Woodhill Station transit-oriented development on track

Woodhill Station apartments will add new life to a neighborhood
that has lost it over the last 50 years. Rebuilt transit infrastructure
and the new Opportunity Corridor Boulevard along with access-
ible housing could change the fortunes of Cleveland's old
"Hungarian Hill" neighborhood (City Architecture).

All signals are green for construction of a moderately-sized apartment building across the street from the Buckeye-Woodhill light-rail transit station in Cleveland.

With financing in place, general contractor bids are due to be submitted to developer The Community Builders on Aug. 12, according to the Dodge Reports. Site preparation work could start in November but major construction activity is likely to get under way in the spring.

To be built on the site of the Buckeye-Woodland Elementary School, 9511 Buckeye Rd., is a 120-unit apartment building called Woodhill Station, named after the nearby train station. Also planned nearby, on Woodland Avenue near East 110th Street, are 77 housing units including apartments and townhomes called Woodhill Center. 

The two developments represent phases one and two of the redevelopment of the 80-year-old Woodhill Homes, one of the oldest public housing properties in the nation. The two locations will offer up to 170 subsidized units for current residents of Woodhill Homes. Once they open, some Woodhill residents will be relocated to them so that the aging public housing can be redeveloped.

Earlier this year, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) requested but fell just short of winning a $35 million federal grant to redevelop the Woodhill Homes. However, CMHA officials said that the project will still move forward, albeit more slowly.

More details are now publicly available about the Woodhill Station apartments. It will be a 135,000-square-foot development, rising up to five stories tall in the middle of the Z-shaped building. Estimated development cost is $33 million.

The former Buckeye-Woodland School at center-right has been
demolished since this 2019 streetview was captured. In its place
will rise the Woodhill Station apartments, named after the Buck-
eye-Woodhill light-rail station at left. Just beyond it on Buck-
eye Road is the Calvary Apostolic Assembly Church (Google).

Financing includes a secured mortgage from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as Low Income Housing Tax Credit financing from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, according to CMHA.

The building will have 41 one-bedroom apartments, 61 two-bedroom apartments and 18 three-bedroom apartments. It will also offer a fitness center, meeting room, community room, packages/mail room, security/fire system with cameras, rooftop deck on the west/downtown side of the building, computer lounge, youth lounge, onsite laundry and leasing office, according to planning documents filed with the city.

Additionally, Woodhill Station will have about 110 parking spaces, community terraces, raised planter gardens, fruit tree orchard and a playground. The developer will pursue a green building certification for the project.

Stephanie Anderson Garrett, vice president of communications at The Community Builders, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment prior to publication.

The reduced number of parking spaces is due to the project's proximity to the Buckeye-Woodhill Station stop on the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (GCRTA) Blue and Green lines between downtown and Shaker Heights.

GCRTA replaced the Buckeye-Woodhill Station in 2013 and is now replacing tracks, signals and retaining walls from near East 55th Street to Shaker Square. The current projects represent a $10 million infrastructure investment in the neighborhoods the rail line serves, according to GCRTA capital budget documents.

A Blue Line light-rail train pauses at the Woodhill Station on its
way from downtown to the Van Aken District in Warrensville,
Shaker Heights. For transit ridership and job access to improve
in Cleveland, more transit-oriented development is needed at
stations like this to link more jobs with job-seekers (GCRTA).

The investment in the rail system along with increasing development around stations should not only boost transit ridership but also boost the fortunes of affected neighborhoods and their residents.

"Ridership on GCRTA's light-rail system has plunged over 60 percent since the Great Recession of 2008 due to service cuts and fare increases," said Christopher Stocking of Clevelanders for Public Transit (CPT), a transit advocacy group.

"At the same time, over half of Clevelanders are rent-burdened, meaning they spend over 30 percent of their income on housing. Building affordable housing near frequent transit is critical after decades of redlining in Woodhill," he said, referring to the unethical practice of putting financial and other services out of reach of residents in certain areas based on race or ethnicity.

CMHA's long-range Woodhill Homes transformation plan calls for building a total of 546 new units at both the current Woodhill Homes site and in the surrounding neighborhood, with the goal of about 22 percent being market-rate. That would make about 120 total housing units market rate, leaving 426 as affordable units.

"The addition of 120 new units of affordable housing over a vacant lot is excellent without displacing Woodhill residents," Stocking added. "CPT is concerned that larger plans for Woodhill Homes would only build about 420 units of affordable housing, less than the nearly 500 units currently provided. Cleveland needs much more transit-oriented development, but it has to be done in an equitable way."

The first phase of Woodhill Station apartments is visible in the
background. But a later phase is proposed to be built in the
foreground, on the northwest corner of Buckeye Road and
East 93rd Street atop Hungarian Hill (City Architecture).

