STADIUM

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While a domed/retractable roof stadium could help the Browns attract major events such as a Super Bowl or a men’s Final Four, building one would likely cost at least $2 billion. e most recent domed stadium built in the NFL was Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, which carried a price tag of $1.9 billion, with the bulk of the construction completed preCOVID-19.

No major North American sports team has ever retroactively added a roof either, although it’s become fairly common in the tennis arena, with

James Beard Award Foundation 2023 honors. e only Cleveland name among the nalists for any category, Chrostowski is up against four other restaurateurs: Greg Dulan of Los Angeles; Aaron Hoskins of Columbia, South Carolina; Yenvy and Quynh Pham of Seattle; and Ellen Yin of Philadelphia. e winners will be announced at a June event in Chicago.

BROADWAY LINEUP: Playhouse Square unveiled its 2023-24 Broadway Series lineup on Tuesday, March 28.

Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens adding a roof in 2016.

FirstEnergy Stadium — originally called Cleveland Browns Stadium — was built for $283 million from 1997 to 1999 and underwent a $120 million renovation from 2014 to 2015, with the city paying $30 million and the Browns paying the rest.

Two other NFL teams are planning to build new stadiums over the next e seven-show series features acclaimed and popular new musicals — “Girl From the North Country,” “Mrs. Doubt re,” “Back to the Future: e Musical” and “MJ,” the Michael Jackson musical — and revivals of iconic older shows: “ e Wiz,” “Funny Girl” and “Company.” Most of the shows have three-week runs at Playhouse Square, though “Back to the Future: e Musical” and “MJ” both will be here for four-week engagements.

CONTRACT EXTENSION: Cleveland

Guardians second baseman Andres Gimenez has agreed to a seven-year, $106.5 million contract extension that begins this season and runs through 2029, according to reports on Tuesday, March 28. e deal is the second-largest in club history be- few years: Bu alo (where the state of New York and Erie County are kicking in $850 million in public money to help construct a new $1.4 billion stadium) and Nashville (where a record $1.26 billion in public money will go toward a $2.2 billion domed stadium). e Washington Commanders are also looking to build a new stadium, with FedEx Field’s lease set to expire in 2026. Cleveland’s leadership has worked behind the scenes with the Haslams on the stadium plans, but Mayor Justin Bibb has yet to give any recom- hind the seven-year, $150 million deal signed by third baseman Jose Ramirez last April. Gimenez was a key piece in the Francisco Lindor trade with the Mets, which also brought shortstop Amed Rosario to Cleveland.

CLEANING UP: Norfolk Southern has committed to using Ohio companies and workers for the repair and replacement work that resulted from the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine. e Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine involved multiple cars lled with vinyl chloride, which was released and then burned to contain the spill.

AT HELM IN LONDON: Dr. Robert Lorenz — a surgeon, innovator and mendations. When asked what the team would do if Bibb recommended building a new stadium, Haslam said, “Depends on how much he wants to fund. Listen, construction costs have gotten very high lately. And so I think everybody has to be practical.” educator who’s worked for Cleveland Clinic for more than 20 years — has been named president of Cleveland Clinic London, e ective June 1. Lorenz succeeds Dr. Tomasso Falcone, who has held the role on an interim basis since October 2022 when Dr. Brian Donley, former president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic London, resigned. Cleveland Clinic London, a 184-bed hospital, opened in March of 2022, following the September 2021 opening of Cleveland Clinic Portland Place Outpatient Centre.

In addition to owning the Browns and the Columbus Crew, the Haslams are also getting into the NBA market, with plans to buy a 25% stake in the Milwaukee Bucks.

With a team valuation of $3.5 billion, a 25% stake would cost $875 million. e NBA’s Board of Governors has not yet approved the sale, so the Haslams did not get into speci cs with reporters on Monday.

“It’s opportunistic,” Jimmy Haslam said. “I mean, listen, we never thought we’d own 10% of the Steelers. Never thought we’d own the Browns. Dee and I had never been, besides watching (daughter) Whitney play high school soccer, had never been to a soccer game. So it’s just opportunistic. It was a straightened set of circumstances; we were called on this opportunity. Business, sports, you tend to be optimistic. I have no idea what will happen next. First things rst, let’s get this done and then let’s get the Browns winning games.”

