University Hospitals is moving to demolish an entire block of century-old homes on East 115th Street near Little Italy, a plan that would clear 15 houses and one apartment building to make way for undetermined future medical use. The properties stretch nearly the full length of East 115th Street between Mayfield Road and Cornell Road, south of Euclid Avenue, and many have sat vacant for years after utilities were cut off.
According to Cleveland.com, University Hospitals acquired nearly all of the properties from University Circle Inc. in 1985 and rented them out for years before the block fell into disrepair. The health system says it wants to clear the land “to continue growing and serving the community,” though it has not determined a specific future use for the site, with that use ultimately expected to be based on the clinical needs of University Hospitals patients. Cleveland.com reporter Rich Exner notes that the demolition timetable remained unclear as of this week, and the plan has not yet gone through the city's approval process.
The homes, which likely date back to the early 1900s, include single-family houses ranging roughly 1,600 to 2,200 square feet alongside a castle-like brick apartment building at 2032 East 115th Street. The structures feature Shingle Style architectural elements such as shake siding, leaded glass, dormers, and bay windows, according to a detailed community account of the block's condition. University Hospitals has said it plans to salvage and repurpose parts of the homes rather than simply scrap them outright.
A Nonprofit Caught in the Middle
Not every building on the block is empty. Transplant House of Cleveland, a nonprofit that offers temporary housing and support services for organ transplant patients and their families, operates out of a duplex and small apartment building on East 115th Street, including its address at 2029 East 115th Street. The state application submitted by the Cuyahoga County Land Bank reportedly listed all but two of the properties as vacant, and per that same application, the 16-unit apartment building and duplex are on month-to-month leases.
Adam Stalder said demolitions to the two occupied properties might not move forward, leaving the nonprofit's fate on the block still unresolved. University Hospitals confirmed, per the state application, that the property will be vacated before the anticipated project start, which the land bank listed as July 15, 2026 — a date that has already passed without clarity on what happens next for the transplant families the nonprofit serves.
State Grant Money Fuels a Local Fight
The demolition push is backed by public money. On July 17, 2026, the Ohio Department of Development awarded $11.9 million in statewide demolition grants for blighted properties, and the Cuyahoga County Land Bank received a $220,000 slice of that funding specifically to demolish the 16 University Hospitals-owned structures. The grant application ties directly into a broader pattern: at least 12 of the homes have had their utilities cut off since December 2022, a timeline that community members trace on Reddit as evidence the block was allowed to deteriorate before the demolition request went in.
Roy Pekoc has criticized the planned demolition of the homes, joining a wider chorus of neighborhood voices who say the block's decline followed a familiar pattern. This is not the first time University Hospitals has proposed clearing this stretch of University Circle. In 2006, the health system abandoned a plan to demolish the historic 1853 Cozad-Bates House, the oldest surviving structure in University Circle, after public resistance led by Restore Cleveland Hope — the home instead was donated to University Circle Inc. and opened in 2021 as an Underground Railroad interpretive center. That building sits at Mayfield Road and East 115th Street, adjacent to the block now targeted for demolition.
City Approval Still Pending
Because the demolition involves government grant funds, University Hospitals will need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission before any building permits can be issued, per the city's own review process. That approval has not yet happened, leaving an open window for public hearings and community input before any structures come down.
The University Hospitals proposal echoes a similar move by Cleveland Clinic, which in August finalized a land swap along Cedar Avenue and East 93rd Street to demolish five two-family residential structures for a 120,000-square-foot emergency department expansion, as Hoodline previously reported. That deal also provided expanded land to a charity offering patient family lodging, a rough parallel to the uncertain fate now facing Transplant House of Cleveland.
The block's future is also tangled up with separate infrastructure plans already underway nearby. Cleveland's Mayor's Office of Capital Projects is designing an $11 million to $12 million streetscape and safety overhaul along Wade Park Avenue that includes a proposed mini-roundabout at the East 115th Street intersection, slated for construction in 2027, as Hoodline detailed in its roundabout coverage. Meanwhile, both Cleveland Police and the University Circle Police Department, Ohio's oldest institutional police force, share law enforcement authority over the corridor, coordinating safety programs with nearby Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School.
For now, the 16 structures remain standing, their fate hinging on decisions still to come from University Hospitals, the Cleveland Landmarks Commission, and the fate of the families still living and staying on the block.
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