RTA Waterfront Line returns with limited service

A Waterfront Line train departs Downtown Cleveland’s North Coast Station at East
9th Street. The light-rail line from Shaker Heights and Tower City Center will
return to regular service Aug. 4 but for weekends and holidays only (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Starting Sunday, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) will restart regular service on the light-rail Waterfront Line in Downtown Cleveland, a 2.2-mile extension of the Blue/Green lines from Shaker Heights. But the service will be limited to weekends and most federal holidays only, and then from just 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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City Club Apts has new owner, Skyline 776 name

City Club Apartments in Downtown Cleveland are now Skyline 776 after the
development’s major lender bought the company that owned the property.
The building, which is now mostly complete, has a new property
management company starting this week (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Faced with a difficult financial situation involving multiple development projects nationwide, City Club Apartments of Farmington Hills has sold its interest in the nearly completed 23-story mixed-use tower at 776 Euclid Ave. in Downtown Cleveland. The buyer was its primary financial backer, Detroit-based Finance Michigan. And, as a result of the change, the building will be rebranded as “Skyline 776.”

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Cleveland hosting Lakefront Future Forum Aug. 5

Public input to help shape Downtown Cleveland’s lakefront at North Coast Harbor
will be gathered at 4 p.m. Aug. 5 at Mall C, just west of City Hall. Lakefront planning
and development leaders will be on hand to provide updates on what work has been
done and what the next steps will be (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Mayor Justin Bibb and his lakefront development team are inviting the community to a Lakefront Future Forum scheduled for from 4-7 p.m. Aug. 5, on Mall C in Downtown Cleveland. The site is located between City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave. and the old Cuyahoga County Courthouse, across from the entrance of the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.

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Downtown Lakewood development to go without grocery store

A refined development plan for Downtown Lakewood was released after a potential
grocery store tenant decided not to be part of the project. However, the developers
intend to proceed, albeit with a smaller and multi-tenanted retail spaces on the ground
floor facing Detroit Avenue. This view looks southerly from the intersection of
Detroit and Belle avenues (Dimit). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Developers of the proposed Downtown Lakewood mixed-use development said it was a mix of good and bad news that a grocery store chain backed out of the project. The good news is that the developers can proceed with a previous plan to offer a larger public plaza facing Detroit Avenue. The bad news was that revising the plans to accommodate the grocer cost the developers eight months of time and inflation in delivering the $100-plus-million project.

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Courthouse site decision still months away

At this stage of the process, there’s a one-in-four chance that the current Justice Center
will continue to be Cuyahoga County’s courthouse in the coming years. That’s because
there’s four site options left for the courthouse and only one of them involves renovat-
ing the existing courthouse tower (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Should it stay or should it go? That’s the question about the location of Cuyahoga County’s Consolidated Courthouse facilities which could lead to one of the largest and most expensive real estate projects in Greater Cleveland. But county officials don’t appear to be in a hurry to answer that question, according to a source who spoke to NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity.

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Cleveland, Bedrock seek $1 billion for riverfront development

The Kayak Launch Plaza in Bedrock Real Estate’s riverfront development is just one
of many pieces of public infrastructure features the city and the developer are work-
ing together to achieve. A tax-increment financing district is being set up to help
much of that public infrastructure (Adjaye Associates).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

City Planning Commission today voted unanimously to recommend that City Council approve a 45-year, project-specific tax-increment financing (TIF) deal with Bedrock Real Estate to generate $400 million for infrastructure to support Bedrock’s $3.5 billion riverfront development. This would create a second, albeit smaller TIF district downtown to support major waterfront and urban core improvements that could ultimately generate up to $1 billion in public funds for the riverfront.

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CRE industry lauds Bibb’s construction permit overhaul

In looking for more construction cranes over the city, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb
signed an executive order today to simplify the building permitting process at City
Hall. (x.com @JustinMBibb). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Commercial real estate and construction interests hailed Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s signing of an executive order today to simplify and speed up the construction permitting process at City Hall. Bibb was quick to point out that this reform will affect small projects by homeowners as well as downtown skyscrapers. However, it could take up to a year before all of the approved changes are implemented.

