A new housing crisis is hitting Cleveland, anonymously

 

Anonymous buyers, hidden even more during the pandemic
by social distancing requirements, are snapping up houses
in Cleveland and some of its suburbs at a growing rate.
That has many community development officials worri-
ed about a repeat of the housing crisis of a dozen years
ago that devastated some neighborhoods (file photo).

At first blush, it sounded like such a rosy story.

The headline in the June 8 Wall Street Journal read "Cleveland Is a House-Flipping Hot Spot, and Covid Adds Fuel." Its central theme was that Greater Cleveland has become one of the most profitable places in the country to flip houses and own rentals. Investors have been redirecting their dollars from pricey coastal real estate markets and investing them in Cleveland. A happy story, right?

Not at all, say city officials and those at Community Development Corporations (CDCs -- which serve as neighborhood-level city halls).

Many CDC officials are worried about a potential repeat of the housing crisis that preceded the Great Recession of 2008-10. While the concern isn't so much about subprime lending, collateralized debt obligations and a collapse of international credit markets, there is a concern about a return of absentee landlords milking properties for rent income and leaving hundreds of houses rotting in city neighborhoods that just emerged from the worst of the last housing crisis.

That concern is the result of research by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress Inc. which compiled data on real estate transfers from May 1 to July 15 in the City of Cleveland. Of 451 arms-length residential sales/transfers at $50,000 or less during that period, 60.5 percent were to Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs). Approximately 280 were out-of-state LLCs although a hard number is difficult to know for certain because the actual owners are sometimes hidden.

An arms-length transaction is when a seller and buyer have no pre-existing relationship and negotiate a deal. Those deals, when done with an LLC buyer, often put properties in voids of information and accountability. But Cleveland Neighborhood Progress is trying to at least fill some of the information gap.

"We are keeping a close eye on it," said Joel Ratner, president and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

The pandemic, the health-related dangers of travel and social-distancing requirements have made the situation even more dire, local officials say.

The reason is that many buyers are acquiring properties without ever visiting them and, in some cases, they are relying only on photographs before making their purchases. The photographs may be old or don't show the correct property. So the property may need significant maintenance, which assumes the new homeowner has the resources or desire to make major repairs.

Vacant houses and vacant lots are the results of unscrupulous
landlords whose only desire is to milk properties for all of their
worth. Many are out-of-state buyers who remain anonymous
behind limited liability corporations and their lawyers (Google). 

And once more, Cleveland's most vulnerable neighborhoods are again in the crosshairs, including Slavic Village which was devastated by the housing crisis a dozen years ago.

"My team here has been troubled by the increase in out-of-state investment," said Chris Alvarado, executive director of Slavic Village Development. "While we welcome legitimate investment from actors who make substantial improvements to properties, we aren’t seeing the same level of property improvements that local investors are willing to make."

Worse, he said he is seeing evidence that some of the transactions by LLCs are for suspected money-laundering activities. He noted one buyer in particular that was extremely active in Greater Cleveland, using shell companies to sell properties to other shell companies.

"I can't name the companies due to an investigation that's underway," he said. "But they take their names from Caribbean names. All of those entities purchased and sold 300 parcels in Cleveland and nearby suburbs. The money laundering is not something we saw in the late-2000s."

Even without the possibility that some LLC's activities are masking money-laundering or other criminal activities, there is great concern.

"This is a very worrisome trend and I fear it will get worse as tax sales and others move to online formats due to the pandemic," said Jamar Doyle, executive director at Greater Collinwood Development Corp.

For example, Cuyahoga County Sheriff David G. Schilling Jr. will reportedly begin offering online auctions in response to the pandemic.

When houses and other assets are seized by court orders due to criminal activity, tax delinquencies, foreclosures or other defaults, the sheriff's department sells them through regular auctions. The foreclosure auctions are held weekly.

Until the pandemic hit, the sheriff's department required potential buyers or their representatives to meet in a conference room at the Justice Center, show a driver license or other government-issued idenitification, pay a deposit and the sheriff's department would follow up with the buyer. Social distancing makes that undesirable, however.

