Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said the state's decision to scrap plans for a mental hospital on Euclid Avenue, while also closing its Southpoint Drive facility, won't be good for residents as well as redevelopment efforts in MidTown.
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View full sizeThe planned mental health hospital was part of the revitalization of Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The state is abandoning plans to build a mental health hospital on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, a building that had been considered a cog in the revitalization of Midtown Cleveland.
Instead, the state announced Friday that it would renovate the main campus of Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare in Sagamore Hills Township to save at least $30 million.
The state also will close its Cleveland campus on Southpoint Drive and consolidate those services at the campus in northern Summit County, said Tracy J. Plouck, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health.
MetroHealth Medical Center, which is adjacent to the Southpoint Drive facility, has been in contact with the state to acquire the property.
Plans for the 14-acre site on Euclid -- on East 59 to East 61 streets between Euclid and Chester avenues -- were scraped because of "delays and site issues that have prevented purchase" of the land, Plouck said in a news release.
The decision disappointed city officials, who have already spent millions of dollars on the project and expected to see 200 new jobs.
Mayor Frank Jackson said residents will suffer.
"I am disappointed that the state has decided to remove valuable behavioral health services from the city of Cleveland which will create a hardship to Cleveland residents in accessing the treatment they need and remove nearly 200 jobs from the City," Jackson said in a news release.
The city had already assembled land for the $90 million project and would have met all of the state's condition's for the project by April, as both parties had agreed, said Chris Warren, chief of regional development for Jackson.
Trudy Sharp, spokeswoman for the mental health department, said the conditions were supposed to have been met by the end of 2009.
Cleveland officials say the state's real motivation is a last-minute effort to save money -- and at the city's expense.
Cleveland has spent more than $4.1 million on land assembly and environmental cleanup, only $398,000 of which was state money, Warren said. The city also budgeted nearly $1.4 million more for the project at the state's request.
Warren said state officials told them only in the last two days plans had changed in an attempt to save money.
"That is a different rationale than we didn't have the site ready," he said.
City officials hope the state will reconsider, but Sharp responded, "No, the decision has been made."
Because of delays, Sharp said, the cost of building on Euclid Avenue would have been $100 million, or $10 million more than originally allocated. The Summit project will only cost $60 million, she said.
Added Plouck in a news release: "The move will stretch dollars for inpatient care at ODMH's state-run regional psychiatric hospitals and still ensure access is maintained. We expect to save the state $4 million within the first year based on conservative estimates."