Coronavirus crisis casualties in Cleveland real estate

The 12th+AVE condos on East 12th Street downtown will
instead be apartments as Geis Companies anticipates that
renting the homes will be easier than selling them in the
economic aftermath of the coronavirus crisis (GLSD).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

UPDATED APRIL 10, 2020

While the temporary scaling back of spending for the Sherwin-Williams' (SHW) new headquarters+research (HQ+R&D) project is probably the most notable impact from the coronavirus crisis, it isn't the only one in Greater Cleveland.

It's important to note that no real estate development project, so far, has completely succumbed to the crisis. But several have been delayed or modified to deal with our suddenly changed economic reality.

With the SHW HQ+R&D project, CEO John Morikis said in a video and a letter to employees this week that its sales remain solid during the crisis. However, SHW is reducing spending on HQ+R&D consultants to support the company's social distancing and remote staffing activities.

The need for the HQ+R&D remains -- to consolidate employees from multiple locations into fewer facilities -- and SHW staff continue to work on it. So SHW's plan to move into its new HQ+R&D facilities in 2023 also remains intact.

A preliminary massing of the Sherwin-Williams headquarters
in downtown shows a potential first phase in blue/green with
later phases in red and yellow. The project continues albeit
with less use of outside consultants to save money for the
company's coronavirus recovery efforts (WKYC).

The London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG) ELITE initiative headquarters project has reportedly been pushed to the back burner during the crisis. The international business support program had hoped to establish its Cleveland's presence in the first quarter of 2020.

A downtown office with about 40 employees at the outset was envisioned -- and reportedly still is. But with domestic travel severely reduced, international travel virtually halted and the need to help businesses and employees recover from the crisis, the LSEG's attention is not focused on expansion at this time. There is every reason to believe that its Cleveland headquarters project will restart when the "all-clear" is given.

A Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) tax credit pending in the Ohio House of Representatives isn't likely to pass anytime soon, due to the crisis.

Backers had hoped that the legislation could be moved out of the House's Economic and Workforce Development Committee and passed by the full House last month, with a possible signature by the governor in early April. That could allow three years of tax credits, starting before the end of the state's current fiscal year that ends June 30.

Renovation of 925 Euclid into The Centennial would get a big
boost from the passage of the Transformational Mixed Use
Development tax credit pending before the Ohio General
Assembly. Unfortunately, the legislation isn't going any-
where anytime soon as all non-essential work by the
legislature has been halted. But an Ohio economic
recovery program may offer a boost (LoopNet).

But the Economic and Workforce Development Committee hasn't met since Feb. 12 and won't be meeting again anytime soon. Not only has the crisis suspended all non-essential activity by the state legislature, but committee Chairman Paul Zeltwanger was named on Monday as chairman of the Ohio 2020 Economic Recovery Task Force.

"I cannot answer any questions about when the Economic and Workforce Development Committee will meet again or what will be on the agenda. I genuinely do not know and would not want to speculate," said Josh Ferdelman, Rep. Zeltwanger's legislative aide.

However, Ferdelman said the new task force and Rep. Zeltwanger's leadership of it could move forward some new economic development initiatives to spur growth in the wake of the crisis.

"I imagine there’s significant overlap of interest between the two committees," he said.

Two Cleveland projects that were considered candidates for the TMUD tax credit were Stark Enterprises' nuCLEus and Millennia Group's The Centennial. However, both reportedly had secured other equity to possibly move forward as early as this summer. It is not known if either project is still a go as there was no response to e-mails seeking comment from principals of both companies.

Proposed since 2014, Stark Enterprises' nuCLEus development
in downtown Cleveland may have hit a new snag as the corona-
virus crisis has slammed the retail sector. That comprises a sig-
nificant portion of Stark's business revenues (KJP).

More recently, Chief Operating Officer Ezra Stark didn't respond to an e-mail requesting more information about Stark Enterprises' financial and employment situation. Rumors have swirled recently about layoffs of property managers and other staff as the company owns many retail properties whose tenants had to close under governmental orders and may not be able to pay their rent.

Of Stark's 36 properties, 19 are retail centers and three are student housing complexes. That doesn't include Stark Restaurant Group's ownership and operation of 11 Menchie's Frozen Yogurt franchises in Ohio and Pennsylvania which are still open for take-out, pick-up or delivery.

Another sign of the times is that Geis Companies' 12th+AVE condominiums, now under construction on East 12th Street and Hamilton Avenue in downtown Cleveland, won't be marketed as condos. Instead, Geis will rent them out as apartments due the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis as fewer buyers are likely to have the money to afford the condos when they hit the market. Previously, 31 condos were planned.