Joe Scalzo: joe.scalzo@crain.com, (216) 771-5256, @JoeScalzo0 e Georges own a long-vacant building and a prominent billboard at the top of the hill, where West 25th meets the Detroit-Superior Bridge. e port’s engineering consultants say that razing the building is an essential part of remaking the hillside, to prevent the unsteady slope from collapsing and sliding into the Cuyahoga River. e Georges under the agreement will grant a temporary construction easement to the port, immediately allowing for the demolition of “a portion of the building located on the property,” according to the resolution voted on by board members. e front wall of the building and the billboard will remain until the sign is replaced by three smaller billboards in other locations. e port will contribute $360,000 to an agreed-upon $1.25 million total settlement payment. e agency’s money already is in escrow as part of the eminent domain case. e remaining $890,000 will come from “project partners” unnamed in the resolution. e particulars of that part of the agreement are “still in discussion,” said Maria Bocadnegra, chief legal o cer for the port. ey’ll be the operators, but not the owners, of a new restaurant on the corner built by “one or more project partners,” according to the agreement. at’s similar to the arrangement at ReBol on Public Square downtown, where Bobby George leases and runs the indoor-outdoor cafe. e new restaurant at Irishtown Bend Park will include a 3,000-square-foot building and a 17,000-square-foot patio, the agreement states. e port and its partners announced late March 23 that they had reached a tentative deal to end the court battle and allow the construction project to proceed. at same day, lawyers for the civic groups and the Georges asked an appeals court panel to delay oral arguments that were set to take place this week. e agreement follows years of fruitless negotiations and 18 months of litigation. e battle spanned two city administrations and generated plenty of public spectacle, pitting private property rights against the preservation of maritime commerce and a popular park proposal. e Georges, well-connected businessmen and developers, bought the West 25th Street property in 2018. At that time, planning for the stabilization e ort and eventual greening of the hillside to the east and south was already underway. Tony and Bobby George saw an opportunity to remake the building as a wellness center or replace it with something new.

Conservancy, which is holding land between West 25th Street and the Cuyahoga River through an a liate.

Under the settlement, the Georges ultimately will donate the real estate to an a liate of West Creek Conservancy.

Bobby George’s other local restaurants include TownHall in Ohio City, Barley House in the Warehouse District and Green Goat in the Superior Arts District. Tony George is behind the Harry Bu alo chain and Summer House, a restaurant on Lakewood’s Gold Coast.

A replacement billboard site mentioned in the settlement agreement is the rooftop of the Harry Bu alo restaurant on East Fourth Street downtown, where the Georges hope to erect a V-shaped, double-sided digital billboard near Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. e other two billboard sites are not identi ed, though the new signs will be located on property owned by the city or other project partners.

Property records list a sale price of $248,200 for the land and building, an old Royal Castle hamburger restaurant. But that’s not the whole story.

A purchase agreement led with the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision, which decides disputes over real estate valuations for tax purposes, shows that the Georges paid $1.1 million. ey assigned $851,800 of that price to the billboard, treating it as personal property.

In September 2021, the port took the rst step toward eminent domain, an attempt to take possession of the corner for a public purpose. One month later, in a preemptive strike, the Georges sued the port and its partners in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, accusing the agency of overstating the risk of a hillside collapse and unfairly smearing the family. e port made an unsuccessful $360,000 o er to buy the real estate — the billboard was not included — before ling an eminent domain lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Probate Court. e dueling lawsuits turned into a jurisdictional mess.

Arguing that the Cuyahoga River shipping channel is akin to a road, and that the risk of a dirt slide created an emergency, the port pursued a “quick take” — a way to gain swift control of the property before the probate court decided how much the Georges should be paid.

Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula made it clear that he wasn’t going to relinquish control of the case. He repeatedly urged the parties to settle. And he dealt the port an early blow in June, when he granted a

MICHELLE

preliminary injunction in favor of the Georges and disagreed with the port’s rationale for moving fast.

Since then, the common pleas court case hasn’t advanced much. It generated a cascade of appeals. And the probate court has been stymied, unable to act without clarity on which judge is empowered to make decisions.

e stalemate forced the port to consider building a costly mid-slope retaining wall, to allow the Georges’ building to stay in place during stabilization work. Osborn Engineering said back in 2021 that such a wall would be necessary to meet minimum safety standards.

at wall would have cost close to $10 million, an expense that wasn’t part of the original budget, said Will Friedman, the port’s CEO. Funding for the stabilization work is coming from a mix of federal, state and local sources.

Even without that wall, the project is probably facing a nancial gap because of in ation and construction-cost escalations, Friedman said during an interview.

“ e numbers are going to get bigger,” he said. “How big, we won’t know until we get bids in hand. ... We’re anticipating some very intensive fundraising among the funding partners and the same sort of local, state and federal sources.”

But, he added, “I think we’re close enough that I’m optimistic we’ll get it done. Nobody wants to lose another construction season and put the existing funding in jeopardy.”

Construction will take about two years.

Once the hillside is recon gured, creating the park will take 18 to 24 months. e expansive green space, next to dining, nightlife, high-end homes and a large public-housing complex, could open in 2027. Fundraising for the park, a roughly $45 million investment, is ongoing.

City Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents Ohio City, expressed relief that the court ght is nearing an end and the path to the park project is clear. e Georges’ building is the last structure standing on the slope, after the recent demolition of a former hotel that served for years as transitional housing for low-income and homeless women.

“We are really taking the nal step on the top of the hill to start, of course, the critical stabilization of the hillside, but then the creation of a game-changing public park for the near West Side and the city of Cleveland,” McCormack said. “At the end of the day, here’s the reality. What will matter to our community is the impact of having this public green space on the river. At the end of the day, that’s what people will bene t from and enjoy. And that’s what I’m focused on.”

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