WAS THIS $1,000,000.00 RTA PROPERTY PURCHASE NECESSARY?

On March 1, 2007 Realneo carried this report about the RTA’s million dollar purchase of a wasted 7 story mill building at 6611 Euclid Avenue [1]. The RTA purchased the building from Cleveland’s DeGeronimo family for a million dollars.

According to the RTA’s James DeRosa, the RTA had to purchase the building because the design for the new Euclid right-of-way for the RTA buses demanded additional street width – and the only way to get the necessary street width was to buy the entire derelict mill building at 6611 Euclid and demolish one bay on the Euclid Avenue side of the building.

After the RTA purchased the building from DeGeronimo, the RTA also hired the DeGeronimo owned company Precision Environmental, to construct a metal stud/metal facade to close the demolished face of the building [2] which had been left for months with no safety railing or other fall prevention barrier.

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Saturday, out of curiosity, I stopped and measured the distance between the remaining face of the building and the new wood rail fence – a distance of about 24 feet at the narrow(west corner ) of the building.

Presently, the remaining bays on the Euclid side of the building (perpendicular to Euclind) measure about 20 feet deep (center to center on the columns) so it is reasonable to assume that the bay which was demolished was also about 20 feed deep.

Maybe I am missing something, but I don’t understand why the building was purchased by the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority (RTA).

Does anyone have photos of the face of the building before the demolition?

I'll check Google Earth and Street View...

The remaining shell of the building and the lot is for sale..