"We’ve decided to move forward with the building as an apartment project rather than a condominium project," said Mollie Neale, executive vice president of Geis Residential Management, LLC. "The property will be comprised of 35 one- and two-bedroom units with high-end features and finishes. We have not finalized pricing yet. However, the units will be around $1.90 per square foot and we anticipate opening winter 2020-21."

Construction on the 12th+AVE building at left has been under-
way since December. But the building will be marketed as
apartments rather than condos. That's a similar fate to
the building at right that was constructed in 2008
as condos but is now apartments (KJP).

Condos were removed from the Multiple Listings Service and the 12th+AVE Web site has been taken offline to redesign it around the apartment offerings. Condos were to range in size from 1,147 to 2,495 square feet with list prices from $300,000 to $685,000.

Construction continues as it has since December. It is doubtful that a full recovery from the coronavirus crisis will occur by the time the time the building opens. That is what makes it different from a more expensive condo development in Rocky River which could see construction start by summer. It isn't due to be completed until mid- to late-2021, hopefully after an economic recovery is underway.

Ironically, 12th+AVE is next to a 62-unit, 10-story residential building in the Avenue District that hit the market as condos at the start of the Great Recession in 2008. Difficulties in selling the condos and other financial problems forced then-developer The Zaremba Group to market the remaining units as apartments.

It was another blow to efforts intent on developing a stronger for-sale residential market in downtown Cleveland. Geis bought the 10-story building, which cost Zaremba $25 million to build in 2006, for $15 million last year. There, monthly apartment rents range from $1,450 for the smallest one-bedroom unit to $3,675 for a penthouse, according the Avenue District Web site.

END

Chester75 sounds University Circle's boom in Hough

Proposed at the northwest corner of Chester Avenue and
East 75th Street in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood,
Chester75 is the latest development to capitalize on
growing rents and shortages of quality housing in
and near booming University Circle (Famicos).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

UPDATED APRIL 13, 2020

A significant, multi-phase residential development is proposed on the border of the Hough and Fairfax neighborhoods, in the vicinity of Chester Avenue and East 75th Street. It and other developments represent a continued spillover effect from booming employers and residential investments in neighboring University Circle.

The Famicos Foundation, a nonprofit community development corporation, submitted building permit applications to the city this week for the first phase of Chester75, to rise on the northwest corner of Chester and East 75th. The site at 1914 E. 75th St. previously was home to the Cedar Congregation of Jehovah Witnesses.

In its place, Famicos is proposing a four-story, 56,700-square-foot market-rate apartment building. According to its permit application, the building will offer a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and two-story townhome-style units.

Included in the proposed apartment building's designs are ground-floor common areas, a fourth-floor community room, roof deck and 50 off-street parking spaces, the permit application shows. City Architecture is the architect.

Famicos acquired the 0.84-acre site on May 10, 2019 from JW Congregation Support Inc. of Ulster County, New York for $300,000, according to a deed transfer filed a week later with the Cuyahoga County Recorder.

Chester75 is the result of a partnership among multiple entities. However, the project's developer is not yet known. It has one, otherwise permit applications wouldn't have been submitted to the city. But Knez Homes founder and president Bo Knez refuted a recent report in Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones' newsletter that his firm will be the developer. He said he bid on the project but hasn't heard any response since.

Site plan for the first phase of Chester75 (CPC).

The principal financier of the project is AES Management Corp. and its President Vanessa Whiting, according to a source, confirmed by Cuyahoga County records. On April 16, 2019, AES Management loaned $350,000 to Famicos which used 1914 E. 75th as collateral.

AES Management Corp. is the owner and operator of 15 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen franchises in the Cleveland-Akron area according to Whiting's LinkedIn page. The firm also supports local affordable housing developments. This market-rate development is reportedly a different direction for AES Management.

However, Whiting's son, Tony Smith II, is a development associate with First Interstate Properties which recently developed the luxury 20-story One University Circle apartment tower on Euclid Avenue at Stokes Boulevard. The firm is currently pursuing a $20 million, 88-unit, mid-market apartment building up the hill from University Circle called 121 Larchmere. Smith reportedly is working on Chester75 independently of First Interstate.

As noted earlier, the northwest corner of Chester and East 75th is considered to be the first phase of Chester75. At least two more corners and possibly the fourth corner are also in play for residential development and possibly some ground-floor commercial uses. It is too early to know yet if and where multi-family buildings or townhomes would be placed on which quadrants of the intersection.

At a public meeting held last fall about the development, Famicos' Executive Director John Anoliefo said the nonprofit development organization was in the process of acquiring additional properties for the Chester75 development, according to the Ward 7 newsletter.

Conceptual usage of the area around Chester Avenue and
East 75th Street, looking generally east (Ward 7 Observer).

On the northeast corner of Chester and East 75th in the Hough neighborhood is 2.7 acres of vacant land that is mostly in the city's Land Re-utilization Program.

