Foundry

Developers want to build an aquaculture center and farm, called The Foundry Project, on a vacant site at E. 71st and Platt Avenue in Cleveland,

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

J. Duncan Shorey is a determined, imaginative entrepreneur. His idea to convert the dilapidated T&B Foundry in a run-down section of Cleveland into a mix of interlocking businesses is a laudable melding of old and new.

If successful, the proposed Foundry Project would help transform a neglected neighborhood, create jobs and serve as inspiration for others looking to be part of a broader Cleveland renaissance, making green from "green."

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The first phase of the project includes a fish farm to raise branzino for sale in parts of the United States and Canada. And if everything goes according to plan, the fish waste would become fertilizer for on-site greenhouses and an orchard.

Elsewhere on the triangular lot at East 71st Street and Platt Avenue would be a bunker housing computer servers that feed off a nearby fiber-optic trunk line to offer data storage to local businesses.

And here's one of the cool parts: Waste heat from the data servers would be transferred to the fish farm.

The foundry's six-story office tower, which still stands, would house studios for artists -- such as dancers or glass blowers -- a cooking school, a live fish market and a high-tech incubator.

It's a bold and creative plan -- near the path of the proposed Opportunity Corridor and made possible, Shorey said, by the Cuyahoga Land Bank, which helped dispose of $1.8 million in liens on the property. Shorey is familiar with the site from his days as an environmental compliance officer with Oglebay Norton Corp., a former foundry owner.

The same kind of imagination is going to be required if other forgotten sections of Cleveland are to start enjoying the fruits of the city's turnaround -- which has largely been centered in downtown Cleveland, University Circle and the near West Side.

According to Shorey, potential investors have urged him to take his project elsewhere, but he said his mission, besides making money, is to apply sustainable techniques to revitalizing Cleveland.

He's getting close to securing the $4.5 million needed for Phase One, he said, but there will be more fundraising to come. The return on investment, for those willing to step up, might be measured both in both dollars and in civic pride.