BEREA, Ohio — We don’t know if the Cleveland Browns will stay downtown or build a new stadium in Brook Park, but one thing is clear: the Browns have plans for a $200 million mixed-use development near their headquarters in Berea.
The Browns have accumulated several acres in a mostly residential neighborhood around their headquarters, which is home to the team’s offices and is where the team practices and hosts training camp. The team has cleared dozens of homes and is getting close to breaking ground on something new.
Browns Spokesman Peter John-Baptiste said this week the plans could include a hotel and a mixture of office space, retail and housing. The new development may also include a new recreation center and community fields for youth sports.
“We’ve seen this trend in the NFL where facilities are being used as catalysts for development within their community,” John-Baptiste said. He said the Browns plan to follow that trend by beginning construction before 2024 ends.
John-Baptiste said this would expand the team’s current campus by about 16 acres, roughly doubling the Browns’ Berea footprint.
Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said it’s an opportunity to do “something exceptional” in a neighborhood that needs it.
“From my perspective this would be transformative in whatever form it takes,” Kleem said. “We know it’s the Browns. It’s not going to be something we wouldn’t be proud of.”
Exact details of the Browns’ plan are unknown, but an application that the city of Berea made for state funding shed some light on what the team is planning to build.
According to that application, the Browns’ development could include a hotel, sports medicine facility, apartments, a dormitory for Baldwin Wallace University, restaurants and a parking garage. The development would be paid for with $206 million of private investment, according to the application.
Berea is asking for $15 million of state funds; $5 million for a new recreation center and $10 million for a multi-purpose sports field that would be used by the city, Berea schools and Baldwin Wallace. State funding is only being sought for the public parts of the project.
The city would lease the recreation center and would have a joint-use agreement for the field, according to the application.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Matt Dolan, whose district includes Berea, declined to weigh in on the project but said the state senate will finalize its list of projects to support in “a couple of weeks.”
The Browns’ Berea footprint
County records show that the Browns now own dozens of properties mostly west and south of the training facility.
Most of these properties were residential homes that have since been demolished. And while one undemolished home sticks out and remains unsold on country records, the owners told cleveland.com they’ve also agreed to sell. The Browns have been demolishing homes in the area since 2021, according to city permits.
The Browns also bought and plan to demolish the former Serpentini Collision Center on Front Street. And the team has paid to build Mount Zion Baptist Church a new building about a mile away.
There’s also city-owned property at Front Street and Second Avenue that could become part of the development, Kleem said. The Browns training facility lease with the city-owned training facility runs through 2039.
John-Baptiste said this Berea project is separate from Browns’ stadium plans.
The Browns’ Berea project has flown under the radar with most people wondering whether the Browns will renovate their existing stadium on Cleveland’s lakefront or build a new stadium on 176-acre plot in Brook Park.
Cleveland.com previously reported that the team has proposed to state lawmakers a $2.4 billion domed stadium on former Ford property in Brook Park or a $1 billion renovation of their existing lakefront stadium.
Kleem said the team hasn’t submitted any construction plans to Berea yet. The Brook Park site, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, is about a 10-minute drive away. The Browns had built their current facility in 1990, moving from a smaller space at nearby Baldwin Wallace.
The Browns’ purchases in Berea are in what is often called the “north end,” a neighborhood Kleem said was particularly hit hard when Norfolk Southern and CSX bought and divided up Conrail in the late 1990s. It sent more trains through Berea, which at the time did not have the Front Street bridge that let drivers pass over the tracks.
Kleem said the neighborhood was hurt by the increased train traffic, and while other businesses left or closed. A new development could help fill city needs, like a new recreation center and a lack of fields for youth sports, but it could also open up more opportunities for the northern section area of town.
Statehouse reporter Jeremy Pelzer contributed to this report.
Sean McDonnell is the business reporter for cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. You can reach him at smcdonnell@cleveland.com.
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