Investors pump up height of planned Cleveland skyscraper

With an address of 725 W. St. Clair Ave., this 11-parcel, 2.3-acre
parking lot in downtown Cleveland's Warehouse District, owned
by Stark Enterprises, is the site for a residential tower proposed
 by Realife Real Estate Group that may be taller than Playhouse
Square's 34-story The Lumen skyscraper (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Upon opening Realife Real Estate Group's Web site, a video begins to roll. The video is from a drone coming in low from the west, soaring above downtown Cleveland's Warehouse District. And it is not a coincidence that the first parking crater it passes over is the multi-parcel lot on the southeast corner of St. Clair Avenue and West 9th Street.

That's where Israeli real estate principal Yaron Kandelker and other investors from his home country hope to build downtown Cleveland's next residential skyscraper, according to sources. Proposed is a $100 million project that is desired to be taller than The Lumen, now under construction in Playhouse Square.

Kandelker's investor group reportedly has significant resources and has invested in other projects in Israel and Moscow, Russia, but is looking for bargains in largely untapped, inexpensive markets like Jacksonville, FL and Cleveland. Opportunity Zone-enabled financing has become an important factor in Cleveland's attractiveness.

The Lumen apartment tower rises in downtown
Cleveland's Playhouse Square. Despite its large
physical presence in the skyline, it will make a
small dent in downtown's housing market that
could accommodate another dozen Lumen
towers-worth of housing stock according
to a 2018 market study (Twitter).

Realife could have lots of competition for new downtown residential high-rises here as Stark Enterprises, City Club Apartments, Geis Companies and the Frangos Group all want to get in on the action. But it appears that Stark Enterprises may be less of a competitor and more of a partner to Realife.

The property at St. Clair and West 9th is owned by West 9th Street Parking, LLC, an affiliate of Stark Enterprises. Stark in 2014 acquired Los Angeles-based L&R Group's Cleveland portfolio for $26 million. That portfolio includes properties that sources say Stark intends to begin clearing in August for nuCLEus, a $354 million, two-24-story-tower development in the Gateway District.

But the portfolio also included a 2.33-acre, 11-parcel property at 725 W. St. Clair Ave., at the southeast corner of West 9th. To reduce costs of development, Stark may retain ownership of this property and enter into a joint venture with Realife. Kandelker didn't return an e-mail seeking comment.

However, Stark Enterprises' Chief Operating Officer Ezra Stark did respond and said that he could not comment on any joint venture discussions with Realife. He did say that Stark Enterprises was not selling the land to Realife and has had no conversations in that regard.

If Stark does partner with Realife in its future efforts, it wouldn't be the first time Stark helped the firm expand its real estate foothold here.

Just last December, Stark sold its five-story headquarters building at St. Clair and West 3rd Street to Kandelker for $2.65 million, below Stark's asking price of $2.9 million. Stark also provided to Kandelker the financing for the purchase and filed the paperwork to create Kandelker's company, 1350 W6 LLC, which acquired Stark's old HQ. And Stark hurriedly moved out to a temporary headquarters at 629 Euclid Ave. while nuCLEus (Stark's new HQ) is being built.

Realife is focusing its downtown investment efforts on two of
its largest parking craters, both in the Warehouse District. Its
proposed skyscraper would be built on the westernmost crater
owned by Stark Enterprises while it purchased Stark's former
headquarters located next to the largest crater, dubbed the
Superblock which is owned by Weston Inc. (Google).

Realife hasn't officially pursued a development plan for Stark's old HQ at 1350 W. 3rd St. However, the property is listed on Realife's Web site as a potential multi-family project. Sources say a four-story-tall billboard on the west side of the building generates significant revenues, so there is no hurry to find new uses or tenants for the building.

Realife's proposed high-rise residential project down the street comes as nearly all of downtown's obsolete office towers have been converted to residential. More new-construction residential towers are planned to rise following the completion of The Beacon 29-story tower and The Lumen 34-story tower.

As mentioned earlier, Realife seeks to build a tower taller than The Lumen, and likely higher than any of the other proposed residential high-rises, according to source familiar with the project. However, the square footage, amenities and excavation would have to be less than The Lumen's in order to meet Realife's reported $100 million budget for its tower.

The Lumen is a $135 million, 602,000-square-foot residential tower with 318 apartments in Playhouse Square on Euclid Avenue at East 17th Street. Preliminary cost of building the tower is $224 per square foot.

