LAKEWOOD, Ohio — For Sam Anderson, the Fieldhouse at Studio West 117 was a lifeline.

When the LGBTQ haven opened in late 2022, Anderson was going through a divorce and adjusting to single parenthood. At the Fieldhouse, he found a job – and a support system, a community that became both friends and family.

“I bonded with people that I met at a very dark time in my life,” Anderson said. “And Studio kind of saved me.”

Now the Fieldhouse is set to close at the end of this month. The management says the money coming in ultimately wasn’t enough to pay the bills. Court records show that an out-of-state investment firm sued the developers in July over unpaid debt on the property. On Nov. 25, a court-appointed receiver took over the Fieldhouse at that lender’s request.

Just a few days later, the owners announced their decision to shut the doors on Dec. 28.

Studio West 117 Fieldhouse closing

RELATED: Studio West 117 Fieldhouse will close in late December

“I actually broke down and cried,” said Anderson, who handles maintenance at the Fieldhouse and built the DJ booth and the stage platform. “I still get emotional about it. It’s hard.”

Anderson is trans-male and the father of a 5-year-old. He threw a birthday party for his son in the Fieldhouse courtyard. And he’s watched other transgender parents bring their kids to the building for youth sports programs, summer camps and other activities.

“Studio West, out of all the LGBT facilities that I’ve known or been associated with, has had the largest support for the trans community,” said Anderson, who fell in love again at the Fieldhouse and ultimately married his wife, who is also transgender. “There’s more trans staff here than I’ve ever seen at any other place.”

Dennis Spronck/News 5

Current and former Fieldhouse employees, customers and supporters describe an ambitious project that developers Betsy Figgie and Daniel Budish poured their hearts into. But the hurdles – the lingering effects of the pandemic, high construction costs, interest-rate spikes and fissures within the LGBTQ community – ultimately were too much to overcome.

Budish didn’t respond to a request for comment. Figgie, who is handling the gradual wind-down at the Fieldhouse, declined an interview request.

“It’s very heartbreaking. Very, very heartbreaking,” Chelsea Brennan said Thursday.

An electrical contractor, Brennan did some work at the Fieldhouse project early on. She’s also been a patron there for lunches, dinners and shows.

“I felt celebrated – not only in my own self-awareness, but in everyone else’s,” said Brennan, a transgender woman. “I could show up unapologetically. Didn’t have to answer questions. Didn’t have to explain myself. And never was interrogated for who I was.”

Dennis Spronck/News 5

She said there’s nothing else like the 24,000-square-foot complex, which includes a gymnasium, a restaurant, a community kitchen, a pizza kitchen and a rooftop bar.

“Daniel and Betsy put their reputation on the line, as well as their money,” Brennan said of the developers. “And yes, things came up short because the business wasn’t here.”

But, she added, “how many other people are going to put their reputation on the line and take that chance for the LGBT community?”

‘It’s for everybody’

The Fieldhouse was the first big construction project in a much larger plan to create a broadly inclusive district at the Cleveland-Lakewood border.

The developers own several other properties, including the former Phantasy Entertainment Complex at Detroit and Hird avenues and a large parking lot across the street, where a tire and battery shop once stood.

Though the properties were all part of the Studio West 117 vision, they are all owned by separate companies. Public records show that the developers owe more than $160,000 in real estate taxes across the portfolio. But the recent litigation and receivership are specific to the Fieldhouse.

Dennis Spronck/News 5

The defaulted debt is from a mortgage originally provided by Truist Bank, which filed a lawsuit against the developers in Geauga County in 2023. In early 2024, Truist sold the judgment – the right to collect on the debt – to Summit Investment Management, based in Colorado.

Now Summit, which invests in distressed debt, is trying to get what it can out of the deal. Court records show the developers owe more than $10.7 million in principal, interest and fees. Summit and its attorneys did not respond to inquiries from News 5.

In late November, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Steven Gall agreed to appoint a receiver – an outside expert – to take control of the Fieldhouse and maintain it during litigation.

The receivership could lead to a sale of the property. But it’s too early to say when that would happen.

The receiver, Mark Abood, said he wasn’t involved in the decision to close the complex.

“That was the owner’s decision,” he said Thursday.

Abood, a senior vice president at the Colliers brokerage in Cleveland, knows people who frequent the Fieldhouse to play pickleball. He was amazed to learn about all the other activities that happen at the facility, from twice-monthly free community meals to health and education programs to winter sports leagues, weddings and drag shows.

“It’s not just pickleball,” Abood said. “It’s not just a bar and restaurant. It’s not just a safe gathering place. It’s not just an entertainment venue. And it’s not just, by the way, for the LGBTQ community. It’s for everybody. It’s really a feel-good place for everyone to enjoy. And I’m hopeful that it will be back open at some point soon.”

That’s what Anderson wants to see, too.

“There’s good and bad with everything,” he said, acknowledging that some people who initially supported the project later walked away because they disagreed with how it was executed and managed. “But there’s a lot of people that did find good and enjoyed this facility. And I can only hope that someone buys it – and utilizes it for what it was.”

Dennis Spronck/News 5

‘It can be great’

Other patrons and partners echoed that in emails, phone conversations, text messages and posts on social media.

