Ohio City high-rise may get loan, start date

Developers of Bridgeworks, a 15-story mixed-use building planned at the
west end of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, are near to closing the project’s
financing gap. That would allow demolition and construction of the $104
million development to begin as early as this spring (Mass/LDA).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

On March 14, Cuyahoga County Council is expected to vote on a proposed $2 million loan that could finally close a persistent funding gap on the planned $103.7 million Bridgeworks development. The investment would allow site demolition and construction to start as early as this spring, putting a 15-story building at the west end of the Detroit-Superior Bridge in the booming Hingetown section of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood.

READ MORE

The Elliot: New life for historic Tremont church

The Elliot and its Rosehip Room speakeasy are an updated place. The event center
opened in Fall 2022 in the former Holy Ghost Church, 1415 Kenilworth Ave., in
Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood. Its speakeasy began offering live perfor-
mances but the rest of the church is available for rent for celebrations and
private events (Peerspace). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

The Elliot, Tremont’s newest events venue which opened in Fall 2022 in Tremont’s former Holy Ghost Church, has launched its Rosehip Room speakeasy with a spring lineup of performing acts. They will perform in the Rosehip Room, a speakeasy designed to accommodate live music, trivia nights and private events at 1415 Kenilworth Ave. in Cleveland. The Rosehip Room’s launch was celebrated with a party Feb. 24.

READ  MORE

Sources: Browns want new stadium; Mayor wants community input

 FirstEnergy Stadium in downtown Cleveland appears to be near-
ing the end of the line. The Cleveland Browns’ lease with the city
expires in 2028 and the Browns’ owners, the Haslam Sports Group,
have determined that it is not feasible to renovate the 24-year-old
stadium to meet their needs in the future (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

According to several sources, the Cleveland Browns and its majority owner, the Haslam Sports Group, want to move faster than City Hall on what happens before the team’s lease at FirstEnergy Stadium expires at the end of 2028. That reportedly includes a new football/multi-purpose stadium and supportive development in downtown Cleveland.

READ MORE

201 more apartments for Lorain Ave.

My Place Group LLC is seeking two mixed-use developments on Lorain
Avenue between West 44th-West 52nd streets in Cleveland’s Ohio City
neighborhood. Shown here is 45 West, an apartment building with a
small retail on Lorain Avenue, at left, off West 44th street, at right.
At the corner of Lorain and West 44th is a Sunoco gas station and
convenience store that is not part of the project (MA Design).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

With the paint still drying on its latest development along Lorain Avenue in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, real estate developer My Place Group is already planning its next investments which would extend that thoroughfare’s rebirth westward. Conceptual plans are being circulated among community stakeholders to get their input on two new developments that would add a total of 201 apartments plus additional ground-level retail spaces to the section of Lorain between West 44th and West 52nd streets.

READ MORE

Seeds & Sprouts XXVII – Downtown apts groundbreaking due, Factory to be artist studios, Urgent Care tosses Pizza Hut

The Apartments At Bolivar are due to start rising next month between
Bolivar Road and Erie Court in downtown Cleveland’s Gateway District.
The new apartments will be between Progressive Field and Playhouse
Square and overlook the 200-plus-year-old Erie Street Cemetery
(Desmone). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Groundbreaking due for downtown apartments

The first sign of progress that’s visible on the landscape for The Apartments At Bolivar is expected to appear in mid-March when a groundbreaking for the large, planned apartment complex is due to be held, according to sources familiar with the project. But the first actual sign of construction activity must first begin with a demolition to help clear the way for site preparation and construction of this development in downtown Cleveland’s Gateway District.

READ MORE

CWRU seeks more housing

Today, it’s a nursing home. Tomorrow, McGregor At Overlook may be
home to dozens of college students from Case Western Reserve University.
At least that’s the plan by the growing university which is doing what it
can to accommodate its increasing enrollment (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Symbolism comes in many forms. A compelling symbol for the University Circle-area economy is seeing a building which housed people at the end of their working lives be turned into one for people preparing to start their careers. That’s the plan for the McGregor At Overlook, 2187 Overlook Rd., which Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) wants to buy and convert into student housing. When you need space for a growing number of students, you do what you can to accommodate them.