The Lumen's high cost per square foot was due, in part, to the removal of 30,000 cubic yards of dirt for a roughly 30-foot-deep, 1-acre wide "bathtub" that includes underground parking and services for the building. It also dug 175-foot-deep supportive caissons to bedrock.

Parcel map for the property 725 W. St. Clair Ave. being
marketed for sale by Stark Enterprises and shows some
adjoining parcels that are not involved in Realife's
nascent skyscraper plans (Cresco). 

A source familiar with both The Lumen and Realife's proposed tower said Realife is also reducing the cost per square foot of its tower by shrinking its floorplates, not just reducing the amount of excavation and amenities. That would allow Realife to build taller than The Lumen while constructing fewer square feet of structure.

In addition to a roughly 100,000-square-foot garage and a fifth-floor amenity deck, The Lumen has floor plates of about 12,000 square feet in the tower. Those features are also instructive to estimating what Realife may have in mind for its skyscraper.

The comparison to The Lumen and Realife's $100 million budget suggests that Realife's tower could be about 40 stories tall, measure 500,000 square feet including 90,000 square feet of parking, have floorplates of less than 10,000 square feet, and have construction costs of $200 per square foot.

Considering that only 2 percent of downtown Cleveland employees live downtown, there is still a large, untapped market for downtown housing. A 2018 Housing Demand Analysis for downtown Cleveland showed that there is a market for building another 3,800 housing units beyond the 3,000 units already under construction or in planning. To meet that demand would require building the equivalent of another dozen Lumen-sized skyscrapers downtown.

Realife Real Estate Group's Yaron Kandelker (LinkedIn).

Since 2015, Realife affiliates dramatically increased their presence in Greater Cleveland. They acquired more than 55 mostly single-family residential properties in Cleveland and inner-ring suburbs for nearly $4 million, county records show.

Realife has also added multi-family properties to its portfolio, including in Fairview Park, Lakewood and Cleveland, the latter having Luchita's West 117th Street flagship restaurant on the ground floor. But neighbors of some of Realife's properties have complained about the lack of maintenance on them.

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Demolition for NuCLEus to start by mid-August

As demolition of the 114-year-old building in the foreground,
hosting Mr. Albert's Men's World clothier, awaits that store's
relocation, razing of the eight-level parking garage behind it
can begin within weeks to give way to the planned nuCLEus
development (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Two sources confirm that demolition is slated to begin by mid-August for the nuCLEus development in downtown Cleveland. While there is no news yet of a groundbreaking date for the $354 million development led by Stark Enterprises, most signals appear to be green for building the mixed-use project. But there are still some yellow signals, too.

NuCLEus will feature two 24-story towers, one with offices and the other with residential built atop a pedestal of parking and retail.

As noted last month, Cleveland Construction will be the general contractor for the nuCLEus development. A demolition subcontractor reportedly has been hired to raze a multi-story parking garage at 601-611 Huron Rd., a two-story mixed-use building at 620 Prospect Ave., and the Herold Building, 310 Prospect.

Demolition of the eight-level parking garage is scheduled to begin as soon as possible -- roughly three to four weeks from now, a source said. The Herold Building may be next, pending the city's concurrence.

The Herold Building was condemned by the city and the subject of a 2013 lawsuit by the city against LR 310 Prospect Investors, LLC that was dismissed without prejudice when L&R Group of Companies sold the building along with the parking lots to the east of it to Stark in 2014.

The dark structure the center-foreground is the Herold Building,
owned by Stark Enterprises. It is next to 300 Prospect Ave., at
far right, which was home to Record Rendezvous where some
of the first rock-and-roll records could be bought (Google).

The lawsuit was dismissed because Stark pledged to restore the Herold Building at that time. However, the condemned, vacant building has continued to decay in the five years since. It remains to be seen whether the Board of Zoning Appeals will approve demolishing the Herold Building.

To clarify, this building wasn't home to Record Rendezvous (1939-1987). Rather, the famous record store was next door at 300 Prospect where some of the first rock-n-roll records could be bought. The record store's building was acquired in 2012 by a partnership of Weston Inc. and restaurateur Bobby George for a future development that has yet to materialize.

The third structure due to succumb to the wrecking ball hosts Mr. Albert's Men's World clothing store as well as Nick's Sports Corner bar. While the bar is making way for demolition, the clothing store hasn't yet.

Store owner Ike Simmons apparently hasn't identified a new location for his urban clothier even though he owns the shuttered Goldfish Army & Navy Store just down the street, at 202-210 Prospect. Simmons couldn't be located for comment.