The school property hasn't sold yet for the new Woodhill Station development. That site is a couple hundred feet west of the intersection with East 93rd Street, with CMHA renderings showing a later phase of the Woodhill Station development expanding to that corner.

 The property at the corner is owned by the Buckeye-Shaker Square Development Corp., an inactive community development corporation. The active CDC in that area is Burten Bell Carr Development Inc. (BBC). An e-mail to BBC's Real Estate Development Director Jeffrey Sugalski was acknowledged but not responded to, in seeking information about future development phases.

Located just east of the path of the new Opportunity Corridor Boulevard, the development site has a commanding view of the city. The structure is planned on a hillside, once called Hungarian Hill as the neighborhood was heavily populated with Hungarian immigrants before the 1970s.

The neighborhood added large numbers of African-Americans starting in the 1950s and especially in the 1960s, resulting from the Great Migration from the South. Unfortunately, many businesses moved out, taking jobs with them. That left the neighborhood's residents with fewer opportunities and declining conditions.

But there is still a small Hungarian presence here, with St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, 9016 Buckeye, that was built over three decades and completed in 1922.

A major employer in the neighborhood is the Miceli Dairy. Although its founder John Miceli was an Italian, the bakery established its permanent home here in 1949 and employed many Hungarians, African-Americans and others. Rather than bolt for the suburbs or beyond as many other nearby factories did, the plant underwent a $20 million expansion in 2011.

END 

Clinic razing historic ORCA House with 'no plans' for the site

Demolition crews showed up this week at the ORCA House, 1905
E. 89th St. in Cleveland to raze it and two more neighboring structures
previously owned by the addiction rehab center. Cleveland Clinic has
been buying all of the properties on this block save one and demolish-
ing the houses on them. But Cleveland Clinic claims to have no plans
for these properties once their structures are removed (originaljbw).

Demolition crews hired by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation appeared this week along Chester Avenue between East 89th and 90th streets to begin tearing down three solid structures with a long history of charitable service in the city.

The structures -- including two historic, converted houses -- were part of the ORCA House's rehabilitation center for adults suffering from addictions. The demolitions appeared to be a rush job, even though a Cleveland Clinic spokesperson said the large health care system has no plans for developing the property.

ORCA House, now part of the Signature Health network, is one of the oldest African-American-founded substance abuse centers in the country. It was established in 1942 as the Outhwaite Recovery Center for Alcoholics.

Cleveland Clinic acquired the ORCA House properties in October of 2017 for $945,000 according to county records. Signature Health closed the 28-bed residential treatment facility with no replacement in the city of Cleveland readily available. All three structures were rated to be in good condition by Cuyahoga County tax appraisers.

ORCA House treatment inquires are being referred to another center, called Matt Talbot for Recovering Men, 6753 State Rd, Parma, according to an ORCA House representative. Although only eight miles away, it takes two buses and more than an hour of travel to reach the Parma center.

Also to be demolished is this substantial house on the southwest
corner of Chester Avenue and East 90th Street. It was also used
by ORCA House but for its women's programs. The century-old
apartment building at left was bought by a California investor
two years ago and renovated as apartments (Google).

ORCA House's Web site indicates that a new center is opening in 2020 to replace the old facility at 1905 E. 89th St. However, no address for the new location is identified and no other information is available on the Web site. A phone message left with Signature Health's marketing and public relations department was not returned prior to publication.

Last week, Cleveland Clinic applied for and got three separate demolition permits with the city's Building & Housing Department to level the three ORCA House structures, city records show.

One permit is for the 6,256-square-foot house at the front of the property at 1905 E. 89th. Another is for the newer, 4,690-square-foot transient housing structure to the rear of the property. And the third is for a 3,392-square-foot house at 1914 E. 90th, used as the ORCA House women's facility which is adjacent to ORCA's East 89th property.

Only a week later, demolition equipment showed up next to the ORCA House. This follows Cleveland Clinic's purchase and demolition last fall of another house nearby -- a home at 1925 E. 89th. The year before, the health system demolished two other neighboring homes it bought since 2016, located at 1911 and 1915 E. 89th.

But despite all of these acquisitions and demolitions of structurally sound homes, Cleveland Clinic apparently has yet to identify a use for any of these properties.

Although significantly modified from its original appear-
ance in 1895, the ORCA House retains much of its historic
facade as well as much of its interior decor, soon to be lost
to history like so many other Cleveland homes. This was
the house as it looked in 2009 (Christopher Busta-Peck).

'We are still determining plans for this land," said Angela Smith, senior director of corporate communications for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Even if the Cleveland Clinic had plans, it probably wouldn't be able to act on them anytime soon. Some of its major capital construction projects have been pushed back to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. That has put on hold projects like the 150,000-square-foot expansion of the Cole Eye Institute and the new 400,000-square-foot Neurological Institute.

"Some of our planned capital spending projects were delayed this year in order to preserve resources needed to support patient care, as well as our caregivers and our community," Smith said.