On the southeast corner in the Fairfax neighborhood are mostly underutilized properties except for the designated historic landmark Charles Frederick Schweinfurth house built in 1894. Schweinfurth was a famous architect. The home on East 75th was his personal residence.

On the southwest corner is a mix of developed and vacant properties. But the next block west starts a collection of properties owned by local and national developers and investors including Berusch Development Partners LLC (dba Euclid 71 LLC), Vazza Real Estate Group (dba BD Euclid Ave LLC and BD Cleveland LLC) and David Chesler.

The Chester75 development is a direct result of fast-growing employment at the nearby Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and its spin-off businesses, as well as from University Circle seeing some of the fastest-rising rents in the country. Rents there grew 44 percent last year.

NEOtrans first reported the Chester75 development last November in a news brief about University Circle-area growth spilling over into neighboring Hough where new rental listings rose nearly 8 percent last year to $1,415 for a one-bedroom apartment, according to Rent.com.

END

Lakefront luxury development secures construction financing

Looking east towards downtown Cleveland along Lake Erie,
700 Lake in Rocky River offers 25 condominiums and eight
townhouses on Lake Road. Already, one-third of the for-sale
residences have pre-sold (Brickhaus). CLICK TO ENLARGE

A real estate partnership announced this week in a written statement that it has finalized its construction financing and hired its general contractor for a luxury condominium and townhouse development on the west-suburban lakefront.

The partnership Carney Brickhaus along with its contractor Infinity Construction are due to start construction by summer on 700 Lake in the City of Rocky River. Comprising the partnership are developers James Carney and Andrew Brickman. The latter is principal of Brickhaus Partners.

Construction of the $35 million first phase of the development is expected to take about 15 months. Construction financing was provided by Erie Bank after Carney Brickhaus hit its pre-sales requirement, selling one-third of the development's residences.

This is occurring despite the pandemic crisis which is, at best, slowing down real estate development activities nearly everywhere.

First phase of 700 Lake is outlined in red, between Bradstreet's
Landing Park and the Bay Village city line. A possible second
phase featuring townhomes is proposed where a half-dozen
homes on Breezevale Cove now stand (Google/KJP).

"When life is unusual and all the rules for conducting business and living life are changing every
day, the Carney Brickhaus team and their strategic partners are moving along with the construction
of the long-awaited 700 Lake condo on Lake Erie in Rocky River," said the Carney Brickhaus partnership in a written statement.

Located on 2.5 acres at 22700 Lake Road, the 700 Lake development took its name from one of two lakefront estates that previously occupied this site. Both were demolished two years ago, followed by two smaller homes on Breezvale Cove in late-2019. All were acquired by an affiliate of Carney Brickhaus called Rocky River Preservation Partners II LLC.

On that land, Carney Brickhaus will build eight townhomes fronting Lake Road, just west of Breezevale. Behind them will rise the 25-unit condominium building built of concrete which will be three stories in front, facing Lake Road and five stories in back, facing Lake Erie.

Site plan for the first phase of 700 Lake. Note that north is
to the right in this image (Brickhaus).

A later phase comprised of townhouses is planned on 2.1 acres just east of the first phase. It will first require the acquisition of six private homes on Breezevale. Carney has acquired one of those homes while Brickhaus has acquired three, according to Cuyahoga County property records. The other two are not yet under the developers' control.

Just east of Breezevale is the 1975-built, eight-story Beach House Condominiums, the 1997- to 2000-built Harbor Village townhomes and Bradstreet's Landing Park. The park is about to undergo $3.4 million worth of improvements including a reconstruction of the closed fishing pier.

At 700 Lake, the townhomes will all offer three bedrooms and measure from 2,000 to 2,200 square feet. They will have terraces ranging from 650 to 750 square feet and individual, indoor garages entered from the back. Pricing for the townhomes start at $750,000, according to the Kim Crane Group at Howard Hanna's Rocky River office.

The condos will range in size from 2,200 to 3,600 square feet. Each offers three bedrooms, private outdoor spaces and lake views from every residence. There will be indoor and outdoor parking for condo residents and visitors. Condo pricing starts at $1.2 million.

Rendering for 700 Lake with Lake Road at the bottom-left of
the image and Breezvale Cove to the right (Brickhaus).

Interior finishes for the townhomes and condos will be high end, imported from Italy. They include
kitchens by Aran Cucine, wood flooring by Garbelotto Pavimenti and tile by Fiandre. Appliances and climate controls will all be state-of-the-art offerings from Wolf, Sub-Zero, Thermador and Bosch.

A sales office has been established at 19204 Detroit Road in downtown Rocky River.

"Infinity is pulling permits, and in the coming weeks will be completing a variety of different preconstruction activities," according to the written statement from Carney Brickhaus.

