Cleveland, OH

Ohio City Inc., Placing Bet on Local Retail, Buys City Goods

Published

2 years ago

February 28, 2024

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Ohio City Inc., Placing Bet on Local Retail, Buys City Goods

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Mark Oprea

Liz Painter and Sam Friedman, co-founders of City Goods in Ohio City’s Hingetown. The duo sold their retail cluster complex to Ohio City Inc., in a bid to keep it going as a boon to the community.

The seven U-shaped, silver hangers at 1442 West 28th Street aren’t going anywhere, but they are changing hands.

This week, Ohio City Inc. finalized a deal to purchase City Goods, the cluster of 30 small businesses selling everything from organic skincare products to hanging plants and vinyl records.

The move, eighteen months after co-founders Sam Friedman and Liz Painter opened shop, follows the duo’s decision to convert City Goods into a nonprofit, believing the model would keep the operation more financially healthy.

A sale to OCI, Friedman said on Tuesday, furthers City Good’s permanency in a growing neighborhood endlessly begging for stores selling home goods without Big Box affiliation.

“We need money. That’s the simple fact of the matter,” Friedman said.

It’s why, he and Painter began conversations with Chris Schmitt, OCI’s executive director, the day after Christmas, as a path to nonprofit status began to look ideal: to ensure that City Good could, unlike most retail clusters, keep its ease-of-entry philosophy intact.

“What [the sale] does is keep City Goods going strong in the future in ways I couldn’t guarantee,” Friedman, also the owner of Chagrin Valley Soap and Salve, said. “It moves it into the public square in the way that we were attempting to do anyway.”

In 2022, after reading a Scene article highlighting entrepreneur Graham Veysey’s build of seven silver “pod” structures near Church + State, Friedman’s interest piqued. After a decade in retail, he felt the need to start a small business cluster with a model that favored new talent. Everything besides one’s rent—marketing, taxes, signage, maintenance, workers comp—is handled by City Goods management.

The only problem, for Painter and Friedman, is that model didn’t prove to be wholly sustainable: City Goods as an entity did not turn a profit. As a financial backstop, Friedman opened Hangar, an upscale cocktail and amaro bar that would ideally earn enough to allow other tenants affordable operational costs. Or, as Friedman, who also bartended once a week at Hangar, put it: “We’re having espresso martinis with you to support makers.”

Schmitt was, of course, one of those patrons.

click to enlarge

Mark Oprea

OCI interim director Chris Schmitt, at Lekko Coffee on Detroit Avenue, on Tuesday.

After taking over for former OCI director Tom McNair in October, Schmitt quickly realized that Ohio City’s ground-floor retail, its contemporary breakfast mainstays and variety stores, was paramount to keeping the neighborhood on a healthy trajectory.

McNair had helped decrease retail vacancies from 40 percent in 2014 to a laudable five percent in 2019, and observed as three years of the pandemic threatened the health of occupied storefronts. Absorbing City Goods into one of OCI’s “seven subsidiaries,” Schmitt told Scene, was key in keeping the bespoke goods—home goods, especially—Ohio City could maintain.

“This is a long term investment,” Schmitt told Scene, from a table at Lekko Coffee on Detroit Avenue. (Schmitt and Friedman declined to talk purchase price.) “A long-range investment by us, to create the brands of tomorrow. They’re going to fill the vacant storefronts.”

“Brands,” Painter said, sitting next to Schmitt, “that have that goal to shift and move to their own space eventually.”

As for the brands, for ilthy or Brittany’s Record Shop, Friedman said that “almost all” of City Goods’ vendors are renewing their leases this year, while others look to bigger spaces or will disband altogether.

Ohio City Inc.’s accumulation of those seven arched domes comes at a time when the City of Cleveland investigates whether or not to close a sliver of West 29th Street, a block away, to car traffic. Though OCI is so far neutral on the issue (Schmitt wants to “wait until a study comes out”), Friedman believes that City Goods’ location on the eastern fringe of Hingetown will keep it as a destination for years to come.

“Walkability is why City Goods is where it is,” he said. “Because small business retail, the one thing it requires—Requires with a capital R—is walking traffic.”

Friedman and Painter will stay involved with City Goods in some form: Friedman as an advisor to OCI, Painter as brand manager and an OCI marketing director. As for regulars scoring a Friedman-made cocktail on Friday night’s at Hangar, the co-founder is most likely out as its Sam Malone.

