When Heinen\u2018s announced in\u00a0June\u00a0that it would close its Downtown Cleveland location in the historic Trust Building,\u00a0the news hit the city like a shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mayor Justin Bibb said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by the choice. Ward 5 Councilman Richard Starr grieved a \u201closs\u201d of Downtown\u2019s \u201cvital anchor.\u201d County Executive Chris Ronayne called it a \u201cbummer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, in reality, those officials knew years before the news broke that Heinen\u2019s stunning spot at the corner of East 9th and Euclid was in serious financial straits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In early 2024, two and a half years before his decision, Jeff Heinen approached Bibb about the health of what has been crowned one of the most beautiful grocery stores in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the accolades, endless posts on social media, and a small but devoted customer base as Downtown continued to grow as a neighborhood, the past decade wasn\u2019t exactly smiling on the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delivery apps, including DoorDash and Instacart, hit phones in 2018, changing how Clevelanders bought groceries overnight. The Covid pandemic further upended in-person shopping. The May 2020 George Floyd protests and riots left lasting and expensive damage. (And closed the store for five months.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company was losing about $1.5 million a year on the location, Heinen disclosed to City Hall, and had to decide by June 2024 whether or not to renew a ten-year lease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff Epstein, Bibb\u2019s chief of integrated development at the time, was assigned as the city\u2019s liaison with Heinen. He asked Heinen for a complete financial breakdown. \u201cIt will be helpful to understand the situation and lay of the land and see what we may be able to do to help,\u201d Epstein wrote to Heinen on February 6, 2024. \u201cWe want to do everything we can to keep Heinen\u2019s operating downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heinen\u2019s paid Geis Companies $470,000 a year in rent, spent $320,000 on private security and $434,000 on property taxes, and carried a $3.2 million payroll for 77 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best option, Epstein and Heinen seemed to agree, was to convince Geis to lower the rent for a new, two-year lease deal and bide time to figure out how to build up sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If they did? \u201cI am confident,\u201d Epstein wrote on June 11, 2024, \u201cthe financial performance of the store will improve dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom McNair, then the city\u2019s economic director who worked with Epstein, recalled the push. \u201cI think they looked at their losses and said, \u2018We obviously can\u2019t continue to do this,\u2019\u201d he told Scene. \u201cAnd we said, \u2018No, we need to try and see if there\u2019s some way, shape or form we can, you know, figure out a different way and different path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On August 2, Heinen wrote Epstein; Debbie Berry, a county development chief; and DCI head Michael Deemer with good news: Geis okayed a two-year lease that lowered Heinen\u2019s annual rent by about a quarter, as long as Heinen\u2019s vacated the rotunda\u2019s second floor. About half a million dollars in public support would help fund that transition, as long as the money was spent before July 31, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heinen seemed relieved at the deal. \u201cWe will do our best to make sure your investment of time, energy and money will help us be at Euclid and 9th for a long time,\u201d he wrote to Epstein and crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
City and county officials bandied about ideas that Heinen\u2019s hoped would generate $600,000 in additional sales. Heinen\u2019s could try curbside pickup or DoorDash. It could cater office lunches or advertise directly to surrounding apartment dwellers. It could host wine nights, validate parking, run campaigns lauding home-cooked meals instead of pricey restaurant dinners. And, at the behest of Downtown Cleveland, Inc., Heinen\u2019s could leverage DCI\u2019s Neighborhood Safety Specialists for a new loss mitigation plan that could slash security costs by half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By December 2024, plans were in motion for a 10th<\/sup> anniversary celebration for the following year. New signage went up, including ads for comped parking (if shoppers spent $50). Curbside pickup was arranged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But a year and a half later, the numbers still didn\u2019t add up. The company concluded the Downtown Heinen\u2019s would never, in its current form, be profitable at 9th and Euclid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI could go on and on but the salient fact is that our operating model does not fit that location,\u201d Jeff Heinen wrote in a letter in late June, \u201cand no entity, governmental or otherwise, is willing to write checks to cover our losses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jackie Shultz, Heinen\u2019s marketing director, framed the decision like one might the untimely death of a family member. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in business 97 years,\u201d she told Scene, \u201cand haven\u2019t closed a store since 1986.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The headwinds aren\u2019t great, and replacing Heinen\u2019s won\u2019t be easy, but the city said it\u2019s working to find a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucas Reeve, one of Bibb\u2019s senior advisors, was recently selected to lead the city\u2019s grocery task force to figure out what should and could come after Heinen\u2019s, either in the same space or somewhere else downtown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reeve\u2019s work is starting with a data haul\u2014a months-long, $70,000 study of Downtown\u2019s food sector led by Washington, D.C.