READ MORE

City staffing shortage threatens some Cleveland projects

With the first phase of Intro (at left in a simplified blue massing) in Ohio
City being a phenomenal success, its developers are eager to construct
phase two (at right in yellow). But trying to get the project far enough along
before the city of Cleveland’s tax abatement policies change at the end
of the year are proving to be difficult due to the shortage of staffing in
departments that administer approvals for construction projects (GCP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

 

At the start of 2024, the city of Cleveland’s new tax abatement policy will go into effect. While the policy will remain basically unchanged for much of the city, it will become less supportive of developments in neighborhoods where construction has been most active — University Circle, Ohio City, Tremont and parts of downtown. So, in those areas, developers are trying to expedite the delivery of projects before the 15-year property tax abatement on new developments declines from 100 percent to 85 percent. But there’s something standing in the way of that acceleration: a lack of city staff to get projects approved in time.

READ MORE

East Cleveland on track for $100M project

 The vacant, county-owned East Cleveland Adult Activity Center at Euclid and
Superior avenues awaits its next use, which could be as a grocery store and a
centerpiece to a potentially significant residential development between stations
on the HealthLine and Red Line rapid transit routes. The Red Line rail station is
visible in the background (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Cuyahoga County Council’s approval this week of a property sale to a New York City-based developer could lead the way toward a “significant” development in the heart of East Cleveland. The site, at Euclid and Superior avenues, is just one-half-mile from the eastern edge of University Circle and set between stations on the HealthLine bus and Red Line rail rapid transit routes.

READ MORE

MLK Plaza bought by DC developer

The 88,000-square-foot Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza in Cleveland’s Hough
neighborhood was sold last week to a Washington DC-based developer
which seeks to redevelop the site with housing, commercial and live-
work spaces (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Continued redevelopment of Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood was put into play last week following the acquisition of 4.45 acres of property which has hosted the Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza, 9300 Wade Park Ave., since 1972. Purchasing the MLK Plaza on Feb. 6 for $2.75 million was an affiliate of Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures (NREUV), according to Cuyahoga County records.

READ MORE

EY moving across downtown

Ernst & Young is leaving the trophy-class building that bears its name at Flats
East Bank along the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland. Its offices will
 move across downtown to another building with a water view — North
Point Tower (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Although rumored for weeks, the announcement that EY (formerly Ernst & Young) is moving its offices out of one of only two trophy-class buildings in downtown Cleveland still came as a surprise to some longtime real estate executives. The 23-story office tower at 950 Main Ave. at Flats East Bank that bears Ernst & Young’s name has been one of downtown’s most expensive and successfully leased since it opened in 2013.

READ MORE

Clinic unveils Innovation District buildings

Cedar Avenue, looking west from near East 105th Street, will have even
more large buildings along it in the coming years. This artist’s rendering
will soon be the view from the top floors of The Medley apartments, now
under construction with a ground-floor Meijer Fairfax Market grocery
store (HOK). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Two years ago, Gov. Mike DeWine announced hundreds of millions of dollars in state money to launch the Cleveland Innovation District — a program to advance health care, research and related activities in the Greater Cleveland area. This week, one of the largest and most visible outcomes of that initiative will be unveiled in the form of plans for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation’s next phase of its Global Center for Pathogen and Human Health Research at its Main Campus in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood.

READ MORE

Bedrock lays out riverfront plan, steps

Nighttime view of Bedrock’s vision for the riverfront below Tower
City Center in downtown Cleveland (Adjaye Associates).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

At the City Planning Commission’s design-review meeting starting 9 a.m. Friday, representatives of Detroit-based Bedrock are scheduled to present more of its vision for downtown Cleveland’s riverfront below Tower City Center. In addition to showing renderings of the buildings and public spaces, Bedrock’s architectural team led by Adjaye Associates will lay out a schedule and a menu of items needed for building the infrastructural foundations to support the ambitious riverfront plan.

