Cosm Entertainment Complex Breaks Ground: Work performed under a PLA
From left: Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin, Rock Entertainment Group CEO Nic Barlage, Cosm CEO Jeb Terry, Cosm Chairman Steve Winn, Cleveland Cavaliers Vice President of Basketball and Business Operations Grant Gilbert, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Bedrock CEO Jared Fleisher.
One of the more unique Cleveland construction projects held a groundbreaking ceremony on April 16. Located on Huron Road, directly across from Rocket Arena, work is officially underway to build the 70,229-square-foot Cosm entertainment venue.
Cosm will anchor Bedrock Real Estate’s mixed-use Rock Block development in downtown Cleveland.
Bedrock is a Rock Ventures company. Rock Ventures owner Dan Gilbert, Cleveland Guardians minority owner David Blitzer and Avenue Sports Fund invested $250 million into Cosm in 2024, according to a report on the NEOtrans blog.
The highly technical entertainment venue carries a price tag over $20 million.
Dave Wondolowski, Business Manager/Executive Secretary of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, said the work will be performed under a Project Labor Agreement, creating about 200 jobs for its affiliated members.
The general contractor is Whiting-Turner.
“I’m excited about what Bedrock has done to help transform Cleveland not just for now, but for the next generation,” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said during the press conference. For years, the site where Cosm will be located has been a surface parking lot.
A mixed-use development called nuCLEus was proposed there in 2014 by Stark Enterprises, which eventually sold the land to Bedrock in 2023 for $26.5 million, according to NEOtrans. “When the Gateway District was created back in the early 1990s, it was a bunch of empty parking lots, and they kind of forgot to address this parking lot,” said Rock Entertainment CEO Nick Barlage. “Today, we get a chance to address this parking lot.”
Now, one of the most technologically advanced entertainment facilities in the world is being built in Cleveland.
Cosm operates “shared reality” venues built around massive LED dome-shaped screens. The Cleveland venue will have the largest high-resolution LED dome among the company’s first five theaters — measuring nearly 100 feet across.
Cosm is already operating venues in Los Angeles and Dallas, with a Detroit location set to open this summer and an Atlanta venue also under construction.
Work has begun to construct Cosm, which will be built under a Project Labor Agreement through the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council. The project is expected to create about 200 jobs for affiliated CBCTC members.