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Bridgeworks design evolves again – minus hotel

View of the proposed Bridgeworks development from the corner of West 25th Street
and the Detroit-Superior Bridge with Downtown Cleveland in the background. The
development is planned on the former Cuyahoga County Engineer’s headquarters
(GLSD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

An ever-changing lending market has caused designs to change again for the proposed Bridgeworks development, 2429 W. Superior in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. Some things were noticeably different in the plans — no hotel, no retail/restaurants, a big increase in the number of apartments, and a variety of colors and materials in the façade which, at first glance, makes the long building look like five or six structures.

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Cleveland Kitchen wins $10M in tax credits

The East 70s section of Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland has seen a lot of investment in
recent years and more is coming. Cleveland Kitchen expects to increase the number
of jobs threefold at its Midtown Cleveland food hub as a result of $10 million tax
credit financing from the Cleveland Development Advisors (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Cleveland Development Advisors (CDA) has allocated $10 million in federal New Markets Tax Credits to Cleveland Kitchen, originally Cleveland Kraut, to consolidate and expand its production facility in the Central Kitchen Food Hub. The hub is a food incubator and accelerator on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland’s Midtown neighborhood.

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Welleon gets an ‘A’ in testing Cleveland’s market

Located in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood west of downtown, the newly
built, market-rate, mixed-use Welleon is almost fully leased after opening less than
a year ago (Welleon.com). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

It used to be rare to see a newly constructed Cleveland apartment building filling out at rents of more than $2 per square foot and leasing out in less than two years. But those were the old days — “way back” in the 2010s. Today, it’s common to see luxury buildings, even those that are not downtown skyscrapers, rent out in a year or less. But not at the rents Welleon just commanded.

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EPA gives Greater Cleveland $129.4M for five solar arrays, reforestation

After a regional partnership won a large federal grant, five sites in Greater
Cleveland could soon be gaining solar arrays to generate electricity. More
than 60 megawatts of electricity could soon be cleanly generated for the
Cuyahoga County’s new microgrid Cuyahoga Green Energy plus Cleve-
land Public Power and Painesville Muni Electric (EPA-APPA).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) today awarded $129.4 million in federal funding to the Greater Cleveland area to produce cheaper, more competitive, cleaner electricity locally. The funded work includes constructing five solar arrays in up to five communities, closing a coal-fired power plant in Painesville and supporting reforestation efforts in a community once called the Forest City.

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Biotech biz plans $12M investment in East Cleveland

The Mickey’s Building on Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland was sold by the
Cuyahoga Land Bank to a Boston-based biotech firm that plans to add more
than 100 jobs to the site. Still in question is whether a proposed ground-
floor café engaged in a legal battle with the land bank will open (RDL).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

One week after the Cuyahoga Land Bank completed a $3.5 million renovation of the Mickey’s building, 12550 Euclid Ave., in East Cleveland, it announced the sale of the building to Verdynt Bio, a Boston-based science facility developer with strong ties to Ohio. Verdynt Bio’s operations partner, SKYLIIT Labs, said it plans to invest more than $12 million into the site to create 100 jobs in a state-of-the-art laboratory and office co-working space.

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West 73rd Apartments site on the market

This 1.78-acre site is surrounded by successful developments but, for whatever reason,
this one has had difficulty in getting shovels in its soil. Multiple developers have tried
and failed to build housing or mixed-use here in recent years. The land is back on the
market again (CBRE). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a move that came as a surprise to some members of its own development team, a New York-based developer has decided to sell one of the last-remaining open development sites in Cleveland’s hot Gordon Square neighborhood near Lake Erie. The offering of 1321-1357 W. 73rd St. comes after its owner, Joe Zagelbaum of Brooklyn, NY, went through a year-long process to get plans approved by the city for a 196-unit apartment complex.

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Slavic Village site chosen by a growing business

A couple of clicks from hitting the century mark, this decaying, 98-year-old office-
warehouse building on Broadway Avenue in Cleveland’s Slavic Village is in the
process of being bought by a growing business that’s seeking a long-term home
to keep on growing (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A new and growing business is seeking to move from its rented space in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood to put down stakes somewhere. And it found that somewhere in a faded brick building at 5363 Broadway Ave. in Slavic Village.