READ MORE

Downtown Lakewood back to drawing board

Called ‘Building A’ in the Downtown Lakewood redevelopment site
plans, this proposed four-story building at Detroit and Belle avenues
would have housed the offices of Roundstone Insurance. But after
two years of seemingly endless civic deliberations around the project,
the fast-growing insurance company has decided to not only leave the
project but leave the city. That has put the project back on the drawing
board, including to turn this structure into a five-story apartment
building (Dimit). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

After two years of seemingly endless meetings surrounding the redevelopment of Lakewood’s former hospital site, Roundstone Insurance has not only left the development project but decided to leave the inner-ring suburb entirely. Currently located in the former First Church of Christ Scientist, 15422 Detroit Ave., the headquarters of this fast-growing insurance firm with up to 240 employees and $17.5 million in annual payroll is due to leave Lakewood in April 2024, according to Mayor Meghan George’s administration.

READ MORE

Oracle/Cerner to open Cleveland training center

A 50,000-square-foot building at 3121 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland’s Midtown
is proposed to be renovated into a data processing training center for Oracle’s
Cerner healthcare software division. The facility is proposed to accommodate
up to 704 trainees simultaneously plus dozens of instructors and other
staff (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cerner Corp., a healthcare division of software giant Oracle, is planning to open a training center at 3121 Euclid Ave. near downtown Cleveland that could accommodate hundreds of people in classrooms simultaneously. The proposed training center speaks to Oracle/Cerner’s growing presence in Greater Cleveland and the addition of another major healthcare employer to the region’s economy.

READ MORE

Ohio, planning orgs plan Amtrak expansions

Amtrak’s new Airo trains could show up on new services converging
at a passenger rail mini-hub in downtown Cleveland. That will depend
on whether the Federal Railroad Administration will award planning
money to the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Northeast
Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency to measure the costs and
 benefits of various service levels along those routes (Amtrak).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

While Gov. Mike DeWine made the big news this week about Ohio seeking federal money to plan for and pursue Amtrak passenger rail expansion on two Cleveland-based routes, those aren’t the only routes that will be pursued. The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) also confirmed today that it will be seeking funds for similar plans but for several other routes ending in Cleveland. If realized, the services that could result from those expansions would turn downtown Cleveland into a mini-hub for Amtrak.

READ MORE

Seeds & Sprouts XXVI – UC tech building, EOC going downtown, Tech Ready Mix buys land

CedarTech and Cumberland Development are joining forces on updating a
six-story, 67-year-old office building at 10900 Carnegie Ave. in Cleveland’s
University Circle district. The renovations include enclosing a driveway
under the building and removing a pedestrian entrance facing Carnegie
(Dimit). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

CedarTech and Cumberland Development reveal office building plans. The Cleveland chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization is opening an office downtown. And concrete wholesaler Tech Ready Mix is acquiring a large property in Kinsman for what may be a new production facility.

READ MORE

Lakewood site prepped for development

The size of the former National Tire and Battery site is best appreciated
from the east side of the building, The entire structure is about to be demo-
lished. In place of the NTB building, a temporary parking lot is proposed
until the property owner can move forward with plans to build a multi-story
 apartment building that includes a parking garage on the entire site seen
here (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Fences went up yesterday at Lakewood’s East End around a former National Tire & Battery (NTB) store and its parking lot at the southwest corner of Detroit and Coutant avenues. In the coming days, the NTB store will come down while hydraulic lifts in the building’s vehicle repair shop will be removed and possibly some of the soil surrounding the lifts, too. Those are just some of the activities that will prepare the site for the next phase of the Studio West 117 development.

READ MORE

Downtown’s next high-rise to turn residential

While not one of East 9th Street’s tallest office towers, Ohio Savings Plaza’s
three-story podium makes it one of its most unique. That podium could figure
strongly into how a buyer and development team for the property might rede-
velop it or its sister building facing Perk Park with residential (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Downtown Cleveland’s next office-to-residential conversion project appears to be in the works. But this one might not be a total changeover to a new use. Ohio Savings Plaza, with more than a half-million square feet divided among two buildings has something big going for it — it’s half-filled with office tenants. Or, half-empty if you’re a pessimist.

READ MORE