Mission Possible: CentroVilla25 will soon transform the area

The CentroVilla25 project is moving on to the next phase, with a grand opening scheduled for 2024.

CLEVELAND – CentroVilla25 hopes to be the heart of the Clark Fulton neighborhood with restaurants, businesses and venues dedicated to Hispanic culture.

The project is entering a new phase with the support of partners to turn the community into a destination in Cleveland.

“This is truly transforming our city to truly become a destination for the Hispanic community,” said Janice Contreras, executive director of Ohio’s Northeast Hispanic Economic Development Center.

CentroVilla25 is no longer just blueprints on paper, but will soon become a busy construction site. Converting a vacant warehouse in Clark Fulton into retail space, a commercial kitchen and a business innovation hub.

Moving from fundraising to construction, the groundbreaking will soon begin.

“It still seems a bit surreal to me that we are finally in the final stages of a project,” Contreras commented.

For Contreras, this project meant a decade of work. But for the area it was even longer.

“For over four decades, the Hispanic community has dreamed of a place where we could celebrate our culture, where we could grow our business,” Contreras said.

A space for new businesses, events, and community celebrations, the neighborhood has rallied around the project, with corporate and non-profit partners joining in.

Like JumpStart, which provides services, capital and connections to tech startups, they have helped create learning centers like the one in the Union Miles area. JumpStart has committed $750,000 over the next 3 years to create on-site services at CentroVilla.

“A dedicated resource focused on helping Latin American tech entrepreneurs launch their startups,” said Lorne Novick, Director of Services for JumpStart.

This is a very unique resource that doesn’t necessarily exist anywhere else in the Cleveland community at this point.”

The Sherwin-Williams Foundation also provides construction funding as well as training support and technical assistance to Latin American contractors.

“We know there are a lot of construction projects going on in the city, but we don’t have subcontractors to do all this work,” Contreras said.

Due to rising construction costs, CentroVilla25 will now cost $12 million. A big undertaking for a small non-profit, but vital to making the Hispanic community visible.

“It was important that we own the project,” Contreras said. “It was important that we designed it with the needs of the business owners in mind for the communities that need to serve.”

“This is what success looks like as growth and influence in the Northeast Ohio community,” Novik said.

In April, the warehouse turns into a construction site, the grand opening of which will take place in the summer of 2024.

“Our project is small compared to other projects under construction in our city,” said Contreras. “However, the impact he has will transcend generations.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The video above previously aired on 3News on March 5, 2023.

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