Downtown Cleveland’s Next Chapter: Leading the Recovery, Not Waiting for It

A focused 90-day action plan to stabilize Downtown Cleveland and position it for long-term growth.

Photo Credit: Greater Cleveland Partnership

Across the country, downtowns are emptying out. In Cleveland, we’re filling ours back up.

Office vacancies are up. Work patterns have changed. Foot traffic isn’t what it once was. And in many cities, the response has been to wait and see how the market settles.

In Cleveland, we’re not waiting.

From day one, my administration recognized that these challenges weren’t temporary. They required a coordinated, intentional response. That’s why I launched a focused 90-day action plan earlier this year to stabilize Downtown Cleveland and position it for long-term growth.

This is execution, not theory.

In the first 45 days, I brought together more than 50 public, private, and civic partners, including developers, lenders, employers, and institutions, who collectively dedicated 350+ hours to identifying problems and advancing solutions.

Together, we’ve assessed our major office buildings, engaged property owners and tenants, and begun direct intervention where it’s needed most. That means real conversations with employers deciding whether to stay, and real interventions in buildings at risk of going dark.

Now, the next 45 days are about delivering results.

We are doubling down on tenant retention with a more proactive, hands-on approach. That includes direct outreach to companies at risk of leaving, a concierge-style process to move deals faster, and new tools to support smaller tenants, like a tenant improvement “TI bank” to help finance buildouts and create move-in-ready spaces.

We’ve also launched a “Welcome Wagon” to support and promote new and expanding businesses Downtown, because growth doesn’t just come from big deals, it comes from building momentum one tenant at a time.

At the same time, we are taking decisive action on buildings. We are advancing partnerships with high-quality developers, focusing investment on our strongest assets, and directly intervening in distressed properties. That includes establishing a “Rocket Docket” to speed up court proceedings tied to troubled buildings, because we cannot afford to have key properties stuck in limbo.

And we are restoring energy to our streets. We’re working with employers to drive return-to-office efforts, improving safety and cleanliness, and activating Downtown through small businesses, retail, and events, especially as we head into the summer months.

Because Downtown is not in decline. It’s in transition.

And cities that succeed in this moment will be the ones that confront that transition head-on.

Cleveland is well-positioned to do exactly that. Over the past decade, we’ve seen real momentum Downtown, including population growth and a wave of adaptive reuse that has transformed historic office buildings and warehouses into housing and mixed-use spaces. As recently highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Cleveland has emerged as a national example of how cities can repurpose older buildings to meet modern demand, bringing new residents, new energy, and new purpose to Downtown.

We have that foundation; we just need to build on it.

What we’re doing now is about protecting that progress and accelerating what comes next.

While many cities are still studying the problem, Cleveland is already executing solutions. We’re aligning the public and private sectors, removing barriers to investment, and moving with speed to stabilize our core.

Because when Downtown Cleveland is strong, the entire city benefits.

This is about jobs. It’s about small businesses. It’s about confidence in our future.

And it’s about proving that cities like Cleveland don’t have to wait for change; we can lead it.

That’s exactly what we intend to do

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