Despite that, Cleveland Clinic now owns all of the land between East 89th and East 90th, from Chester south to the Stanley Shalom Zielony Plaza on Euclid Avenue -- with one exception. That is a century-old walk-up apartment building bought in 2018 and renovated last year by Meilin Liu, an Alameda, Calif.-based real estate broker.

She said she bought and renovated the 12-unit, 11,121-square-foot apartment building, the type which used to be common throughout the Hough neighborhood to the north, because of the proximity of the Cleveland Clinic. But she said she hasn't been approached by the health system to acquire her property.

On East 90th Street north of Chester Avenue, every
apartment building is getting demolished. These types
of walk-up apartment buildings were common through-
out Hough starting in the early 20th century when Hough
reached its peak. Now they are being cleared to make
way for future development (Karl Brunjes).

"I don't know why they didn't," Liu said. "We are completely invested in it (our property). Buying it is not going to be cheap."

North of Chester along East 90th, much of the land here has been acquired by a growing real estate developer, the Inspirion Group of Cleveland, public records show. Among the acquisitions by affiliates of Inspirion are one house, eight walk-up apartment buildings from the early 1900s and more than a dozen parcels.

The development firm announced plans last year for demolishing all structures on this street and building modern apartment buildings of about five stories each. Although demolition is underway, Inspirion hasn't advanced its construction plans through the city approvals process. Inspirion principal Lemma Getachew didn't respond to an e-mail seeking an update about their plans for these properties.

The ORCA House home on East 89th has a history going back to well before the nonprofit organization took it over. The house was built in 1895 for Henry Trenkamp Sr., founder of the Trenkamp Stove Co.

Architect of this house was Fenimore C. Bate who designed many fine homes in the late-19th century for Cleveland's growing upper class. One of Bate's most famous works is Gray's Armory at Bolivar Street and Prospect Avenue downtown.

One of Trenkamp's sons, Herman Trenkamp, helped found the Catholic Charities Corp. of Cleveland. His family donated the house after Herman's death in 1943 to charity. The house has been in the hands of charities ever since. The ORCA House expanded to the secondary residential building and the home for women's programs directly behind it at 1914 E. 90th.

END

Cleveland Clinic, Fairmount seek Meijer grocery store, apartments

Sites outlined in red are reportedly favored by the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation for a mixed-use development featuring a
Meijer Neighborhood Market grocery store, apartments
and a multi-level parking deck (Google/KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

After months of planning, a mixed-use development is gaining traction on Cleveland Clinic Foundation-owned land on the Opportunity Corridor. The development is an effort to capitalize on the $306 million transportation investment, support the Greater University Circle Initiative and serve a growing residential population nearby.

To that end, two sources say the Cleveland Clinic is reportedly partnering with Fairmount Properties of Orange Village to develop underutilized parking lots owned by the health system on East 105th Street, between Carnegie and Cedar avenues.

Although very early in the development process, the conceptual plan is to build apartments, a parking deck and a small-format/urban Meijer grocery store. This would be Meijer's first store of any kind in the city of Cleveland.

Meijer, a Michigan-based chain, has grocery stores throughout the Midwest. However it didn't enter the Greater Cleveland market until last year when it opened stores in Stow, Mentor and Avon. None of those are located in Cuyahoga County. Its first Cuyahoga County store isn't due to open until next year -- on the site of a former Kmart in Seven Hills.

Meijer has plans to build at least six small-format "Neighborhood Market" stores in revitalizing Midwest urban neighborhoods by 2021. Two have opened so far -- one in Grand Rapids, MI and another in Royal Oak, MI, a Detroit suburb. A third is due to open in Lansing, MI later this year.

The $40 million 600 Block development in downtown Lansing
will open later this year with a hotel and apartments above a
37,000-square-foot urban format Meijer grocery store called
the Capital City Market (Gillespie Group).

A fourth is under construction on East Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit. The Detroit store was originally planned on the ground floor of a 213-unit apartment building but will instead be a stand-alone store due to cost and financing challenges.

A site on East 105th between Carnegie and Cedar is desired for several reasons. First, the Cleveland Clinic would control the land. Second, traffic counts on East 105th are about to greatly increase with completion of the Opportunity Corridor's final section in fall 2021.

Lastly, numerous large residential developments were recently completed or are about to get underway nearby. They include Innova, One University Circle, North Park Place, Ascent at the Top of the Hill, Circle Square, the first phase of Innovation Square and others.

Normally, Meijer's full-service "Supercenter" stores measure in the 150,000 to 200,000 square foot range. Their Neighborhood Market stores are quite a bit smaller -- about 35,000 to 45,000 square feet.

Even at that smaller size, a Meijer Neighborhood Market might not fit on a 0.6-acre Cleveland Clinic-owned parcel on the southeast corner of East 105th and Carnegie. That parcel translates to about 26,000 square feet.

