In the late evening of Jan. 24, at the Marquee Apartments on the corner of Cedar Road and Lee Road a fire broke out, gutting the mixed-use campus, which erased millions of dollars of private revitalization at the heart of the City of Cleveland Heights.
Though the facade of the burnt structures has been standing since the fire broke out, the city has decided to make a change. On March 19, Jessica Schantz, director of communications for Cleveland Heights, announced that “demolition of the Cedar Road-facing building, which was severely damaged in a fire on Jan. 24, is to begin.”
Schantz also announced the schedule for the demolition, which has now been underway for almost three weeks. From March 19 to March 21, equipment was staged and final plans were completed. Starting last week, the northeast corner of the campus’s residential building was demolished, followed by the northwest corner.
This leaves, as of now, the least-damaged half of the building standing for either future renovation or further demolition. Either course would be hard to accomplish for Flaherty & Collins, the construction development company that led the construction in 2023 and 2024.
At the time of the fire, Davida Russell, vice president of the Cleveland Heights City Council, asserted that the Cedar Lee district would be repaired and that “we will rebuild.” Confirming this, Khalil Seren, mayor of Cleveland Heights, asserted that “We are relieved and excited at City Hall… that the process to rebuild the portion of the Marquee at Cedar Lee destroyed in the fire is underway.”
Seren stressed the need for swiftness in the rebuilding process to return normalcy to the heart of the city. Seren added, “Many feared that we couldn’t get to this point in two to five years, but the city and the developer were united in their dedication to eliminating the blight and rebuilding swiftly.”
Besides the added effect of allowing the space to be constructed again into mixed-use residencies that serve to add a new class of renter-residents to Cleveland Heights, there would be the added benefit of reopening sections of Cedar Road which, due to its proximity to the building, has been closed for months. After demolition and safety checks, the stretch of road from Goodnor to Lee would again be accessible to traffic.
This, as a result, would allow for the reopening of many businesses, including the Wendy’s of Cleveland Heights, which has been closed since the fire. Also, Arthur Treacher’s, whose grand opening has been delayed since January, was able to be reopened.
Though the loss of this residential and business campus at the heart of the Cedar Lee district has been detrimental to the progress of Cleveland Heights, it seems both the team behind the construction and the whole City of Cleveland Heights is behind the demolition project. This will allow growth to begin again from the ashes of the Marquee Apartments and for the people of the city to start anew