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Downtown Cleveland’s glimmers of hope

Downtown Cleveland Inc. reported that numerous metrics of office and residential
occupancy, foot traffic and other activities show Cleveland’s central business has
had one of its best months since the depths of the pandemic in 2020. This is the
food truck scene at Perk Park along East 12th Street, between Walnut and
Chester avenues (DCI). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

While it seems like foot traffic is up in Downtown Cleveland since the pandemic four years ago, different organizations that measure the city’s central business district’s economic performance have numbers backing up that perception. And that’s also reflective of increased numbers of workers returning to their offices and more residential conversions and occupancies as well. But those numbers are still far from robust.

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Erieview, Shoreway towers win financing

Redevelopment of the Erieview Tower got a big financial boost today when the Cleve-
land-Cuyahoga County Port Authority authorized up to $55 million in bond for the
$78 million conversion of the 40-story office building to Marriott-branded
luxury apartments (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Today, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s board approved $144 million worth of financing toward development projects with a combined price tag totaling $206.1 million. The projects include one new-construction residential tower near Edgewater Park, one renovated and converted Downtown Cleveland office tower, and a major expansion and renovation of middle school facilities in Shaker Heights.

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Cleveland Port’s bulk terminal gets $5M for rehab

On July 12, two ships were working at the Cleveland Bulk Terminal on Whiskey
Island, just west of Downtown Cleveland. Although different types of aggregates
can be loaded and unloaded here, iron ore is unloaded from larger ships through
a conveyor tunnel to smaller ships and then sent upriver to Cleveland Cliffs’
steel-making facilities. That conveyor has reached the end of its useful and
must be rebuilt (Lance Aerial). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Last month, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority awarded nearly $1 million for design work to reconstruct the iron ore conveyor system at the Cleveland Bulk Terminal on Whiskey Island. This month, the Port of Cleveland got a big chunk of the funding necessary to carry out the reconstruction work over the next two years.

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Cleveland’s Public Square gets $750K for improvements

Albeit a beautiful setting, Downtown Cleveland’s Public Square is often
a quiet setting outside of special events. Downtown Cleveland Inc. and LAND
Studio hope to change that by making Public Square more active more often
with new and more frequent programming that includes increased safety
to bring more people out (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The work to improve Cleveland’s centuries-old Public Square, a New England-style community commons, is never done. In the latest effort, Downtown Cleveland Inc. will receive $750,000 in funds from the Ohio legislature’s one-time Strategic Community Investment Fund for a more welcoming, engaging and inclusive Public Square for all.

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Downtown dealmaking takes time, new approaches

One of the biggest pending deals in Downtown Cleveland is for the Ohio
Savings Plaza which actually consists of two office towers. This 18-story
building on East 9th Street, which is the larger of the two for-sale buildings,
is proposed to be converted into residential (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Although the real estate listing for Ohio Savings Plaza, 1801 E. 9th St. and its associated Park Plaza, 1111 Chester Ave., show their transaction status as “under contract,” it’s been that way for many months. It will retain that status for at least two more months. What’s going on behind the scenes reveals the complexities and even creative new ways of pursuing big deals in this market at this time.

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Stockyards nuisance is finally coming down

Southwest of downtown Cleveland in the Stockyards neighborhood, the former
box factory is being cleaned up and demolished after decades of being a neigh-
borhood nuisance, city officials say (Cleveland Building Department).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

By the end of this month, a former box factory turned nuisance at 7275 Wentworth Ave. in Cleveland’s Stockyards neighborhood will be visited by the wrecking ball. But crews are already on site cleaning up the long-vacant building that has been used by vagrants, drug users and dealers and reportedly by the property owner’s affiliate for illegally storing millions of fluorescent light bulbs before and after a suspicious 2018 fire.