The original plan for a $60 million downtown Detroit project
had an urban format Meijer store topped by 213 apartments
with an underground parking garage. But the cost proved too
much. Instead, a stand-alone Meijer store with surface park-
ing saw construction start this year (Prime Development).

Yet survey crews were poking and measuring this plot of land on June 19-20, suggesting that development was being considered for it. Sources also said this property is in play for at least part of the proposed mixed-use development.

Apparently a development here would not involve a neighboring surface lot owned by an affiliate of MRN Ltd. and used for the historic Tudor Arms Hotel. The hotel is operated by DoubleTree by Hilton.

In an e-mail, Ari Maron, a principal at MRN, disputed rumors about the possibility that the proposed mixed-use development might expand on to and/or somehow include the hotel parking lot property.

"No truth at all," he replied.

Sources said a parking deck would also be included in the Fairmount Properties/Cleveland Clinic development, although the sources did not know the deck's placement within the development. It could be built adjacent to the new mixed-use building. Or, it could be sandwiched above the new grocery store and below the apartments.

The same sources said that the adjacent, 3,000-space, 794,077-square-foot parking garage that Cleveland Clinic built in 2015 on the northeast corner of East 105th and Cedar Avenue may not be directly involved in some or all of the development.

But the massive parking deck does have an enclosed pedestrian walkway that intrudes on the potential development site as it crosses over Wilbur Avenue and makes a right angle above East 105th to reach the Cleveland Clinic's Tomsich Pathology Laboratories building.

Survey crews on June 19-20 were assessing a Cleveland Clinic
property at the southeast corner of Carnegie Avenue and East
 105th Street for a potential development (OriginalJBW).

Two other Cleveland Clinic-owned parking lots could come into play in the health system's development visions as well. One is a 1.8-acre piece of land, most of which is parking lot, at the northwest corner of East 105th and Cedar. The other is a 1.6-acre parking lot at the northeast corner of East 100th Street and Cedar.

A 40,000-square-foot, stand-alone neighborhood market built on the northwest corner of East 105th and Cedar would leave enough room on the remaining parking lot for 80-130 cars, depending on its layout. And there's the neighboring parking lot at East 100th and Cedar. 

Cleveland Clinic was asked in an e-mail about the proposed mixed-use development, including the Meijer grocery store and Fairmount Properties reported involvement. Angela Smith, the health system's senior director of corporate communications, said she was unable to provide more information.

"We don’t have any additional details to share at this point beyond the statement we made earlier this year," Smith wrote. "If that changes, we’ll let you know."

In March 2020 and in response to an inquiry by NEOtrans, the Cleveland Clinic confirmed that it was looking at developing its underutilized properties in response to the Opportunity Corridor project.

“Now that the northern section of Opportunity Corridor is open, we plan to further develop the southeast part of our campus. We look forward to working with our community partners on future opportunities that will help accelerate the Fairfax neighborhood reinvestment plan. More information will be shared as details become available,” the Cleveland Clinic said in its March statement.

The southeast corner of East 105th and Carnegie is open for
development. It is next to the Cleveland Clinic's 2015-built,
3,000-parking-space garage and the 11-story Tudor Arms
Hotel and parking lot in the background (Google).

An e-mail seeking more information and sent to three media relations staffpersons at Meijer's was not responded to prior to publication of this article. Although Frank Guglielmi, Meijer's senior director of communications, and Christina Fecher, Meijer's external communications manager, acknowledged receiving the e-mail.

E-mails were also sent to Adam Fishman, a principal at Fairmount Properties, Denise VanLeer, executive director at Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp., and Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc., without replies.

Last winter, Cleveland Clinic organized focus groups of neighborhood residents, property owners and others to determine how to develop the edges of its campus, including the southeast corner near the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard.

The Ohio Department of Transportation project includes 2.25 miles of new roadway between the end of Interstate 490 at East 55th Street and Quincy Avenue at East 105th. It also includes 0.75-miles of widened East 105th roadway from Quincy to Chester Avenue plus an expanded Red Line rail station at Quincy-East 105th.

It may be a while before any construction occurs on the mixed-use development. Sources said Cleveland Clinic has put major capital projects on hold until 2021. By that time, the health system apparently hopes that it no longer has to contend with the most significant, negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

END

Pandemic, family, tech, cost draw new residents to Greater Cleveland

Something good often comes out of something bad, and it
looks like the global pandemic is causing many to reconsider
where they're living and working. Some of who left Cleve-
land are becoming boomerangs, returning to live closer to
family while working remotely or looking for new jobs
while also reducing their costs of living (Reddit).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

License plate watchers in Greater Cleveland are having fun this summer checking out all of the out-of-state plates on the metro area's roads. And there's lots of out-of-state plates to see -- from New York, New Jersey, Illinois, California, plus other states, as well as the usual ones from neighboring Michigan and Pennsylvania.

