I regularly take 30-minute walks around my neighborhood at the northern meeting point of Cleveland and Lakewood near the lake, dubbed The Edge. As I walk, I take pictures -- LOTS of pictures! Most of these I post on Facebook, but I'll post some here since there's about to be some big changes in my neighborhood. The Cleveland changes will be along Clifton Boulevard just east of West 117th. The Lakewood changes will be along Detroit Avenue several blocks west of West 117th.

 

This and my next posting of photos will represent the BEFORE. Here is the BEFORE along Clifton, including some sad close-ups of the Fifth Church of Christ Scientist at Lake and West 117th which has sat vacant for 25 years. Crews are checking into the roof and building materials to see what can be saved and repurposed into a new townhouse development on this site. Immediately south of it will be the Shoppes on Clifton with a new Lucky's organic grocery store as the anchor. Fortunately it will be built on the sidewalk rather than behind a parking lot. Across Clifton is an aging commercial strip that is just now getting a major facelift and some roof repairs, based on the new roof girders that were delivered this past week with some already installed. And there's the old PNC (RIP National City) bank building at Clifton and West 115th that's rumored to be the new home of Clifton Diner.

 

So let's start with the beautiful old Fifth Church, built in 1927...

 

Church-110715-6 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-4 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-5 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-7 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-8 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-9 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-10 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-11 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-12 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-13 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-14 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-15 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Church-110715-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Cliftonstrip-W117-110715-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Cliftonstrip-W117-110715-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Cliftonstrip-W117-110715-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Cliftonstrip-W117-110715-4 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

PNCBank-110715 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Starbucks-110715 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

More to come!

Nice pics.  I'm actually pleasantly surprised they are renovating that strip on the south side of 117th/Clifton rather then just tearing it down and building some sort of bland strip....

That kinda stinks the Diner is moving.  So the new question then becomes what is the diner space going to be and what will move into the old Starbucks once they move into their new space?

 

There is that New Construction on the Cleveland side of Madison going in as well.  I think thats going to be senior homes.

 

Madison is nice now with the street paving completed.  I noticed Joes Deli over there has been open at night and is listed as being under new ownership.

 

 

 

 

I had breakfast at Joe's Deli this morning.  Yes, there are new owners and related to the old owners who moved to Columbus.  They have added some new items to the menu.  Breakfast was good, portions smaller than George's Kitchen but I like smaller portions.

 

That kinda stinks the Diner is moving.  So the new question then becomes what is the diner space going to be and what will move into the old Starbucks once they move into their new space?

 

There is that New Construction on the Cleveland side of Madison going in as well.  I think thats going to be senior homes.

 

Madison is nice now with the street paving completed.  I noticed Joes Deli over there has been open at night and is listed as being under new ownership.

 

 

Unfortunately, I don't walk down to Madison. It's beyond my 15-minute range. However, I have posted pics of what's going on there and posted other info at:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,925.msg766230.html#msg766230

Here's a few pictures from this morning of the two sites of major construction plans/projects within a 15-minute walk of my home...

 

First, here a few closer pics that provide a better view of the renovations underway on the commercial strip on the south side of Clifton at West 117th:

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the street, here's a couple of sunlit view of the site of the Shoppes on Clifton:

 

 

 

 

And then there's the Rockport Square townhouse development on both sides of the 19900 block of Detroit Avenue in Lakewood. Interestingly, there's two porta-potties on the site that I haven't noticed there before. However that's about the only activity I've noticed around the former Rockport Square sales office in the former firehouse on Hopkins Avenue.

 

This is one of the few parts of Rockport Square that Forest City Enterprises built a decade ago. Now some of their executives are pursuing brick townhomes on the land left vacant by FCE and which could see a groundbreaking in December:

 

The part that wasn't built was the huge lot on which Fairchild Chevrolet sat before GM encouraged the dealership to relocate next to a highway interchange, so he moved to Westlake, leaving these large vacant lots that were left undeveloped after the Great Recession:

 

 

 

 

 

And so I arrive at my street, looking north on Beach Avenue at Detroit:

 

Can't wait until this emptiness gets developed with something productive: