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La Villa Hispana and the MetroHealth District are located between one very
successful district (Ohio City) and another stable district (Old Brooklyn).
This section of West 25th Street has long been the boundary between wards,
neighborhoods, and CDC service areas. Over the last 5 years, there has been a
concerted effort to identify assets and development opportunities and to seek
collaboration and focus on improving the weakest component of the W. 25 th Street
Corridor.
We have an opportunity to improve this middle stretch of West 25th Street and
make it the most successful and complete corridor in Cleveland.

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West 25th Street Corridor Initiative
Started in 2011 following Council/Ward redistricting and as MetroHealth hospital
ramped up discussions for their transformation plan
Coordinated by then Neighborhood Progress Inc.
3 Chairs (Chris Warren-City of Cleveland, John Corlett-MetroHealth, Joel Ratner-
Neighborhood Progress)
The group focused on two different themes:
Placemaking, Streetscape improvements, and real estate development
Economic Empowerment and Social Enterprises through the Democracy
Collaborative
SCFBC has been working with partners at MetroHealth Hospital and in the Hispanic
community to focus on two major projects that will bring economic development
to the street.
MetroHealth Campus Renewal Project
La Villa Hispana Project
2013 Council/Ward Redistricting

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 Under CNPs leadership, a study of the entire West 25 th St./ Pearl Road corridor
was completed in 2015
Will be approved by Planning Commission
2 top priority nodes:
La Villa Hispana
MetroHealth Area

Three of the key findings are:

Less than 10% of the People who work on the corridor, live within 2 miles
of West 25th Street
This shows us that there is potential market for homeownership
Enhanced Transit and Bicycle Amenities are especially important since 27%
of the residents dont own a car

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There are 2 catalytic projects occurring in the heart of the West 25 th Street Corridor

1. MetroHealths 1.2 Billion campus renewal project

MetroHealth currently has over 6,000 employeesthe largest employer
on the west side of Cleveland
A 2013 economic impact study indicates that MetroHealths impact on the
Cleveland economy is $800m with a tax impact of $9.5m

2. La Villa Hispana, a cultural placemaking initiative at West 25th Street and Clark
Avenue

Together, these projects will spur economic development on the weakest section
of West 25th Street/Pearl Road.

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 The Clark Fulton neighborhood is the densest Hispanic enclave in the state of Ohio
with over 22,000 Hispanics living on the near west side.

The vision is to make La Villa Hispana the Cultural and Economic Hub of the Latino
Community in Northeast Ohio.

Partners:
Hispanic Alliance
Hispanic Business Center and Chamber of Commerce
Julia de Burgos
The MetroHealth System
SCFBC
Local merchants and residents
Cleveland Neighborhood Progress

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 Clark-Fulton is one of the most challenged communities on the West side of
Cleveland
35% of adult residents dont have a High School Diploma
The median household income is $24k, $3,000 less than the Citys median
household income.
The poverty rate is 38% compared to the Citys 31%
52% of children in the neighborhood live in poverty compared to the citys
Child Poverty Rate of 38%
There are also higher lead poisoning rates and asthma rates are twice the
national average. This is due to the aging housing stock and lack of
landlord investment. And, locally as nationally, our predominant Puerto
Rican community has significantly higher prevalence rates of asthma than
other Hispanics.
Additional identified Minority Health Disparities include higher relative
prevalence rates of diabetes and HIV infection rates among the majority
minority population of Hispanics.
Finally, 27% of households do not own a car leaving public transit very
important to the neighborhood.

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 8 Strategic Goals
Support New and Existing Businesses- Incentivize creation, retention, and
expansion of Hispanic businesses
Improve Streetscape and Aesthetics to promote economic development
and identity (similar to Gordon Square Arts District and Kamms Corners)
Promote Arts and Culture through events and attracting cultural
institutions to the area
Ensure safety in the area with better lighting and increased activity
Develop catalytic real estate projects like senior housing, district parking, a
plaza, and business incubator
Marketing to promote the district, businesses, and institutions. Organize
district events.
Engage the community to ensure that the district meets the needs of the
community
Support economic empowerment of the community thorough wealth-
building and financial literacy.

