A 107-year-old slice of Cleveland’s utility history is coming apart piece by piece along Ridge Road in Old Brooklyn. The hulking brick-and-steel FirstEnergy garage, a familiar backdrop for drivers cutting through the Stockyards area, is now wrapped in construction fencing as crews peel off exterior panels and gut interior systems so heavy equipment can safely finish the job. Once the structure is gone, the long-held Ridge Road yard will have a very different profile on the skyline.
As reported by NEOtrans, demolition crews have moved onto the property at 3601 Ridge Rd. and begun cleaning and dismantling the roughly 84,000-square-foot main service-center building so machinery can knock it down. The outlet notes that workers are tackling hazardous-materials removal inside the brick-and-steel shell first, while other structures on the site, including a nearly 50,000-square-foot metal storage warehouse built in 2012, are slated to remain even as the primary building disappears.
City files and permit tracking services put a price on the teardown: a demolition permit lists the work at about $6 million. Chieftain Trucking & Excavating is named as the contractor in permit materials, and public listings for Cuyahoga County and the Ohio EPA flag activity at the FirstEnergy Brooklyn Service Center address. Per Urbyn records, the project covers utility capping, debris removal, and land-disturbance approvals tied specifically to the site.
New center opened next door
FirstEnergy has not left Ridge Road, it has simply shifted to a newer address on the same parcel. NEOtrans reports the utility has finished a 105,000-square-foot, $22.1 million Brooklyn Service Center at the rear of the 32-acre property. The Ruhlin Company handled construction, while Brookpark Design Builders supplied the pre-engineered metal building system. According to city records cited by the outlet, a certificate of occupancy was issued in May, officially clearing the modern facility for full-time use.
A piece of Cleveland’s electric history
The Ridge Road yard traces back to the days of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., the local power provider organized in the 1890s that eventually became part of FirstEnergy. Case Western Reserve University’s Encyclopedia of Cleveland History details CEI’s 19th-century roots and long presence in the city, with sites like this one helping keep the lights on for generations. Permit activity over the past decade shows a steady stream of building and land-disturbance filings on the Ridge Road property, suggesting FirstEnergy has been updating the complex in phases. The current demolition will erase the historic brick main building while leaving newer maintenance and storage structures in place.
For neighbors and commuters, that means watching a long-familiar industrial outline shrink week by week as hazardous-materials abatement wraps up and the structural teardown continues. We will keep an eye on permit filings and public documents and will share updates if FirstEnergy or the city announces formal redevelopment plans for what is left of the Ridge Road giant.
