One Cleveland Center

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One Cleveland Center.

One Cleveland Center is the fifth largest skyscraper located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, following Erieview Tower. The building has 31 stories, rises to a height of 450 ft (137 m), and is located at 1375 East 9th Street. It has about 614,000 square feet of office space. The Tower was built at cost of $52,100,000. It was purchased on May 15, 2008 by Optima International LLC for $86.3 million.^[1]

Designed by Hugh Stubbins and Associates, One Cleveland Center has an angular, "silver chisel" design similar to New York City's Citigroup Center. The land the tower was built on was intended to be part of the I. M. Pei Erieview urban renewal plan. The site was cleared in 1963, but was not developed, and was used as a parking lot. It was sold to Medical Mutual by John W. Galbreath in 1979, to develop a "people oriented" office building. Ground was broken on October 30, 1980 and construction was completed in 1983. The tower's base is structured into a five-story glass garden atrium. It also houses a fitness center on the top two floors of the contiguous parking structure, and a 450-seat conference center named the Forum Conference Center.

One Cleveland Center also uses Citigroup Center diagonal trusses. During construction of One Cleveland Center, the trusses were added to make the One Cleveland Center more rigid and able to handle Cleveland's sometimes windy downtown conditions, especially in the winter months. Cleveland does not have too many tall buildings so there is more wind. One Cleveland Center also uses Citigroup Center skin and engineering. The Trusses can be seen at night when the building is lit up.

When the tower was constructed, there was a ramp leading to the underground Erieview parking garage. The developer decided to make it a pathway connecting Erieview Tower to One Cleveland Center.

In 2003, CNBC reported from One Cleveland Center about an investment banker named Frank Grudittaria, Grudittaria worked for Lehman Brothers at their Cleveland Offices, which are based at One Cleveland Center. Grudittaria was charged for embezzlement of investment funds from the Fazio Family who at one time owned a chain of grocery stores. He served some time in Federal jail.