Cleveland entrepreneur turning vacant, trash-filled St. Clair Superior warehouse into a Hub of design

When Candy Mashoor bought the building at 1030 E. 62nd St. in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood, at first she wondered if she’d made a huge mistake.

“The day I signed, I got the keys and I was like, ‘What have I done?’” said the Brazilian-born entrepreneur and founder of YaYa & Co., a textiles company that sells handmade, sustainably-sourced pillows, bedding, rugs and other items. “I couldn’t go in. It was moldy, wet and full of junk. It was horrible. I thought, ‘I didn’t buy a building, I bought a dump.’”

Yet now, with the help of loans and grants from the city of Cleveland, Mashmoor is renovating the historic, long-vacant building into a new home base for YaYa & Co., a coworking space, and office space for Humongous Fan, an HVAC company that makes large industrial fans. The project is expected to create 50 new jobs.

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