CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Faced with a court order to raze or repair a historic building, an out-of-town landlord is pitching a new, single-story retail project topped by 28 feet of digital billboards in downtown Cleveland.

The L&R Group of Companies, a parking-lot operator based in California, hopes to knock down the vacant Herold Building, a four-story structure on Prospect Avenue near East Fourth Street. The building forms the easternmost edge of the block where the term "rock n' roll" was popularized, helping to establish Cleveland's place in the annals of the genre.

Documents submitted to the city's planning department show that L&R aims to replace the Herold Building and a neighboring parking lot with new construction. Plans show a single-story retail building, comprising 7,500 square feet, supporting a Times Square-style cluster of flashy billboards facing Prospect and East Fourth.

Representatives for L&R are scheduled to make their case for demolition at a downtown design review committee meeting Thursday and a City Planning Commission meeting Friday.

"We are absolutely gung-ho insistent on going forward to redevelop the property," said David Mayo of the Benesch law firm, which represents L&R. That position marks a change in approach for the parking company, which has been marketing its downtown Cleveland properties for sale and has shown little interest in making investments here.

RP Realty Partners, a company related to L&R, does focus on retail projects and mixed-use properties. But those investments often are much larger -- 100,000 to 600,000 square feet -- than this downtown site, a 0.19-acre corner now occupied by a small building and a handful of parking spaces.

L&R's plans face significant hurdles, including resistance from nearby property owners and zoning that prohibits new billboards downtown. City officials have said they favor a complete redevelopment of the block, which includes the historic Record Rendezvous and Kendel buildings, just west of the Herold Building.

"Our preference is that this entire block of Prospect be rehabilitated and reused," Bob Brown, the city's planning director, said Tuesday. "We view this as a critical block connecting the casino complex with East Fourth Street."

L&R's proposal comes less than a month after Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka ordered a company affiliate to clean up the Herold Building or clear the site. That order, which gives L&R until March 15 to start work, resulted from litigation between the property owner and the city.

Cleveland sued L&R last year, in an attempt to force the company to restore the Herold Building. Attorneys for L&R pointed out that there are two ways of addressing problems at a condemned building -- fixing it up or tearing it down. But those attorneys believed the Planning Commission was predisposed to vote against demolition. So when the city sued, L&R tried to achieve its goals through the court.

In January, Pianka granted summary judgment on various claims in the case, dispensing with the need for a trial. In his order, the judge essentially instructed L&R to follow the city process -- and to do it fast.

The Planning Commission will have to consider two questions. First, is the building worth saving? And second, does L&R's plan for the site make sense?

Built in 1906, the Herold Building housed Kurtz Furniture, the Clock Restaurant and Downtown Eddie's over the years. The building's unusual black glass facade, added in 1948, reflects a Depression-era modernization movement that swept the country.

In court filings and interviews, L&R's representatives have argued that the building is not significant. And they say restoring the Herold Building, by itself, doesn't make financial sense. An analysis prepared for L&R puts the price of a full rehabilitation at $4 million. Demolition might cost an eighth of that, based on what the city spent to raze the nearby Stanley Block building in 2012. The costs of a new project are unclear.



Last year, the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp. had the building added to the National Register of Historic Places. That designation doesn't protect the building, but it makes the property eligible for federal and state tax credits for historic preservation.

Thomas Starinsky, the Gateway group's associate director, said the demolition and proposed single-story building clash with the district's master plan, which the Planning Commission approved in several years ago. The group isn't opposed to new construction, but Starinsky described L&R's vision as "a missed opportunity," one that fails to make the most of a high-profile site.

City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who represents most of downtown, also seemed skeptical.

"In concept, do I support something happening there? Yes," he said. "But from what we can tell, it's a one-story spec building. If that's what it is, I cannot be supportive of that. Has there been a tenant named that's going to go in there?"

David Bowen of Richard L. Bowen + Associates Inc., the architecture firm working on the project, did not identify specific tenants during a Tuesday interview. He said the building could hold restaurants or retail space, building off energy from the nearby Horseshoe Casino Cleveland and the eateries and entertainment venues that line East Fourth Street.

Regarding the billboards, Bowen compared the concept to displays in New York, Las Vegas, London and Shanghai. He envisions the digital advertising as a downtown landmark, akin to the giant chandelier planned for PlayhouseSquare.

"What we show in the image is basically a bunch of advertising," said Bowen, a Planning Commission member who will recuse himself on Friday. "But it could be a lot more than just that. It's a constantly changing kind of interest to have in downtown Cleveland."

The city is not permitting any new billboards downtown, so the L&R project would require a zoning change. Property owners can erect signs advertising on-site businesses, but any advertising for off-site products -- like, in the L&R renderings, Nike, Pepsi and local sports teams -- falls under the billboard restrictions.

"We haven't taken a position on this yet," Brown said of the city's planning department. "But I can tell you that there will be scrutiny at the design review and planning commission meetings over whether it is appropriate to have a one-story building on a block where most of the other buildings are four-story in height. And the building proposed to be demolished is four stories in height."

Rob Namy of Weston Inc., a local real estate company that bought the neighboring Record Rendezvous building in 2012, said Tuesday that he hadn't seen L&R's plans. But he bristled at the billboard idea and questioned how demolishing the Herold Building might impact the stability and redevelopment prospects of the rest of the block.

Weston and Bobby George, a real estate and restaurant investor, have been trying to buy L&R's properties and the Kendel Building for a restoration project that would include apartments and retail.

Now, it appears, L&R is moving in a different direction.

"We recognize demolition, but it has to be for something substantial and something that's real," Cimperman cautioned. "From what I know and what I've seen, I'm not sure that we're there right now. We're obviously willing to work with them, but this might not be the right plan at the right time."