Cuyahoga County Council unanimously approved a $300,000 community development grant for African Town Plaza, a planned $9 million commercial and residential redevelopment of the long-closed, historic YMCA Cedar Branch in the Fairfax neighborhood.

“To have this developer come in and redevelop this building for a multi-million-dollar project is a godsend to this community,” District 8 Council Member Pernel Jones, Jr. said. “It fills a void. The developer has talked about an opportunity for mentoring of individuals to be developers like himself.”

The developer is James Sosan, a former telecom engineer turned developer who purchased the former Y, at 7515 Cedar Ave., in 2023. A Nigerian immigrant, Sosan told Crain’s Cleveland in December that African Town Plaza will include 20 apartments, a cultural event center and commercial kitchen in the gym and offices in the converted pool area.

The first Cedar Branch YMCA was built on the site in 1879 and was the first in the city to welcome Black and white men, according to Green Book Cleveland. The current building was erected in 1942. The YMCA sold it to Temple Baptist Church in 1987, according to the blog NEOtrans. It’s been vacant for about 12 years.

NEOtrans also reported that African Town Plaza earned a $1.7 million Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit in December. Cleveland City Council plans to support the project with tax increment financing legislation. The county also intends to offer a $450,000 loan.

This will be Sosan’s second revival of a closed YMCA branch — he redeveloped the former West Side Y into apartments, according Cleveland Development Advisors, which is also backing the project. Sosan was also behind the Metro Lofts in Tremont and the Detroit Lofts in Ohio City.

Federal funding for solar projects back on — for now

The council also voted unanimously to approve an agreement with the City of Painesville to accept more than $80 million in federal funding for a solar energy project — if the money isn’t revoked again.

“This is the grant that disappeared out of our account when the Trump administration froze [the funding] on a Tuesday” in January, said Council Member Sunny Simon. “It’s come and gone a couple times but it’s here and we’re hoping to continue on with this project. It’s value is just immeasurable.”

The funding — from the Biden administration’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants — was halted in January, then restored, then frozen again in February, then restored once again days later, according to Cleveland.com.

The plan is to replace the city’s coal-burning power plant with a 35-megawatt solar power facility on part of the former Diamond Shamrock property and a 10 MW battery storage facility, according to the News-Herald. Coal plant workers would be retrained to work at the solar facility. The project also involves reforesting 80 acres of land and adding meadow and pollinator habitats to 400 acres.

Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland are to receive $30 million and $20 million, respectively, to build solar facilities on other brownfield and landfill sites as part of the same federal grant.

Read the meeting notes from Documenter Andrew Kenneson: