For 90 years, the Slovenian Workmen's Home in Cleveland's North Collinwood was a gathering place, a cultural center where families dined, bowled and played balinca, or bocce.

Now an eclectic group of investors aims to bring life back to the largely empty complex, which occupies the largest contiguous site in the Waterloo Arts District. They're tuning up plans for a mixed-use project centered on a jazz club that will fill the hall's historic auditorium.

In May, the 2-acre property at 15335 Waterloo Road changed hands for $700,000. The buyer is a company owned by five investors, including Cindy Barber, co-owner of the Beachland Ballroom, a venerable music club that occupies a former Croatian social hall down the street.

"This is all sort of my vision for the neighborhood, that music saves the neighborhood much like theater saved Gordon Square," said Barber, referring to the impact of the Cleveland Public Theatre on the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood across town.

Barber's partners on the real estate deal are Eric Hanson, a booking agent who hopes to open the jazz club, called the Treelawn, early next year; Marius Juodisius, a lifelong Collinwood resident and chief financial officer at an automation company; Steven Balogh, a jazz-lover who oversees operations for a plastic and injection molding business based in Chagrin Falls; and Dr. Brett Siegfried, a Virginia neonatologist who grew up in Shaker Heights.

The purchase required a bit of serendipity. After decades of working with bands on the coasts, Hanson, who is 56, missed the Midwest. A Shaker Heights native, he started toying with concepts for a project in Cleveland and searching for properties on the East Side.

Eventually, he bumped into Barber, who was fretting about the state of the scrappy arts district where the Beachland has been a mainstay for 22 years.

The local community development corporation, a nonprofit steward for the area, fell apart in 2018. Then the pandemic battered the art galleries, entertainment venues and small businesses that populate the street.

"I became very worried about everything going backwards and the Beachland being left as an island once again, the way we were in 2000 when we came there," said Barber, who at 71 finds herself doubling down instead of aging out of neighborhood revitalization. "It just felt like we had to do something. And Eric was looking for a spot to land. It just made perfect sense."

Meanwhile, the Slovenian Workmen's Home property — which includes adjacent parking lots, vacant land and a freestanding building leased to a tombstone maker — was in limbo.

From the hall's grand opening in 1927 through 2017, members of the community owned the real estate through a shareholder system. As those owners aged, though, it became difficult to maintain the building. A similar story is playing out at other social clubs across the city.

In late 2017, the Slovenians sold the property to Patrick Hawkins, a local entrepreneur and president of a company that makes snowplow blades. He considered new uses for the site while renting out the auditorium, dining room and bars for private parties and Lenten fish fries.

Then the pandemic put events on hold — and put the property on rocky financial ground.

Hanna Commercial Real Estate listed it for sale in early 2021. The property attracted plenty of interest from would-be venue operators, said David Wagner, a Hanna Commercial managing director and principal who handled the listing.

"The No. 1 thing that people are demanding is unique event space," he said.

The Treelawn — a nod to a regional term for the grassy strip between the sidewalk and the street — will complement the Beachland by offering different types of music. Jazz will take center stage, but Hanson also mentioned modern classical.

"I want to have music that they can't find anywhere else, anywhere close. And I want to have food and drink that they can't find anywhere else," he said.

The auditorium can accommodate a standing crowd of 600 people, or a seated audience of 300, he said. The partners also have talked about hosting weddings and events.

Some of Hanson's friends think he's crazy to open a new club, when existing operators are trying to find a new rhythm after two-plus years of disruptions. Others are backing him up, though, noting the void created when Nighttown closed in Cleveland Heights in 2020.

"I definitely think there's more room for good music venues, especially jazz venues," said Balogh, who plays the saxophone and has a degree in music production and engineering.

Hanson also plans to open a bar somewhere in the building, where the Slovenians first added a public watering hole after Prohibition. Downstairs, the dining room and kitchen might become a restaurant. On the second floor, Barber is lining up artists and makers to lease office space, while she sorts through artifacts including little-league gear and stockholder certificates.

Then there are the remnants of the bowling and archery facilities and the indoor bocce courts. The new owners hope to resurrect bocce and, possibly, bowling as part of the project.

It's unclear how much the renovations will cost.

Keith Ari Benjamin, an economic-development adviser helping Barber cobble together financing, expects to seek grants or low-interest loans from the city and Cuyahoga County. It's also possible the group will pursue tax credits for historic preservation, he said.

Cleveland City Council designated the Slovenian Workmen's Home as a city landmark in the spring, in a move that could help the group access tax credits and other preservation aid.

The project is key to stabilizing and improving the Waterloo area, but it's also important for adjoining communities, said Benjamin, who is a village councilman in neighboring Bratenahl and serves as community services and development director for nearby South Euclid.

Councilman Mike Polensek, who represents the area, said he stands ready to help. A former Slovenian Workmen's Home shareholder, who describes himself as "mostly Slovenian," he's thrilled that local investors plan to create another destination in a district where progress has been halting, and hard-won, over the last two decades.

"Collinwood has tremendous opportunities and potential, in light of where it's geographically located," Polensek said. "What we need is believers."

Juodisius, one of the founders of Willoughby-based Integrated Mill Systems, signed onto the project through Barber. "The train was starting to roll, she held out her hand, and I jumped into the boxcar with all the other hobos," he said with a laugh.

He and his wife live nearby, close to Lake Erie, and are trying to invest in their backyard instead of putting money into stocks and other intangible assets. A member of the Lithuanian community, he finds the chance to prepare a cultural asset for a new century appealing.

"It's like manufacturing," he said of maintaining the city's old-world social halls. "If you have equipment, you have to utilize it. If you don't utilize it, it's not a sustainable model."

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