Experts designing a plan for downtown Cleveland
Proposed district would link vital assets
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter
The art and profit of industrial design could make Cleveland the "Milan of the Midwest," two experts say.
They are pitching political and corporate leaders on the "Cleveland District of Design," a 24-block swath east of downtown that would parlay consumer-product design into an economic engine.
Under the concept, national showrooms would sprout along Euclid Avenue, while a related cluster of consumer product makers, designers, marketers and researchers would spin off jobs and innovation.
"This could be distinctive and unique in the U.S.," says Ned Hill, vice president for economic development at Cleveland State University.
Hill has teamed with Dan Cuffaro, chairman of the industrial design department at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
The institute's design graduates are frequent targets for recruiters, and the students often end up launching their careers in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
Cuffaro and Hill believe a design district could keep talent at home and add vibrancy to downtown. The proposed district -- bordered by St. Clair Avenue on the north, Prospect Avenue on the south, East 12th Street to the west and East 36th Street to the east -- has more than 100 design-related companies, employing some 1,400 people, Hill said.
Among them is Pulsar Paper Co. at East 25th Street and Superior Avenue. President Eric Ludwig says a themed district with support services and a collaborative network would help his bottom line. Mutual benefits already percolate among neighborhood businesses. Ludwig used a print shop across town before discovering one in his own building earlier this year.
"There's an entrepreneurial atmosphere now," said Ludwig, whose company designs and manufactures paper products, such as gift bags and craft kits. "And we've got the resources of a big city nearby." A key spine to the district would be Euclid Avenue.
From Playhouse Square east into Midtown, Euclid could feature national showrooms for the region's consumer-product biggies, such as Rubbermaid Home Products and Moen Inc., Hill and Cuffaro proposed. They are meeting with such companies now.
Expert design is a key marketing tool -- companies know it adds value to products, especially high-end consumer items, Cuffaro said.
It could be the "glue" to retain consumer-product companies, a number of which have left town or cut jobs in recent years, Hill said.
In the design district, buyers from national retail chains would peruse consumer products, lodge nearby and enjoy downtown dining and entertainment.
"We would populate the storefronts and create an experience" for buyers, Cuffaro said. Euclid, and the rapid-transit buses it could feature by 2008, would link vital assets to the district, including design, business and engineering expertise from Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University and the art institute.
Business leaders toiling over downtown's revival like the concept.
Downtown property owners are eager to fill the excess of vacancies along Euclid, said Joseph Marinucci, president of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a special-improvement district paid for by property owners.
"It's an opportunity to jump-start energy at the street level," Marinucci said. "If we can entice retailers in other areas to come in, it has a leveraging capacity."
City officials and community development corporations are supportive too. There's early talk of empowerment zone tax credits and specialized zoning to encourage business growth and live/work lofts in the district.
Hill and Cuffaro are to meet with Cuyahoga County officials this week. The concept seems to align with the county Department of Development's plan to recognize and finance private-sector clusters and innovation zones.
The initiatives seek to foster the growth of emerging industries in Greater Cleveland, such as advanced manufacturing, alternative energies and medical devices.
The coming months will tell whether the design district takes root or flounders like countless other revival strategies and proposed projects in Cleveland.
There are formidable hurdles, not the least of which are support from consumer-product companies and start-up money.
Hill and Cuffaro are to make their pitch to companies this week. Cuffaro and the art institute just received $30,000 from the Civic Innovation Lab, an affiliate of the Cleveland Foundation that seeds innovative economic development in Greater Cleveland.
Design districts are not unique. In places like Miami and San Diego, developers are transforming urban neighborhoods with clusters of art, architecture and design, said Matilda McQuaid, deputy curator of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.
"It's seen as kind of hip," she said.
Cleveland's focus on consumer product design "sounds like a positive," McQuaid said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tbreckenridge@plaind.com
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