The City of Berea is working toward a sale of city-owned land to the Cleveland Browns Football Company for a price of one million dollars.
This potential sale is part of the Browns’ plan to develop the area they call “District 46,” a reference to 1946, the team’s first year of operations. The team aims to create a community campus on the north end of Berea and needs to purchase five acres of land from the city to do so.
According to the City of Berea’s website, this new campus would include a sports medicine facility, a hotel, mixed-use apartments, retail stores and a community sports field.
Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said that the area would likely be not only for team use, but also for the public and other clients.
Kleem also said that the community sports field would be of potential interest to the city and schools since it would be a “multi-purpose” complex. He estimated that it would be about as large and seat as many people as Baldwin Wallace University’s George Finnie Stadium.
“We [the City of Berea] obviously would have an interest in it for our little league teams,” Kleem said. “The schools may have an interest for their Friday night games… BW could use it if they need extra field space, whether it’s football, lacrosse, soccer, anything.”
Kleem also said he expects retail outlets, such as stores and restaurants, to be available for the public, as well as the apartments, which would be for any tenants.
Kleem said that the five acres provided by Berea would only be a portion of the Browns’ massive 200 million dollar project.
Kleem also said that this is not related to the potential of a new Browns stadium complex in Brook Park, since District 46 has been “in the works for many years, long before that came about.”
At a Berea City Council meeting on Feb. 19, Director of Economic Development Matt Madzy laid out the development agreement and discussed tax implications with Council members.
Madzy explained that, in exchange for certain tax incentives for the Browns, the City of Berea will receive four annual payments of one million dollars from 2026-2029.
Additionally, according to a financial recap document presented at the meeting, Berea will make an estimated 22.2 million dollars over the next 15 years from the combined sale of city-owned land, permit fees, the four one million dollar payments, a two-year lease extension on land that houses the Browns’ facilities, and income tax from apartments.
“This has major economic significance for the City of Berea,” Kleem said. “I think what we establish with the Browns is going to impact us financially in a positive, significant way.”
Kleem said that there are still many votes and approvals that need to happen over the course of the next few months, both on the city’s end and on the Browns’ end. However, if everything goes quickly and smoothly, Kleem said it is possible development could begin as early as this fall.
