Updates from Greater Collinwood Development
While Greater Collinwood Development is a name that’s new, our organization is not, with roots in the Collinwood community that go back 37 years. Founded in 1982 as Collinwood Villages Development, our name and service area have changed several times through the years, but our commitment to the communities we serve has remained steadfast. Throughout the years we have constructed new homes and retail businesses along St. Clair Avenue, provided land assembly for large scale industrial projects along South Waterloo Rd., engaged residents at community and civic meetings and worked with community stakeholders to craft neighborhood plans that guided neighborhood development. In July 2018 what was Collinwood and Nottingham Villages Development expanded its service area north to the lakefront, and now serves the communities of North Shore Collinwood, Collinwood Village/Five Pointes, Nottingham Village, and Euclid Green.
Our mission is to advance equitable and inclusive economic development, community engagement and neighborhood stabilization & revitalization strategies within the communities we serve. To achieve these goals, GCDC focuses its work in the following key areas: real estate development, housing initiatives, community engagement programs, business support services and neighborhood planning. Since July of 2018, GCDC has accomplished the following:
- Real Estate Development
- Returned 6 vacant properties to productive use, in partnership with the Cuyahoga County Land Bank and investor partners, with 9 additional properties in the pipeline
- Secured grant funding to launch GCDC’s first residential rehab program, initially targeting the areas of Nottingham Village and East 185th
- Working to convert the vacant Longfellow School site into a new senior housing community in partnership with the City of Cleveland, Cleveland Municipal School District, Cleveland Restoration Society, Vesta Corp., Marous Brothers Construction and others
- Business Development
- Guiding two businesses through the city of Cleveland’s Storefront Renovation Program, with one nearing completion in the Nottingham Village retail area. Several other businesses throughout Greater Collinwood are interested in potential projects
- Organized a meet and greet for businesses on the western edge of St. Clair
- Provided technical assistance to over a dozen area businesses
- Code Enforcement
- Surveyed over 500 residential properties; referring the worst properties to the city’s building and housing department
- Neighborhood Planning
- Applied for funding from Cuyahoga County to enhance the Five Pointes Retail District at East 152nd and St. Clair. If funded the project will install trees to soften the streetscape, install decorative crosswalks, enhance transit waiting environments, install neighborhood branding banners on light poles and install artist-designed flower boxes along the sidewalks
- Recently awarded funding through a Transportation for Livable Communities (TLCI) planning grant for Euclid Avenue in the Euclid Green community that will study ways to enhance multimodal transportation (auto, bike, pedestrian, mass transit) on Euclid while encouraging new development in the area.
- Worked with the City of Euclid to apply for phase 1 implementation funding for the East 185th TLCI program, funds that if awarded will greatly enhance East 185th from Lakeshore to I90
- Community Engagement
- Organized the 1st all Collinwood Breakfast with Santa in 2018, celebrating the holidays with over 300 families from the Greater Collinwood community at the Slovenian Home on Holmes Ave.
- Organized the 1st Collinwood Non-Violence Week (January 23 – 25 2019) to Celebrate MLK Day, hosting three nights of events around the theme: Celebrate, Educate, and Create.
- Partnership with East Clark, Hannah Gibbons, Citizens Academy East, and Collinwood HS
- Events held at St. Mary’s, the Five Pointe Community Center, and GamerHaven
- Youth created artwork, poetry, musical pieces and other expressions to honor Dr. King, dispel violence in the community, and discussed solutions that reduce youth violence
- Worked with various community groups to organize 5 community clean ups.
- Received a grant from Cleveland Neighborhood Progress for “Collinwood Connects,” a program to be unveiled summer 2019 that will encourage more interaction and cooperation between the different neighborhoods of Greater Collinwood
- At the Five Pointe Community Center (managed by GCDC) we’ve:
- Provided breakfast, lunch and socialization activities to an average of 40 seniors (age 65+) three days a week
- Provided health screenings and benefits checkups for seniors in partnership with NEON, OSHIP, and other partners
- Provided workforce education and training in partnership with Tri-C
- Received a grant from the Minority Arts Fund in partnership with Reading RAMM, providing engaging out-of-school-time social emotional learning programming
- Provided healthy food and produce to dozens of families on a monthly basis at pantry and produce days held at Five Pointes
- Organized Trunk or Treat, a safe Halloween party and trick or treat experience at Five Pointes for over 200 neighborhood families
- Provided lunch for youth during winter break in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. We are seeking funding to expand our youth summer breakfast and lunch nutrition program into a summer enrichment program
These activities are just the beginning, and we encourage you to join us, because now is the time to come together to build a strong future for Collinwood. For more about us and how to get involved, please visit us at www.greatercollinwood.org or email us at engage@greatercollinwood.org.