A streetview rendering of the planned nuCLEus development,
as seen from the corner of Prospect Avenue and East 4th Street.
NuCLEus' residential tower is seen here along with a future,
unidentified development barely visible at far right (Stark).

Stark reportedly wants Mr. Albert's Men's World to find a new location rather than pursue an eviction. Gateway Huron LLC, a partnership between Stark and J-Dek Ltd., own the building that hosts Simmons' store. The partnership owns all of the other properties needed for developing nuCLEus. Chief Operating Officer Ezra Stark didn't respond to an e-mail requesting more information.

The market for nuCLEus appears strong. Two-thirds of its office space is already leased, most of its retail spaces are spoken for, and the residential market continues to be strong. In his latest blog, Stark described factors affecting the residential market, especially in a low-cost market with big-city amenities like Cleveland.

"Primarily, we’re seeing a surge of millennials and fresh college graduates who are intent on escaping their suburban upbringing to live in a more convenient and convivial urban environment," Stark wrote. "While this does present development opportunities, high demand for high quality housing begets high rents."

Until all the structures are cleared, a groundbreaking date for nuCLEus cannot be set. But at least things are moving steadily in that direction.

END

Seeds & Sprouts III - Early intel on real estate projects

This is the third edition of Seeds & Sprouts - Early intelligence on Cleveland-area real estate projects. Because these projects are very early in their process of development or just a long-range plan, a lot can and probably will change their final shape, use and outcome.

After completion this summer of the $515 million Health Edu-
cation Campus, 9501 Euclid Ave., there are no cranes in the
sky over Cleveland Clinic's Main Campus. That will soon
change as several projects shown in red above come to the
fore (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Fairfax: Cleveland Clinic shifts back into construction mode

For the first time in a long time, there are no construction cranes over University Circle or the Cleveland Clinic. Just don't get used to it.

In the coming months, look for movement on several Cleveland Clinic-related projects. There is already some visible movement starting on one of them -- the Brooks BioRepository proposed to be built at 10300 Cedar Avenue. The site is at the northwest corner of Cedar and East 105th Street.

City Planning Commission's Design Review Committee will review plans this week for Brooks Automation Inc.'s proposed 21,000-square-foot biorepository to enhance researchers’ study of human tissue samples and advance personalized medicine for an array of conditions -- including cancer, heart disease and epilepsy.

The facility is located in Fairfax's New Economy Neighborhood on the under-construction Opportunity Corridor. Geis Construction is the general contractor and the biorepository will be built on Cleveland Clinic-owned land.

On East 105th's next block north, between Carnegie and Euclid avenues, Cleveland Clinic plans to build a new inpatient facility for the Cole Eye Institute. Dubbed the Cole Bed Tower, the structure will be about four or five stories tall but will fill a large footprint -- an existing parking lot just south of the existing Cole Eye Institute. The new building will be physically connected to the existing institute by walkways.

Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic noted in his annual State of the Clinic address in February that the global health care system would pursue investments in the Cole Eye Institute as well as a new Neurological Institute. The site for a new Neurological Institute isn't known, but sources say that it might be where Buildings M and S are currently located off East 90th Street. Both of those buildings are apparently slated for demolition.

Building M is the old Children's Hospital and Building S is an inpatient facility in a 10-story brick tower with an H-shaped floorplan. It is just south of the historic T Building on Euclid that will not be demolished. Word is that the Cleveland Clinic will issue requests for proposals to construction firms for the Cole Bed Tower and the Neurological Institute by the end of summer or early fall.

Areas shown in red are properties
not yet acquired for the Irishtown
Bend Park. The large Ohio City
Farm, shown in the lower half
 of the image and owned by the
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing
Authority will likely remain
under its current ownership and
use (Google).

Ohio City: Properties transfer for Irishtown Bend Park

A notable event occurred June 17 in the progress toward building the 17-acre Irishtown Bend Park above the Cuyahoga River. That's when eight parcels totaling 6.9 acres located between Riverbed Street and West 25th Street transferred from the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to Riverbed West, LLC -- a dba for the West Creek Conservancy.

The transfer of June 17 also started an 18-month clock ticking, during which time West Creek Conservancy must demolish two structures on the CMHA parcels. The structures are a 27,600-square-foot CMHA office building at 1441 W. 25th St. and the Riverview Family Estates, a boarded-up, three-story apartment building at 1505-1525 W. 25th.

A demolition clock exists because a $1.4 million Clean Ohio grant awarded for the property acquisition and structural demolitions included the deadline. The grant was awarded in February 2017.