"The construction fence to secure the property will be installed along with additional construction
trailers," the statement said. "After that, clearing will begin, followed shortly thereafter by the grading and installation of all utilities and infrastructure."

END

Lack of city hall tech risks making construction sector sick

Using technology to make public meetings more public, or to
be held at all during the pandemic, has suddenly become more
important. On March 24, the Greater Cleveland Regional Tran-
sit Authority held its first-ever live-streamed board meeting at
the urging of board member Justin Bibb (center). Without the
meeting, several potential job-creating agenda items couldn't
be acted upon and might be postponed a month or so (CPT).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

On March 24, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (GCRTA) Board of Trustees did two things it had never done before.

One, GCRTA's board voted to help form and partially own a unique public-private corporation to acquire and oversee development of its Ohio City Red Line station-area property in partnership with Carnegie Management and Development Corp. That was among several potential job-creating items on that meeting's agenda that included the sale of Midtown land to the Cleveland Foundation.

And two, GCRTA's board made those decisions in its first-ever virtual meeting, broadcast live through Facebook with public comments and questions accepted by e-mail. The live-streamed board meeting was forced out of necessity by the COVID crisis but GCRTA had been discussing the idea for months, said Justin Bibb, a GCRTA board member.

A total of 1,213 people viewed some or all of the live GCRTA board meeting, according to Facebook's statistics. That's far more people than could have ever fit in the transit authority's board room at 1240 W. 6th St. in downtown Cleveland. That's also far more people than could fit in their schedules to attend the meeting, even under normal circumstances.

"This is huge and makes me excited about how we can continue to use simple, low-cost technologies to engage with riders," Bibb said afterwards on Twitter. "This was a big priority for our Ad-Hoc Tech Committee and (I'm) happy we were able to advance it forward quickly. COVID-19 has showed the importance of having resilient operating models to continuously engage and serve residents."

In Miami, Florida, a city commission meeting proceeds as
scheduled on March 25 despite some commissioners self-
isolating. That was because the City of Miami had already
used technology to simplify permitting and enhance public
access by live-streaming city meetings (Mike Sarasti).

But the same cannot be said for nearly all local municipal governments. Their meetings of city councils, planning commissions, boards of zoning appeals (BZA) and other scheduled public gatherings remain canceled for the foreseeable future. That has stalled proposed real estate developments big and small and their resultant job creation, several developers said.

While city officials in many communities say the meeting cancellations are necessary to comply with Sunshine Laws, technology is making that contention questionable.

A few Cleveland-area suburbs like Westlake are continuing to hold live-streamed city council meetings on their Web sites yet most continue to cancel all planning and BZA hearings at least until the end of April.

But the City of Mentor is live-streaming all city council, planning commission and BZA meetings. And the City of North Ridgeville is holding its city council, planning and BZA meetings as scheduled -- all via YouTube.

They are the exceptions, not the rule. And while Cleveland accounts for more than one-fourth to one-third of all new residential units built each year in Cuyahoga County, the City of Cleveland reportedly has no plans to institute virtual planning commission, landmarks or BZA meetings.

Real estate is considered an essential activity that should continue during the pandemic crisis, according to Gov. Mike DeWine's March 23 order.

City of Cleveland guidance on how
to submit applications for building
permits, rental registrations, certifi-
cates of disclosure or occupancies
for residential properties (AIA). 

Cleveland Planning Director Freddie Collier didn't respond to questions e-mailed to him prior to publication of this article.

However, some building permits that do not require new or additional design/zoning/building code reviews or appeals can be obtained through Cleveland's online portal. Also, rental registrations and certificates of disclosure/occupancies for residential properties can be obtained by contacting the city, by mailing them to the city, or by dropping off applications (not checks/money) at the drop boxes at the front/rear entrances to City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave.

Cleveland isn't alone among regional peer cities in its cancellation or indefinite postponement of planning/BZA-type meetings:

• Pittsburgh (postponed until further notice);
• Columbus (canceled until at least April 14);
• Cincinnati (canceled until at least May);
• Buffalo (canceled until further notice);
• Detroit (canceled until further notice).

The City of Indianapolis reports on its Web site that the planning department continues to conduct business albeit remotely due to COVID-19 precautions -- as does Cleveland's. And Indianapolis' site is unclear as to whether planning/BZA meetings will continue to be held at all.

City of Miami's multi-media desk for managing the live-
stream of public meetings as well as communications so the
public can interact with those meetings (Mike Sarasti). 

Building project reviews are needed to meet continuing housing demand, despite the economic slowdown.

"We're actually surprised at the number of clients who are still out there and want to buy a home," said Bo Knez, founder and president of Knez Homes, one of Greater Cleveland's largest housing developers. "There was a housing shortage before we went into this in February and March and it's still there."

