CLEVELAND — The City of Cleveland announced this week it’s looking to redevelop the Thomas F. McCafferty Health Center site in order to better address the needs of the Ohio City neighborhood. 

The health center, which is a 19,000-square-foot clinic and was constructed in 1971, has only about 25% of its space occupied by the Cleveland Department of Public Health. The city said the space is underutilized, and it’s seeking proposals to redevelop the property. 

The city said the goal is to address affordable housing needs and said a Request for Qualifications will be issued to help identify professional real estate development project teams to work on the site. 

While housing is the main goal, the city said the ground floor of the building will likely be used for nonprofit or social services to help neighborhood residents. 

Additionally, the Department of Public Health is seeking a new home on the west side with the hopes of being co-located with other social services. The city said the search for the public health department’s new site offers up opportunities for the future of the Thomas F. McCafferty Health Center.  

“The Department of Public Health is currently searching for a site to continue offering low-cost reproductive health services and vaccines,” said Cleveland’s Director of Public Health David Margolius in a release. “We also recognize that housing has a tremendous impact on health and are pleased to be part of a process to create more opportunities for affordable housing in a neighborhood that needs it.”

The initiative to transform the site in a way to address affordable housing needs has been put forth by the vision of Councilman Kerry McCormack, as well as has been outlined in Ohio City’s Strategic Plan. The initiative is also supported by the Cleveland 2030 Housing Equity Plan.

“I want to thank all of the public health professionals who have served the Cleveland community from the McCafferty Health Center for decades,” said McCormack in a release. “Their work has touched the lives of many people in need of medical services in our neighborhoods. As we move forward, I am excited about the future of this site continuing to serve a public purpose by providing affordable housing and social services to the neighborhood. I appreciate the hard work of city staff and look forward to future community engagement to ensure this is the best project possible.”  

To ensure the future development of the site “takes a placed-based approached” to addressing affordable housing needs, the Department of Community Development and Ohio City Inc. have created a community survey seeking input. 

The input received from the survey will be shared with potential development teams working through the project. The city said once a project team is selected, they will continue to engage with the community throughout the process. 

The survey can be found here.