The International Exposition Center, better known as the I-X Center, is a convention and exhibition hall located in the

Hopkins Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". ''Hob'' was a diminutive of ''Robert'', itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name ''Hrod-berht'', translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spell ...

neighborhood of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, United States, adjacent to

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in the state, and the 43rd busiest a ...

. The building included over total square feet of exhibition and conference space, making it one of the largest meeting, convention, and exhibition centers in the United States. The diverse show schedule included public events featuring one of the country's largest

boat show A boat show is a public exhibition or trade fair of current boat models, debuts, concept marine vessel, vessels, or out-of-production classics. Due to the nature of the industry building around yachting and nautical tourism, a boat show may be a ...

s, trade shows, banquets and meetings attracting over 2 million visitors each year. Originally located within

Brook Park, Ohio Brook Park is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States and a suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city population was 18,595 . Geography Brook Park is located at (41.399550, −81.818423). According to the United States Census ...

, the building and of neighboring land became part of Cleveland in a 2001 land swap that sent most of the

NASA Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a subsidiary facilit ...

to Brook Park.

History

It was built in 1942 as a

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

-operated

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

and was used to build

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

s during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as the Cleveland Bomber Plant. For a time, it built the wing assembly for the

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

, then the experimental

XP-75 The Fisher P-75 Eagle was an American fighter aircraft designed by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors. Development started in September 1942 in response to United States Army Air Forces requirement for a fighter possessing an extremel ...

. It later served for many years as a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

factory. The

M41 Walker Bulldog The M41 Walker Bulldog, officially 76-mm Gun Tank, M41, was an American light tank developed for armed reconnaissance purposes. It was produced by Cadillac between 1951 and 1954 and marketed successfully to the United States Army as a replaceme ...

M56 Scorpion The M56 "Scorpion" Self-Propelled Gun is an American unarmored, airmobile self-propelled tank destroyer, which was armed with a 90mm M54 gun with a simple blast shield, and an unprotected crew compartment. History The M56 was manufactured from ...

M114 M114 or M-114 may refer to: * M114 155 mm howitzer, a towed howitzer used by the United States Army * M114 armored fighting vehicle, a Vietnam War-era tracked armored fighting vehicle, used by the United States Army * M114 bomb, a U.S. 4 lb. biologi ...

, the MOG Howitzer, and the

M551 Sheridan The M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV ( Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle) was a light tank developed by the United States and named after General Philip Sheridan, of American Civil War fame. It was designed to be landed by parachute and to sw ...

were built at the facility. Former employees of the tank plant reported that there were at least two, maybe three basement levels. One basement had a large pool in it for testing water-tightness of production tanks. It was vacant from 1970 to 1977, when it was purchased by Park Corp. with the intention of converting it into an exhibition hall. It re-opened in 1985 as the I-X Center. The Park Corp. sold the building to the City of Cleveland in 2001, but continued to lease and operate it until 2021. In 1990, the I-X Center was used as a temporary home for

North Olmsted High School North Olmsted High School is a public high school located in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted, Ohio. It is the only high school administered by the North Olmsted City School District. Athletics State championships *Boys' soccer: 1977, 1985, ...

. On September 16, 1990, two students had set fire to the front of the high school, causing significant damage. A 2008 expansion added of exhibition space, increasing the exhibition floor to . The entire ceiling was repainted for the first time since 1984, using 27,000 gallons of paint. On May 3–4, 2014, the I-X Center hosted the first

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

Fan Fest, which featured appearances by 100 NFL Hall of Famers including

Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (born February 17, 1936) is a former American football player, sports analyst and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 through 1965. Considered to be one ...

Joe Namath Joseph William Namath (; ; born May 31, 1943) is a former American football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the New York Jets. He played college foot ...

Barry Sanders Barry Sanders (born July 16, 1968) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL), from 1989 to 1998 for the Detroit Lions. Sanders led the league in rushing yards four times and ...

Lynn Swann Lynn Curtis Swann (born March 7, 1952) is an American former football player, broadcaster, politician, and athletic director, best known for his association with the University of Southern California and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He served on the ...

Marshall Faulk Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams. He is widely regarded as one of the grea ...

Franco Harris Franco Harris (March 7, 1950 – December 20, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A nine-time Pro Bowl selection ...

Warren Sapp Warren Carlos Sapp (born December 19, 1972) is an American former football defensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sapp played college football at Miami, where h ...

and

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...

. The successful campaign to bring the event to the I-X Center was spearheaded by Cleveland native Tony Gumina. The center also hosted the

National Sports Collectors Convention The National Sports Collectors Convention is an annual trade show held in the United States devoted to sports memorabilia Sports memorabilia refers to collectables associated with sports. Types include equipment, trophies, sports cards, autogr ...

seven times. In September 2020, the operator, the I-X Center Corporation announced that the facility would close at the end of 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Gojo Industries Gojo Industries, Inc., is a privately held manufacturer of hand hygiene and skin care products founded in 1946, in Akron, Ohio, where it is again headquartered after a period in Cuyahoga Falls. One of its most well-known products is Purell, a h ...

leased a portion of the building for inventory storage. The organizers of the Cleveland Boat Show sued the I-X Center Corporation, seeking to have a receiver oversee the company's finances, but later withdrew their suit and opted to pursue mediation. In August 2021, Industrial Realty Group (IRG) acquired the stock of I-X Center Corporation and announced plans to reopen and redevelop the facility. They plan to reallocate part of the interior space. The

Cleveland Crunch The Cleveland Crunch are an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio competing in as a charter member of the Major League Indoor Soccer (MLIS). The rebranded Crunch returned to indoor play as a member of the MASL 2 in ...

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor socc ...

team will begin playing home games at the IX Center in the 2022-23 season.

Ferris wheel

The building's tall

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

was a centerpiece of the annual IX Indoor Amusement Park. It premiered at the 1992 Greater Cleveland Auto Show, at which time it was the world's tallest indoor Ferris wheel. The top of the wheel is enclosed in a glass atrium and rises approximately above the main roof. It usually did not operate during trade shows. IRG has stated that they will remove it but will attempt to find another maintainer for it. In April, it was announced that the

Hall of Fame Village The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

development in Canton would buy and install the Ferris Wheel and zipline there. The Ferris Wheel was officially removed in June 2022.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Cleveland Convention centers in Ohio Manufacturing plants in the United States Indoor amusement parks Tourist attractions in Cleveland Amusement parks in Ohio 1985 establishments in Ohio 2020 disestablishments in Ohio Defunct amusement parks in Ohio