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.  

Lorain Avenue has had its share of promise in the past year or so.

In April, RTA announced funding for a bus rapid transit line study for the Ohio City/North Olmsted corridor.

And last week a second update to the Lorain Midway, a two-mile cycle track that would extend from West 65th to the Hope Memorial Bridge, was unveiled to the public, plans lush with comfy tree lines and protected pathways. It would provide the street with a much-needed makeover, one that pairs nicely with zoning updates to emphasize transit-oriented development across the city.

Plans that have now made their way to the McCafferty Center Building off West 42nd and Lorain, a clinic controlled by the Cleveland Department of Public Health. Instead of offering Covid shots and STI tests and other low-cost care, the almost two-acre site, the building on which is underutilized, will be soon lined up for the development of affordable housing.

Which is okay with Department of Public Health chief Dave Margolius.

While McCafferty has for years been a rock in the neighborhood for reproductive health services and vaccines, Margolius said he “also recognizes that housing has a tremendous impact on health.”

“[We] are pleased be part of a process to create more opportunities for affordable housing,” he added in a press release, “in a neighborhood that needs it.”

Ohio City’s Strategic Plan in 2019 suggested the neighborhood could use at least 600 more units of housing, “including the approval of” some 60 units of affordable housing. Most of the recent additions to that stock have covered more of the need for the former rather than the latter.

Redoing, as the city says, a “largely-underutilized” block corner with a 53-year-old building that’s only a quarter occupied is a no-brainer route towards achieving those elusive affordable housing goals. For seniors. For those who can’t afford four-figure rents. For those who need to stay in the neighborhood. Ground floor uses could include spaces for non-profits and social service agencies.

Adding affordable housing stock has Councilman Kerry McCormack’s intention for years: the chance to give older Clevelanders and lower-income folks a chance to stay in Ohio City as the neighborhood changes and property values climb.

“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,” McCormack said via a press release. “I appreciate the hard work of city staff and look forward to future community engagement to ensure this is the best project possible.” (He did respond to a call Wednesday.)

click to enlarge

Mark Oprea

McCafferty’s new future pairs nicely with the street’s probable conversion into the Lorain Midway.

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A mentality that denizens  of Ohio City might agree with.

Though there’s some neighborhood hesitation with the Lorain Midway—namely due to its threat to on-street parking spaces—and concerns about development in general, McCormack’s call for public input, even just for one building, should help avoid neighbors at loggerheads. And it may help align the councilman’s own push for suitable housing for seniors.

And just simply allow for a new building in general, one that will better match the future of the street.

“It’s pretty dingy and dated inside. I mean, they’ll have to tear it down ’cause the condition of the building is not great,” Whitney Anderson, 37, who owns a home across the street from McCafferty, told Scene. “And so, I mean, I imagine it would be more expensive to try and rehab into housing.”

Not, Anderson clarified, another Welleon. “With so much market rate housing being built in the area, I think having the balance is really essential.”

As for McCafferty’s asset to the less fortunate, the future is a little more nebulous. Margolius told Scene that CDPH has “some leads” as for a new West Side location, but hasn’t signed anything. Because a developer wouldn’t be lined up for another year or so, Margolius said “we have a little time to find the perfect fit.”

Just as it would for patients themselves.

“I’m not sure what I’d do, not sure what I’d do,” Don, a cancer patient in his sixties in a multicolor leg cast, told Scene sitting in a wheelchair on the corner of 42nd and Lorain.

Though Don said he’s only been to McCafferty for healthcare “a few times” in the past three years, he said the move further west, even just a few blocks, prove a hurdle. Especially when, as a homeless man, he relies on hygiene materials from the shelter across the street.

“Is it close by?” he asked. “If not, we’ll see.”

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