Many Cleveland neighborhoods, especially on the East Side, are
riddled with empty lots and boarded-up houses. They are remind-
ers of different types of neighborhood-killing real estate abuses
over the decades, including block-busting, red-lining, no-growth
sprawl, sub-prime lending and absentee landlords (Google).

A state law, House Bill 390 that took effect Sept. 28, 2016, makes it easier and faster to get foreclosed, AKA "zombie" properties out of the courts and back into the hands of private owners. On the down side, it allows properties to be sold for as little as $1, creating opportunities for unscrupulous buyers to scoop up properties and not take care of them.

The 2016 law also stipulates the creation of a public sheriff’s sale Web site to allow the online sale of properties. It too was intended to get foreclosed properties out of the crowded court dockets, yet it also aids unscrupulous buyers, allowing them to operate with greater anonymity and less accountability. 

Cuyahoga County spokesperson Marie Louise Madigan said she would provide to NEOtrans an answer regarding the concerns surrounding online sheriff sales but hadn't as of publication. When an answer is provided, this part of the article will be updated.

The Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council (VAPAC), chaired by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, has been urging Schilling and other county officials to reconsider the online property sales.

In contrast, some counties have suspended their sheriff sales, including Summit County which includes Akron. It has suspended all sheriff sales during the pandemic until at least Oct. 1, 2020. Other counties are continuing their sheriff sales through a third-party vendor that lists Cuyahoga County properties.The procedure for buying properties through the third-party vendor is very easy.

"There is a huge concern of these out-of-state buyers right now," said Cleveland's Ward 12 Councilman Tony Brancatelli whose ward includes Slavic Village. He served on council for 15 years, during the foreclosure crisis more than a decade ago. "The numbers have skyrocketed beyond reason. Out-of-state owners buying scattered-site homes at what appears to be above market-rate acquisitions given the conditions of the homes scares me."

He said he has been dealing with a number of out-of-state owners who don't know how to manage a property in Cleveland's market. The owners, he said, end up hiring property management companies that don't do a good job of oversight and contractors who disappear and don't finish repair work.

"Then when tenants move in there is very little oversight," Brancatelli said. "I suspect there will be a point where they divest and it devolves down to the lowest denominator property owner, which then goes to foreclosure."

While most Cleveland neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs are targeted by out-of-state LLC home-buyers, downtown Cleveland, Ohio City and University Circle have been largely untouched. Officials at their CDCs speculate that a lack of available for-sale housing inventory is restraining out-of-state buying in those areas.

This is the fate of all real estate abuses -- demolition. Reduced
population density reduces tax bases, making it more difficult
for cities to afford the same level of services to the remaining
population. Property values fall which makes the surviving
housing stock vulnerable to future scam artists looking to
make a quick buck when the market improves (KJP). 

And, those neighborhoods also have the highest real estate prices in the city, reducing the profitability of renting. According to the Wall Street Journal article mentioned earlier, monthly rents collected need to meet the landlord's ideal of at least 1 percent of the purchase price. That's often not possible when a house sells for upwards of $300,000 -- a common price in downtown, Ohio City and University Circle.

That's not the case in the less-pricey area covered by the Westown Community Development Corp. That CDC covers everything from Cudell south to near Brooklyn, an area popular with many new immigrants including Latinos, Middle Easterners and Eastern Europeans who aren't familiar with American laws, may not trust the authorities and might be taken advantage of by unscrupulous landlords.

"Having a boatload of out-of-state landlords is a community development nightmare," said Rose Zitiello, executive director of the Westown CDC. 

The reason, according to Peggy Kearsey, real estate and housing manager at Greater Collinwood Development Corp., is because CDCs don't have the time, staff or money to track down the true identities of all the out-of-state buyers and follow-up with them on maintenance issues and building code violations.

"We're seeing buyers in our area (Collinwood, Glenville, East Cleveland) coming from Wyoming, Nevada, Flordia, North Carolina, Maryland, California, Massachusetts, to name a few," Kearsey said. "They could be very lovely and nice people but they're all LLCs. We also have some local buyers but, in theory, I can go find them and beat up on them if they don't maintain their properties. When they're out of state, none of us have the time or resources to track down all of them."

Most hide behind law firms as their LLC's statutory agents of record. Notices of code violations are sent to their agents of record which can be changed from one attorney to another. Taxpayer identification information can also be hidden with third-party accounting firms which may ultimately be affiliated with the lawyers or have taxes paid through funds set up by lawyers. That's assuming that taxes are even being paid. Many times they aren't.

Some LLC home buyers aren't even renting out the houses to residents. Instead, they're using them as AirBnB-type short-term rentals such as for vacations, temporary housing or worse, for wild parties. That happened in October 2019 in which a Bay Village mansion hosted a 400-person party through AirBnB.

"Over the past five years there has been a proliferation of full-time investor-owned short-term rentals in the city," said Mark Raymond, owner of The Cleveland Hostel in Ohio City. "I have learned that quite a few of them are owned by out-of-state entities."

He said almost all of them are not in compliance with the ordinance regulating short-term rentals and they have not gone through the neighborhood's block club, the local CDC, the city's Board of Zoning Appeals or another local approval process before opening up. They also do not have any licensing or inspection requirements.

"Competition is great as long as it is legal and fair," Raymond said.

The goal for every densely developed urban neighborhood is to
have well-kept housing stock with a high-percentage of owner-
occupied homes. For homes that aren't owner-occupied, com-
munities need to know where to contact the owners to address
emergencies, nuisances and code violations. But that's easier
said than done in a nation where an individual's privacy is
often valued more than the health of a community (KJP).

The city is working on updating its short-term rental ordinance that would help track the owners of these properties. Brancatelli is working on it along with Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack whose ward includes Ohio City, Downtown and Tremont.

"These LLCs have been a problem for a long time," McCormack said. "Our limited lodging amendments are not directly intended to address" the disclosure of ownership of the LLCs in residential property ownership.

In fact, the city may not have the legal authority to compel disclosure of ownership due to private property rights protected by the Constitution. The state government has also protected LLC property owners and ignored Home Rule by blocking municipal efforts to compel the disclosure of more detailed ownership information. But there are some potential solutions out there according to officials interviewed for this article.

The first solution is to make sellers aware that LLCs are buying properties and to urge sellers to avoid them if possible. If sellers negotiate with them, they could demand more information about the potential buyer and include that information in the title transfer documents if for no other reason than to protect the seller.

Another is to limit online sales. Not only does that protect neighborhoods, it protects sellers and buyers. Some people buying "flips" from LLCs may be getting wrong information about the properties and don't realize that they're buying a troubled property. In some rare cases, the LLC seller doesn't actually have clear title to the property in the first place. Buyers need to do their research.

CDCs are also going after signs on poles saying "we buy houses." Officials point out that signs on poles are illegal without permits.

"We call them and tell them they (the signs) are illegal and to remove them or we'll prosecute them," Kearsey said.

With a supportive councilperson behind them, CDCs can have much input in who buys city or county land bank properties but that's not the case on the open market. CDCs will work with trusted third-party investors to acquire properties on the land bank and state forfeiture lists. Or the CDCs will reach out to buyers they can identify to see if they intend to be owner-occupants.

Under current laws, however, there's only so much CDCs and the cities can do to force disclosure of anonymous out-of-state buyers so they can be compelled to maintain their properties according to building codes. Until that happens, Greater Cleveland may not be able to escape what leaves it most vulnerable to unscrupulous landlords -- a feedback loop that begins and ends with its low real estate prices.

"It takes years before a property becomes tax delinquent, then it spends years in court, then it's sold through a sheriff's sale," Kearsey said. "We're going to have a court backlog from this latest problem (of out-of-state buyers). It will take five years to get a property productive again. It's sad because we pretty much just got things cleaned up from 2008 and now this is happening." 

END

Cleveland's next 'whale' may eat more land than first thought

 

The Justice Center in downtown Cleveland is a 2.3 million square
foot behemoth, devouring what was a four-block area which be-
came a single superblock. Each of the site's five basic uses --
courthouse, jail, Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office and Cleve-
land Police Department headquarters are going their separate
ways in the coming years. The shapes and sites for each faci-
lity will soon be coming into sharper focus with the imminent
release of consultants' recommendations (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

While the steering committee is away, the consultants will play. But the consultants are getting ready to give a report on their findings about a new Justice Center. And what they have to say will bring into sharper focus the realistic sites for a new downtown courthouse as well as a new jail.

The committee is the 12-person panel of Justice Center stakeholders overseeing the planning for more than 2.5 million square feet of new or renovated county jail and courthouse facilities. The consultants are being directed by the committee. They include Project Management Consultants LLC and DLR Group.

They will soon present their findings on an upcoming Cleveland "whale" -- a term reserved for a large real estate project. The first whale on downtown's to-do list is Sherwin-Williams' 1 million square foot headquarters. The Justice Center facilities will follow.

When the Justice Center steering committee last met, it was Jan. 23. Back then, the coronavirus was still just an overseas problem. And the Justice Center consulting team was given its marching orders to come back near the end of summer with more detailed design options, harder cost data and potential sites to consider.

Armed with conceptual-level cost estimates, committee members asked the consulting team to deliver detailed cost data on these four options, ranked from most popular to least popular:

• New low-rise jail campus and new high-rise urban courthouse;
• New low-rise jail campus and expand/renovate existing courthouse;
• New low-rise jail and new mid-rise courthouse on campus site;
• New Jail 1 next to renovated Jail 2, expand/renovate existing courthouse.

The layout of the existing, aging Justice Center complex in
downtown Cleveland (Cuyahoga County).

The most pressing need right now for the committee is to move forward on building a new county jail, committee members agreed. The reason is that conditions are dire in the current jail facilities which fail to comply with 84 separate standards set by Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Last winter, the Justice Center planning team discovered that the existing jail is so inefficient that a new, more modern and efficient jail combined with central booking and diversion/treatment programs for drug abusers could save the county about $27 million per year in operating costs. Those savings, if used to service construction bonds for a new 800,000-square-foot jail, could pay for 56 to 68 percent of the jail's construction costs.

With the jail facilities addressed by a new low-rise jail campus at a new location, likely just outside of downtown but still within the city of Cleveland, efforts would then focus on providing a new courthouse. The existing courthouse, approaching 50 years old, is crowded, poorly built and falling apart.

Ideally, a new facility would consolidate under one roof scattered services, offices and court functions in a single site where cramped offices are no longer located in hallways and closets. And, courts are safely designed so that case parties, such as in emotionally charged domestic relations cases, no longer intermingle. The committee said a new courthouse would need anywhere from 877,000 to 1.1 million square feet of usable space. 

According to sources connected to the steering committee, the option that reportedly has the edge isn't even on the above list -- new low-rise jail campus and a new mid-rise urban courthouse on separate sites. The reason? A mid-rise courthouse appears to be the cheapest option.

But favoring a mid-rise courthouse reduces the number of potential sites where it can be built in the central business district. The reason is that it will require a much larger footprint. It should be noted that the only locations being considered are downtown.

Presented in no particular order are seven sites in downtown
Cleveland that might reasonably accommodate a new, mid-rise
courthouse complex without demolishing existing structures.
The exception is #5, the Wolstein Center, which may be demo-
lished anyway. The sites are #1 Existing Justice Center site;
#2 Bedrock/Tower City Riverview Parking; #3 Stark Enter-
prises-owned Warehouse District parking lots; #4 Kassouf-
 owned The Pit parking lots; #5 State-owned Wolstein Cen-
ter; #6 City-owned former Central Police Station; #7 City-
owned municipal parking lots (Google).

A high-rise courthouse with floorplates averaging 25,000 square feet might need 35 to 44 floors to accommodate 877,000 to 1.1 million square feet of courthouse-related space. A parking deck measuring about 500,000 to 600,000 square feet is assumed to be adjacent to the courthouse tower in the high-rise alternative. Thus, a high-rise courthouse might need a footprint of only 1.5 to 1.75 acres.

A mid-rise building in this situation, according to sources, means a structure that's about 15 stories tall. If the entire courthouse/parking mass was the same 15-story height throughout, it could require land measuring 2.6 acres. That doesn't include any ground-level public spaces or accessways between structures.

