The Midline is the kind of project Cleveland has been waiting for decades to see.
Announced this week by the City of Cleveland and the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund, the 350-acre redevelopment effort will transform long-vacant industrial land on the city’s near east side into a connected employment district, public greenway, and hub for future industry. Plans call for at least 1.5 million square feet of new industrial and commercial space, supporting more than 2,500 direct jobs within reach of public transit. At full build-out, the project is projected to generate up to $100 million in annual tax revenue for the city.
This is a major win for the city, the region, and everyone involved, and we’re proud to have been a part of it. Our work is in the origin story of this announcement.
The Fund for Our Economic Future’s connection to The Midline traces back to 2015. Over ten years and with over $2 million, we supported strategy development, land acquisition, and community engagement. We enabled implementing partners, including Burten, Bell, Carr Development, Inc., the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund, and Team NEO. We invested alongside the City of Cleveland and the George Gund Foundation to:
- Grant acquisition funding for many acres of land, including 7000 Central, a critical parcel within The Midline footprint;
- Lead and support community efforts to shape a different future for Cleveland, including opposition to a proposed asphalt plant that would have limited the area’s long-term redevelopment potential;
- Develop initial ideas for a community ownership model connected to industrial redevelopment;
- Map and plan for the “expanded core jobs zone,” the basis of the Midline footprint; and
- Secure EDA Recomplete funding, which provided timely staffing and additional strategic capacity during the formative stages of the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund’s work.
None of those efforts alone created The Midline. Together, however, they helped create the conditions for it to emerge.
That matters because generational projects like The Midline do not happen overnight. They require sustained collaboration, risk tolerance, and institutions willing to work in the space between vision and execution.
We are only in the middle of this story. Even now, significant work remains ahead — environmental remediation, infrastructure development, community partnership, and business attraction within it. We’re here to help the Midline compete for the next generation of high-energy, high-wage industries. This week’s announcement is evidence that long-term regional stewardship matters, and that Northeast Ohio can compete for transformative growth when organizations work together around a shared economic future.
And that is worth celebrating.