“Hey, every night I banged the glass, I yelled about the shops, I talked to every single person who comes in about why we’re here,” Friedman said. “But breaking news: Sam doesn’t like breaking his back.”

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Cleveland, OH

Medical examiner releases new details about bodies of 2 young girls found in suitcases near Cleveland school

Published

9 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Medical examiner releases new details about bodies of 2 young girls found in suitcases near Cleveland school

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner released new information about the bodies of two young girls found in suitcases in Cleveland’s South Collinwood neighborhood.

On Wednesday morning, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner confirmed through DNA that the two girls are half-siblings.

At this time, they have not been positively identified, and no further information is available while the investigation is ongoing.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd confirmed the bodies of two young girls were found in suitcases on the city’s East Side on Monday evening.

Cleveland police were called just after 6 p.m. to a field in the area of East 163rd and Midland Avenue for a suspected dead body.

According to police sources, a man was walking his dog in the area, for the first time in a while, due to the snow, and the dog hit on the scent.

The man immediately called 911.

“The officers responded out and located a deceased individual that was in a shallow grave inside of a suitcase,” said Chief Todd.

When officers and homicide detectives got to the scene, Todd said they found the second body nearby.

According to the chief, both suitcases were partially buried in shallow graves. She said the victims had been there quite some time.

“It is traumatic for everyone. It is traumatic for those who live in the area to know that this was right there at their doorstep,” said Todd.

Authorities said one victim is believed to be 8-and-a-half to 13 years old and the other is believed to be 10-and-a-half to 14 years old.

“Locally, we have no reports of missing children to match these identifications. We are checking statewide as well. We have assistance from our state, federal and local partners,” said Todd.

Detectives are checking with state and federal partners as well.

This crime scene is located near Ginn Academy in the city’s South Collinwood neighborhood.

Police said the investigation remains in its very early stages and there is no indication of an ongoing threat to public safety.

If anyone has any information, they are asked to call the Cleveland Police Homicide Unit at 216-623-5464.

Tips can remain anonymous.

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Cleveland, OH

Bodies of 2 young girls found in suitcases in Cleveland’s South Collinwood neighborhood

Published

22 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd on Tuesday confirmed the bodies of two young girls were found in suitcases on the city’s East Side Monday evening.

Cleveland police were called just after 6 p.m. to a field in the area of East 163rd and Midland Avenue for a suspected dead body.

According to police sources, a man was walking his dog in the area, for the first time in awhile due to the snow, and the dog hit on the scent.

The man immediately called 911.

“The officers responded out and located a deceased individual that was in a shallow grave inside of a suitcase,” said Chief Todd.

When officers and homicide detectives got to the scene, Todd said they found the second body nearby.

According to the chief, both suitcases were partially buried in shallow graves. She said the victims had been there quite some time.

“It is traumatic for everyone. It is traumatic for those who live in the area to know that this was right there at their door step,” said Todd.

Authorities said one victim is believed to be 8-and-a-half to 13 years old and the other is believed to be 10-and-a-half to 14 years old.

There is no indication at this time on their identities, according to police.

“locally we have no reports of missing children to match these identifications. We are checking statewide as well. We have assistance from our state federal and local partners,” said Todd.

Detectives are checking with state and federal partners as well.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has taken custody of the bodies and will conduct further examination to determine the cause of death.

This crime scene is located near Ginn Academy in the city’s South Collinwood neighborhood.

Police said the investigation remains in its very early stages and there is no indication of an ongoing threat to public safety.

If anyone has any information, they are asked to call the Cleveland Police Homicide Unit at 216-623-5464.

Tips can remain anonymous.

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Cleveland, OH

More than 30K FirstEnergy customers without power in Cuyahoga County

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

More than 30K FirstEnergy customers without power in Cuyahoga County

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Thousands of FirstEnergy customers are without power in Cuyahoga County this Tuesday.

The total number reached 31,785 reported outages in Cuyahoga County at noon.

That number decreased to 16,486 as of 1:10 p.m.

There were just 2,751 still without power less than an hour later at 2 p.m.

FirstEnergy estimates power to be restored to most impacted customers between 2-4 p.m. Tuesday.

FirstEnergy spokesperson Brooke Conlan said this is due to small fires on poles.

According to Conlan, the misty rain combined with salt on the road can cause contamination on utility poles, which causes electricity to travel across the the pole and cause the fire.

Conlan added their crews are working as quickly as possible to restore power.

Due to the outages, the Parma Justice Center is closed, and all court proceedings are suspended for the remainder of Tuesday.

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