The committee wants a new courthouse built as close to the existing one as possible. The reason is that its support infrastructure is nearby. There are many law firms within an easy walk of the existing Justice Center and the hub of the region's public transportation system is only one block away at Public Square. Plus there are many restaurants within a few blocks of Public Square for courthouse employees, jurors and visitors.

After a few blocks, the farther away from Public Square you go, the supportive infrastructure diminishes. But there is more land available for a mid-rise courthouse complex with structured parking. Land gets less expensive too -- with one exception.

That exception is the existing Justice Center site. Once the jail facilities are gone from the 7-acre site, along with the 100,000-square-foot sheriff's department's administrative offices and the 330,000-square-foot Cleveland Police Department headquarters (all of which are moving elsewhere), about 4.6 acres of county land will become available.

That's more than enough room to accommodate a 1.7-million-square-foot courthouse complex with structured parking -- even if all structures are kept to about 15 stories. But they would have to be built around the existing and active 25-story, 420-foot-tall, 600,000-square-foot courthouse tower.

In 2011, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas was put into
its own $105 million building (at left), having been pulled out
of the 27-story Franklin County Government Center (at right)
built in 1991 at the south side of downtown Columbus. But
many other court functions remain in the tower. In Cleveland,
most if not all all city/county court functions would be re-
located into a new courthouse building (Google).

Construction of a new courthouse at the existing Justice Center would have to wait for the jail, sheriff's offices and police HQ to get their own facilities, move their employees, equipment and furnishings, remediate and demolish the structures, then prepare the site for construction. Such staging will only delay construction of the courthouse tower and increase its costs by tens of millions of dollars.

Consider that any reuse of the existing site would worsen construction inflation, which planners termed as "cost escalation." Construction costs are escalating at 4-6 percent per year, so they also compound. Construction costs rising at 4 percent annually would therefore increase by 23 percent over five years. Also, reusing the existing site limits design efficiency and construction schedules.

So a new courthouse costing $400 million to $600 million could soon cost $492 million to $738 million if it had to wait for enough developable land to be made available at the existing Justice Center site. That influences the committee to look at sites that could be ready much earlier.

One site that may be seriously considered is Bedrock's Tower City Center Riverview Parking lot below Huron Road and above Canal Road. Although the roughly 6 acres of land is privately owned, Bedrock could do for the county and its courthouse what Geis Companies did for the county and its administration building. That is -- build a building for the county, lease it to the county for a few decades and, at the end of the lease, give the county the option to buy it for virtually nothing.

In the case of the county administration building, the county is leasing it from Geis for $6.5 million per year over 26 years and can buy it at the end of the lease for $1.

Until earlier this year, Bedrock pursued the other whale -- Sherwin-Williams' headquarters and its research facilities. During that competition, sources close to Bedrock said that the Detroit-based company would pursue the new county's new courthouse if it could not catch Sherwin-Williams. The same sources said they believed that is still the case.

Up to 1.7 million square feet of courthouse facilities, parking decks and public spaces, possibly extending down to the banks of the Cuyahoga River, would remake the entire south side of downtown. The county/municipal courthouse would be very different than the 22-story Stokes Federal Courthouse Tower, standing between Huron and Canal since 2002, which is a more insular, secure structure.

One possible site for a new courthouse in Cleveland could be the
Bedrock/Tower City Center Riverview Parking lot below Huron
Road. Depending on its design, it could public spaces along
the Cuyahoga River waterfront. The rendering shows a variety
of uses that could be developed here by Bedrock (Vocon).

Locating a county/municipal courthouse here might turn Tower City Center into Cleveland's version of Judiciary Square, referring to a section of Washington DC filled with courts and office buildings. And it could pump new life into Tower City whose retail offerings were already severely wounded before the pandemic hit. A proposal to turn the facility into a business incubator has yet to take off.

If that site doesn't suit the county's palate, then a Warehouse District parking crater -- smaller than the one Sherwin-Williams' HQ will develop -- could be in play. The mostly Stark Enterprises-owned site has more than 3 acres of land between West 9th Street, St. Clair Avenue and Frankfort Avenue. Much of it is for sale including a small parcel south of Frankfort. But any Warehouse District land will not come cheaply. Sherwin Williams paid $7 million per acre for its HQ site.

