CLEVELAND, Ohio — While thousands of small building permits crossed City Hall desks in 2025, a handful of mega-projects came through Cleveland’s construction pipeline.
City records show just five permits accounted for nearly $296 million in construction value permitted last year — ranging from the Cavaliers’ new training facility to the West Side Market’s renovation.
Those permits aren’t entirely inclusive. The Division of Police’s new headquarters on Superior, for instance, has had several million-dollar permits approved. But one permit was large enough that it cracked the Top 5 on its own.
Large projects will often have many permits to approve as they could include construction, HVAC and electrical work all done during different stages of a project.
**1\. 1901 W. 3rd St. — $115.9 million**
The single largest permit Cleveland approved in 2025 was for the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, the first part of Bedrock’s $3.5 billion redevelopment of Cleveland’s riverfront.
The roughly 237,000 square foot building will both serve as the practice home of the NBA Cavaliers and offer comprehensive sports medical care aimed at treating athletes. It’s slated to open in 2027.
In total, Cleveland has approved $148.4 million worth of permits for the project so far.
**2\. Shoreway complex expansion, 1200 W. 76th St. — $54.4 million**
A high-rise apartment complex near Edgewater Beach was Cleveland’s second most expensive permit.
Developer J Roc plans to build a 110-unit, 13-story apartment building on a surface parking lot adjacent to the historic Shoreway apartment complex in the Battery Park district near Gordon Square. It will connect to the existing Shoreway apartment complex, which will have 51 apartments after renovations are made.
J Roc said the total project will cost $92 million.
**3\. West Side Market expansion, 1979 W. 25th St. — $44.2 million**
Cleveland’s iconic market landed third among the most expensive permits approved this year.
Renovations at the market started this summer, which included renovating Market Hall. In total, the West Side Market will proceed with close to $50 million in renovations.
**4\. MetroHealth Apex building — $43.5 million**
MetroHealth’s new Outpatient Health Center took fourth among Cleveland’s most expensive permits. The long-delayed building, next to the Glick Center on MetroHealth’s main campus, is expected to open to patients later this year.
In total, MetroHealth has called it a $224.3 million project.
**5\. Artcraft Building renovation, 2530 Superior Ave. — $37.9 million**
Rounding out the list is the renovation of the ArtCraft Building downtown, which will soon be Cleveland’s new police headquarters. The new HQ is slated to open later in 2026.
The city has said the project in total will cost $90 million.
**What the numbers do — and don’t — show**
Together, the five projects represent a sizable share of Cleveland’s permitted construction value in 2025, even as the city issued more than 16,000 total permits that year — most for far smaller jobs.
Cleveland has been working [to speed up its permitting process.](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/12/mayor-bibbs-christmas-gift-making-clevelands-permit-process-less-of-a-crawl.html) But on average permits approved in 2024 and 2025 took 20 days, [compared to just 11 days in 2019.](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2026/01/clevelands-permit-pipeline-clogged-during-covid-and-plunging-it-remains-a-work-in-progress.html)
Permit approvals really slowed down amid the COVID-19 pandemic but haven’t recovered, a data analysis of 190,000 permits by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer showed.