Cleveland’s lakefront just got more playful

Roller skate in the lakefront breeze, enjoy a beer and a sunset on the sharply painted lakefront deck or ride an adult-size tricycle with your friends — how you choose to enjoy the new North Coast Yard is up to you. 

The new pop-up public yard – a former parking lot remade with picnic tables, revamped shipping containers and pallets – is open now through August with daily programming and spaces for public gatherings. It is located next to the William G. Mather steamship just north of Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The North Coast Yard is a test run for the City of Cleveland’s North Coast Master Plan, a blueprint for transforming downtown’s lakefront into a hub for entertainment and park space while giving Clevelanders direct access to the lake. 

Scott Skinner is the executive director of the North Coast Waterfront Development Corp., the nonprofit managing the lakefront development projects laid out in the North Coast Master Plan. Those projects include a 10-acre park, entertainment venues and shopping. He said the lakefront development will take around five years to build.

“We wanted to create a sense of place [right now], so when we have a park, when we have a permanent development down here, it’s not a brand new location for Cleveland residents to use,” he said. “It’s a place that they recognize, that they’ve been to, that they have positive memories [of]. So we created the North Coast Yard.”

The yard is mostly funded by American Rescue Plan Act money, “and then my organization has put some of our budget into this as well,” Skinner said.  

It takes a village to build a yard

The North Coast Yard has been built in part by volunteers like Cleveland resident Emily Kovacs, who spent her day painting the inside wall of a covered seating area a deep blue. 

“I saw that this was going on this weekend and they were looking for volunteers,” said Kovacs. “I’m in between jobs, so I thought what a perfect way to spend my Thursday, and maybe even tomorrow as well. I really believe in what we’re trying to do here on the north coast of Cleveland, and I think it’s important to get people down here even in the early stages to see the potential of what this all can be, even if it’s just painting some walls.” 

She added: “And then I saw that they have adult tricycles that we can race around in, and I feel it’s moderately dangerous, but it’s gonna be super fun, so I’m excited to try that out this weekend.”

Want to find more things to do around Greater Cleveland? We’ve got you covered from big events to neighborhood gatherings. Check it out.

Summertime, and the livin’s easy… 

The North Coast Yard is free to the public all summer, as is the daily programming and parking. Visitors can bring their own food or buy from the food trucks that will be on site Thursday through Sunday. And take note: Several different breweries will take over the bar throughout the summer, open Thursday through Saturday. “We have a liquor license to serve down here,” Skinner said.

“We have soccer leagues, basketball leagues, on certain days we’ll have pickleball,” he added. Every Thursday night, the Rock Hall is gonna have live music. Every Friday, we’ll be offering free roller skating.”

Skinner says they’ll have the tricycles, which are proving to be popular among adults just as much as kids, on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, visit the North Coast Yard’s website.