A larger, likely less expensive, but less accessible site is a parking lot dubbed The Pit. Nearly 170 years ago, the city's first principal railroad station was built here. It remained a railroad station until the 1950s when the former Union Depot was demolished for a parking lot. It has remained a parking lot ever since.

Combined with more parking lots above The Pit, the entire area could offer more than 7 acres for development of a county courthouse and structured parking. But it is not the most accessible site. Yes, it is next to the Shoreway and the light-rail Waterfront Line. However, both are secondary routes among Cleveland's freeway and rail transit assets. No one has found a better use for the site in the past 65 years even though it is at the edge of the central business district.

Other multi-acre sites may be considered, but are even more "fringe" than The Pit. One could include the current 9-acre site of the Wolstein Center which is likely to be a major focus of Cleveland State University's latest masterplan. Another could be 4.3 acres of city-owned land along Payne Avenue, near the old Central Police Station at East 19th Street. Yet another could be the municipal parking lots northeast of downtown, measuring dozens of acres.

The moral of the story is, potential sites for the courthouse are inherently limited by the reported interest in holding the height of the new courthouse to a mid-rise. But it also brings into sharper focus where the future courthouse might land.

END

Seeds & Sprouts IX - Early intel on real estate projects

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

Fathom's new headquarters featuring a contempary design will
soon be added to the 1870-built Stonebridge Plaza, Suite 100,
located at 2020 Center St., Flats' West Bank, in Cleveland. The
 company is relocating from Valley View (Bialosky Cleveland).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Digital marketer Fathom moving HQ from suburbs to Flats

UPDATED AUG. 11 WITH STELLA MARIS PROJECT INFO

In the first quarter of 2021, about 100 employees of Fathom, a digital marketing and analytics firm, will move with its headquarters from Valley View to Cleveland's Flats West Bank. The move follows the company's June purchase and planned renovation of a property at 2020 Center St., called Stonebridge Plaza, Suite 100.

Plans for the renovation work were submitted to the city's Building & Housing Department last week for a building permit and are due to appear before Planning Commission this month. The submission follows Fathom's June 17th acquisition of the property through an affiliate called PromiseONE Properties LLC for $1.35 million, county records show.

The property features an 1870-built, 15,452-square-foot machine shop that briefly was used as a Cantina Del Rio restaurant in the 1990s before it was converted to offices in 2006 by the K&D Group as part of the Stonebridge development. The property was acquired from Stanley Zona, LTD, owned by Roger Zona.

Zona also owned TPI Efficiency, a procurement consulting firm which had its offices at 2020 Center. TPI's Efficiency's offices moved across the street to 2019 Center after Zona and another investor, Chad Kertesz, acquired the six-story Stonebridge Center office building in April for $1.7 million and renamed it The Hive My Place.

In late June when it acquired Stonebridge Plaza Suite 100, PromiseONE Properties also received a construction loan in the amount of $1,920,000 from First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Lakewood, public records show.

With those funds, PromiseONE Properties intends to renovate the properties for its own office needs. That includes 7,984 square feet for up to 79 workers on the first floor and 5,519 square feet for up to 55 employees on the second floor. Thus the total occupancy is 134 workers, according to planning documents Fathom and its architect Bialosky Cleveland submitted to the city.

On the opposite street corner, Stella Maris will join the renovation parade. It will be making renovations to its Gallagher Center including a coffee shop with a bar and dining area offering booth and table seating. Stella Maris and Hengst Streff Bajko Architects and Engineers submitted plans to the city for the renovations in July. Their property is located at 1320 Washington Ave.

Fathom began in 2006 as Fathom SEO LLC, a search engine optimization firm. Today, it has roughly 175 employees with gross revenues of $20 million to $30 million per year depending on which business data firm you believe. In addition to its current headquarters at 8200 Sweet Valley Dr. in Valley View, Fathom has offices in Columbus, Detroit and San Diego.

Jim Kohl, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Fathom, acknowledged receiving an e-mail from NEOtrans seeking more information but didn't respond to it.

