Quicken Loans Renovation Approved By Cleveland City Council

CLEVELAND, OH - The home of the Cleveland Cavaliers will be getting a somewhat controversial upgrade after Cleveland City Council approved contributing $88 million to a $140 million renovation project for Quicken Loans Arena. Council approved the deal on Monday.

The project is jointly funded by the city, Cuyahoga County, and the Cavaliers. The city's contribution to the project, an estimated $88 million, will come from admission taxes for tickets to the Q.

The project is designed to create more public space and restaurants near and at the arena. Besides committing the city's money to help renovate the Q, the deal also commits the Cavaliers to staying in Cleveland until at least 2034.

Cleveland City Council sent out a press release announcing the decision to approve the deal on Monday. In that release, Council says the Q, at 22-years-old, is one of the older arenas in basketball and needed upgrades to continue to draw top-flight entertainment acts.

However, the 2017 concert slate doesn't appear to be lacking for big-name artists. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, and Coldplay are all set to play the venue this year.

Not everyone supports the renovations at the Q. The Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) group has been vocal in its opposition to the project. Local Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk, part of the Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) group, has said the project ignores the plight of Cleveland's poor and the money would be better invested in distressed neighborhoods. Nosanchuk said the city and the state government are "passing over" residents who need their help to instead support this project.

"All of this passing over is supposed to be worth it because in about 10 years, the basketball team we support, may, you’ll forgive my pun, act so cavalier as to walk away from Cleveland," he said.

Cleveland City Council did say that as part of the approved legislation the Cavaliers will refurbish basketball courts throughout Cleveland and commits the team to a contribution to Habitat for Humanity. For GCC, it is likely not enough.

On its website, the GCC says it wants to see the development of a "Community Equity Fund (CEF) that will match the city and county’s investment into the Q Arena project and will be funded through a direct stake in the Q deal. A CEF will directly link the growth and prosperity of one of our region’s strongest economic engines, downtown Cleveland, with the improvement of the neighborhoods and communities of the whole city and county."

The project will move ahead, however, and construction is set to begin this summer.

Photo from Erik Drost, Flickr