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Overview of Funds Requested

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 Streetscape improvements will increase the vibrancy of the commercial area and
greatly contribute to branding the neighborhood as La Villa Hispana.
Area stakeholders completed the Clark Avenue TLCI study in 2015 which prioritized
La Villa for streetscape improvements. In addition, the West 25th Street Transit
Oriented Development (TOD) Strategy Study deemed La Villa as a node of high
development priority yet noted its challenges with the lack of infrastructure
investment. Both plans will be approved by the Cleveland Planning Commission
this year.
Clark Avenue is due to see $265,000 worth of improvements in 2016 (W 41 st Street
to Quigley Road)

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 By definition, a plaza is a public square, marketplace, or similar open space in a
built-up area. Plazas are very common in Latin American cities as a place of
gathering for people of all ages, religious, and backgrounds to share music, art,
culture, games, food, and much more.
This summer, we launched LA PLACITA, a series of open-air markets to begin to
foster that sense of community, typical of Latin countries right in the Clark-Fulton
neighborhood.
Currently, La Placita is being held in a parking lot on West 25th Street and Clark
Avenue. Funding support will enable us to have a permanent location for the La
Placita.

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 The MarketPlace will serve as a business incubator to 20 retail and 8 professional
services businesses.
Ideally, the Hispanic Business Center and Chamber of Commerce will also be
housed in the Marketplace.
HBC will leverage its Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to provide
extensive one-on-one business coaching, business planning, access to capital,
business accounting, and financial planning support. These services will be
particularly important throughout the first 3 years of the business start-up.
Funding support would allow for acquisition and renovation of the physical
property where the MarketPlace would be housed
Similar local model: Hub 55
Similar national model: Mercado Central, Minneapolis

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 The intersection of Clark and West 25th Street is an old streetcar node. Most
storefronts and historic buildings do not have access to parking.
Creation of a 50 space parking lot attached to the Marketplace @ La Villa to serve
all businesses in the district
Additional 75 spaces are planned by private developers

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 The central portion of the West 25th Street corridor does not have move-in ready
spaces for businesses.
There is a surplus of old, dilapidated, empty warehouses that have the potential of
becoming prime business locations.

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 MetroHealth is the largest employer of the west side of Cleveland with over 6,000
employees
In early 2014, MetroHealth announced that they will rebuild or renovate
approximately 75% of their main campus which will be an approximately $1.2
Billion investment in the community.

Planning began by HKS Architects who had the goals of

MetroHealth engaged the community at the most grass-roots level
Integrating the campus back into the community
Opening the hospitals front door to West 25th Street
Move low-acuity services off of the campus and onto West 25th Street
Attract more employees to live closer to the hospital

A housing study was completed by MetroHealth in 2013. This survey had a 20%
return rate and indicated that 80% of current MetroHealth employees would like
to live closer to the hospital

MetroHealth also hopes that their investment will spur additional public and
private investment on the corridor.

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 I am thrilled to announce that we have been awarded the Build Health Challenge
grant (confidential until June 9th)
16 Groups were invited to apply nationwide and 8 grants were awarded
$250k was provided by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and MetroHealth
will match that grant. The program will be a $500k investment in the communitys
health and well-being.
GOAL: Improve Housing to Reduce Health Disparities such as Asthma.
Utilize our skills around housing code enforcement and work with our partners
MetroHealth and Environmental Health Watch and the Cleveland Dept. of Public
Health, SCFBC, and other partners.

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 SCFBC has documented every property one West 25th Street between Train Avenue
and the Brookside Valley

We have identified 15 Development sites, documented ownership, and created

development visions for each.

We have also identified all buildings on the corridor and have created a plan-of-
action for each.

Currently Conditions:
20% of the Buildings on West 25th Street are vacant and most are
underutilized
Over 1,000,000 square feet of building stock
14 Acres of vacant land

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 Nestles L.J. Minors facility was expanded in 2012. The $50m project included a
facility expansion and new parking lot to the east of the site. Many Nestle
employees live in the neighborhood and walk to work.

The Aragon Ballroom is currently under construction and will be opened as a

banquet/event center. The project will cost approximately $1.5m and will be
completed in late 2015/early 2016. The ballroom will create 40-50 jobs and bring
about 50,000 visitors to the district every year.

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 Thank you to Mayor Jackson for making the project a City Priority!

DSCDO scored a 95/100 in the competitive LIHTC process

The project is a $9 Million investment and will provide 36 new affordable housing
units (1 and 2 bedrooms).

This project will provide the first new housing units (non-PSH) on this section of
West 25th Street in decades. The project will also be a catalyst for new
development in both the MetroHealth and La Villa areas.

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 W. 25th Street Big Gig
Grant awarded by OneCommunity
Thanks to Councilman Cummins, Cimperman, Brancatelli, and Council
President Kelley for supporting the project
4 Miles of High-Speed Fiber
$200k Project
Reduces the cost to connect from $15,000 to about $500
Very important to attract high tech companies near MetroHealth

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