Coffee shop/bar coming to Valor Acres apartment building in Brecksville

cleveland.com

Published: Sep. 12, 2023, 11:14 a.m.

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio — A combined coffee shop and bar in the five-story apartment building of Canvas, the residential section of Valor Acres, has been approved by the Brecksville Planning Commission.

The ground-floor coffee shop/bar will be open to the public, but will serve mostly apartment tenants and those living in other parts of Canvas.

It will not be a franchise business like Starbucks or Joe Maxx and will operate independently of the apartment building.

“The vision is more of a true one-off type of amenity for residents who are going to come in … either in the morning and want to have a coffee on their way out or in the evening to have a glass of wine,” Josh Decker, project executive with DiGeronimo Development LLC, which is developing Valor Acres, told the commission in July.

The commission unanimously approved the coffee shop/bar Aug. 3 after a public hearing that yielded no questions or concerns from Brecksville residents.

Valor Acres is a multi-use development under construction on the site of the former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital at Brecksville and Miller roads. The development, in addition to Canvas, will include a new Sherwin-Williams Co. research and development center, retail stores and restaurants.

Commission members in July voiced concerns about safety and security related to the coffee shop/bar and the apartment building in general, especially at night. The coffee shop/bar will not have an entrance door separate from the building entrance, so it cannot be locked independently.

Decker said alcohol must be locked and secured by law. However, he said it hasn’t yet been determined how to secure the coffee products.

Regarding apartment units on the upper floors, Decker said the elevators and stairwells can only be accessed by key fobs of the tenants.

Decker added that the main entrance to the apartment building will lock at a certain time in the evening and will then be accessible only with key fobs. He said it hadn’t been determined exactly what time the building entrance will lock.