The I-X Center as Clevelanders know it could be going away, but a new industrial business might move into the massive warehouse that was long home to the I-X Indoor Amusement Park and countless boat, auto and garden shows.
A representative of the center’s operator and a city official said that a major company is considering the site next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport for a new facility supporting more than 200 jobs and $23 million in payroll. They didn’t name the business, which they described as a “Fortune 100” company, when presenting at a Cleveland City Council committee hearing Monday.
Council on Monday approved a 49-year lease extension with the I-X Center Corp., which operates the building. Long owned by the Park Corp., the operating company was sold in 2021 to Industrial Realty Group in partnership with Industrial Commercial Properties.
The operator would sub-let the building to the business looking to move in. Austin Semarjian, ICP’s executive vice president, told council that the longer lease term would give the new tenant “comfort that they have a long-term home here.”
The unnamed business would take over the center’s million-square-foot exhibition space.
That was a sticking point with Ward 8 Council Member Michael Polensek, who would later join Ward 16 Council Member Brian Kazy in voting against the measure.
“The I-X Center has become a destination place for a lot of events and venues,” Polensek said. “So you’re telling me there’d be nothing out there ever again?”
“That’s correct,” Cleveland Chief of Integrated Development Jeff Epstein replied. He added that the downtown convention center could host shows that previously went to the I-X Center.
The I-X Center is part of a complicated set of land deals and litigation between Cleveland and Brook Park. Although Cleveland owns the building, Brook Park receives tax revenue from it.
Of the 2.5% income tax levied on jobs at the site, 2% goes to Brook Park and 0.5% goes to Cleveland, according to Epstein.
But if the 200-job business moves into the I-X Center, the new lease says that Cleveland would receive the equivalent of another 1% income tax, Epstein said. After 16 years, that amount increases to 1.5%.
Another piece of the lease extension gives Cleveland control of almost 69 acres around the I-X Center that is either empty or currently part of the parking lot. The city could use that land for the airport or other development, Epstein said.
The deal would reduce the operator’s rent from $2.7 million annually to around $2.2 million to account for the loss of land. The rent would increase every five years with inflation.