The Brooklyn Heights Business Park, also known as Safeguard
Plaza, will soon have a new tenant -- AmeriGas' customer ser-
vice offices relocated from Westlake. However, the company's
corporate office will apparently remain in Westlake (Google).

AmeriGas' Cleveland-area expansion plan deflates

A corporate restructuring that seemed like a potential jobs boon for Greater Cleveland less than two months ago appears to merely be a tease now. And yes, we can "thank" the coronavirus pandemic for the scaling back of plans.

Those plans were by AmeriGas Partners L.P., the nation's largest propane marketer. In late June, it looked like it would dramatically grow its Greater Cleveland presence from 125 jobs to several hundred jobs by next year. Instead, a modest reshuffling is apparently planned.

AmeriGas' local office is at the King James Office Park, 24650 Center Ridge Rd. According to a source, the firm will reportedly extend its lease there, which is due to expire next year. In addition to retaining its corporate office in Westlake, the firm will add a customer service location at Safeguard Plaza on West Resource Dr. in Brooklyn Heights. The site is off Granger Road next to Interstate 480.

The change is the result of a corporate realignment following UGI's 2019 acquisition of AmeriGas. UGI pledged "to align its liquefied petroleum gas distribution operations across the U.S. and Europe to drive efficiencies and accelerate growth."

MetroHealth System's new family health center on Lorain Avenue
was built without a retail pharmacy, an oversight that will soon be
remedied, according to plans submitted to the city (Google).

New MetroHealth neighborhood clinic to add pharmacy

When MetroHealth System's new Cletus Jeckering Family Health Center opened June 1, it brought a wide variety of services to the Detroit-Shoreway and Ohio City neighborhoods. But one thing was still missing -- an in-house pharmacy. That will soon be added, according to plans submitted last week to the city's Building & Housing Department.

The Urban Community School, owner of the health center at 4757 Lorain Ave., and MetroHealth will renovate the center's lobby with the retail pharmacy. Measuring about 652 square feet, the pharmacy will cost about $95,000 to build, public records show.

Construction of the 32,000-square-foot family health center cost about $10 million. MetroHealth officials said the new facility offers primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, obstetrics and gynecology services as well as MetroExpressCare to provide non-emergency room treatment for urgent health issues. This will be the fifth MetroExpressCare site and MetroHealth's first on Cleveland’s near-West Side.

END

Downtown residents support new way to fund transit, downtown's growth

 

Financially supporting public transportation with a land value tax
creates a foundation for expansion as transit begets density which
produces higher land values which generates more revenue for
more public transportation services (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Downtown Cleveland Residents (DCR), a community relations board, recently voted to support a rising need for more investment in public transportation, but in an innovative way that boosts economic growth and access to opportunity. Greater Cleveland needs more of both yet funding for public transportation from riders and from all levels of government has been in decline.

To that end, at DCR's latest community forum conducted virtually, members of the group voted unanimously to support a resolution calling for more transit investment. The demand for transit is growing as downtown's population nears 20,000. Employers large and small are expanding downtown like Sherwin-Williams, Cleveland Cliffs, Benesch and more. And, before COVID, traffic from rideshare services clogged downtown streets.

Meanwhile, according to the Federal Transit Administration's National Transit Database, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (GCRTA) bus and rail services were cut 29 percent since 2006 and the cost of fares doubled over the same period, sending ridership downward. Meanwhile, GCRTA's backlog of unfunded state-of-good-repair needs such as replacing aging trains, buses, infrastructure and maintenance facilities exceeds a half-billion dollars.

“They (GCRTA) are really up against a wall in terms of funding,” said DCR President Alan O’Connell. “Public transit is a very efficient way for people to move around a city, but the geometry of dense urban environments requires transit to function well, or risk gridlock.”

The resolution echoed this sentiment, referencing two recent studies. One is a 2019 study commissioned by the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) that said “additional non-federal funds will be necessary to meet the existing and future needs of the [GCRTA] system, if heavy rail and light rail are to be maintained as viable transportation options.”

