City Grill

Andrew Hudak
Regional Vice President
A.M. Higley Co.

“The construction industry in Cleveland is healthy right now. We have a lot of work in the market,” Hudak says. “Although we’ve seen some project starts being delayed due to interest rates, most of our institutional clients are pushing forward with their projects. I don’t necessarily see that changing in the next year though the crystal ball is a little unclear after that.

“One area targeted for proposed redevelopment is the Port of Cleveland, which is on Lake Erie at the mouth of Cuyahoga River. That’s being master-planned for large development,” he says. “Then, on the river, there’s a massing of multiple properties that Bedrock Development has purchased and put together. They are planning a major redevelopment of that whole stretch of the river. It’s [a proposal for] a lot of work-play, live-play apartments, businesses, entertainment, restaurants and things like that.

“In addition, the Cleveland Browns have proposed a renovation of the existing 25-year-old stadium on the lakefront. Probably the biggest project right now is the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters. That’s a $600-million project and its currently in construction,” he says.

The expansion of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is really exciting. We are putting the deep foundations in so it’s really early in the project.

As for changes in regulations, the new [city] administration came in and they really revamped and tightened up the community benefits agreements that dictate such items as spending on minority, female and other diverse business initiatives. It changes the way we have to contract—it is definitely changing for the better. It’s requiring more focused attention on offering opportunities to grow some of our small and diverse businesses in the Cleveland market.

A trend I am noticing is that the design-build model is becoming really popular in this region. Fifteen years ago I remember having conversations with people about design-build being utilized on the West Coast, but nobody here really trusted that model. We’re starting to see it in a number of different market verticals –multifamily, healthcare, hospitality, even some forms of education. Even our Rock & Roll Hall of Fame project is design-build. We’re seeing institutions that want one shop. They want to go to one place.