He said that capital liquidity is also still available to fund new projects and build new housing inventory. But the biggest hindrance to starting new construction projects and creating more jobs is a lack of access to city halls, he said.

"Many of them are not electronically capable" of handling new plans, project applications and issuing building permits, Knez added, without pointing fingers. "So we're working with the ones that can move forward. Those are the cities that are electronically capable."

Even among construction projects already approved and permitted, getting building inspectors to show up at construction sites to approve work and issue occupancy permits is taking more time, said one construction manager who spoke off the record because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The growth of construction jobs in Greater Cleveland increased
by at least 8 percent or nearly 3,000 jobs in each of the first two
months of 2020. It was the fastest growing job sector in the re-
gion which lost more than 2,000 jobs overall in the same period,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the booming
Hingetown section of Cleveland's Ohio City (Patrick Shepherd).

The National Association of Home Builders this week issued a report showing that each new single-family home built creates an average of nearly three jobs while each new rental apartment creates 1.25 jobs.

For big projects like the City Club Apartments or the Circle Square development, that's several hundred jobs for each project. Those new jobs create a ripple effect throughout the economy, generating tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenues to local, state and federal governments per new construction job, the association says.

Those jobs and their benefits will go to the cities who are best prepared technologically, said Bibb, who is rumored to be considering a run for mayor of Cleveland in 2021.

"We’ve got to find a way to modernize and streamline the permitting process," he said. "Making it easier for residents and businesses to interact with government helps to create more trust and confidence in our local leadership."

END

Calming traffic at RTA station key to developing area

Urban architect Yong Woo Lee of planning firm AECOM pre-
sents transit-oriented development options at a public meeting
held June 20, 2017 at the Cudell Recreation Center. For the
Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, AECOM
identified promising rapid transit station-area development
sites. One of those was the West Blvd-Cudell Red Line rail
station that's the subject of a new planning effort (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

The revitalization of Cleveland's Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood continues to spread west. To the north, Edgewater Park and its healthy namesake neighborhood have improved in recent years. And to the west, Lakewood has seen Greater Cleveland's fastest-growing real estate prices along with new housing development.

In between all of this is a left-behind area surrounding the West Boulevard-Cudell rapid transit station and Cudell Recreation Center. But that could start changing thanks to a planning effort underway by the Westown Community Development Corp. called the West Boulevard-Detroit Avenue Neighborhood Plan.

The station and recreation center are principal anchors of the Cudell neighborhood. They depend on pedestrian accessibility and could help attract pedestrian-friendly development. To do so will first require making that area more hospitable to pedestrians. That simple goal is the foundation of Westown's development masterplan.

The roadways around the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) station are designed to move a high volume of cars as quickly as possible. But they were designed that way long before Interstate 90 was built, when a combination of streets including Triskett Road, Berea Road, Detroit Road, West Boulevard, Baltic Road and the West Shoreway was the fastest way for motorists to reach downtown Cleveland from the West Side.

The area outlined in orange is the target area for Westown
Community Development Corp.'s West Boulevard-Detroit
Avenue Neighborhood Plan (City Architecture).

And they were designed that way with little regard to safe pedestrian access to the rapid transit line, even though most transit customers typically begin/end their trips as pedestrians. Instead, the West Side Red Line was built in the 1950s and 60s primarily as a park-n-ride service for downtown commuters.

Depending on park-n-ride traffic tends to limit GCRTA's Red Line to two types of riders -- those heading downtown in the morning and those returning to their cars in the evening. That's a big reason why Cleveland's rail system is so lightly used, according to a 2017 Transit- Oriented Development study by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) and its consultant AECOM.

With most stations surrounded by big parking lots and big roads, there was little opportunity to develop a "low-mileage lifestyle" popular with young people and urbanists. That lifestyle is made possible by Transit Oriented Development (TOD) -- dense, neighborhood-scale mixed-use districts of housing, commercial and recreational uses within a comfortable walk of each station.

TODs tend to produce more pedestrian activity and transit ridership, with riders traveling on the rail line throughout the day and night for a variety of reasons -- work, school, shopping, medical appointments, nightlife, sporting events and so on, according to the NOACA study.

Detroit Avenue no longer needs to be up to seven lanes wide
past the West Blvd. rapid transit station, at right, and Cudell
Recreation Center, at left. And traffic still moves fast through
here. That has given rise to ideas about calming traffic with
fewer lanes, better pedestrian signage and redesigned inter-
sections to improve pedestrian safety (City Architecture).

The car traffic that once poured past the West Boulevard station has been gone for decades. But the seven-lane wide Detroit Avenue by the station remains, as do intersections with angled streets or gently curving lanes so cars can turn corners faster.

"They're death-defying traffic patterns," said Westown Executive Director Rose Zitiello. "It's a hazardous situation for pedestrians."