But are the cars and their occupants visiting on summer vacation or are they moving here? While some are likely visiting, those in the real estate business say that their seeing lots of new arrivals buying houses and renting apartments.

And it turns out that the coronavirus pandemic is a major factor in the relocations as is the cost of living and the local amenities. Since lots of people are having to work from home during the pandemic, some are asking why they should remain in more expensive cities when they can live and work anywhere -- especially in low-cost Cleveland.

"There's definitely more people moving in from out of town here," said Emmanuel (Mike) Skantzos, a realtor at Howard Hanna's Rocky River office. "It's cheaper here and people are working from home."

In the last couple of weeks, he said he sold a new townhouse in Lakewood to a man from San Diego who had family here. The buyer moved to be closer to his family, to save money and because he was concerned about the virus in California. Skantzos also helped a woman from Chicago find a house in on Cleveland's West Side. She was offered a position in Cleveland and took it in part because the cost of living is less here.

Greater Cleveland's recreational opportunities and new urban
housing offerings costing well below those of coastal cities is
enticing to many people who left the metro area years, if not
decades ago and are returning (CSU).

On the other side of town in South Euclid, city Housing Coordinator Stephen Karr said he's noticed an uptick in out-of-towners locating here since he started working in that job 3.5 years ago.

"The first two years, I didn't see any people moving in from out of state, even though it's something I always look for," Karr said. "Last year there were a couple, but already this year there's been more, including two I saw just in the last week or so."

However, he acknowledged that he's not seeing the full picture due to how the city collects housing data. The city has a point-of-sale inspection only when unoccupied homes that were not previously owner-occupied are sold. Most of those are typically former rentals and foreclosures.

Even then, the only way the city learns where the new occupants are coming from is when they assume the responsibility of making the required repairs after the title transfer, he said. If the seller makes all the repairs, the city doesn't require any data about the buyer including from where they are moving.

"If I'm seeing the trend now for these houses, my assumption is that there must be more for the more typical transactions without our involvement," Karr added. "For the rentals, we don't ask any information about the tenants other than names and a contact number. A few landlords mentioned tenants moving in from out of state though when they were inquiring about inspections."

It's too soon to know if the number of out-of-state people
arriving in Greater Cleveland is a splash or a wave, if the
new arrivals will live here long-term, and how it might
impact the local economy going forward (KJP).

There is some hard data that more people are on the move and the pandemic is the reason, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center. The report says that 3 percent of Americans have changed their residence because of the pandemic.

Their residential destination is typically influenced by where family members live. Some are moving in with family members until they find can find their own place. Some moved because they lost their job or can work remotely.

Fewer people in Greater Cleveland are putting their homes up for sale. In fact, Greater Cleveland ranked second behind Providence, RI among U.S. metro areas in having the biggest decline in housing inventories listed for sale. The Cleveland area's for-sale inventory in June 2020 fell 41.5 percent compared to June 2019, causing prices to rise 8 percent year-over-year.

Another batch of data comes from the U.S. Department of Labor. In their latest report on Greater Cleveland's employment, it noted that the metro area's June workforce was at its highest level in a decade -- since June 2010.

Greater Cleveland's workforce size is seasonally cyclical, growing to its largest levels in the summer months and shrinking in the winter months. So, in order to gain some context, data from one month needs to be compared to the same month in prior years.

It is also possible that Greater Cleveland could see an increase in population without an increase in jobs, since some people could be working a job in New York City through a computer located in an apartment or house in Cleveland. It will take more time to evaluate the extent of these phenomena.

Finding a house to buy in Greater Cleveland is getting more
difficult as fewer homeowners list them for sale, causing homes
to stay on the market for less time and sale amounts to rise (KJP).

That long-distance work situation may be the future for the daughter of Cleveland-based attorney Eugene Kratus. He said she works in the fashion industry in New York City. She's working remotely and no longer has to keep her expensive home in Brooklyn -- not when she can get a much nicer home for less money in Greater Cleveland.

She considered moving to Atlanta or Charlotte, but the cost of living and family is drawing her here. So as long as she can fly to New York several times a month for work and her husband can find a job in finance in Cleveland, they will relocate here. She is one of many recent or potential Cleveland "boomerangs."

Another is Melissa Love-Ghaffari who lived with her doctor husband Sam and their three children in the outer perimeter of Atlanta. But after five years of living there, they tired of Atlanta's traffic, heat and expensive housing nearer to the city.

"The most affordable/reasonable housing is usually about 25 miles away from downtown," she said. "Once you’ve moved that far away, you’ve really minimized urban activities unless you enjoy the constant traffic. I’ve lived all over the country and driven in LA. Atlanta’s traffic is by far the worst, due mostly to the terrible drivers."