LAND studio applied for the grant but West Creek Conservancy took possession of the properties because it has better liability protections. The conservancy previously acquired 3 acres of land from private owners in December 2017 between Riverbed Street and the Cuyahoga River. It will eventually transfer all of the Irishtown Bend land to the City of Cleveland for the planned park.

But the grant clock started ticking one year later than hoped due to delays by the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development in signing off on the property transfer. The delay doesn't jeopardize the grant.

Although officials involved with the project hope to demolish the structures and clean the land by the end of this year, next spring is more likely, officials involved with the project said. The unstable hillside demands a careful demolition process, as do the significant foundations on which the newly acquired buildings set.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is organizing funding and implementation of a $49 million hillside stabilization effort. Another 4.5 acres of CMHA-owned land, called Ohio City Farms, will be a part of the park.

Three privately owned parcels are still to be acquired. They are each owned by separate firms -- Snavely Group, Mortgage Investment Group LLC and Front Steps (dba Womens West Housing Corp.). Snavely is donating its land, valued at $95,000, to the conservancy as part of the grant's local match. Snavely is developing multiple properties in the adjacent Hingetown neighborhood.

Front Steps is building a new facility farther south on West 25th and, when completed, its existing site will be vacated, sold to the conservancy for a yet-to-be-determined price and demolished. The future of a commercial building owned by Mortgage Investment Group at the southeast corner of West 25th and Detroit Avenue is unknown.

A Cleveland landmark for more than a century,
the grand old Rockefeller Building has faded with
time, as has the primary partner in its ownership
group. So the word on the street is the building
is for sale, albeit quietly (LoopNet).

Downtown: Shhh...the Rockefeller Building is for sale

Keep an eye on one of Cleveland's most famous and historic buildings -- the Rockefeller Building, 614 W. Superior Ave. You won't see it listed for sale on any real estate brokerage site or other public listing service. However, numerous spaces are available for lease.

But make no mistake about it, the Rockefeller Building is available for sale. At least a half-dozen potential buyers have toured the building in recent months but there have been no takers yet, according to real estate sources.

The current owner is the Rockefeller Building Associates, a partnership of Benjamin Cappadora and Diana Miller, Trustee. The former is of Cleveland; the latter of Brooklyn, NY. But the primary person in the partnership is Cappadora who, before 1988, owned the building as Cappadora Realty Corp.

The reason why the office building is available is because it is half vacant, it cannot leverage high rents as an aging Class C office product, and Cappadora is 87 years old. Miller apparently is not an active partner. It is not listed for sale publicly because Cappadora reportedly doesn't want to spook existing tenants.

Although the 261,261-square-foot building is dirty and in need of updating, it is an architectural gem. It was built in 1905 by the Rockefeller family and named after Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. When it first opened, it was the city's tallest building at 17 stories and 212 feet.

It was briefly named the Kirby Building (1921-23) by Josiah Kirby, founder of the Cleveland Discount Co., then a large mortgage firm. But that angered the Rockefeller family who bought the building back and renamed the structure. It has been called the Rockefeller Building ever since.

END

City Block at Tower City, announcement Monday; sneak peak

The view looking up at Terminal Tower from The Avenue
at Tower City Center may not change. But everything inside
The Avenue shopping mall is due to change in a big way as
shops give way to spaces for entrepreneurs in City
Block, a hub for startup businesses (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

On Monday, July 1, BlockLand Cleveland will announce that The Avenue at Tower City Center is the group's chosen site for a hub for entrepreneurs called City Block. The hub could someday grow to be the world's largest incubator under one roof.

Bernie Moreno, founder and leader of BlockLand Cleveland, a volunteer effort, confirmed in a personal message via Twitter that the project would be announced at 4 p.m. Monday at the group's next regular meeting. The meeting will be held on the second floor of the former Plain Dealer building, 1801 Superior Ave.

In April, Moreno acknowledged to this blog that Tower City was the preferred site for City Block. The chosen site was first reported in this blog and then announced on April 18 by Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish during his State of the County speech.

Moreno said that the site announcement will be made at Monday's meeting after he was asked to confirm some specific information from a source about the project. Moreno said the project's details would be revealed at the meeting.

The information is that Bedrock Real Estate, which owns The Avenue at Tower City Center, has agreed to lead the City Block redevelopment of the former railroad station-turned-shopping mall. Furthermore, Bedrock, founded in 2011 by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and Bedrock Chairman Jim Ketai, hired Vocon Partners, LLC to design the conversion of The Avenue into the hub for entrepreneurs, not just those involved in technology.

