CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The introduction of the old Park Synagogue campus to a more public sphere provides a rare opportunity for both preservation and development in the middle of an inner-ring suburb.
Considered to be the city’s second-largest developable property next to the nearby Severance Town Center, Park remains one of the best-kept secrets in town.
“The site is so large and so unknown, it’s almost as if 28 acres had been annexed into the city,” Naomi Sabel, a partner with Sustainable Community Associates, said during a Sept. 21 presentation to City Council’s Planning and Development Committee.
Driving past on Mayfield Road, one sees the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school bus parking lot. Going along Euclid Heights Boulevard, there are some attractive entrance gateways.
You have to look closer to see the pastoral setting with a copper-domed temple that could soon become not only a National Historic Landmark, but also one of a handful of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Buildings in the U.S.
Built in 1950 at 3300 Mayfield Road, the Park Synagogue -- with a congregation that has relocated to Pepper Pike -- is one of four in the U.S. designed by Eric Mendelsohn, the renowned German-Jewish architect who fled Nazism in 1933.
For the UNESCO application currently in the works, “there need to be examples of some of his religious work,” Sabel said, adding that “far and away, the most compelling option is Park.”
Sabel, along with Sustainable Community partners Josh Rosen and Ben Ezinga, plan to convert the former synagogue into 110,000 square feet of arts, education, wellness and nonprofit space, including moving the existing onsite preschool into the Mendelsohn building.
“There’s work to be done there, but they’ve done a nice job (of preserving the building), given they’ve had it since 1950,” Rosen told council.
A big part of the main building restoration will be the replacement of a mid-century boiler system with updated heating, ventilation and air conditioning, “so that future tenants are not faced with a quarter-million dollar heating bill,” Sabel said.
Sabel noted that they’ve already received a $1 million state capital grant to help with that.
The team has also been awarded a $1.8 million state brownfield grant to remove and remediate lead and asbestos from the main buildings, in addition to Master Plan funding through the Cleveland Foundation.
‘New neighborhood’
And that’s just the beginning of a larger plan under preliminary design with the Bialosky architects that could add as many as 400 households through an “intergenerational” mix of senior, multi-family, single-family, cluster, cottage and townhomes.
It all adds up to a “new neighborhood for Cleveland Heights” that will further contribute to the existing ones, the development team noted.
“We’re looking for a way to responsibly add to the population and increase the tax base in the city,” Rosen told council. “We want this to be a model for responsible growth that matches the ethos of Cleveland Heights.”
A hall built in the 1970s would likely be torn down, but the natural features surrounding a ravine and tributary to Dugway Brook would be kept to preserve a “bucolic, sequestered and topographically interesting area.”
Asked by Councilman Tony Cuda how to balance the Park plan with a “burgeoning vision for Severance Town Center,” City Planning Director Eric Zamft said these are two unique opportunities situated a quarter-mile away from each other that should be thought of as complementary.
“Severance will provide the opportunity to do some things we would never want to see over here (at Park) and vice versa,” Zamft said.
Councilwoman Josie Moore asked about the possibility of a coffee shop or small store to add more walkability in the surrounding neighborhoods.
There are also possibilities for a “greenway belt” connecting with Cumberland and Cain parks, perhaps utilizing the proposed Compton Greenway that has been on the drawing board in recent years.
Councilman Anthony Mattox Jr. chairs the Planning and Development Committee and requested last week’s special meeting to bring everyone up to speed.
“We want to be as proactive as possible, to find a way to partner and get in on the ground floor, connecting with the public and drawing the city in,” Mattox said.
He also mentioned the possibility of a potential public draw that also remains under consideration: an indoor pool.
“We are looking at things that reinforce each other, (such as) how an indoor swimming pool could be beneficial to a senior center and an arts center,” Sabel said.
“The benefit of a pool could make the site more porous and encompassing of the diversity of communities, bringing more people in. A pool could be a nice vehicle for that.”
Sabel noted that the ravine, stream and forested fields already provide a haven for some additional diversity.
“At Park, we are a sanctuary city in and of itself for an ever-present deer population,” she told council.
Mattox added that a follow-up meeting will be scheduled with Mayor Kahlil Seren and his administration.
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