The nearly 50-acre campus that Notre Dame College left behind in South Euclid is about to become a hospital, a Jewish school and a new residential neighborhood all at once. Akron Children's Hospital, which won the property at auction for $8 million, is planning pediatric care facilities on part of the land, while a Cleveland Heights yeshiva prepares to move into the old Regina High School building and developers eye housing on the former dormitory grounds.
Akron Children's Hospital has earmarked 21.3 acres of the former campus for medical facilities, though the specifics of those pediatric care plans have not yet been finalized, according to Cleveland.com. Brian LaPolla, vice president of operations for Akron Children's, said the hospital system is not yet sharing details on what those facilities will look like, per the same report. The health system already operates urgent care, primary care, specialty care and surgery center locations in Beachwood and Mayfield Heights, and it is set to open a new primary care facility in Cleveland on November 3.
The South Euclid Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing for 7 p.m. Thursday to consider rezoning the property, which is currently zoned for single-family housing. Michael Love, the city's director of planning and development, has recommended approval of the zoning change and told the outlet he hopes the rezoning will be approved by the end of 2026 or in early 2027. Any individual redevelopment recommendations will still require separate city approval, and additional partners will likely join the process as the master plan takes shape, according to Love's letter cited in the report.
A Jewish School Moves Into the Old Regina High School Building
Part of the deal already has a tenant lined up. Akron Children's has signed an agreement for a portion of the property to become a Jewish school serving preschool through eighth-grade students, with the former Regina High School building planned as the new home of Yeshiva Derech HaTorah, a Cleveland Heights school that could relocate there as early as fall 2027. That building became part of the Notre Dame campus after Regina High School closed in 2010.
The yeshiva's path to the campus began earlier this year, when Yeshiva Derech HaTorah and developer Seven Wells LLC submitted a $7.5 million stalking-horse bid in federal court in April, establishing the floor price for the court-supervised auction, as reported by FreshWater Cleveland. Akron Children's ultimately topped that bid with $8 million on May 7, while the City of South Euclid also submitted a competing bid and was named the official backup buyer, the outlet reported.
Preserving the Campus's 98-Year-Old Heart
Akron Children's has said it is committed to preserving the historic former college administration building and the green space of the college quad, which together cover 7.3 acres, though the hospital system may not retain ownership of that section long-term. The administration building itself is 98 years old, standing four stories and 108,000 square feet. The broader campus also includes seven other buildings beyond the administration hall and the former Regina High School structure.
Residential housing is being considered for the former dining hall and dormitory side of the campus, an 11.7-acre stretch that Akron Children's may also not retain. That potential housing push lines up with South Euclid's broader momentum: city planning officials project nearly 200 new residential units across multiple infill projects by early 2028, which FreshWater Cleveland described as the suburb's largest housing construction boom since the 1970s. Hoodline has reported on a 41-unit project elsewhere in the city tied to that same housing revival.
From Women's Academy to Courthouse Auction
The campus's roots stretch back a century. Notre Dame Academy was founded in September 1922 on Ansel Road overlooking the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, and the Sisters of Notre Dame later acquired more than 40 acres in South Euclid, beginning construction on the new campus in 1926. The college held its first classes on the South Euclid site in 1928 and operated there until closing after the spring 2024 semester.
Notre Dame College's enrollment had collapsed in the years before its closure, dropping from 2,281 students in fall 2014 to roughly 1,050 full-time students in 2024, according to The Nubian Message. The college had secured teach-out agreements with nine regional schools, including Cleveland State University, Baldwin Wallace University and John Carroll University, to help displaced students finish their degrees, as reported by WYSO. By July 2024, the college was telling faculty and staff it had to temporarily delay final paychecks because of severe cash flow problems, Signal Cleveland reported at the time.
The path to Thursday's rezoning hearing ran through federal court. Bank of America filed a federal lawsuit in May 2025 seeking more than $20 million in unpaid bond debt from the college and asked a court to appoint a receiver to manage its real estate, according to court filings. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost separately filed a complaint that same month in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court alleging the college and 17 former trustees had unlawfully spent $2.1 million from restricted endowment funds without state approval to help satisfy its debts.
Part of a Bigger Expansion for Akron Children's
The South Euclid purchase fits a pattern for Akron Children's, which has been steadily building out its footprint across Cuyahoga County. In December 2025, the health system bought the 70,000-square-foot Plaza West office complex in Rocky River for $2.85 million, a deal Hoodline covered as part of the hospital's real estate acquisition strategy in the region. The system has also been expanding clinically, having doubled its behavioral health beds earlier this year amid rising youth mental health needs.
