More Bridgeworks planning details released

Additional details about the Bridgeworks development in
the Hingetown section of Cleveland's Ohio City neighbor-
hood were released in recent days. The new details include
more images, identification of zoning variances needed, and
progress in securing an operator for the hotel (MASS/LDA).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

At the end of last week, more planning materials for the new Bridgeworks development in Ohio City's Hingetown section were submitted to Cleveland's Building Department and City Planning Commission. The submitted plans, albeit still preliminary, show further refinements to massings, floor plans, ground-floor elevations, materials usage and more.

Those details were added to the initial submission to the city, provided two weeks ago. Among all Northeast Ohio media, NEOtrans provided the first glimpses into those plans, along with information provided by sources close to the project. 

Bridgeworks is proposed to be a 233,000-square-foot, mixed-use development consisting of an 11-story apartment building with 167-170 mixed-income units, a seven-story hotel with 130 rooms, 2,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space and a 180-space parking garage, mostly below ground, plans show.

A southerly looking view of the Bridgeworks project. This is
a massing image to show the scale of the project rather than
provide details about the proposed design (MASS/LDA).

The project is planned to be built on about 2 acres of land that was used by the Cuyahoga County Engineers for offices, labs and a garage at the northeast corner of the intersection of West 25th Street and the Detroit-Superior Bridge. Bridgworks LLC, a partnership of Grammar Properties and M. Panzica Development, has an agreement with the county to acquire the land.

On Nov. 20, and as a matter of routine, Cleveland Zoning Administrator Richard M. Riccardi denied a building permit for Bridgeworks, citing its non-compliance with the city's outdated zoning and building codes. The non-compliance was due to the buildings' setbacks of more than 30 feet in some places exceeded the code's requirement of 6-8 feet on secondary and primary streets.

Also, the proposed development would have 63 percent of street frontage buildout where 80 percent is required by the building code. Frontage buildout on side streets of 100 percent is required, whereas Bridgeworks would have less than that. Also, the project's plans would have to go before Landmarks Commission for review and approval before a building permit could be issues, Riccardi ruled.

Looking generally east down Superior Viaduct from West 25th
Street with St. Malachi church at left, Bridgeworks in the center
 and right, and Superior Viaduct in between them (MASS/LDA).

The denial is a matter of routine for these and other developers to identify next steps in the development process, said Tom McNair, executive director of Ohio City Inc., a community development corporation.

"They want to get their hands around what variances might be required," McNair said. 

Representatives of the project's principals, Grammar Properties and M. Panzica Development, privately said they expected the application would be denied. But they had to submit it to learn from the city what zoning variances they might need before resubmitting the application.

A view from Superior Viaduct looking southwesterly
at the pedestrian entrance to the hotel (MASS/LDA).

On Nov. 12, a request for qualifications (RFQ) was issued by Newmark Valuation & Advisory for the hotel portion of Bridgeworks. Proposed is a branded lifestyle hotel. The deadline for prospective hotel operators to respond is Nov. 30.

"This RFQ is the pre-qualification stage of the procurement process. Only those applicants who successfully respond to the RFQ and meet the qualification criteria will be included in the subsequent Request for Proposals (RFP) solicitation process. Submissions will be reviewed and forwarded to the development firm. A copy the feasibility study will be provided to those firms deemed most qualified," the RFQ's introduction reads.

According to two sources close to the project who spoke off the record, the project's developers are reportedly hoping to start construction in the second quarter of 2021. Construction could take 18-24 months.

Heights of existing and proposed buildings, as well as what
maximum building heights are allowed in the area surround-
ing the Bridgeworks development (MASS/LDA).

Shortly after NEOtrans first reported on Bridgeworks earlier this month, the article was updated with more information about potential traffic impacts from this significant development. Scott Aylesworth, president of the Waterfront District Block Club, anticipated that the resulting impacts would be minor if two-way traffic on Washington Avenue was restored.

"The issue truly is Washington Avenue," he said. "The short one-way section next to St. Malachi has caused untold issues. I think that since the (proposed Bridgeworks) tower is mostly residential, the impact on traffic congestion will be nominal. If they can restore the two-way traffic (on Washington) and adjust the light timing, there should be no problems."