Since they still had family in Greater Cleveland, they decided to investigate returning here. Although they dislike the segregated metro area, they liked Cleveland's Midwest hospitality, being next to a Great Lake, its music and art scene, its educational opportunities and its world-renowned hospitals. And yes, she and her family like snow.

"People play outside!" Love-Ghaffari said. "My children were literally shocked to see kids out riding their bicycles and walking around town without parents hovering over them. I want to be active outside. I missed being by a huge body of water. And, yes, I missed the snow! I was in such a hurry to get out (of Cleveland) when I was younger but truly came to appreciate all the things most of us take for granted in this town."

END

Sherwin-Williams HQ could offer two large buildings

Survey crews ripped open a parking lot at the
northeast corner of West Superior Avenue and
West 6th Street in downtown Cleveland, appar-
ently to locate utilities and gather soil samples
in preparation for the construction of  Sherwin-
Williams' new headquarters (Ian Meadows).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

In the absence of renderings or other official news from Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Greater Clevelanders anxiously await the next little tidbit about their planned new downtown headquarters and suburban research facilities.

That little tidbit arrived in the past week, albeit not in a verbal or written form. Instead, it came from crews digging in a part of the downtown HQ site on the northeast corner of West 6th Street and West Superior Avenue. But the work wasn't for construction -- at least not yet.

The crews peeled back the asphalt at that corner to get at the soil underneath -- soil that hasn't seen the light of day since the 1830s when a small brick building was built here. It was occupied by numerous tenants over the years including the Cleveland National Bank, Hoty's Restaurant and lastly a Money Mart check-cashing business.

It and a three-level parking deck wrapping around it were razed nearly a decade ago by Forest City Enterprises for a future development to be built atop a planned West Side Transit Center that never happened. A parking lot replaced the parking deck and the heavily modified 1830s commercial building that was collapsed into its basement.

With the soil now exposed, it has led to speculation as to why. Some on social media wondered if the HQ construction was starting, possibly for a parking deck to ease the impact on downtown parking. Construction on SHW's nearly 7-acre HQ site will eliminate 1,100 parking spaces until a new parking deck with several thousand spaces is built alongside the HQ a couple of years from now.

The survey work being done is on only a small part of the over-
all site for Sherwin-Williams' future headquarters complex that
measures nearly 7 acres. The design of that complex still isn't
known but the survey work may offer clues (Ian Meadows).

But a search of city records reveals no building permits were issued or even sought for this property. Thus, the site work is likely exploratory and analysis-driven -- an educated guess shared by several real estate experts, most of whom were not willing to go on the record.

"It looks to me that they are doing exploratory ground work for better geotechnical (information) and/or where utilities might appear on civil drawings to verify," said a real estate developer who spoke off the record.

Those same experts said the nature of the soil evaluation work, as shown in photographs shared here, suggests that something more significant than just a parking deck is being considered for this part of the HQ site. That belief was shared by Zak Baris, president of Comprehensive Zoning Services LLC.

"It's not going to be a parking garage," Baris said. "I'm willing to bet it's going to be bigger than a mid-rise building here. To me, that means something up to 20 stories or even taller. The type of soil testing points to that. They (SHW) are doing two big buildings and that is probably the other building."

Comprehensive Zoning Services has undertaken a dozen large environmental and due-dilligence projects in and near downtown Cleveland in the last few years, Baris added.

This is an early massing for Sherwin-Williams' headquarters
site, showing the potential scale of office, parking and other
structures and their possible placement on the site. This week's
survey work suggests that one of the larger buildings may be
built on the far right side of the site. But the tallest building
will almost certainly be located as it is shown here -- next to
Public Square on land known as the Jacobs Lot (WKYC).

More details are slowly becoming available about the scale and cost of SHW's HQ project. SHW's main HQ building, possibly rising to be one of the city's tallest skyscrapers, will likely be built on the so-called Jacobs Lot on Public Square.

Thirty years ago, Westlake-based Jacobs Group proposed to build the 63-story, 1,200-foot-tall Ameritrust Center before Ameritrust merged with Society Bank and Society merged with Key Bank. The bank offices were combined into Key Tower -- Cleveland's tallest skyscraper at 57 stories and 948 feet.

And shortly before SHW acquired rival Valspar Corp. of Minneapolis in 2016, SHW pursued an HQ tower on the Jacobs Lot. NEOtrans began reporting on SHW's current HQ effort nearly a full year before SHW made it official. Jacobs' and SHW's efforts generated much geotechnical data about soil conditions and bedrock depths on that 1.17-acre site on Public Square.

Less is known about the rest of the SHW HQ site, comprised of the 5.63-ace formerly Weston-owned Superblock that SHW acquired earlier this year. The Superblock is bounded by Superior, West 6th, St. Clair Avenue and West 3rd Street. So contractors and subcontractors on behalf of SHW began descending on the Superblock beginning in November 2019 to gather sub-surface data.