It's also proven to be a deterrent to TOD investment surrounding the West Boulevard station. Numerous transit-supportive developments have been built, are under construction or planned in Greater Cleveland in recent years. But not so much at the West Boulevard station.

"At the time, the NOACA study was trying to attract development," she said. "It (the study) showed there was a market for it. But after the (study's) recommendations were issued, there wasn't much interest from developers. Many of their findings were very well thought out. So we really wanted to build on that TOD study."

This is a design concept for calming traffic on Detroit
Avenue past the rapid transit station and Cudell Recre-
ation center (City Architecture).

For the study, Westown organized an informal stakeholders group comprised of NOACA, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization (DSCDO), City of Cleveland, Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), West Boulevard resident Tom Yablonski who also serves as executive vice president of the Doantown Cleveland Alliance, The Palazzo restaurant and Environmental Design Group. Westown hired City Architecture as its project consultant.

Foremost among the early, preliminary recommendations is to improve the transportation experience at West Boulevard and Detroit that lays a foundation for TOD. Small-scale traffic-calming measures such as narrowing Detroit and squaring off its intersections with Berea and West Boulevard are possible recommendations, Zitiello said.

The plan will also identify potential development types for nearby underutilized properties and build off recent/ongoing investment and planning in the study area. The goal is to make a strong case for funding of the recommendations that come out of the planning work, study documents show.

Among the public investments occurring in the area is the nearly $45 million in infrastructure improvements GCRTA has been making to the Red Line tracks, retaining walls and electrical systems between Tower City and Hopkins Airport, GCRTA's current five-year capital program shows. The transit authority is also early in the process of replacing its aging rail cars with new trains. That program is estimated at between $250 million and $300 million.

Based on AECOM's market analysis, this was a recommended
development concept for the West Boulevard-Cudell Station
site -- several buildings of market-rate and affordable apart-
ments over retail and parking along a narrowed Detroit
Avenue to improve pedestrian safety (AECOM).

At the last study stakeholders meeting March 9, Hollie Dellisanti, CMSD's executive director of architectural services for capital projects, said the CMSD board has approved spending $34 million to address facilities at he Marion C. Seltzer K-8 School, 1468 W. 98th St. It hasn't been decided if the district will rebuild or replace the school. Seltzer School is located next to the Cudell Recreation Center.

Amid mostly small-scale private investments in the Westown-Cudell area, a big investment last year could soon produce hundreds of new jobs. Weston Group built a 168,750-square-foot warehouse as the first phase of Madison Industrial Park, 10801 Madison Ave. Several sources said this week that eCommerce giant Amazon will be the tenant for that warehouse as well as for a second, proposed warehouse to be built by Weston.

"I hope it's true," said Ward 11 Councilman Brian Mooney. "It will benefit many businesses in the area. I do know that Amazon is the rumor and that Weston was still trying to negotiate with one or more people."

And last November, a California-based group bought the Chicle Apartments and 10 neighboring townhouses at 10307-10335 Detroit Ave., just west of the West Boulevard station. But the investor group's intentions remain unknown.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's West
Boulevard-Cudell Red Line rapid transit station (Wikimedia).

In 2013, Marous Brothers renovated Boulevard Terrace and Neal Terrace, 10107 and 8811 Detroit Ave., respectively, for $10 million total. Boulevard Terrace is a 116-unit complex of row houses built between 1895 and 1917 while Neal Terrace is a 48-unit row house complex built in 1907. Both are within an easy walk of the West Boulevard station.

Next steps including fine-tuning the case for more public and private investment in the neighborhood. City Architecture will test its recommendations with the study's stakeholder group. The proposed findings will then be delivered to the City Planning Commission for its possible adoption. If the commission adopts the plan, it can then seek a mix of local, state and possibly federal grants to implement it.

Zitiello said the goal is to wrap up the planning work by June.

"Then we'll go for some TLCI (Transportation for Livable Communities') funding" from NOACA, she said. "There's no money for this year so we're hoping to get it for 2021 to develop some project-level plans for traffic calming, better signage and roadway changes."

END

Amazon to add hundreds of jobs on Cleveland's West Side

The first building constructed at Madison Industrial Park, at
10801 Madison Ave. in Cleveland, will reportedly be leased
entirely by Amazon. This warehouse was built in 2019 by
Weston Group and Independence Construction (LoopNet).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

UPDATED MARCH 29, 2020

Three sources confirm that e-commerce giant Amazon has agreed to occupy a large new warehouse on Cleveland's West Side and ultimately build out the rest of the site with more distribution facilities. The sources spoke off the record because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the deal.

