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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 here

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

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Blockchain promoter and former car dealer Bernie Moreno says his vision for a tech hub at Tower City is on track.
JEFF ST.CLAIR / WKSU
/
WKSU
Blockchain promoter and former car dealer Bernie Moreno says his vision for a tech hub at Tower City is on track.

Jeff St. Clair
A career in radio was a surprising turn for me seeing that my first love was science. I studied chemistry at the University of Akron and for 13 years lived the quiet life of an analytical chemist in the Akron area,listening to WKSU all the while in the lab.