Park Synagogue Redevelopment

CDA has provided a loan to help plan the redevelopment of the 28-acre Park Synagogue campus in Cleveland Heights. The plan will focus on education, the arts and intergenerational connectivity. The congregation relocated to its new campus in 2005 and worked with Sustainable Community Associates (SCA) to develop a plan to preserve and reuse the property and the main synagogue, the historic Mendelsohn Building. The structure is one of four synagogues in the United States designed by German-Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn and is considered a midcentury modern masterpiece. The campus has 118,000 square feet of space spread among six buildings. SCA went through a master planning process funded by The Cleveland Foundation. The concluded project vision is that the campus will be redeveloped as an intergenerational campus, serve a broad civic purpose with multi-family and aging-in-place housing, a public park and a new home for arts and culture institutions. The proposed first phase is the renovation of the Mendolsohn building, and there have been discussions with Oberlin College to lease the space for an extension of its BFA program. SCA will acquire the property and expects to take title at the end of October.