Long-term trends revive development pulse on Scranton Peninsula

STAN BULLARD | CRANES CLEVELAND BUSINESS | SEPT. 3, 2017

After nearly 30 years of waiting, stuck in the 1980s while downtown Cleveland and adjoining Near West Side neighborhoods became home to high-priced rentals and houses, Scranton Peninsula is poised for an overdue catch-up as a hot spot for real estate development.

The sale of 20 acres by Cleveland-based Forest City Realty Trust on the Carter Road side of the tongue-like land shaped by the curving Cuyahoga River to a new group of owners after a 29-year hold does more than put the largely vacant parcel in line for a potential big-league development.

It also liberates the other big property owner on the peninsula, the Scranton Averell Trust, to change its game plan for the other 25 acres, much of it occupied by more than a dozen buildings and a cadre of tenants lining sections of lower Scranton Avenue.

Meantime, the maturing Tremont and Ohio City markets have pointed the path of development toward the long-quiet peninsula.