Dense urban centers and public transportation go hand-in-hand,
as each sustains the other. But Cleveland has lacked the ability to
financially capture the value from that synergistic relationship.
That may change if a vote by the Downtown Cleveland Residents
board to endorse new funding for transit wins more supporters in
Cleveland's business and political communities (Matt Quinn).

DCR also viewed an increase in resources for public transit as a way to promote neighborhood equity and affordability. The resolution cited a study by Cleveland State University’s Center for Economic Development which found that GCRTA services, where available, results in a 12.3 percnet reduction in poverty and a growth of 3 percent in employment.The other study noted was the Ohio Department of Transportation's Ohio Statewide Transit Needs Study, which found that statewide “investment [in public transit] needs to double by 2025” and that “all stakeholders should be working towards” that funding goal.

The same study also noted the high costs to build structured parking which averages approximately $25,000 per parking space in downtown Cleveland. The high cost produces a low return on investment to developers on newly-built resident parking. It also results in residential rental prices that are higher than both residents and property owners would prefer.

“We spoke to a couple developers who are active in the (downtown) area," O'Connell said. "They told us that parking is a constant annoyance. They would prefer to dedicate more financial resources toward additional residences and amenities instead of these soon-to-be-obsolete parking garages."

But how should GCRTA be funded in a way that fosters more economic growth and access to opportunity?

The growth in car share services like Lyft and Uber are worsening
traffic congestion in downtown Cleveland. With downtown's popu-
lation and employment growing, it underscores that downtown's
growing transportation needs are demanding high-capacity modes
of transportation, namely buses and trains (Chris Stocking).

The GCP study says increased funding for GCRTA via a property tax levy would be a more equitable option than by increasing the sales tax. Instead of a traditional property tax, however, DCR recommended a land value tax or a split-rate tax.

“Residents want surface parking lots downtown to be replaced by mixed-use buildings and public greenspace," O'Connell added. "Current property taxes effectively penalize and discourage development on valuable land. This is completely backwards. There needs to be an incentive to build something that actually contributes to our community instead of encouraging parking lots to continue detracting from it.”

A levy could be placed on the ballot by Cuyahoga County Council or directly by GCRTA's Board of Trustees, as GCRTA is a taxing authority. Other government entities are also able to introduce bond measures and send the proceeds to GCRTA.

Although GCRTA spokeperson Linda Scardilli Krecic didn't respond to an e-mail seeking comment on DCR's recommendations, local and statewide transit advocacy groups did offer their thoughts.

"Clevelanders for Public Transit (CPT) has called on the GCRTA's board to place a levy on the ballot for years to reverse the death spiral of endless service cuts, fare increases and lower ridership," said CPT spokesman Christopher Stocking.

Transit provides access to opportunity, but not when reduced
funding reduces the availability of services and increases the
cost of fares. That creates a death spiral for transit services
and makes educational and employment opportunities less
accessible to those who need it most. Further, more traffic
and pollution makes cities less livable for everyone (KJP).

In 2018, CPT urged GCRTA to place a levy on the ballot. GCRTA Board President Mayor Dennis Clough responded that a levy would instead be likely be sometime in 2019. Nothing happened, however.

"Well it's now 2020 and we have seen no action from the GCRTA board," Stocking said. "CPT agrees funding transit equitably is important. Owners of surface parking lots should be taxed out of existence. This may require action at the county level. In 2017, CPT helped create a standing County Council Committee that is focused on public transit. We look forward to working with Cleveland residents in building support for equitable local transit funding in the future." 

"Other than riders' fares, no revenue source could be closer to being called a user fee than a land value tax," said Stu Nicholson, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, a statewide nonprofit group. "We've seen the growth in transit-oriented developments around Cleveland's rail and bus rapid transit stations. Not only do these improve the links between jobs and job-seekers, but if there was a way to capture the land values from future developments, it could support new bus and rail expansions." 

"Transit use and land use density go together, and neighborhoods with the greatest densities have the highest land values," Nicholson added. "The most valuable land in Cuyahoga County is in downtown Cleveland. Even the wealthiest suburb can't match the land value per acre of Lakewood, the most densely populated city in Ohio. A land value tax should capture that for the mode of transportation that sustains that density."

END

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