Marisol Martinez once worked as a security coordinator at the property. She started a Latin Night series that moved from the former Phantasy complex into the Fieldhouse after the project opened. Now she’s planning a final Salsa Lounge event there on Dec. 27.

The Fieldhouse gave Martinez a place to speak up and support other Latina members of the LGBTQ community – setting an example she didn’t have when she was younger.

“It was everybody of all colors, races, ages. And that was important,” she said. “It brought the whole community together.”

Sara Continenza, the founder of a nonprofit called Food Strong, has worked with the team at Studio West 117 on community-gardening and cooking programs. In late 2022, that partnership was featured in a New York Times story about the Fieldhouse, with the headline “Cooking Up a New Gay Neighborhood.”

Continenza said it’s disappointing to see the project fizzle. “It’s sad that there isn’t a massive LGBTQ-plus initiative like this anymore,” she said.

The developers tackled some interior demolition and environmental clean-up work at the Phantasy complex. They razed the old NTB building across the street and cleaned up that property, turning it into a parking lot and future development site with help from a state grant.

But most of what they hoped to create hasn’t happened – yet.

“I hope that what they brought to this community somehow will continue,” Brennan said. “It’s so much needed in the LGBT community.”

Sitting in the restaurant at the Fieldhouse, where employees are counting down the final days, Anderson echoed that.

“If you have the means to save this place, it can be great,” he said. “We’ve seen it be great.”

Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.

Last month, over a dozen wrestlers from Beat the Streets New England’s Roger Williams Middle School program gathered on the mats for their first competition ahead of this winter’s wrestling season.

“The second they step onto the mat, you can see their whole mood change. That’s where they come alive. That’s where their confidence starts to grow,” Coach Maricruz Flores wrote in a message to The Herald. Many of the wrestlers from Roger Williams placed, “which was such a powerful moment for them.”

While victories on the mat are a highlight for many athletes, the cost-free nonprofit youth wrestling program aims to improve students’ academic readiness, self-esteem and mental health.

The Providence chapter of Beat the Streets New England was founded in 2013 by Brown wrestler Billy Watterson ’15. The program has since seen immense success and popularity, regularly partnering with the Providence Parks and Recreation Department and the Providence Public School District to serve hundreds of students each year.

“It’s really interesting to see where these kids take it,” said Silas Murray, the program director of the Providence chapter. “Some of them want to be a champion. Some of them want to do it for friends. Some of them want to do it because they’re getting bullied. Some of them just enjoy the space.” 

“Wrestling itself has a lot of intrinsic benefits,” explained Brett Poirier, the director of operations for the program. “What our program really prides itself in is being able to take those intrinsic benefits and giving real-life experience that helps the kids use them.”

Students in the program do not pay for travel costs, registration fees, uniforms or food, according to Poirier. The program is funded through multiple sources, said Poirier and Murray, including donors and the Rhode Island Interscholastic League — a local youth sports league.

Typical Beat the Streets practices begin with 30 minutes of journaling, job readiness training or conversations around goal-setting, Murray said. Wrestlers also learn about financial management, including “saving money for college,” said Josiah Mazariego, a wrestler with the program at Nathanael Greene Middle School in the PPSD.

Mazariego said the program helps with his homework, and that he also reaches out to the coaches when he needs help with school. 

Prins Santana, a wrestler at Nathanael Greene, added that the “program has helped me boost my confidence by winning … and has helped me with mental health (by learning to) think positive, focus on one goal and don’t quit.”

After this mental warm-up, the students then move to the mats, where they receive instruction, run through drills and play games. Each program holds two to three practices a week. Students also enter weekly competitions and attend national tournaments in the hopes of boosting the team’s ranking.

Flores also took part in Beat the Streets when she was a PPSD student. “I was dealing with a lot at home,” she wrote. “Beat the Streets became like a second family. It was the place where I felt safe, supported and understood.”

Now, as a coach, she aims to ensure that her role is more than “teaching wrestling techniques or passing down information,” Flores explained. “They come to you with everything, and you do everything you can to guide them. Coaching these kids isn’t just a job, it’s one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.”

On Saturday, wrestlers from Beat the Streets will compete in the Birchwood Tournament in North Providence. “The best teams and some of the best individual kids will be there, so (the kids) are very excited to put their skills to the test,” Murray said.

In January, Beat the Streets New England plans to host a regional tournament. Wrestlers from various Providence and Boston programs will be competing against each other to name each city’s champion, and a regional champion. Murray said his team has been planning the event for the past three months by getting donors and board members involved, “so these kids can feel exactly how they should: like superstars.”

Erick Mazariego, Josiah Mazariego’s father, explained that ranking in a national tournament could mean getting “exposed to coaches from different states that could provide a way to a prep school or a private school where they’ll reach out” with scholarship offers. 

This trajectory can open the door to college-level wrestling. Past students from the Providence chapter of Beat the Streets are currently wrestling at Rhode Island College, American University and Johnson and Wales University, according to Murray.

By guiding students academically and supporting them personally, Poirier said that “we’re trying to make sure that our kids go forward in the best light possible.”