A harder cost figure for the conversion will be available in the coming months. A year ago, Moreno estimated that the development costs for City Block could be about $150 million.

The Avenue's airy concourses and large
skylights will soon illuminate aspiring
entrepreneurs and their new businesses
being incubated in City Block (KJP).

Bedrock shelled out $56.5 million in 2016 to acquire The Avenue at Tower City, the adjoining Ritz Carlton Hotel and parking lots along the Cuyahoga River to the south of the Tower City complex. Bedrock bought The Avenue and riverfront properties associated with the former Cleveland Union Terminal from Forest City Realty Trust Inc. Forest City converted the 1930-built railroad terminal into The Avenue shopping mall for $400 million in 1990.

Also in 2016, K&D Group acquired Terminal Tower, the old main Post Office and other Tower City properties from Forest City for $38.5 million. K&D is renovating the 13 lowest floors in Terminal Tower with 293 apartments, with the first units available for occupancy in September. The other buildings will remain as offices.

Reportedly, Bedrock's vision for The Avenue is to eventually remove all of the retail from the lower portions of the mall and instead line both sides of Prospect Avenue through the Tower City complex with storefronts, possibly retail spaces for technology companies like Apple or Microsoft plus non-tech-related examples. That includes redesigning the skylight rotundas with new facades, said a source familiar with the planning.

Station F in Paris, France is a large tech startup incubator that
is located in a former railroad freight terminal. The concourse
features old railroad carriages as well as settings to collaborate
with other entrepreneurs or to relax and recharge (Station F).

Replacing the retail in the mall will be a massive business startup center, focusing on digital technologies but others as well. Another source, one who serves on the BlockLand Place Committee, noted that the group researched other tech incubators around the world, especially Station F in Paris, France.

Opened in 2017, Station F is so-named because it is in a former freight railroad terminal previously called La halle Freyssinet. It was named after French structural and civil engineer Eugene Freyssinet, a pioneer in the use of pre-stressed concrete.

Station F is already the world’s biggest startup campus hosting thousands of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and partners Facebook, Zendesk, Amazon, Vente-Privée, HEC, Microsoft, and others. Those big tech companies pick young startups to come to Station F and collaborate with them. French billionaire Xavier Niel spent hundreds of millions of euros to purchase and convert the railroad terminal.

Many spaces at Station F aren't offices for tech startups; those
that are can be quite small. Other spaces are available to venture
capital firms, or provide on-demand meeting spaces, or merely
are spaces for entrepreneurs to let off some steam (CityLab).

Visiting Station F caused BlockLand's Place Committee to focus on the former Cleveland Union Terminal, once the city's principal railroad station which still hosts a smaller station for rapid transit trains today. The 366,000-square-foot The Avenue at Tower City met the group's space requirements, namely that it would offer about 300,000 square feet and could include a separate wing for a technology school called Genesis.

The Avenue at Tower City will offer three times more floor space, as measured in square feet, than Station F. BlockLand will market Cleveland's lower cost of living as a draw to entrepreneurs and startups. Tower City has under one roof two hotels, hundreds of new apartments, 2 million square feet of offices, plus direct rail service to Cleveland's airport and rail and bus rapid-transit services to two universities and the booming eds-n-meds cluster in and near University Circle.

It is not yet known which corporate sponsors will further legitimize and energize City Block. But having Bedrock lead the project is a significant development. In Detroit, Bedrock has attracted to its properties businesses and retailers in which Gilbert has equity by offering discounted (or free) rent at the outset to create a critical mass of activity. That includes retailers like Stock X, Shinola, Apple, Microsoft and others.

The Avenue at Tower City Center's Prospect Avenue entrance
is due to be remodeled into storefronts and sidewalk cafes,
according to sources. Details about the project are scheduled
to be announced on Monday (KJP).

Funding for City Block is coming mostly from investors and foundations. A new $50 million partnership was announced in March between NCT Ventures of Columbus and the Cleveland Foundation to help boost the city's technology scene. It is not yet clear how much of this funding could be used directly for developing City Block, however.

Also, Moreno sold in April seven of his car dealerships to focus on his technology initiatives. No sale amount was publicized, but other recent sales of car dealerships have netted anywhere from $10 million to $40 million per dealership. If Moreno netted somewhere in the middle, he could have grossed something in the neighborhood of $150 million to $200 million.

Jumpstart and Flashstarts also announced they'll make available millions for blockchain and other technology startups, Budish said. Ironically, Flashstarts' StartMart is already located at Tower City Center.

END