CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland State University on Thursday unveiled a 10-year, $650 million master plan showing how CSU could grow and boost the city’s economy by making smarter and better use of land within its 85-acre campus on the east flank of downtown.
CSU enrollment was averaging 16,000 to 17,000 before the coronavirus pandemic, but has dipped since 2020 over difficulties in retaining students, Jewell said. The university is now intent on building back in order to strengthen itself, and downtown. Jewell said it was reasonable for an institution with an annual operating budget of roughly $300 million to consider spending just over twice that amount on long-term construction projects.
Jewell said the project has been awarded $21 million from the state’s capital budget and could start construction within 12 to 15 months. “It’s a critical piece of our identity,’’ Jewell said. “It’s still a workhorse. It’s on the skyline.’’Demolition of the Wolstein Center has been under discussion at least since 2016 when the university said it was considering replacing the facility with a smaller arena and with housing.
Jewell said the new athletic and entertainment complex could help generate off-campus real estate development nearby in the Superior Arts District, where Cross Country Mortgage is building a $46 million headquarters in a renovated industrial loft building. Safety would be improved at major intersections through curb extensions or raised crosswalks designed to calm traffic.
Jewell said the new plan was initiated under Harland Sands, the immediate past CSU president, and carried on by Laura Bloomberg, who succeeded Sands in April.