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 and Welsh patronymic surname derived from the personal name Hopkin and the genitive ending -''s''. Hopkin is itself a pet form of the name Hobb, a shortening of Robert (with alteration of the initial consonant). Notable peop ...

neighborhood of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States, adjacent to

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is a city-owned international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state, as w ...

. The building includes over of exhibition and conference space, making it one of the largest meeting, convention, and exhibition centers in the United States. The diverse show schedule includes 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 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 social event. ...

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 population was 18,595. History Brook Park became a city in 1960. The city attracted national attention when 21 Marines of the 3rd ...

, 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 facil ...

to Brook Park.

History

It was built in 1942 as a

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

-operated

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or 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. Th ...

, Fisher Aircraft Plant 2, and was supposed to build

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

s during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), 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 ...

, then the experimental XP-75. 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 battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

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, Air assault, airmobile self-propelled gun, self-propelled tank destroyer, which was armed with a 90 mm Gun M1/M2/M3, 90 mm M54 gun with a simple blast shield, and an unprotected crew ...

M114 armored fighting vehicle The M114 Command and Reconnaissance Carrier is a Vietnam War-era tracked armored fighting vehicle, used by the United States Army. It was manufactured by the Cadillac Division of General Motors in the early 1960s. The M114 was designed to be fas ...

, the MOG Howitzer, and the

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

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. 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 football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...

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

Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (February 17, 1936 – May 18, 2023) was an American professional American football, football player, civil rights activist, and actor. He played as a Fullback (gridiron football), fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the ...

Joe Namath Joseph William Namath (; ; born May 31, 1943), nicknamed "Broadway Joe", is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 13 seaso ...

Barry Sanders Barry Sanders (born July 16, 1968) is an American former professional football running back who played for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Sanders led the league in rushing yards four times and in rushin ...

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

Marshall Faulk Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is an American former professional American football, football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons and is the current running backs coach at the Colorado ...

Franco Harris Franco Dok Harris (March 7, 1950 – December 20, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a fullback for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college football fo ...

Warren Sapp Warren Carlos Sapp (born December 19, 1972) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played college football ...

and

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since 1994, he has been a television sports 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 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Gojo Industries 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 is an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1989 as an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), the Crunch played a total of 16 seasons in three separate leagues unde ...

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer is a form of five-a-side football, five-a-side or six-a-side version of minifootball. It is derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arenas. It differs from the FIFA, FIFA ...

team began 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 big wheel, 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, gondola ...

was a centerpiece of the annual I-X 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 was enclosed in a glass atrium and rose approximately above the main roof. It usually did not operate during trade shows. IRG stated that they would remove it but would 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, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players ...

development in Canton would buy and install the Ferris Wheel and zipline there. The Ferris Wheel was removed in June 2022 and reopened as the Red Zone wheel in the Hall Of Fame Village in March 2023.

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 Amusement parks closed in 2020