The Cleveland Cavaliers paid $1 million for a former bar across from Progressive Field and one block from Rocket Arena in Cleveland’s Gateway District.
The Cleveland Cavaliers paid $1 million for a former bar at 721 Bolivar Road in Cleveland's Gateway District, Crain's Cleveland Business reported Thursday.
The building faces Progressive Field across Bolivar and sits a block off Rocket Arena. Commercial listings put it at 8,000 square feet on 0.15 acres, two stories of brick, built in 1920. The main bar and the kitchen were on the first floor. The second floor was a party room with its own bar and restrooms. Someone renovated the place in 2016.
Tops and Bottoms, a gentlemen's club, ran there until then-councilman Joe Cimperman helped shut it down after a string of incidents, Cleveland Scene reported. Victory Alley Sports Bar closed in 2021. Fin & Feathers came after that, then the Frozen Daiquiri Bar, which the city pressured into closing when police kept getting called to the address across 10 months. James Cleveland ran the daiquiri bar. He reopened the space in March 2025 as The Stadium Sports Bar and Grill, put in a full-size basketball hoop and a wall of screens, and sold popcorn, nachos, chili dogs, corned beef sandwiches, and burgers.
Under its lease extension, the Cleveland Guardians acquired the right to buy two properties near Progressive Field, purchasing the first in April 2022. A half-acre parcel at East Ninth and Bolivar cost $2 million. The Gateway East Garage, an L-shaped structure at 650 Huron Road East extending from Huron south then east along Bolivar toward East Ninth, was bought by the Guardians for $25 million.
Both buildings are owned by Gateway Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit. The leases require over $400 million in repairs before they expire, according to recent assessments. Over $80 million of these repairs are due at the arena within three years.
Cavaliers chairman Dan Gilbert inherited the arena lease when buying the team in 2005, Rock Entertainment Group CEO Nic Barlage told the City Club of Cleveland on Jan. 9. Barlage said REG is not asking for a handout.
"We have to look at these not as bailouts to billionaires," Barlage said.
Rocket Arena draws roughly 1.7 million people a year through Cavaliers games, concerts, and other events, Barlage said last October. He put the building's direct and indirect spending impact at about $347 million annually. Three years before that it was $307 million.
Off West Third Street, the Cavaliers are building the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center. Bedrock and REG announced a 6,200-seat riverfront amphitheater on Feb. 26. Live Nation will operate it.
REG opened the HIPP Club inside the arena in late 2025. The h.wood Group, a Los Angeles hospitality firm, built it out for 100 members and modeled it on Cleveland's 1907 Hippodrome Theatre. This month Gilly's Sports Bar reopened as Gilly's Clubhouse. It is the eighth premium club in the building and admits only Cavs United members.
REG will also operate Cleveland's incoming WNBA team.
Cleveland finished 52-30 last season, fourth in the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers needed seven games to get past Toronto. They fell behind top-seeded Detroit 2-0 in the second round and won that series in seven. New York swept them in the conference finals.
Donovan Mitchell signed a four-year, $273 million extension this summer. James Harden turned down a $42.3 million player option on June 29 and re-signed. Peyton Watson arrived from Denver this month in a five-team sign-and-trade. Max Strus went to the LA Clippers. Denver got an unprotected 2031 first-round pick.
The Cavaliers open the regular season Oct. 22 against Philadelphia.