By the end of this year, Amazon will put at least 100 jobs into Madison Industrial Park with more jobs to follow. It will start by retrofitting and occupying a 168,750-square-foot building constructed last year at 10801 Madison Ave. Amazon will lease the building from developer and owner Weston Group. DiGeronimo Companies' Independence Construction was the building contractor.

One of the sources said this building will be used as warehouse for "returned deliveries with mostly straight trucks utilizing the facility." A straight truck is a vehicle in which all wheel axles are attached to a single frame. That's in contrast to a typically larger, articulated truck which has two or more connected separate frames such as for a cab and a trailer.

After Amazon moves in later this year, Weston and Independence will build for Amazon another large warehouse building or two to the south of the existing one. The original plan for the 21.6-acre Madison Industrial Park shows three buildings.

However, the same source said that another national company may be interested in one of the two as-yet-unbuilt buildings. The first building built on-site is the 168,750-square-foot warehouse that was completed in late-2019. Two more buildings, each measuring 115,000 square feet, are proposed next to and south of the first. Altogether, they would total nearly 400,000 square feet.

However, it isn't clear yet if that plan will be adhered to, or if Weston will seek to refine the plan through the city's Far West Design Review Committee to possibly combine the two proposed 115,000-square-foot buildings into one large one. If the plan is not refined, additional city reviews are not required to build out the site, one of the sources said.

The city-approved site plan for Madison
Industrial Park could be refined to add
more space by a localized Design-Review
committee. Even without modification,
the three buildings would total just under
400,000 square feet (Weston).

As large as these buildings are, they are not large enough to fall into the category of Amazon's largest distribution facilities called Fulfillment Centers. Instead, they are more likely to be utilized as sorting/logistics centers like the first two facilities that Amazon opened in Northeast Ohio.

One was the 248,000-square-foot Twinsburg Sortation Center that started with 150 jobs. The other was the 105,000-square-foot Euclid Logistics Center in Bluestone Industrial Park which began with about 100 employees. Aaustin Express and Titan Logistic Services, both Amazon contract delivery services, are also based in the same Bluestone II building in Euclid as Amazon.

The Twinsburg and Euclid Amazon facilities have reportedly increased their employment levels since they opened in 2016 and 2017 respectively, although definitive numbers are unavailable.

If those are indicative of what Amazon has in store for Madison Industrial Park, the first building could host at least 100 jobs at the outset. With additional growth and expansion of the site, employment could grow to 300-500 jobs in a couple of years, based on square footage and what has happened at other Amazon sites in Northeast Ohio.

Weston received in 2018 a 10-year property tax abatement from the city for the first building at 10801 Madison with an estimated construction cost of $10 million. Abatement applies only to the buildings, not the land.

In Weston's abatement application, it estimated the first building could accommodate at least 100 jobs and provide $1.4 million in property tax revenues for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and nearly $900,000 in annual income tax revenue to the city.

In the last couple of years, Amazon opened in Greater Cleveland two of its largest type of distribution facilities --  Fulfillment Centers. One is an 855,000-square-foot facility employing 2,000 people on the site of the abandoned 650,000-square-foot Euclid Square Mall. The other is the 2.3-million-square-foot North Randall Fulfillment Center employing 2,500 people on the site of the old 2.2-million-square-foot Randall Park Mall.

By June 24, 2019, the first building at Madison Industrial Park
began to take shape. This view looked generally east from the
corner of Madison Avenue and West 106th Street (KJP).

"I spoke to Weston Sunday afternoon (March 22) and at that time they said they don't have a signed lease (for 10801 Madison)," said Ward 11 Councilman Brian Mooney. "They (Weston) have a non-disclosure agreement so even if they did have a tenant they couldn't say who it is. But at that time they didn't have a signed agreement yet. They were being very guarded as one might expect."

When informed that an agreement was reportedly signed Thursday (March 26), Mooney replied, "I hope it's true. It will benefit many businesses in the area. I do know that Amazon is the rumor and that Weston was still trying to negotiate with one or more people."

No one else is talking on the record yet about the Amazon's deal to locate at 10801 Madison. Messages and e-mails seeking comment were not returned prior to publication from several representatives of Weston and DiGeronimo.

One of the sources said Amazon business is growing so fast that the eCommerce giant immediately needed a modern warehouse on Cleveland's West Side with high overhead interior clearances. The new warehouse at 10801 Madison has 24 feet of clear height and 50-foot structural bays, according to Weston promotional materials.

Multiple additional warehouses in the Greater Cleveland area are also reportedly being considered by Amazon to augment its existing facilities, as well as to augment Madison Industrial Park. And Amazon recently announced hiring another 100,000 people nationwide including 4,600 new jobs in Ohio due to surging demand during the COVID-19 shutdown of bricks-and-mortar stores.