So if SHW's 1-million-square-foot HQ skyscraper, rivaling the height of 200 Public Square (former BP Building) and possibly Terminal Tower, is built on the former Jacobs Lot, what might be in the cards for the northeast corner of Superior and West 6th?

Starting last November, geotechnical survey crews began
working throughout the Superblock in downtown's Ware-
house District, gathering soil and groundwater samples
for analysis. The information was used to help architects
and civil engineers design Sherwin-Williams' new head-
quarters' structures and their foundations (KJP). 

"There could be a hotel mixed in there," Baris speculated. "It makes no sense that there wouldn't be a hotel in this HQ project. You can control who can come to your hotel if you build it as part of your headquarters."

SHW needs significant hotel space -- and for it to be available when SHW needs it. The reason is SHW will reportedly consolidate into downtown Cleveland the training of employees from SHW offices, laboratories and stores located around the world. Employee training will be for vice presidents, salespeople, information technology, human resources and other on-the-job development.

Right now, much of that training is done in rented offices and classroom spaces at Baldwin-Wallace University in Berea and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland's University Circle area, according to sources familiar with the headquarters programming work.

According to data acquired by NEOtrans, the number of people visiting SHW's seminars and three-day-long training classes would fill more than 100 hotel rooms every weeknight for an entire year. And that number will grow as SHW grows. That doesn't include contractors and suppliers in town to do business with SHW's HQ staff.

The site where crews are turning dirt is across West 6th from the Rockefeller Building that has its own development plan pending. More than 400 apartments, including hundreds of micro-units, over four floors of offices and ground-floor retail is planned. However, the building's sale still has not closed as of yet.

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Downtown Heinen's store reopening delayed

Reopening of the Downtown Cleveland Heinen's grocery
store is delayed until right after Labor Day. Repairs, reno-
ations and reconfiguration of the store are largely complete.
However, downtown employment isn't expected to recover
sufficiently until September to justify reopening. (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE 

Reopening of the downtown Cleveland Heinen's grocery store is delayed another month from earlier estimates. Previously, sources said the full-service store would open up again by early August. The store closed following the riots that hit numerous cities nationwide, including Cleveland, May 30.

Now, according to three high-level sources, the opulent downtown grocery store will reopen immediately after Labor Day. This year, Labor Day falls on Sept. 7. But it's not just the recovery from the riots that's involved here.

The sources say the reason for the delay is that downtown office workers have not returned to levels that are anywhere close to pre-pandemic levels. Many of downtown's of employees and students whose population is roughly 100,000 are still working and studying from home.

Although there are nearly 20,000 people who live downtown, the Heinen's store made much of its money from selling prepared foods for lunch to office workers. The store was often jammed with customers during the lunch hours -- a situation that's great for business but bad for staying healthy during a pandemic.

Heinen's officials reportedly expect downtown office populations to recover enough by September to justify reopening the store at that time. Downtown Heinen's employees were furloughed or relocated to other stores for the time being.

Heinen's downtown Cleveland store
is considered to be one of the most
beautiful grocery stores in the Uni-
ted States of America (KJP).

In Heinen's absence, smaller grocers downtown have filled the void, including Constantino's, 1278 West 9th Street, DGX grocery, 1701 E. 12th St. and 1900 Food & Beverage, 1846 Euclid Ave. There are other full-service grocery stores and fresh food markets one mile or less from downtown in Ohio City and Asiatown.

During its closure, the 27,000-square-foot downtown store is being repaired, renovated and reconfigured. The store suffered some damage from the riots, however more work is being done to slightly alter the layout so that customers can shop more safely and in accordance with the state's social-distancing requirements.

During this closure, the former Cleveland Trust bank rotunda built in 1908 is being reconfigured to be more COVID-19-compliant, a source said. Much of the work has already been done. That includes getting rid of the soup/salad bar so customers and employees will have more elbow room. Fresh food cases were also reconfigured. No significant changes were made to the wine/beer area on the second level.

Officially, Heinen's isn't commenting. The most recent statement was issued in early June, which was when NEOtrans broke the story that the downtown Heinen's store would reopen and be refurbished.

Many of the downtown Heinen's
customers buy freshly prepared
foods for their lunches to either
eat them at the store or take the
food back to the office. Those
customers have vanished during
the months-long pandemic (KJP).

"We appreciate all the kind comments and support we've received concerning our downtown Cleveland store. We are still in the process of cleaning up and getting repair estimates and are not sure of a re-open date at this time," the statement said.

"Looking ahead to a post COVID-19 world, we are considering some small changes to adjust the store to better meet the needs of our customers," Heinen's added.

"Thank you for your patience. We know the stores is an important shopping option for many people and will share more information once we know more," the statement concluded.

Located on the southeast corner of Euclid Avenue and East 9th Street, the downtown Heinen's opened in February 2015. It was part of the multi-structure, $170 million Ameritrust redevelopment undertaken by the Geis Companies.

