Propped Productions

After years of controversy, the former Royal Castle restaurant at West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue in Cleveland is finally being demolished.

Royal Castle was once a popular hamburger chain known for its inexpensive, thin burgers topped with onions and its signature birch b**r. The chain arrived in Greater Cleveland around 1940, eventually operating more than 25 locations throughout the area. By the mid-1970s, the local restaurants had closed, but several of their buildings remained, including this one overlooking the Cuyahoga River.

In recent years, the vacant building became the center of a lengthy legal dispute involving local businessman Tony George, public agencies, and the valuable advertising billboard that once stood on its roof. George's company purchased the property in 2018, leading to a battle over eminent domain, compensation, and replacement billboard locations as plans moved forward for Irishtown Bend Park.

A controversial settlement included $1.25 million for the property, rights to replacement billboards, and initially a proposed restaurant at the future park. The restaurant arrangement was later dropped in favor of additional billboard rights.

After years of negotiations, lawsuits, and delays, demolition crews are finally removing the long-vacant structure, clearing the property for its eventual inclusion in Irishtown Bend Park.

These aerial photos capture the demolition in progress at one of Cleveland's most recognizable intersections.

Does anyone remember eating at Royal Castle in Cleveland?

A controversial chapter in Cleveland's Irishtown Bend project is finally coming to an end.

At the corner of Detroit Avenue and West 25th Street, demolition is underway on a small, long-vacant building that became one of the most disputed properties involved in the development of Irishtown Bend Park.

This interactive 360° panorama captures the work from above, along with the surrounding hillside, the Cuyahoga River, and another major construction project beginning across the intersection near St. Malachi Church.

The building being demolished was once home to a Royal Castle restaurant, but in more recent years it was better known for the enormous billboard that stood above it. The property was purchased in 2018 by a company controlled by Cleveland businessmen Tony and Bobby George. As plans to stabilize Irishtown Bend advanced, the building and its billboard became the subject of a prolonged legal dispute between the owners and the public agencies working to acquire the property.

The Port of Cleveland maintained that the property was needed for the stabilization of the hillside and pursued acquisition through eminent domain. The owners challenged those efforts, arguing that the proposed compensation did not adequately account for the property, its redevelopment potential, or the billboard's value.

The dispute lasted years and accumulated millions of dollars in legal expenses before a settlement was reached in 2023. Under the original agreement, the owners were to receive $1.25 million, replacement billboard locations elsewhere in Cleveland, and an opportunity to operate a future restaurant at the park.

That agreement was revised again in August 2026 after plans for the restaurant and its large outdoor patio were abandoned over development challenges and potential costs. Instead, the revised arrangement provided additional billboard locations elsewhere in the city, with no replacement billboards planned for the Irishtown Bend property.

Now, with demolition underway, the building that once stood at the center of those negotiations is finally being removed.

Beyond the building, the panorama offers a broad look at the progress made on the Irishtown Bend hillside itself. What was once a heavily overgrown and unstable slope has been substantially reshaped following a roughly $65 million stabilization project led by the Port of Cleveland.

The work was necessary for reasons extending well beyond the future park. For decades, the hillside had been slowly moving toward the Cuyahoga River, threatening underground infrastructure and raising concerns about a potential landslide into Cleveland's active shipping channel. Stabilizing the slope required extensive excavation, improvements to drainage and utilities, and construction of a massive new retaining wall along the river.

The Port completed that phase of the project in early 2026, allowing Cleveland Metroparks and its partners to move forward with the next stages.

Plans call for approximately 25 acres of public green space, overlooks, walking paths, gathering areas, and improved access to the riverfront. The project will also complete an important missing section of the regional trail network, eventually connecting the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail to Wendy Park and Lake Erie.

The location has a history stretching back well before its modern redevelopment. Irishtown Bend takes its name from the Irish immigrant community that settled along the river during Cleveland's industrial growth. Generations of residents lived and worked on this hillside, close to the docks, railroads, factories, and shipping activity that helped build the city. The new park plans include recognition of that history.

