Cleveland is gearing up for the biggest garage sale to hit downtown.
“You can be a private individual, who wants something for your home or you can have 50 apartments you want to furnish or you could have your own hotel you need things for. It’s for everybody,” said Frank Long of ICL Content Liquidations.
The Cleveland City Center Hotel, also known as Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre, shut down in December. Now, contents from its 482 rooms are up for grabs.
“We don’t piece the items for you. You actually come upstairs in the rooms and you pick it out right out of the rooms,” Long said. “And you have to take it away, so be sure to have some help.”
Starting Thursday, the public is invited to visit the old, 22-floor hotel at 777 St. Claire Ave NE. The sale runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
For the next 60 days, more than 4,000 pieces of linen, 600 televisions and a hundreds of pieces of furniture are on sale.
Businessman Akhur Shah drove nearly 7 hours from Reading, Pa., to nab items for his hotel.
“In this economy, it’s always nice to have a little bit of extra, especially at these prices,” Shah said. “It doesn’t hurt to keep these things and have it in spare. Things could get better, they could get worse.”
Shah said he expects the liquidation sale to be one of the best after-Christmas sales in town.
“Some of this furniture, if you took it to your home, you would really enjoy it,” he said. “For like $70, you’re getting $300, $400 furniture.”
Some items are priced less than $1, but Long said items like a large art display of Fender guitars will be available for auction on eBay, starting at $3,500.
Shah said the sale is a great opportunity for locals to take a piece of Cleveland history home.
“Basically, when you come to a place like this you get it on pennies on the dollar. It’s a nice hotel. Crown Plaza is a nice place,” he said. “This place is going to be busy.”