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The long-empty Fifth Church of Christ Scientist, at Lake Avenue and West 117th Street in Cleveland, is slated for demolition. But a block-wide development plan recently stumbled, when Giant Eagle pulled out as the anchor tenant for a shopping center on Clifton Boulevard.

(John Kuntz, Plain Dealer file)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Giant Eagle has pulled out of a planned shopping center on Cleveland's West Side, throwing the future of a gateway block to the city - and the fate of an empty, historic church - back into limbo.

City officials and real estate developers confirmed this week that Giant Eagle recently abandoned plans to open a Market District Express on Clifton Boulevard, at West 116th Street. The small grocery store would have been the first of its kind in Ohio and the main attraction at the Shoppes on Clifton, a retail strip proposed by the Carnegie Cos. of Solon.

The collapse of the deal is another setback for a neighborhood that has seen a myriad of redevelopment plans surface, and subside, during the last two decades. This year, it finally seemed as though something might happen on the block bounded by West 116th and West 117th streets, Clifton and Lake Avenue.

In May, the Cleveland Landmarks Commission gave the city permission to dismantle the well-known Fifth Church of Christ Scientist on Lake, at the Lakewood border. With the city-owned church gone, Cleveland would have traded some land with Carnegie, which controls most of the block. That swap would have laid groundwork for new shopping along Clifton and a cluster of high-end townhouses on Lake.

Giant Eagle was planning a 31,000-square-foot, two-story Market District Express store at Clifton Boulevard and West 116th Street.

Now, in light of Giant Eagle's decision, public officials and private developers are regrouping. Peter Meisel, a Carnegie principal, said the company is searching for other potential anchor tenants. He wouldn't identify any prospects.

"We continue to believe that a retail development on our Clifton site is viable," Meisel wrote in an email.

A city spokesman said Cleveland is committed to working with commercial and residential developers to produce a "high quality project" on the block.

"The process of considering a new express supermarket store from Giant Eagle involved an extensive series of discussions with various stakeholders ... to create a plan that best addressed the dynamic and complex nature of the project," spokesman Daniel Ball wrote in an emailed statement. "Unfortunately, Giant Eagle informed us that the company was unable to arrive at a viable financial outcome that would enable the store to successfully service the community."

Giant Eagle wouldn't say much about its reasons for dropping the project. In an email, marketing manager Dan Donovan thanked the city, Carnegie and nearby residents for the opportunity to pursue a store in the neighborhood. Echoing the city's language, the Pittsburgh-based grocer said it was unable to reach "a viable financial proposition" for the store on Clifton.

"As a privately held company, we do not provide financial details regarding potential store locations or other business activity," Donovan wrote in an email.

The 31,000-square-foot Cleveland store, a two-story building in an urban setting, would have been an unusual one for Giant Eagle. The company's traditional supermarkets are at least twice that size. Its upscale Market District stores require up to 130,000 square feet on more than 20 acres. So far, Giant Eagle has opened only one Market District Express, in Pennsylvania.

Developer Andrew Brickman, working with Dimit Architects, proposed 11 townhouses that would incorporate pieces of the deconstructed Fifth Church in their facades. The church's entry arch would anchor a small park at the southeast corner of Lake Avenue and West 117th Street.

City Councilman Matt Zone, whose ward includes the Edgewater neighborhood, said the grocer couldn't get past the high costs and logistical complexities of building and operating the Clifton store. He stressed that Giant Eagle's decision wasn't about demographics, since the site sits on a busy street in a densely populated area, surrounded by people who have money to spend and who want more places to shop.

Zone said he is recruiting a replacement anchor tenant for the site and is referring all prospects to Carnegie. He also is talking to Giant Eagle about removing cumbersome deed restrictions from the Fifth Church property.

A Giant Eagle affiliate owned the church until 2002, when the company handed the dilapidated building off to the city. At that time, Giant Eagle still operated a store on Clifton. To prevent a competitor from moving in, the grocer placed deed restrictions on the church that make it difficult to build a sizable grocery store on the block. Those restrictions will stay in place until late 2022, unless Giant Eagle agrees to lift them.

"I have strong assurance from Giant Eagle that they're willing to lift the deed restriction," Zone said. "I don't have anything in writing, but they have certainly intimated that to me, for sure. That's something we're working on."

Meanwhile, Fifth Church will continue to stand watch, silently. Zone said he won't let demolition start until a new retail anchor emerges and Carnegie's shopping-center plans solidify.

The hitch is causing some angst for developer Andrew Brickman, who hopes to build 11 townhouses along the northern edge of the block after the church building falls. Working with Dimit Architects, he proposed a cluster of homes that would feature salvaged stone and decorative features from the church, incorporated into their facades. The church's main entry arch would become the freestanding centerpiece of a small park at Lake and West 117th.

"We have three reservations already for the project and are anxious to move forward with it," Brickman said. "We're just unfortunately in a position where we have to wait for the city and [Carnegie] to work out their deal before ours can go forward."