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Blockland Organizer Bernie Moreno Says Proposed City Block Tech Hub Is On Track

One of the organizers of a tech conference in Cleveland says the redevelopment of Tower City's retail space is moving forward.

Bernie Moreno is founder of the Blockland Solutions Conference taking place this week.

He says property owner Bedrock Detroit is committed to converting the failed Avenue at Tower City shopping complex into a business incubator.

Moreno is calling it City Block.

“This is a place where you’d have corporate innovation happening, you’d have start-ups happening," says Moreno.

"There’s a lot of resources for minority entrepreneurship.  The Secretary of State’s office would put an office there so if I wanted to start a company, there’s a place to do it. And the key component would to have a place like Cleveland State University that would engage it’s business school, it’s law school, and it’s urban school to be support services for those entrepreneurs.”

Moreno says Bedrock would need to invest tens of millions of dollars to create City Block.

He’s hoping the complex will be open by this time next year.

See a video of the proposed City Block project https://vimeo.com/377417449/f9c64ee132">here

Credit City Block
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City Block
Artists rendering of potential renovations to Tower City for City Block tech hub.

Jeff St. Clair is the midday host for Ideastream Public Media.