From cable TV shows to busy downtown streets, food trucks are all the rage these days. Yet short of firing up a Winnebago or launching a fleet of food trucks, owners' growth plans are limited by size. "It's such a small space, everything has to be done more frequently," complains Jae Stulock of Umami Moto, which dishes out Asian fusion cuisine to hungry lunch crowds and late night revelers everywhere.

Stulock's solution? First, he found an unused kitchen in the Agora Thea... Read more >

What's the cumulative impact of Cleveland's 200-plus community gardens, 20-plus farmers markets and 60-odd acres of urban land that have been tilled and planted for a future harvest?

That's an as yet unanswered question, says the City of Cleveland's new Sustainability Chief, but one she hopes to glean serious answers to in the coming year. Billed "The Year of Local Food" by Sustainable Cleveland 2019, a grassroots, city-led movement to employ sus... Read more >

Contractor Matt Berges loves it when he hears that home energy prices are going up. Nope, he doesn't own stock in utilities -- he just knows that ever-rising heating and cooling costs will jolt the market for making homes more energy-efficient.

Berges earns his living by retrofitting older homes and building new homes to ultra-green standards. He's banking on the fact that rising energy costs will make construction of innovative passive homes like the SmartHome at... Read more >

PlayhouseSquare's latest string of successes may be a tough act to follow, but a Cleveland real estate developer is willing to try. A newly-consummated deal to convert a prominent office building into 102 apartments will fuel the growth of this arts-rich neighborhood, which in recent years has also welcomed two major theater renovations and new restaurants.

K&D Group, the largest privately-held owner of apartments in Northeast Ohio, has inked a deal with the nonpr... Read more >

A public hearing by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the City of Cleveland's permit application for a proposed waste-to-energy plant drew a large crowd to Estabrook Recreation Center on Monday night. Despite the city's promises that the new plant will effectively turn trash into treasure -- in the form of synthetic gas that can be used to create electricity -- many attendees said that environmental concerns and scant communication have left them with a lon... Read more >

At the end of last year, Indian-born entrepreneur Radhika Reddy launched Ariel International Center, a one-stop shop for international business development in Northeast Ohio. Located in the former Leff Electric Company building on E. 40th Street, the 100-year-old warehouse with solid brickwork and rough-hewn wooden beams is being refurbished to support this decidedly 21st century venture.

“We offer shared international services for companies that want to locate here... Read more >

To tap into demand for affordable yet professional office space from local start-up businesses, two local entrepreneurs have kicked off 2012 by opening a new shared workspace, Cowork CLE, in a decommissioned Ohio City firehouse.

“Meeting clients at Starbucks can get old; we offer a more professional setting,” says Emmett McDermott, who has partnered with Graham Veysey of North Water Partners, a video production company, to launch the 1,000-square-foot space on... Read more >

Completing the last five-mile leg of the Towpath Trail into Cleveland might be taking longer than it took to dig the entire Ohio and Erie Canal, whose 100-plus mile span was carved out by hand in just two years in the 1820s. Yet thanks to a recent $500,000 grant from the State of Ohio, the trail is inching ever closer to its final destination -- Settlers Landing Park in the Flats.

The grant from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, along with $3 million that was recei... Read more >

Despite its long-suffering reputation, Cleveland's real estate market seems just fine to Kosta Almiroudis, an entrepreneur who moved last year from New York City to Lakewood to revive dilapidated old apartment buildings for fun and profit. In the past year, he has bought, renovated and fully leased more than 50 once-vacant units.

"I come from a village in Greece that has a 1,300-year-old castle," says Almiroudis, whose wife's family also lives in the Cle... Read more >

Mike Kubinski is positively full of holiday cheer. The co-founder of CLE Clothing Company, known for its funky, Cleveland-themed T-shirts and other apparel, just quit his day job and opened a new store at E. 4th and Euclid in downtown Cleveland. Since the venue opened just in time for Black Friday, it's been flush with visitors.

Kubinski's new apparel shop also is a big, fat present to Cleveland. Bearing the catchy slogan "Spreading Cleveland pride one T-shir... Read more >

When Ohio Department of Transportation  (ODOT) officials recently asked business leaders from across the state to rank their region's planned infrastructure projects by importance, the Greater Cleveland Partnership ranked the West Shoreway project as the number one priority for Northeast Ohio.

For City of Cleveland Planning Director Bob Brown, that's one more reason why ODOT's numbers don't add up. The state agency gave the city zero out of ten points... Read more >

The City of Cleveland, Neighborhood Progress Inc. (NPI) and ParkWorks recently launched ReImagining Cleveland II, a $1 million push to fund sideyard expansions, vacant lot beautification, and market gardens in Cleveland. They hope the program will improve vacant land, enhance local communities and further green the city.

"In a city like Cleveland, rebuilding the housing market really means taking down bad houses and reclaiming vacant land," says Bobbi Reichtell,... Read more >

It only takes 10 minutes to walk from St. Vincent Hospital at E. 22nd Street and Community College Avenue to Cleveland State University on Euclid Avenue. Yet few people do it, in part because it is not a pedestrian-friendly experience. A new $4.2 million plan to redevelop E. 22nd aims to change that by creating a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly boulevard and green space that could spur over $100 million in new development.

"We really see E. 22nd Street as a spine fo... Read more >

A handful of U.S. cities have torn down or busted through the '60s-era highway walls that separate their neighborhoods from adjacent waterways. Despite critics' fears that such people-friendly projects will cause calamitous traffic delays, they often reap major economic, social and environmental benefits while adding only a few minutes to the average commute.

Cleveland's version of such a wall is the West Shoreway -- a homely, 2.5-mile stretch of concrete that... Read more >

Residents of Lyndhurst typically live 24 years longer than residents of the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland, according to a recent analysis by the Cuyahoga County Place Matters Team. This health disparity is why the group, in collaboration with the Saint Luke's Foundation, has launched a speaker series at the City Club of Cleveland focused on creating healthier communities in Cuyahoga County.

"It shouldn't matter how much money you have, your community should... Read more >

The City of Cleveland Heights has released a Request for Development Proposals (RDFP) that it hopes will lure new office space, jobs and tax revenue to the inner ring suburb. The city is asking for development ideas for a 39,000-square-foot parcel at Lee and Meadowbrook roads in the heart of the Cedar-Lee commercial district. Responses are due in January.

Given that two high-end condo projects proposed here in the mid-2000's never came to fruition, the city evidently ... Read more >

Valerie Mayen of Yellowcake, a fashion designer who became the poster child for Cleveland's nascent design industry after she appeared on Project Runway, will launch a nonprofit sewing studio to push the city's young talent into the spotlight.

The new loft studio, which is called Buzz and Growl, intends to offer work space, professional equipment, coaching and classes to young artists and entrepreneurs. It is located at 1400 East 30th Street in the St. Clair Super... Read more >

Dwellworks, a company that provides a suite of services for the relocation, real estate and mortgage lending industries, has announced plans to relocate its own corporate headquarters to the historic F. W. Woolworth building in PlayhouseSquare.

"We fell in love with PlayhouseSquare and wanted to be a part of the revitalization of downtown," says Gene Novak, CFO and Executive VP of Dwellworks. "It's hard to say enough about the reception and welcome we r... Read more >