Owner of shuttered Kmart in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood plan redevelopment to

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The owner of the site of a former Kmart store in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood is planning a full overhaul of the space to accommodate national retailers who want to open new locations.

The New York City-based TLM Realty plans to transform the former Kmart building at Lorain Avenue and West 150th Street, which has sat dormant since the store closed in 2017. The updated site will include spaces for three retailers and a new building for a possible coffee shop on the northwest corner of the property, according to plans presented at a meeting last week.

TLM also plans to tear down a portion of a building on the eastern side of the property, which is home to Rubin’s Family Restaurant and a now-closed Dollar General. The space will be used to build two stores, one of which will likely be a grocer. TLM also plans to demolish the vacant Marquard apartment along Lorain Avenue, which dates back nearly a century and was once home to Cowan’s Pub.

If completed, the owner would have 115,000 square feet to lease and room for 500 parking spaces.

Adam Rosen, a Cleveland attorney representing TLM, was mum on what retailers would fill the space. He said those details would likely be released after the city gives its full approval. But he said he feels the neighborhood has improved drastically in the four years since the Kmart closed.

“It attracted interest to be able to justify making the investment in the redevelopment of the property and to make substantial improvements to the site,” Rosen said.

While the future of the properties have been discussed for years and has been a priority for the West Park Kamm’s Neighborhood Development corporation, the renderings presented at an April 7 virtual meeting of the Far West Design Review Committee were one of the first detailed glimpses of what the intersection may soon look like. The demolitions and renovations to the buildings must be approved by the Cleveland City Planning Commission.

Rosen said the goal of TLM, which also owns a property where Aldi and Hobby Lobby stores sit in Solon, is to start work on the site this summer and hand space over to tenants for their own renovations sometime next year.

The design review committee, which makes recommendations to the Planning Commission, did not take any votes on the project on Wednesday. Instead, several members gave feedback to TLM Senior Vice President of Leasing & Development Michael Oestreich and made statements concerning the proposed new grocery store’s proximity to the street, the project’s landscaping and how to deal with storm water.

City Councilman Charles Slife, whose ward includes West Park and who also sits on the Planning Commission, said at the design review committee meeting that he was excited about the project and hearing feedback from residents. A community meeting hosted by the development corporation is slated for Wednesday.

“There’s a real ability to bring high-quality tenants to this site, and they can be successful,” Slife said, citing residents, vehicular traffic and public transportation that frequently pass by the site. “And I’m very pleased that (the owner) brought forward a project that is bringing us these national tenants and that they’re working with us on the design of the project so we can continue to keep attracting national tenants into the future.”

Rubin’s Family Restaurant, which still operates on the property, plans to move across the street, Slife said.

However, parts of the plan have already drawn opposition. The Cleveland Restoration Society wrote a letter to the design review committee opposing the demolition of the three-story, 8,700-square-foot Marquard apartment building, which TLM bought in 2018 for $300,000. Rosen said TLM at the time helped remaining tenants find new housing.

The Marquard family produced generations of builders who were well-known in the region. A century-old mansion the family once lived at on Warren Road was torn down in 2018.

“To (the owner) it looks like an ordinary neighborhood building that stands in the way of five parking spaces, but to the local community it has meaning,” Cleveland Restoration Society President and Executive Director Kathleen Crowther said of the apartment building. “The Marquard name is really pretty big.”

Resident Nate Lull is also collecting signatures for a petition to save the building.

“The point of this petition is not to be a NIMBY,” Lull wrote, referencing an acronym meaning “not in my backyard” that many developers and residents use to label the opposition to any project. “The developers may make the claim that the new development will need more parking, something that simply cannot be substantiated by the fact there are already over 400 parking spaces in the lot.”

Slife said the apartments were likely used as an option for those who could only afford lower rents because of the building’s condition. Saving and renovating the apartments would likely result in people paying higher rent, the councilman said.

Oestreich also said not demolishing the apartment building and bringing the proposed grocery store closer to the street would cause the likely tenant to pull out.

“And if we lose Tenant D,” Oestreich said, referring to the likely grocer, “we’re going to probably lose a lot of the other commitments that we have.”