Battery Park

By Richard Raponi

Battery Park Townhomes The Battery Park development will incorporate multiple housing styles such as family homes, townhomes, and loft apartments; the project is scheduled to be completed in four phases. Plans for the residential neighborhood also include the creation of two parks and access to the lakefront. Photograph courtesy of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Battery Park is an urban redevelopment project in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood located on W. 73rd Street and W. 76th Street. Laid out in a "U" shaped design, the $100 million development overlooks Edgewater Park and is surrounded by what has sometimes been dubbed the West Side's "Little Italy." The upscale residential enclave was built on the site of the Eveready Battery Co.'s old Edgewater Plant, which originally opened in the 1890s. Canadian-born engineer Lewis Urry, who worked at the Edgewater Plant, invented the modern alkaline dry battery (which became branded much later as Energizer) in 1956 at Eveready's research center in Parma. The plant on the site of Battery Park produced batteries until the late 1980s and thereafter became a battery-testing facility manned by a much smaller workforce. The facility closed permanently in 1999. Battery Park is currently the largest housing development in the City of Cleveland.

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Battery Park and Residential Development Gerald Meyer, former member of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, discusses Battery Park and residential development in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. Source: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection

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Battery Park Groundbreaking Battery Park was the first major housing project constructed in connection with Cleveland's Lakefront Plan. Adopted by Cleveland's City Planning Commission in 2004 as the Waterfront District Plan, the local government actively promoted shoreline development between Edgewater Park and Gordon Park as a means to help transform and revitalize the city. Providing tax abatements and infrastructure development, the City provided support to the site's developers - Vintage Development Group - in the planning of the proposed 325 unit development. Vintage Development Group also consulted with local organizations and offered community meetings in an effort to incorporate the existing neighborhood into the planning process. Photograph courtesy of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Eveready Plant Pre-Demolition Battery Park was built on the site of the Eveready Battery plant. This research facility and factory had up to 20 buildings on the 14 acre site prior to the plant being closed in 1978, with all operations shutting down in 1997. Photograph courtesy of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Powerhouse Smokestack As both a reflection of and memorial to the site's history as a manufacturing plant, the Vintage Development Group plans to renovate the Eveready Powerhouse as a restaurant, market, and community center. Photograph courtesy of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Eveready Battery Co. Plant Cleanup: Dennis Kucinich Speaks at Public Meeting Following the closing of the Eveready Battery Co. plant, the sale and development of the site was postponed as documentation emerged that toxic metals and volatile chemicals were found in a waste pit. In part through the efforts of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, this documentation was made public and the Environmental Protection Agency intervened. These events prompted Eveready to perform a voluntary cleanup of the site. Photograph courtesy of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Battery Park Neighborhood Classified as a Planned Unit Development by the City of Cleveland, flexible zoning regulations were applied to Battery Park in an effort to promote creative site design. This type of relaxed zoning enabled developers to work with challenges such as contaminated zones, while providing the opportunity for mixed-use development that incorporated multiple building types and green spaces. Photograph courtesy of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Location

7524 Father Frascati, Cleveland, OH 44102

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Citation Info

Richard Raponi, “Battery Park,” Cleveland Historical, accessed June 6, 2023, https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/118.

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