A Meeting of the Minds
“Up front” refers to the former showroom facing Lee Road, currently being renovated
into a modern design and engineering center. The open office plan, which they hope
to unveil in 2022, will feature work spaces along the walls of tall windows, a central
“clean build area” where employees can collaborate on projects, and a full kitchen.
“It’ll be a place where engineers and students can have a meeting of the minds,”
says Jones. “There will be no walls or cubicles, no barriers to conversation.” It’s a
third act of sorts for a building that in recent years has only been notable from the
outside as a showcase for Shaker High School artwork in its front windows.
It was built in 1960 by longtime Shaker veterinarian Dr. Kegham K. Goekjian and
was the home of Feder Pontiac for more than 20 years, one of many dealerships that
once populated the area. Although the name changed several times over the years –
Guice, Qua, Zalud – this was the place to buy new Pontiacs until the dealership finally
closed its doors in the 1990s.
It wasn’t until 2007 that the building – still owned by Goekjian’s heirs – found
new life as a warehouse for the Shaker Heights City School District. In hindsight,
Wright and Jones’ purchase of the building was a happy accident.
Wright briefly lived in Shaker and attended Hawken School. His father, a pediatric
ophthalmologist, worked at the Cleveland Clinic. But he spent most of his childhood
in Southern California and, after graduating from Hawken in 1997, his college years in
Michigan. For her part, Jones grew up in Detroit’s East English Village neighborhood
and lived in Michigan all her life.
48 SUMMER 2021 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
They knew they wanted to move to
Cleveland – they had friends here from
Wright’s Hawken days and liked the
area – but Shaker wasn’t necessarily on
their radar.
Bids on commercial properties in
Cleveland and Cleveland Heights fell
through, so their realtor put the couple
in touch with Nick Fedor, executive
director of Shaker Heights Development
Corporation. Before they knew it, Mayor
David Weiss was introducing them to the
building’s latest owner, Craig Stout.
Stout, for his part, wasn’t looking
to sell. A Shaker graduate – class of
1966 – and a former trustee of the
Shaker Schools Foundation, Stout
bought the building in 2016 to ensure
the School District would have local
warehouse space.
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