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Circle East improvements continue, more due

This occupied home on Brightwood Avenue in East Cleveland was renovated by the
Cuyahoga Land Bank as part of its Circle East redevelopment. Circle East is a 30-
acre district that’s closest to University Circle, one of the largest and fastest-growing
employment hubs in Ohio (CCLRC). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a 30-acre area of targeted investment called the Circle East District, located in East Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Land Bank announced it has completed major features of its first phase to revive the neighborhood. The multi-phase $95 million effort led by the Cuyahoga Land Bank to rebuild the neighborhood from the sewers up began two years ago. However, a commercial component to the redevelopment has hit a legal snag.

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Downtown occupancy finally rings at The Bell

A rendering of The Bell as seen from East 9th Street, looking northward. This
former Ohio Bell headquarters office building is now open and leasing has
begun for residents and its commercial spaces, including  a restaurant and
co-working offices (Sandvick). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Despite recent bumps in opening The Bell, the team that converted the former Ohio Bell headquarters into apartments and commercial spaces has hired two Chicago firms to market and manage the property. The announcement comes as the Downtown Cleveland building has received its occupancy permit, effectively declaring the $100-plus-million conversion project as complete.

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Hough renovation secures financing, start date

When renovations are concluded in about 18 months, a modernized building at 9410
Hough Ave. in Cleveland will provide affordable housing near University Circle and
a setting more befitting the mostly positive direction that the Hough neighborhood
 is headed (RDL). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In a long-planned redevelopment, the renovation of a vacant and vandalized 10-story apartment building at the east end of Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood finally has the green light to start work. That green light came today as $47 million in financing closed for the project and construction is due to start before the end of this month.

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Cleveland’s lakefront has something no other major Great Lakes city has

 In the late 1800s, railroad tracks were the last things you cross before
getting your feet wet in Lake Erie. That was before hundreds of acres of
new lakefront land near Downtown Cleveland was created with landfill. 
Cleveland was one of the few major Great Lakes cities to have a busy
mainline railroad along its lakefront. Today, it is the only one where freight
trains are the dominant user of those lakefront tracks (Shober &
Carqueville, Library of Congress). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

When looking at Chicago’s enviable lakefront, it never had it. Toronto’s did, but not anymore. Same with Milwaukee’s and Hamilton’s but due to different circumstances. Detroit, Buffalo, Toledo and smaller cities like Green Bay and Erie never did. What are we talking about here? A busy mainline freight railroad routed along a major Great Lake city’s downtown waterfront.

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Next steps for Bedrock’s riverfront development

The full build-out of Bedrock’s ambitious $3.5 billion riverfront vision first requires the
foundation of infrastructure, public spaces and the creation of development sites for
the Detroit-based developer and others to construct their residential, hospitality,
office and entertainment buildings (Bedrock-MKSK).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

On Friday, representatives of Bedrock Real Estate will make a presentation to Cleveland’s City Planning Commission about the upcoming steps they will take to ready the site for their ambitious $3.5 billion riverfront development plan. But a majority of those early steps boil down to just one foundational word — infrastructure.

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Cleveland to make prime Ohio City site available

McCafferty Health Center on Lorain Avenue in Ohio City will be made available
to developers to construct affordable housing on the site in a neighborhood with
many expensive houses and apartments. This view is from the alley Fulton
Court behind the health center, near West 44th Street (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For years, the underutilized McCafferty Health Center at 4242 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland’s booming Ohio City neighborhood has been a topic of interest among real estate developers and community leaders. Today, Cleveland city officials announced they will soon be entertaining proposals for the site’s development.

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Let’s do another one! Cleveland entrepreneurs of color to compete again

In the first Cleveland Equitable Development Initiative, real estate developers of
color competed for financial prizes to support their projects and were mentored
along the way. Everyone who competed gained awards and insights so no one
went home empty-handed (Cleveland Development Advisors).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

After a successful inaugural effort of the Cleveland Equitable Development Initiative (CLE-EDI), the Cleveland Development Advisors (CDA) didn’t waste any time at all in deciding to pursue a second round of competitions for 2024-25. Applications open today for the CLE-EDI which aims to level the playing field for historically excluded real estate developers of color.

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