The former NRG Energy Power Plant on Lake Road in Avon Lake closed in 2022 and was subsequently demolished, but the City of Avon Lake is powering forward to usher the site into a new era.
Big plans are underway to transform the space into a vibrant mixed-use residential, retail and commercial lakefront destination, with a 23-acre lakefront park as its centerpiece.
“The City's goals for the power plant property have always been focused on creating public access to Lake Erie,” says Avon Lake Mayor Mark Spaetzel. “Lake access is what our residents have consistently told us they want, and a mixed-use development would allow us to provide that access while also spurring additional commercial, retail and residential development on the west side of town.”
The new parkland will connect to the adjacent Miller Road Park, which is a 17-acre park with a fishing pier and boat launch.
“A lakefront park meets the goals of the city to create new lake access, but it also meets the needs of a private developer wanting to create the kind of space that people are going to want to live and work in,” says Ted Esborn, Community Development Director for Avon Lake. “The multiple uses will make it a place that Avon Lakers want to visit to take advantage of those businesses.”
City Council recently passed the amendment that included zoning and planning code changes.
Passage of that amendment allows for a yet undetermined developer to present a plan to the City, says Spaetzel. He adds that any plan a developer brings forward would need approval through a multilayered process that includes the City's Development Review Committee, Planning Commission and City Council.
The City hopes that by summer 2026, the Avon Lake Environmental Redevelopment Group will have engaged a vertical developer to begin the process, Spaetzel says. From there, the project will likely take several years and various phases before it’s completed.
“Once we know those things, people will have a much better sense of how the process is going to work, but it’s one of those situations where things need to fall into place in a certain order,” Esborn says.
All in all, Spaetzel says the purchase and initial development of the park would be accomplished at a low risk to the community through tax increment financing and not through the general fund of the City.
“Avon Lake has a once-in-a-century opportunity to positively affect the community and take advantage of our lakefront,” Spaetzel says. “This plan fits with the desire expressed by the community and outlined in our Comprehensive Land Use Plan from 2019 for additional public access to the lake.”
