Former Regal Cinemas, now closed and parking lot empty.
Who We Are
The Severance Action Group (SAG) was born in early 2021 as a sub-committee of the Future Heights CDC and has since evolved into an independent citizens committee.
The mission of SAG is to work—ideally in close cooperation with the City of Cleveland Heights Mayor, his Staff, and City Council—to identify the most viable options and strategic partners for the transformation and redevelopment of Severance Town Center, a grossly underutilized and deteriorated retail mall site from the 1960s that now adversely impacts the community as a whole.
Meet the members of SAG.
Severance in its heyday, with the iconic fountain.
Severance Town Center
Severance is the largest single developable property remaining on the near-east side of Cleveland. It is in the heart of a community with a strong focus on cultural events and venues, and demand for both market rate and lower-cost housing with single-floor living for our geriatric population.
It has good public transportation connections that are easily expandable with all of Cleveland's major cultural, educational, and sports facilities as well as the employment, dining, and shopping opportunities not just within Cleveland Heights but also in University Circle, MidTown, and Downtown.
Images: Original bustling Severance (1960s) with juxtaposed Severance Now on top. The sign has many places that are no longer in business.
Cleveland Heights
Cleveland Heights itself is a progressive, highly diverse, and largely residential City of over 40,000 people situated just east of Cleveland with a strong focus on the arts as well as marvelous access to the medical, educational, and cultural heart of NE Ohio at University Circle, the resurgent MidTown corridor and downtown Cleveland. SAG has taken the lead in the effort within Cleveland Heights to regain control of the Severance property, assemble a superb development team, and resurrect Severance from its present nearly blighted state into a vibrant center for the City.
City Hall was deliberately cited at Severance to support the mall property.
The property already incorporates a successful supermarket and a large DIY store, both of which serve a diverse clientele and are within easy walking distance of any residence at Severance. We wish to retain both. In addition, the Cleveland Heights City Hall and Police Department are located at the NW corner of the property, underscoring the City’s commitment to Severance and the safety of the location for both residents and visitors.
A New Vision
In pursuing this revitalization SAG has concluded it should not recommend—for what we believe to be good market, demographic, and geographic reasons—straightforward traditional development approaches such as rebuilding Severance as a retail center or simply clearing the mall and building a mixed-use residential community although we believe there is unmet demand for single-floor residences for the elderly and that broader residential development is economically essential.
Instead, we hope to leverage the investment and momentum from the MetroHealth Cleveland Heights Medical Center expansion of its behavioral health facilities and services recently completed at Severance. Some key aspects of that expansion include $42 million in capital investment for a new 3-story, 79,000-square-foot building connected to the original facility and renovation of 21,000 square feet within that facility. Target patient medical issues to be addressed by the center include dementia, elderly with depression, mood disorders, and suicide—all serious problems in our aging population. We see the hospital, along with potential medically oriented educational institutions and senior living as the long-term anchors for the revitalization effort.
Totally vacant westside of current property
Within SAG and consistent with the Vision of the new City Government of Cleveland Heights, we see the 60+ acres comprising the Severance property inside Severance Circle as being developed around two pillars, the first being the hospital and medically focused higher education, and the second being an environment-embracing walkable village encompassing significant green and public spaces and having a substantial residential component including market rate, affordable and single-floor rental and owned properties. A secondary possibility could reserve some space to house state-of-the-art R&D and light manufacturing of medically oriented products and services. In either case, Severance would then become the eastern bookend of the MetroHealth embrace of Cleveland and the MidTown Corridor, complementing the western bookend at the W. 25th Street MH campus in Cleveland proper.
Takeaway
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, along with its new City administration Cleveland Heights is an engaged community ready to make a transformative change at Severance.
SAG is currently beginning the process of getting public input on and support for revitalizing Severance and for the proposed conceptual basis for that transformation.
MEET THE TEAM
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Larry Nowak
HEAD OF THE SEVERANCE ACTION GROUP
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Wendy Waldrop
MARKETING COORDINATOR
