CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland plans to buy a vacant grocery store on the East Side, in a move that goes far beyond simply rebuilding a blighted property.

City officials say they have signed a deal to buy the former Dave’s Markets store on Lakeshore Boulevard in the Collinwood neighborhood. They plan to demolish the condemned building and seek proposals to redevelop the site in early 2025.

The pending deal is unusual for the city, which rarely uses its power to buy and hide real estate in an industrial and commercial land bank. But the former Dave’s store sits in a key location, in a corridor where many public and philanthropic funds are at stake.

The town’s Collinwood Recreation Center is just a short walk away. Humphrey Park is to the south.

Just down the block, the Euclid Beach mobile home community is closing. The 28.5-acre property will be part of the Euclid Creek Preserve, creating a lakefront green space comparable in size to Edgewater Park on the west side.

And on nearby streets, nonprofits are working to renovate and build homes and breathe new life into tired storefronts.

Tom McNair, the city’s economic development director, sees it as a rare opportunity to shore up a struggling commercial district located just a quarter-mile from Lake Erie.

Dave’s old property covers 4.24 acres. Next door, the Cuyahoga Land Bank owns 1.5 acres, including a long-vacant Ponderosa Steakhouse that could be the subject of a larger redevelopment project.

“To me, this is the type of site that can really shake up a neighborhood,” McNair said.

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Dave closed his Collinwood outpost in April 2022, after nearly four decades serving the neighborhood. At the time, the family-owned grocer was finishing renovations at its nearby Euclid store and said little publicly about its motives for downsizing.

City officials cited declining sales, increasingly cash-strapped shoppers and friction between Dave’s and its owner in Collinwood. A few months later, a company associated with the local Simon’s supermarket purchased the property. But nothing happened.

The building has been languishing for more than two years. Meanwhile, some nearby businesses, including a small Walgreens in Lakeshore, have closed their doors.

“There’s not even a place for seniors to get the medicine they need,” said Kenneth Jones, who was passing by on his scooter Monday morning. “There is no place for young people to get the food they need, the nutrition for their children. »

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Jones, a 67-year-old veteran, lives in a nearby public housing tower. He shopped at Dave’s twice a week. Now he gets a ride or takes a bus to Euclid to buy basic necessities.

“It’s a little heartbreaking to see the deterioration of the neighborhood,” he said. “Like no one cares what’s going on here.” »

McNair said city officials care — and they’re taking action.

They agreed to pay $1.475 million for the long-standing supermarket site. The city council approved the spending Monday night and the deal is expected to close at the end of this year.

“For us, this is an opportunity to step in and take civic control — and really go out and find the right user for this site,” McNair said.

Three-quarters of the price will be paid by the economic development department. The rest of the money comes from Councilor Mike Polensek, using community development block grants from the federal government.

“We hope this will be a prototype throughout the city of Cleveland for how we develop these large former retail sites – and not just large sites, but smaller buildings as well,” he said, noting that many neighborhoods are struggling with the loss of everyday retailers. .

“What do we do with abandoned big boxes? asked Polensek. “What do we do with abandoned pharmacies, banks and other retail establishments? Because we even see fast food places closing. Closure of restaurants. »

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He and other officials would love to attract a new grocer to the property, which is large enough for a mixed-use project. But landing another supermarket is a long road.

“We’ve had a ton of conversations … to find more grocers wanting to come to the city of Cleveland. And that’s really a challenge right now, isn’t it? » said McNair. “I think the grocery industry, in general, is going through a lot of challenges and transformations.”

Polensek echoed this.

“It’s such a competitive market,” he said. “But what other development could this be? A housing project? We don’t know. Could this be a site for other retail opportunities? I’m not attached to one thing in particular. …Acquiring the site is only the beginning of this process.

And there are other food-related uses that could fill some of the void left by Dave.

“It doesn’t have to be a full-service grocery store,” McNair said. “I think there are many different models at work.”

Polensek said the owners of Simon’s Supermarket see potential in the neighborhood. But he wasn’t impressed with the company’s existing stores in Cleveland, scattered across the East Side. Additionally, the grant amount needed to renovate the old, aging Dave’s building was too high for the city to consider.

“It wasn’t going to happen in light of some of the challenges he’s having with his other stores,” Polensek said. “So we told him we were going to take a different route.”

Jones, who has lived in the neighborhood for about 15 years, is cautiously optimistic about the city’s plans. He’s tired of looking at abandoned buildings and vacant lots.

“We need new things here,” he said.