Eton Chagrin Boulevard, Woodmere, Ohio

One of the more attractive and upscale retail opportunities on the eastern suburban reaches of Cleveland, Ohio is Eton Chagrin Boulevard, along that busy thoroughfare in Woodmere, Ohio, just a mile or two east of Interstate 271. Currently being managed by Stark Enterprises of Cleveland, Eton was initially developed as a boutique lifestyle shopping center totaling a relatively modest 300,000 square feet. The development is within a densely populated and heavily traveled commercial corridor, and contains a substantial office building within its footprint.

The property in its earliest configurations operated as Eton Square Mall, then as The Eton Collection, before becoming Eton Chagrin Boulevard. It was originally far more conventional (some would say dated) in its exterior appearance, and had much of its retail space oriented inward toward an enclosed mall. Upon the development’s reconfiguration to its present hybrid state — with far more of its 'open-air' retail tenants directed outward toward parking and the fronting road — the former property owners took on additional investors, including current managing partner Stark Enterprises.

Today, much of the facility operates as an open-air strip-style center, with immediate exterior access from nearby parking to such upscale tenants as lululemon athletica, The North Face, Fidelity Investments, Sur La Table, Orvis, Tiffany & Co., Eileen Fisher, bluemercury, Kendra Scott, Barnes & Noble, and Anthropologie, along with such restaurants as Bravo! Cucina Italiana, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, and Mitchell’s Fish Market. The remainder of the property retains a portion of its earlier form of an enclosed mall, with local and regional retail tenants in men’s and women’s apparel, shoes, accessories, health & beauty, and services, along with several galleries. Like many other trend-setting retail properties across the nation, Eton Chagrin Boulevard has experienced recent churn of tenants through the development.

Eton Chagrin Boulevard has a market area that encompasses such affluent eastern Cleveland suburbs as Pepper Pike, Beachwood, Hunting Valley, and Moreland Hills, as well as the not-too-distant cities of Chagrin Falls and Solon. Eton serves this market in competition with Beachwood Place Mall in Beachwood, Ohio, and Legacy Village in Lyndhurst, Ohio, both of which are within the encircling beltway of Interstate 271.

Like Stark Enterprises' Crocker Park in Westlake, Ohio, the architectural design of Eton on Chagrin is a picturesque pastiche of highly detailed styling projecting a faintly European air, augmented by lush plantings and varied street furnishings. However, Eton on Chagrin is significantly hobbled by its limited, cramped and contorted parking areas, and the often resultant congestion. The fronting and primary access road of Chagrin Boulevard is relatively narrow, yet often consistently heavily traveled, adding to customer access woes.

You can find more information at the websites of Eton on Chagrin and Stark Enterprises: www.etonchagrinblvd.com and www.starkenterprises.com.