Looking for more visible signs of improvement in Cleveland, Neighborhood Progress, Inc. around 2004 shifted part of its community development focus to a more intimate scale. NPI helped build or renovate 5,500 homes and channeled millions into neighborhood development in the last decade, but found it could have a greater impact by investing with a more strategic approach.

“We wanted to focus resources on areas of the city that had the greatest opportunities for market recovery,” explains Bobbi Reichtell, Senior Vice President for Programs at NPI.

As a result, NPI launched its Cleveland Strategic Investment Initiative, which winnowed the focus from projects by dozens of community development corporations (CDC) to just six. After an open RFP process, they selected Cleveland’s Tremont, Detroit-Shoreway, Slavic Village, Buckeye, Fairfax and Famicos (south Glenville) neighborhoods based on the strength of existing projects. These neighborhoods identified or had existing projects from which they wanted to build. The shift should result in nodes of activity rather than diffuse the impact in smaller, far-flung projects.

For example, in Fairfax a historic moment is taking shape as the Cleveland Clinic explores development south of its campus, into its surrounding neighborhood. The Clinic announced its plans this year for a Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center (GCIC) on Cedar Avenue as an anchor tenant in a $30 million development owned by Fairfax Renaissance. The latter, a CDC, is proposing new town homes and NPI paid for a market study. The larger goal is to build off the momentum of the development and create a reinvestment zone along the residential E. 100th Street, Reichtell says, adding that the Clinic might tap a $5 million homeownership assistance fund for green home renovations and maybe even street improvements.

Not far away, Famicos is infilling amenities such as playgrounds and housing around Heritage Lane on E. 105th Street, while over on the west side, Detroit-Shoreway is tapping $50,000 a year for grants to refurbish homes around the Battery Park development in the W. 76th to W. 73rd area. Tremont is using their support to help build mixed-income housing around the Hope VI Valleyview housing redevelopment, and Slavic Village is working on Towpath Trail connections near new housing at Morgana Run being developed by Zaremba.

“The idea is to build model blocks around anchor projects,” Reichtell says, “and to repopulate the neighborhoods within these model blocks.”

NPI and the Cleveland Foundation are discussing ways to tie the Strategic Investment Initiative into Greater Cleveland's pilot LEED-Neighborhood Development projects, especially at Upper Chester and St. Luke’s, which NPI is developing in the Buckeye area. The goal would be to grow the model blocks into green neighborhoods.

One step toward this is NPI and the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative's work with the six neighborhoods on designing land reutilization plans. With GIS maps and market data that NPI already funded, CDCs could prioritize areas for future development and green space. They might guide decisions on which properties to demolish and offer support for new uses of their vacant land, such as splitting lots which could lead the way to pilot projects such as green cottages or community gardens.

“We’re working on new collaboratives to get the CDCs outside of building and get new organizations involved in public art, youth programs, walkability audits," Reichtell says. "Or at the micro level they might design and cost out a small greenspace, or bioremediation of large urban sites. This can all become part of Cleveland’s sustainability plans.”