UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan said that, as University Square is re-developed into its next life as Bell Tower Center, the first thing to open at the site may well be the Urban Air Adventure Park that will be located in the former Tops grocery store building facing Warrensville Center Road.
There are currently Urban Air Adventure Parks in Westlake and in Akron. The Westlake park offers such attractions as trampolines, a rope course, climbing walls, go-cart tracks, and more that can be seen here.
“They (Urban Air) hope to be open (in University Heights) next fall,” Brennan said. “With University Square, we’ve been talking about the 206 market-rate apartments; we’ve been talking about mixed-use and how there’s going to be retail underneath (the apartments); we’re talking about a new restaurant coming where the Applebee’s was; but it could very well prove to be that the first thing we actually see is this adventure park.”
Brennan said he had his first meeting with Urban Air representatives in April. He has been hinting for several months about the coming of an entertainment business to University Square as part of its redevelopment, to be undertaken by Kowit & Co. Real Estate Group.
“One of the things I love about this (Urban Air coming to University Heights) is that, University Heights being in the heart of the east side, families are going to come here to have fun.”
That, he said, will also bring business to other local stores.
Of Urban Air, Brennan said, “It’s going to have party rooms, it’s going to have climbing walls — just active family entertainment. Kids can jump and climb and have a birthday party. You’re not going to have to drive all the way to Westlake or somewhere else to have family fun.”
Brennan said Urban Air will operate a 58,000-square-foot facility in University Heights, which is about one-third larger than the Westlake location.
Urban Air will be one of several development activities taking place in the immediate couple of years in University Heights.
Along with the redevelopment of University Square, an Aldi grocery store is working to demolish and move to the site of the Waterstone Professional Building, 14100 Cedar Road; John Carroll University is planning to build its five-story Gateway North project, featuring first-floor-retail and 99 student dwelling units, at Warrensville Center Road and John Carroll Boulevard; and the administration and City Council are proceeding with planning for new municipal facilities in and around the current city hall site, 2300 Warrensville Center Road.
Council approves Gesu project landscape plan
Work will also be taking place at Church of the Gesu, 2470 Miramar Blvd., where, among other things, plans call for an outdoor worship area.
Landscape architect Michael Supler, president of New Vista Enterprises, appeared before City Council at its meeting Monday (Oct. 21).
Supler said the landscape plan, approved without dissent by council, is considered the first phase of the project.
He said that the biggest part of the project, near the school building, is adding the outdoor worship area where services will occasionally be held when weather is warm. It will have a raised altar with thermal bluestone flooring. There will also be bench walls for Mass attendees.
Near the administration building, plans call for adding a bench wall on the patio. Another part of the plan is adding an outdoor prayer area with a circular bench wall at which a teacher may hold a class accommodating about 26 students.
“They’re trying to just use more frontage and do more outside,” Supler said.
Ornamental fencing will also be added from a corner of the church to the city sidewalk, and across to the school’s entry drive.
“One of the biggest parts of this is safety for the kids,” he said. “There’s a lot of traffic on Miramar (Boulevard), especially at school time.”
The first phase is already funded by a school campaign drive.
The outdoor worship area, which will accommodate about 70 worshippers, will include a sound system, but Supler said that if there are a few people in attendance, it won’t be used during early morning hours.
The city’s Architectural Review Board will next examine the building plans.
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