As Cleveland State University faces a possible $40 million deficit, it’s also racking up a backlog of maintenance costs.
Officials tell Signal Cleveland the university holds about $350 million of deferred maintenance on its buildings. Ohio lawmakers recently earmarked roughly $16 million for Cleveland State from the capital budget to help on that front.
Three of Cleveland State’s most iconic buildings are also in need of some help. Read on to see what interim CFO Kelly Tompkins recently told employees about the current status of Fenn Tower, Rhodes Tower and the Wolstein Center.
Cleveland State’s Fenn Tower
The 22-story Fenn Tower, located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and E. 24th Street, was purchased by Cleveland State’s predecessor Fenn College in 1937.
It’s been a dorm in recent years. But now, there’s a fence around the Art Deco building. Tompkins told staffers it will be offline for “at least” the next academic year.
“It’s been assessed by outside engineers that it is structurally not safe to put people in,” Tompkins said at a July 9 town hall meeting.
He went on to say that the building is not going to fall down, but students can’t live there. Costs could clock in at a “range of many millions” depending on if the university would want to minimally repair it or do a major overhaul. The university currently owes about $17 million against the property.
Fenn Tower’s faced trouble before. Cleveland State considered tearing down the building in the 1990s, according to a 2012 Cleveland Plain Dealer piece. Instead, the university reportedly invested $20 million into it for renovations.
Cleveland State’s Rhodes Tower
Tompkins’ predecessor, former CFO David Jewell, described ambitious plans to potentially overhaul Rhodes Tower to Signal Cleveland earlier this year. It included adding a grand glass entrance on Chester Avenue and space for up to 500 students to live.
Now, Tompkins seemed to suggest that those plans could be moving forward in some capacity thanks in part to Fenn Tower being uninhabitable. The university is potentially looking to turn Rhodes Tower into a new freshman dorm.
“Rhodes Tower might become more of a probability than a possibility,” he said. “Not saying [that] for sure, but you have to look at the two together.”
That hinges on the university being able to secure various funding sources. Tompkins told employees that departments currently in that space wouldn’t have to worry about being displaced for at least the next six months if renovations go forward.
Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center
The 33-year-old Wolstein Center is home to the men’s and women’s basketball program. It has also hosted the National Guard’s 2021 COVID-19 community vaccination clinic, concerts, and other events. It used to also house the G-League’s Cleveland Charge, but the basketball team is moving to Cleveland’s Public Auditorium.
Tompkins said Wolstein’s fate largely depends on the future of Cleveland State’s athletic programs. Cleveland State officials told Signal Cleveland its Division I athletics department “has been assessed for required budget savings as part of CSU’s overall review of programs and budgets across the university.”
“We know it’s an aging building,” Tompkins said. “It’s always going to need some maintenance issues. We’re going to obviously keep the building in as good of operable condition as we can while we make longer term decisions.”
Jim Marino, an associate professor in the English department and vice president of the university’s faculty union, detailed it differently to Crain’s Cleveland Business in April.
“The Wolstein Center has been a money-loser since it was built,” he told Crain’s. “This is well known. It’s a big ol’ money barbecue. Just throw dollar bills in there and the coals are very hot and they burn away.”
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