CLEVELAND — The remaining funds for the first stage of construction related to West Side Market transformation project have been secured, thanks to a $28 million investment package.

The deal was closed by the Cleveland Development Advisors (CDA) and Cleveland Public Market Corporation (CPMC), according to a press release. It includes various tax credits and funding. 

“We are incredibly grateful and thrilled that the Market is receiving the largest investment financing package that CDA has made,” said Rosemary Mudry, executive director of Cleveland Public Market Corporation (CPMC), the nonprofit that operates West Side Market. “Working with our government, corporate, investment and philanthropic partners, we have been able to leverage a complex set of funding tools to take our first steps in bringing this ambitious vision to life. It’s a testament to the time, energy, and passion that so many in this community want to invest in the Market and its future.”

The release states that PNC Bank, National Association is New Market Tax Credits investor. They say PPG Industries, Inc. is the historic tax credit equity investor. The Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Healthy Food Financing Initiative is also providing a loan for $2 million.

“The remaining phase one financing comes from a coalition of government, corporate, and foundation partners, including $23 million from the City of Cleveland,” the release reads.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said, without the New Markets Tax Credits, there would be no West Side Market project.

“These credits unlock investment in communities that traditional markets have long overlooked,” he said in the release. “They don’t just help projects happen — they help communities rise.” 

Yvette Ittu, president and CEO of the CDA, said this serves as a statement of purpose.

“The West Side Market is one of the few places where Cleveland’s history, culture, neighborhoods and economy come together,” Ittu said in the release. “Our largest investment to date is in a public market that nourishes our people, supports small businesses and connects communities. That’s the kind of future we’re proud to build.”

The first stage of the renovations amount to $53 million and includes overhauling infrastructure, adding new food storage coolers, a commercial kitchen and more, according to the release. It will also transform the East Arcade, adding HVAC and basement access.

Other phases will include work to the North Arcade and Courtyard, a basement renovation and the addition of seating and private event and educational space/programs.

The release states that the project will retain 250 jobs and create 144 new ones. They also say it will support more than 425 construction jobs.

In total, the transformation project will amount to $68 million in renovations to the market.

“A community asset like the Market needs broad community support,” CPMC board president David Abbott said in the release. “We are extremely grateful for the public, corporate and philanthropic investment we have received so far, and we are eager to enlist an even wider array of backers so we can finish this important job.”

You can learn more about the market here.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The family of a fallen Cleveland Police Officer, Jamieson Ritte, filed a complaint expressing their outrage over the way they were notified about their son’s death.

Officer Ritter was killed last July 4th while trying to make an arrest.

In the complaint filed with the Cleveland office of professional standards. The family says they should have been notified immediately after Jameison was shot. According to the letter, they were called three minutes *after he died. Over an hour from when the shooting happened, they were told over the phone about their son’s death.

Read complaint form and letter from below:

The family believes, according to police protocol, they should have been notified in person.

Copyright 2025 WOIO. All rights reserved.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A political battle fit for the gridiron is underway in Ohio, where state Republican leaders are clashing over whether to single out the Cleveland Browns for help building a new suburban domed stadium or impose tax hikes to fund stadium upgrades for the Cincinnati Bengals and other teams longer term.

Neither idea is without critics in both parties, who argue that underwriting National Football League stadiums siphons money from the state’s policy priorities, including funding infrastructure and public schools.

The most heated debate centers on a proposal by Haslam Sports Group, which owns the Browns, to relocate from the team’s existing open-air stadium on downtown Cleveland’s lakeshore — where they have played since 1999 — to a new $2.4 billion complex in Brook Park, about 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) south. The team has proposed a private-public partnership to which the state would contribute $600 million.

After the money was approved by the Ohio House last week, commissioners in Hamilton County, home to the Bengals, balked. They moved swiftly to re-up their request for $350 million for Paycor Stadium, where the Bengals’ lease is up June 30, 2026. The ask follows Bengals Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn’s comments at recent NFL meetings in Florida, where she said, “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year” — while noting negotiations are progressing.

The stadium debate heads to the Ohio Senate after their two-week spring break.

Browns dream big, Cleveland recalls Modell nightmare

Dee and Jimmy Haslam, generous Republican campaign donors, say they want a facility “consistent with other world-class NFL stadiums.” With the addition of a dome, the Browns could host year-round events during northeast Ohio’s severe winters and “catalyze meaningful economic impact” at an adjacent entertainment complex. They point out that eight in 10 home game attendees live outside city limits.

Leaders in Cleveland, where Browns games draw coveted economic activity to downtown and the tourism district along Lake Erie, are livid. The existing $247 million Huntington Bank Field was primarily funded by city and county tax dollars. To many, it’s a symbol of the hard-luck sports town’s commitment to the team it nearly lost when then-owner Art Modell notoriously packed off to Baltimore in 1996.

Modell’s messy exit, also hitched to a stadium dispute, led to a state law that says no owner of an Ohio professional sports team that plays most of its home games at a tax-supported stadium can go elsewhere without an agreement with its host city or unless the host city is given six months’ notice with an opportunity to buy the team.

Democratic Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and members of the city council have threatened for months to invoke the “Modell Law” to prevent the Browns from leaving their current location, where the lease runs through the 2028 season. The city plans to remake the so-called “North Shore” with an eye toward accessibility, economic development and environmental protection. The team has filed a constitutional challenge to the law, and the city sued it back.

Meanwhile, the clock for allocating dollars toward the project is running down: Lawmakers face a June 30 deadline to finalize the state budget for the next two years.

Governor and House have different funding ideas

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget proposal called for raising the $600 million by doubling the tax on sports betting companies from 20% to 40%. The idea was to create a long-term revenue stream that could help both the Browns and the Bengals, and other teams.

“The governor’s plan goes beyond one team,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said. “The general revenue fund can’t afford that. Therefore, we need to look at something that is more sustainable and can help all the teams.”

The GOP-led Ohio House, however, rejected DeWine’s plan in a vote last week. Its version of the operating budget calls for issuing $600 million in general obligation bonds to pay for the Browns project instead. Paying off the bonds would cost the state about $1 billion over 30 years.

House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart told reporters that the “metrics” of bonds are better for Ohio taxpayers because officials project that tax revenue from the Browns’ “megaproject” will be ample to cover the $40 million a year it will take to repay the bonds.

Senate must work through the opposition

As the Senate takes up the bill, it must weigh opposition to the current plan from all quarters: DeWine, the city of Cleveland, the Bengals, legislative Democrats and Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, who is running to succeed DeWine next year.

“Ohio is getting ready to spend more money on a new stadium in one city for one football team than it will spend on new highway construction for the next two years in the entire state,” Yost wrote in a recent Columbus Dispatch op-ed. He called state money for the project a “spendthrift gift to a billionaire.”

House Democrats unsuccessfully fought to pause the funding proposal altogether, citing unanswered questions about revenue projections, economic impacts and commitments by private developers. Cleveland Rep. Terrence Upchurch told reporters that lawmakers have more important priorities than helping the Browns’ owners, “especially since they only won three (expletive) games last year,” referring to the team’s 3-14 record.

A fellow Democrat in the Republican-supermajority Senate has proposed prohibiting public dollars from going to any professional sports franchise without a winning record in three of its five past seasons.

___

AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cleveland contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.