The downtown Heinen's is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful grocery stores in the United States, becoming a tourist attraction and a must-see stop for those appreciating architecture and Gilded Age history in Cleveland.

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Columbus developer has big plans for Flats West Bank

To the right or north of the Powerhouse at Nautica, a lifeless
parking lot could be filled with a large, mixed-used develop-
ment in the coming years. A Columbus-based real estate deve-
loper named CASTO reportedly is interested in the parking lot
property owned by Jeff Jacobs affiliate. This rendering was
commissioned by the firm to generate interest from poten-
tial buyers and investors in that property. (AODK).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

According to three sources who agreed to speak off the record, Flats West Bank property owner Jeff Jacobs may sell 5.6 acres of prime riverfront land near downtown Cleveland to a Columbus-based real estate developer or a partner thereof.

CASTO, which focuses on urban developments from Ohio to Florida, has expressed interest in acquiring or otherwise developing the land with a significant, multi-building, mixed-use development on the site. The land currently is used as a vast surface parking lot north of Jacobs' Nautica Entertainment Complex that includes the Powerhouse at Nautica.

Jacobs is asking $17.5 million for the land, or just over $3 million per acre. That's in the ballpark for recent sales of land around the edges of downtown Cleveland. If the sale amount is close to that, only a large, vertical development might generate enough revenue to achieve a decent return on the property investment.

Current zoning for the site was recently changed by the city to allow buildings as tall as 250 feet to be built on the Flats' West Bank. As a result, developers have shown increased interest in investing here, including a 27-story apartment tower planned by United Community Developers.

There are lots of pending projects on the West Bank of the Flats
these days, despite the pandemic-related economc slowdown.
The reason is that waterfronts are almost always attractive
locations for real estate developments. Plus, any develop-
ment is unlikely to be ready for construction for at least
a year with completion still more years away (Google).

It's too early to know any details about CASTO's plans, assuming the sale even closes, let alone without any glitches. So it isn't surprising that no one's talking on the record about this yet. NEOtrans reached out to several CASTO representatives including Vice President of Development Charlie Fraas and Vice President of Development and Finance Jason Freeman.

Also contacted for comment was David Grunenwald, vice president of development at Jacobs Investments Inc., and Newmark Knight Frank real estate broker Terry Coyne. None responded to e-mail inquiries prior to publication of this article.

Jacobs in 2018 proposed a $405 million development of properties he owns on the West Bank of the Flats. Most of the development was proposed to be housing, including 664 apartments. Also proposed was a hotel, offices, restaurants and parking garages.

But some real estate market insiders believed that Jacobs proposed his development to increase the value of his land for eventual sale. As one insider put it, Jacobs isn't interested in developing in Cleveland. Everything that Jacobs does is centered around his gaming interests, namely those in Colorado. If he's selling land here, it is to invest it in gaming elsewhere, the insider said.

Towering above the Flats' West Bank in a couple of years
could be The Viaduct, a 27-story apartment building. But
it may not be the last tower on the West Bank depending
on the buyer of the Nautica riverfront property (Dimit).

CASTO's first development in Cleveland is still under construction. Work is wrapping up on the Dexter Place apartments in Ohio City, on Franklin Boulevard at a traffic circle that's being restored at West 28th Street and Fulton Road. The five-story Dexter Place has 115 market-rate apartments over 8,660-square-feet of ground-floor commercial space.

CASTO representatives are reportedly so happy with this project that they began looking for their next project in Cleveland. The sources said Casto was interested in redeveloping the historic Voss Industries factory, 2168 West 25th St., that sold last year for $4.775 million to an investor group incorporated as R & L Ohio City, LLC.

That group is led by Bixby Bridge Capital, LLC based in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, IL. Coyne is involved in that project too but as an investor/partner, sources say. When Coyne got the listing for the Nautica property, CASTO reportedly turned their interest to that site.

CASTO's Dexter Place apartments are only a few months away
from completion on Franklin Boulevard in Ohio City. The
strength of the near-west residential market combined
with the allure of waterfront living led Casto to buy
Jeff Jacobs' Nautica riverfront land (KJP).

Another source says that Ari Maron of MRN Ltd. has stepped in to replace CASTO on the Voss redevelopment. Maron has not yet responded to e-mails sent to two of his addresses seeking comment.

In addition to redeveloping the Voss property with apartments over ground-floor commercial uses, Maron reportedly would develop a parking lot that MRN owns between the Bakersfield Tavern and MRN's United Bank Building. In 2018, MRN renovated offices on the third and fourth floors of the 94-year-old building into 25 apartments for $4.5 million.

The source said MRN has proposed an eight- to 10-story apartment building on the West 25th parking lot. It would rise across the street from the nine-story Intro apartments being built by Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors, LLC, also of Northbrook, IL. The status of this conceptual development in light of the ongoing pandemic is not known.

END