A Weston affiliate acquired the entire Madison Industrial Park site from the city of Cleveland in 2018 for $1.65 million after the city had spent $5.3 million in local, state and federal money to clean up pollutants left by the prior owner, Midland Steel Products. That auto parts company went bankrupt and closed in 2003, laying off 223 workers. The massive factory was demolished the following year.

END

Sale of Midtown development site on Euclid OK'd by GCRTA

An affiliate of the Cleveland Foundation will acquire the vacant
land at right, following a vote today by the Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Authority's Board of Trustees to sell it. The
land is on the south side on Euclid Avenue, just east of East
55th Street. This view is from September 2018 (Google).

Historically, the area around Penn Square/East 55th Street was one of two "mini-downtowns" along Euclid Avenue east of the city's central business district. Doans Corners/East 105th Street was the other, dubbed Cleveland's Other Downtown.

But as Midtown, its busy streetcar lines and Pennsylvania Railroad station faded away as America built Interstate highways and suburbs, Penn Square's many residential hotels, theaters, stores and restaurants faded away too. The suburban flight was the era of America's Fourth Migration.

In response to the Fifth Migration, Midtown Cleveland Inc., the Cleveland Foundation and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) would like to accommodate the return of Americans young and old to urban centers like Cleveland.

To that end, the GCRTA's Board of Trustees today approved selling property in Cleveland's Midtown neighborhood to an affiliate of the Cleveland Foundation for future development. The sale amount is $550,000.

The 2.38 acres of land located at 5508-5510 Euclid Ave. was acquired by GCRTA in 2005 and demolished several underutilized buildings to use the site as a construction staging area for the HealthLine bus rapid transit corridor. The $200 million HealthLine opened in 2008, linking downtown, University Circle and East Cleveland. The staging area has sat unused since.

Forty years ago, mostly empty shells were all that was left
from Penn Square's vibrant century from the mid-1800s to
the mid-1900s when it was a mini-downtown. Now only
two buildings from this view looking east from the rail-
 road overpass are still standing, including those at right
which stood on the property GCRTA agreed to sell to-
day to the Cleveland Foundation to redevelop (TPH).

Under Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations, transit agencies are required to dispose of any surplus properties. However, the FTA also encourages joint development opportunities to create jobs and promote new sources of ridership. GCRTA put the former staging area up for sale in 2017.

GCRTA is seeking to promote transit-oriented developments that put more ridership generators along high-frequency transit routes like the HealthLine -- or the Red Line rail rapid transit where GCRTA today approved a joint development in Ohio City. By making jobs and housing more proximate and transit-accessible, it will help address the city's high poverty rate.

“As part of our collaborative vision to create a new civic district in Midtown that connects downtown with University Circle, our board of directors approved strategic land acquisition to help steward thoughtful, inclusive development in the short- and long-term that will benefit our community,” said a Cleveland Foundation spokesperson.

The Cleveland Foundation plans to relocate its headquarters from the Hanna Building in downtown to alongside the Dunham Tavern. The foundation acquired property in December for a three-story, 50,500-square-foot headquarters building on the northeast corner of of Euclid and East 66th. On the northwest corner, the foundation proposes a future Center For Innovation measuring 100,000 square feet.

From GCRTA, the foundation's affiliate Civic Property Development LLC will acquire seven parcels on the south side of Euclid and east of East 55th and the Norfolk Southern Corp. railroad overpass. The foundation also planned to contribute $50,000 to aid in the planning of a transit oriented development (TOD) project or projects on the site.

This is a conceptual masterplan of the Penn Square area of Cleve-
land's Midtown. GCRTA's property is outlined in blue (Pennrose).

However, the discovery of old building foundations and a storage tank that must be removed prior to redevelopment forced the Cleveland Foundation to reduce that contribution to $20,000, according to a source. That source also said the foundation will pursue a joint real estate development with a qualified developer to build a mixed use project of housing and commercial spaces.

In recent months, Midtown Cleveland, through its real estate arm Lassi Enterprises LLC, has been acquiring, clearing and assembling properties to make them ready for future development, said Jeff Epstein, Midtown's executive director.

Pennrose Properties, LLC, Berusch Development Partners, LLC and others are also acquiring properties in the vicinity of East 55th Street, between Euclid and Carnegie avenues. The goal is to restore density to this once vibrant urban node, said developer Russell Berusch in a recent interview.

The Euclid-East 55th area was called Penn Square for more than 100 years because the main Cleveland railroad passenger station for the Pennsylvania Railroad was located here. At this station, travelers could board and alight two dozen daily passenger trains to/from places as far west as St. Louis and as far east as New York City.

Two busy streetcar lines also crossed here, carrying as many riders as all of Northeast Ohio's transit agencies combined do today. The mix of those transportation modes and mixed-use density gave the immediate neighborhood the activity level of a 24-hour, satellite downtown.

END