There is also another significant project visible in this panorama.

Across West 25th Street, near St. Malachi Church and the western end of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, work is progressing at the site of Bridgeworks, a long-planned residential and mixed-use development.

The project has gone through several redesigns and years of financing challenges. Its latest plans call for a seven-story building with approximately 219 apartments, ground-floor commercial space, and structured parking on the former Cuyahoga County Engineer property. The development will substantially change the appearance of this prominent intersection and introduce additional housing immediately beside the bridge and the future park.

Together, these projects represent several years of planning, engineering, negotiations, legal disputes, and redevelopment work concentrated in a relatively small area of Ohio City.

There is still considerable work ahead. Construction of the final trail connections is expected to continue into 2027, while the larger Irishtown Bend Park improvements are planned in phases extending toward 2029.

For now, this 360° view documents a particularly interesting moment: the final removal of a building that became central to one of Cleveland's more complicated recent property disputes, the newly stabilized hillside that will eventually become a public park, and the beginning of another major development across the street.

A closer look at the new bridge and construction at the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center in the Flats.

The steel girders show the route down from Ontario Street, across from Progressive Field. The bridge crosses the RTA tracks and will connect with Canal Road below, restoring a direct connection between the Gateway District and this part of the riverfront. At the bottom of the ramp, the roadway will pass beneath the performance center’s middle section.

These views show why the bridge is such a substantial part of the project. There’s a considerable change in elevation between Ontario Street and the Flats, with an active rail corridor between them. The new connection will also put the Cavaliers’ practice facility just down the hill from Rocket Arena.

Along the river, much of the center’s glass and brown exterior paneling is installed, and the Cavaliers and Cleveland Clinic signs are up. Crews are still working on the building and surrounding grounds.

The 210,000-square-foot facility will house the Cavaliers’ new practice and training operations alongside Cleveland Clinic services available to the public. Those services will include sports medicine, orthopaedics, physical therapy, rehabilitation and performance testing for athletes and active people of all ages and abilities. Cleveland Clinic expects to begin seeing patients here in August 2027.

Here’s a 360° look at construction around the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center and the riverfront in the Cleveland, Ohio Flats area.

The center is a 210,000-square-foot facility being built for both the Cavaliers and Cleveland Clinic. It will become the Cavs’ practice facility and house Cleveland Clinic sports medicine and performance services, with care available to the public as well as professional athletes. Cleveland Clinic currently expects it to open in August 2027.

The road work is a big part of what’s changing here. The old Eagle Avenue route connected Ontario Street with the Flats, including a lift bridge over the river. The viaduct is gone, and a new Eagle Avenue ramp is being built to reconnect Ontario Street with the riverfront streets below. The Eagle Avenue lift bridge is on hold for further removal. Parts of the bridge were prepped and removed in early 2026.

There’s a concert history here, too. Tower City Amphitheater operated along the river from 2001 to 2011. Now a new outdoor amphitheater is planned nearby as part of the riverfront development. The proposed venue is designed for about 6,200 people, with Live Nation named as its operator.

The 360 view gives you a sense of how the center, road connection and planned venue fit into this part of Cleveland.

Midnight Art Club has brought something very different to the riverbank at Canal Basin Park.

Centrum Kolossio is a large-scale, walk-through public art installation designed by Cleveland artist David Biro with Midnight Art Club. Its laser-cut wooden panels create an almost completely different piece depending on where you stand, with patterns of light and shadow moving across the structure throughout the day.

Public art has an important place in Cleveland. It gives people a reason to stop, explore a familiar part of the city differently, and spend time together in spaces that might otherwise be passed by. Here, that happens right along the Cuyahoga, in a part of the Flats shaped for generations by transportation and industry.

The installation is free to visit at Canal Basin Park through September 13.