-based consultant Streetsense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal is to determine what kind of store will work in today\u2019s market\u2014not in 2015\u2019s\u2014and meet the needs of downtown residents who depend on it. In other words, to figure out precisely why Heinen\u2019s model failed downtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stones to unearth,\u201d Reeve told Scene. \u201cThe goal here is to move quickly and be able to have an implementation pathway to start having real serious conversations as soon as the study is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Downtown residents, as they told Scene time and again, know very well that Downtown needs<\/em> a grocery store. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A survey of 532 residents conducted in partnership with the Downtown Neighborhood Association showed this clearly. Ninety-five percent of respondents said Heinen\u2019s closure will have a \u201cmajor or moderate personal impact\u201d on them, three-quarters of whom shopped there \u201cat least once a week.\u201dForty-one percent have \u201cno regular car access.\u201d Eighty-eight percent simply demand a new \u201cfull-service grocery store Downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFeels less like a neighborhood without [one],\u201d one respondent wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly half said they might relocate elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will not re-sign my downtown lease, and instead will look to move out of the area if there is not a timely replacement,\u201d another answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of those same people gathered on the evening of July 15 in the Heinen’s rotunda at an event hosted by the Downtowners Club. (Disclosure: The author is an organizer of the group.) About 60 came together to commiserate over glasses of wine and ponder what, if anything, will occupy 900 Euclid Avenue in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the vibe wasn\u2019t exactly a funeral. Guests reminisced about second-floor dates over Godfather wraps while others speculated about whether Whole Foods or Kroger could come. (A Walmart would be an abomination, someone quipped.) Some helped run the old coffee shop; others helped sell bottles of wine. \u201cI spent the last 17 years of my life tied to this store in some way,\u201d one woman said. She looked up at the rotunda. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss it here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucas Reeve was there too. A soft-spoken man in his forties, he\u2019d come that night to both presumably comfort mourning downtowners and offer reassurance that Cleveland could<\/em> attract another quality grocer. \u201cIf anything, it\u2019s a total bummer,\u201d he said, echoing Ronayne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That same day, Reeve and his grocery task force received a 12-page proposal from Streetsense, titled \u201cGrocery Market Opportunity & Attraction Strategy,\u201d that will serve as City Hall\u2019s roadmap to replacing Heinen\u2019s. By the end of October, the guide will brief Reeve and the city\u2019s team on which downtown buildings could best house the right kind of grocery based on residents\u2019 current food needs. It will also recommend, the proposal says, \u201cprospective grocery operators that represent strong candidates for future outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are in the moment, and we just wanna make sure that we get it right this time around,\u201d Joevrose Bourdeau Small, the city\u2019s director of economic development, told Scene. \u201cWe want to understand exactly what kind of format would work, what kind of food access would work for the demographics that exist downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Scene presented all of this to a pair of real estate brokers, Rico Pietro and Austin Love, the two said they were \u201c100 percent certain\u201d another grocery would be coming soon to Downtown Cleveland\u2014and one that could better serve those who live in the city center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they need a pinwheel turkey sandwich with cranberry gravy,\u201d Pietro said. \u201cThey were simply stocking the shelves for a different clientele than what it could be today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a non-traditional space,\u201d Love added. \u201cYou can\u2019t take the model of what you would do in Strongsville or Chagrin Falls or in Avon and try to plug it into downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both brokers and three other retail analysts interviewed for this story said they envisioned another grocer occupying the corner of East 9th and Euclid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I were Meijer, if I were Whole Foods, if I were Sprouts, I would sure as fuck take that location,\u201dPietro said. \u201cThink about the brand loyalty. You bet on Cleveland\u2014there\u2019s not a way you can become more visible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heinen\u2019s made that bet a decade ago. $18 million in losses later, the question is: Will anyone make another one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.<\/a> When Heinen\u2018s announced in\u00a0June\u00a0that it would close its Downtown Cleveland location in the historic Trust Building,\u00a0the news hit the city like a shock. Mayor Justin Bibb said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by the choice. Ward 5 Councilman Richard Starr grieved a \u201closs\u201d of Downtown\u2019s \u201cvital anchor.\u201d County Executive Chris Ronayne called it a \u201cbummer.\u201d But, in reality, those officials knew years before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-08-05T13:12:34Z","apple_news_api_id":"6f44e354-ebac-459b-9a46-9d7798c1e362","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-08-05T13:12:41Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ab0TjVOusRZuaRp13mMHjYg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/news-api.apple.com\/sections\/09551bb6-65e4-48a4-92e6-844c5c570ad6"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"\u201cWe are in the moment, and we just wanna make sure that we get it right this time around.\u201d ","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,112,23],"tags":[154,1063],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[134],"class_list":["post-333565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cleveland-news","category-food-news","category-news","tag-downtown-cleveland","tag-heinens","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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