six years.

"It was going to be a very challenging situation if the city and others didn't step in to make this whole thing happen," says Dave's owner David Salzman.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm couldn't survive Great Recession economics. Years later, Coral Co., who owned the square since the mid aughts, defaulted on a $11 million loan and went into foreclosure. The pandemic shuttered Fire, rocked the Atlas Theater and just about killed any and all public events. When, in 2022, City Council voted to provide $5 million in loans to Manesse and team, the Square barely had working security cameras. Its sewage system was backed up.

"It was raining in Dave's—the roof was leaking!" Menesse recalls. "There was no heat in the Montessori School sometimes during winter."

"Like, these were not small issues," she said.

That state of affairs had urged Menesse and BBC to focus on interior repairs first and foremost. ("We didn't just put lipstick on a pig," adds Menesse.) Since last year, $1 million has gone into updating heating and cooling systems; $278,000 into lighting; $180,000 into modernizing the electrical system; $1.6 million into re-doing all of the center's flat-roof coverage.

"They've been working on our basements," says Tracy Fowler, owner of Fashions By Fowler. "We've got a whole new heating and cooling system. I mean, anything we've been asking, they've been on it."

But is the $5 million spent so far enough to convince outsiders that Shaker Square is worth further investment? Or, as one of the myriad promo signs teasing its new phase reads, that it "deserves a brand as classic as it is"?

Although CNP and BBC own a majority of the six acres of visible greenery and pedestrian space, the public right-of-way and the barrage of constant car traffic cutting through its six intersections is largely out of their control. (Though Menesse hopes curb cuts and pedestrian medians might be installed.) As is unpainted patio fencing. As is the perception of safety and the reality of crime. That volume of required improvements seems to be a cause of Brandon Chrostowski's criticism. Chrostowski, who's owned Edwin's on the square since 2007, and has lived with his family just east of the square since 2014, believes that the efforts of CNP and BBC are well-meant albeit somewhat discombobulated.

"We're appreciative of the work for sure, but it's come with more challenges than expected," said Chrostowski, without much clarification. (He had once tried, yet failed, to buy Shaker Square for $5 million.) "The disorganization and multiple management companies have made things much more difficult than they should have been."

Others would simply be pleased if the place looked better than it has in recent years.

"I think they really need to do something about the RTA," James Muhammad, a nearby resident in his seventies, told Scene. "Yes, it's nice in there and all that. But they need to paint it. Do something."

"At least they got that new coffee shop coming," adds Cleve Jones, referring to Indigo Cafe, which is set to open this fall in the former Biggby Coffee.

The Indigo opening, along with a new photography studio and restaurant, segues nicely into Menesse and team's next goal: to survey the public—again—to see what else could be done to Shaker Square to make it worthy of increased foot traffic.

They'll be hosting a feedback event on September 19, from 4 to 7 p.m.

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