Great Lakes Brewing and Fred Geis Partner for Riverfront Plan

Crain's Cleveland Business reporter, Stan Bullard discusses a potential Great Lakes Brewing Co. project that may go into the real-estate development recipe book that the new owners of that key Scranton Peninsula land are writing for the riverfront site.

A more potent mix of ingredients for a real estate development in the Flats near downtown at the confluence of the trendy Tremont and Ohio City neighborhoods usually would be hard to imagine.

However, such is not the situation. Some insiders have suggested the 25-acre site might be joined with others to create a potential 100-acre parcel for Cleveland's nascent bid for Amazon HQ2. The Seattle ecommerce giant publicly launched a search Sept. 7 for a location for what it described a second North American headquarters.

For the craft brewer that built a national name near the West Side Market, it's an early discussion on a needed expansion it is not sure it will undertake. That's the word from Bill Boor, Great Lakes CEO.

"We're at a very preliminary phase," Boor said in a Friday evening, Sept. 15 phone interview. "It's one of many project sites we're looking at. We're not committed to it at all. We're looking at it closely with Fred Geis and his team at what a project could be if we choose to go forward. We've been encouraged by the discussions."

Boor said Great Lakes, which sells beer in 13 states, is considering building a new brewing and bottling operation because it sometimes nears capacity at its Market Square complex during its peak season from October through Christmas. It had been considering other sites he would not identify for expansion when the Geis brought the Scranton Peninsula site to its attention.

However, the Scranton Peninsula location would be more expensive than a typical industrial parcel but would offer the opportunity for what Boor described as a "customer experience" combined with meeting the needs of Great Lakes for expanded brewing capacity.

What such a project would consist of, how much it might cost and where it might go on the land the Geis group owns are all unknown at this point. Boor emphasized some companies decide to do a project and go get a site while Great Lakes is asking itself a more basic question.

"Are we ready to stick our necks out in a market that is pretty competitive?" Boor said. "Here is really interesting project when we just want (expanded) operations."

Thomas McNair, executive director of Ohio City Inc., said his group is working with Great Lakes and hopes the company can find a way to meet its expansion needs in the city of Cleveland.

The nonprofit neighborhood group has been assured Ohio City's pub at Market Square would remain at its location if large-scale brewing operations are relocated, McNair said.

"They are a great partner," McNair said of Great Lakes.

Before craft brewing became the national sensation it is today, brothers Pat and Daniel Conway in 1986 launched the craft brewing firm in what was a seedy neighborhood with a long-term trickle of redevelopment activity. That beginning is far different from the trendy go-to place West 25th Street is today. Boor said he was returning messages left for Pat Conway.

Geis could not be reached on two calls to his cell phone, including one after his voice mailbox was cleared to accept messages. He also did not return a message left on the voicemail of Maura David Maresh, in-house counsel at Hemingway Development LLC, where Geis is a partner.

On the Scranton Peninsula land, Geis is a partner with Matthew Weiner, a Savannah, Ga.-based attorney,  and Jesse Grant, a senior vice president with CBRE's Cleveland office who has, as a sideline, developed townhouses in Tremont.

Weiner and Grant have said Weiner is the point of contact for the trio, which bought the mostly vacant site on Scranton Peninsula Aug. 1 from Forest City Realty Trust of Cleveland.

Weiner did not return an email and phone call about the Great Lakes talks by 7 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16.

Although the Scranton Peninsula site is viewed as mixed-use, Weiner has declined to talk specifics while the group has a land planner working on concepts for it."