Manager, Midline (Cleveland)

Cleveland is reactivating roughly 200 new-to-market acres of long-vacant industrial land on its near east side into The Midline — a greenway and business district that will become one of the largest urban redevelopment projects underway anywhere in the country. When complete, The Midline will include a 350-acre business park with 21 development sites, up to 1.5 million square feet of real estate, generating 2,500 accessible jobs, and $1.3 billion in annual economic impact, connected by a 2+ mile trail and 9.5 acres of new public open space serving 115,000 residents within a 15-minute walk, bike, or transit ride. The Cleveland Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund (Site Fund or SRF) — backed by the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland Foundation, and the region's economic development ecosystem — is seeking an entrepreneurial builder to serve as Manager of The Midline and take ownership of pulling this ambitious project together and keeping it on track.

This is a rare opportunity for someone to guide a signature project, sitting at the center of a generational, place-based redevelopment effort — working directly with a mayor, city council, a philanthropic foundation, and a coalition of public and private partners to convert legacy urban industrial land into jobs, wealth, and vitality for one of Cleveland's most under-invested neighborhoods.

About the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund (SRF)

In June 2023, Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland City Council dedicated $50 million of the City's American Rescue Plan allocation to seed a $100 million site fund charged with bringing 1,000 acres of underutilized brownfields back into productive use. Since then, working in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation — where the SRF’s corpus is held as the Samuel T. Wellman Site Readiness Fund — and partners including KeyCorp and the Rockefeller Foundation, the SRF has grown its available capital pool to $85 million and leveraged an additional $20 million of cleanup and planning capital from other sources. SRF has aggregated over 350 acres throughout the City of Cleveland, with nearly 90 acres shovel-ready today, and — with partners — has built a deal pipeline of roughly one million square feet.

SRF identifies areas of the city with promise for industrial redevelopment, works with the Cuyahoga Land Bank to acquire and assemble parcels, prepares sites for development through demolition, remediation, and infrastructure, engages surrounding neighborhoods on desirable end uses define development criteria, and markets properties to companies and developers.

About The Midline

The Midline is the Site Fund's most advanced and prominent initiative, and Cleveland's largest-ever industrial redevelopment project . It is a collection of 21 legacy sites of 10-35 acres on Cleveland's near east side, situated between Downtown Cleveland and University Circle — one of the most economically challenged parts of the city, and also one of the best-connected, with access to the Health Tech and Opportunity Corridors, Bus Rapid Transit and three fixed-rail lines, multiple interstates, an active freight line running through the site, and a labor shed of nearly 100,000 potential workers.

The concept pairs a production-oriented business district with a four-mile multi-use greenway and new public open spaces running the length of the project area, developed in partnership with LAND studio. Anchored by the 180,000-square-foot 7000 Central building, soon to host a modular housing manufacturer, this business district is focused on production-oriented, job-dense end uses in the food & beverage, advanced manufacturing, biomedical, and other target sectors. The Midline have sites that serve a range of companies from established companies with hundreds of employees to startups and R&D space.

The Midline's strategic priorities are workforce opportunity, connectivity, sustainable innovation, placemaking, and community wealth-building, implemented through tools like TIF districts and community ownership models so that redevelopment creates lasting benefits for neighborhood residents, not just new jobs. Key partners include the City of Cleveland, Cleveland City Council, Cuyahoga County, the Cuyahoga Land Bank, the Cleveland Foundation, KeyCorp, the Rockefeller Foundation, Team NEO, the Ohio Department of Development, LAND studio, the Fund for Our Economic Future, Burten Bell Carr Incorporated, Midtown Cleveland, and Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation, the surrounding neighborhoods’ CDCs.

Position Summary

The Manager is the person who makes The Midline happen. Site aggregation and remediation, business-district positioning with target-sector companies and developers, community engagement, and bringing the greenway to life are each led by specialists — SRF staff and outside consultants who bring deep expertise in brownfield redevelopment, industrial real estate, green space development and neighborhood engagement. The Manager's job is different: to integrate all of these workstreams into a single, coherent project, keep it moving at pace, and be the person everyone — from City Hall to the community to prospective developers — turns to for a clear picture of where things stand and what happens next.

This means extensive, ongoing interaction with city departments — Planning, Economic Development, Capital Projects, and Utilities — as well as with City Council representatives and a wide range of civic, philanthropic, and community organizations. It means representing The Midline publicly and credibly to national and international developers and companies. And it means doing all of this within a small, high-trust team that carries the backing of the Mayor, City Council, Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland Foundation, and Cleveland's broader economic development system — a small team punching well above its weight.

Key Responsibilities

Project Integration & Master Planning

• Own and continually update the master plan and timeline for The Midline, spanning land assembly, remediation, workforce development, business development, greenway/placemaking, and financing — and make sure the pieces stay synchronized.
• Serve as the day-to-day point of integration among SRF staff, consultants, and outside partners, resolving conflicts and sequencing decisions so the project keeps moving even when individual workstreams hit friction.
• Act as lead point of contact for funders tied to specific grants and awards supporting the project, ensuring deliverables and milestones are met. One important task in the first year will be to oversee the management and reporting related to a large Department of Transportation grant that has funded much of the Midline planning in collaboration with an outside partner.

Site Assembly, the Business District & Developer Support

• Coordinate closely with SRF's site acquisition and development staff to track parcel assembly and remediation progress across the 21-site business park.
• Develop site concepts for the Midline, setting forth a vision for what kinds of development are most suited for which parts of the Midline (e.g., large footprint, flex space, R&D, public spaces) and translating that into marketing materials.
• Work with the SRF Site Readiness Manager to ensure sites are fully shovel ready, including entitlements, permitting, zoning, and more.
• Help shape and oversee the business-development strategy for target sectors — food production and nutrition-related R&D initially, with potential expansion into advanced manufacturing, biomedical, and other sectors — adjusting as market findings warrant.
• Serve as a resource to local, national, and international developers and companies considering The Midline, working alongside SRF staff and business development partners . This may include running a global RFP process in collaboration with a real estate advisory firm to select a master developer for the Midline.

Greenway & Placemaking

• Partner with LAND studio on the design, interim activations, and phased delivery of the 2+ mile greenway and 4 public spaces, ensuring business district and neighborhood needs are reflected in trail and park planning.
• Advocate for and advance the Midline as a world-class business district with high standards for building architecture and site plans as articulated through design guidelines and in-progress zoning requirements.
• Implement landscaping strategies to improve perception and conditions of vacant industrial land within the district, translating placemaking objectives into RFPs and managing landscaping work and maintenance.
• Guide the creation of a permanent greenway governance and operating structure.

Engagement: Community, City & Civic Coordination

• Engage Cleveland City Council members whose wards touch the project, and coordinate with the multitude of civic and philanthropic groups with a stake in the Midline's success.
• Work with SRF's community engagement leader to build authentic relationships with neighborhood residents, City Council members, and community stakeholders — translating community input into decisions about trail design, business uses, workforce pathways, and community wealth-building.
• Help coordinate environmental sustainability planning with partners such as Cleveland's Office of Sustainability, Cleveland Public Power, and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, including