An historic designation was awarded for the Cuyahoga County Engineers' buildings in September that would make their renovation eligible for historic tax credits. But the amount of those credits is likely to be too small to make a significant contribution to the developers' capital stack, the sources said.

A preliminary ground floor site plan for the Bridgeworks
development. Additional plans for upper floors are
posted following this article (MASS/LDA).

The developers will retain the historic buildings because they will reduce construction costs. Also reducing construction costs is the desire to leave undeveloped an 11,100-square-foot plot of land at the eastern end of the Bridgeworks site. That piece of land may remain undeveloped as a public greenspace or it could be developed someday, the sources said.

The last NEOtrans article on Bridgeworks had only two available graphics of the proposed development -- one a birdseye massing and the other a basic site plan. The additional graphics now available, albeit still in the early stage and therefore subject to revision, are bringing the proposed project into a sharper focus.

But for more textual information on the Bridgeworks project, see the NEOtrans article published earlier this month. NEOtrans will certainly be following this project as it develops further. And be sure to click on the photos in this article to enlarge them and see more details.

Tyler Kapusta contributed to this article.

Preliminary plans for the possible use of materials in the
Bridgeworks development (MASS/LDA).

Second level floor plan (MASS/LDA).

Typical upper level floor plan (MASS/LDA).

Top floor of apartment building (MASS/LDA).

END

Amazon planning more Cleveland-area expansions

Amazon's next distribution center for the Greater Cleveland-
Akron-Canton area will be a 220,000-square-foot, nearly 60-
acre delivery station in Boston Heights. The station building
will be oriented north-south as shown on the above diagram
and surrounded by parking for customers, employees and
delivery vehicles. The site is next to State Route 8, the
Ohio Turnpike, a new Arhaus furniture distribution
center and a Costco Wholesale store (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

E-commerce giant Amazon continues to add distribution facilities to Northeast Ohio and is considering expanding its existing facilities. The result will be hundreds if not thousands of more jobs provided by Amazon as well as by transportation and delivery services, including independent ones.

That's according to two sources who spoke off the record this week to NEOtrans. The sources were not authorized to speak publicly about the expansions but are directly connected to them. And there's circumstantial evidence that confirms the projects are for Amazon which doesn't like to publicize its planned expansions.

The next new Amazon distribution facility will be a 220,780-square-foot delivery station planned near the interchange of the Ohio Route 8 and the Ohio Turnpike in Boston Heights, roughly midway between Cleveland and Akron. Specifically, the site will have its main entrance on Hines Hill Road, across the street from other new big-box structures -- an Arhaus furniture warehouse and a Costco Wholesale store.

Measuring 58 acres, the site is owned by Boston Hills Property Investment LLC which in turn is owned by Broadview Heights-based developer Sam Petros. The site wraps around the Paychex Inc. payroll services office and property. Developing the site will be Pure Development, Inc. of Indianapolis, IN, said Irving B. Sugerman, a partner at Akron-based Brouse McDowell’s real estate and litigation groups.

Sugerman, in representing the developer, made a presentation about the project Nov. 4 to Boston Heights' Board of Zoning Appeals and its Planning Commission. Three zoning variances and site plans were approved at those meetings.

"We're proposing a delivery station for an ultimate tenant that specializes in the transport of consumer goods." Sugerman said. "The project will create several hundred full- and part-time jobs in the village of Boston Heights. All of the employees and associates that we're going to have there are paid at least $15 an hour with a variety of benefit packages. At this time, about 85 percent of those jobs being full-time."

Screen capture of a meeting of Boston Heights' Board of
Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission at which the
proposed Amazon delivery station was approved. There,
developer representative Irving B. Sugerman held up a
site plan for the delivery station so that BZA members
could see which hard copy to look at from among their
paperwork about the planned project (YouTube).

He said the delivery station will also include what Amazon calls its Delivery Service Partners, which are independent contractors who will build their own businesses delivering packages for Amazon. Amazon will not own the facility but will instead be the tenant. It is paying about $40 million to develop the site, Sugerman said.

Most of the site will be developed with parking for customers, employees, trucks and delivery vans. The parking lots will surround the distribution center, with customer and employee parking along Hines Hill Road.

Offices for the delivery station will face Hines Hill. There will be landscaping screening, berms and other buffering around the perimeter of the property, except for the Hines Hill frontage. The buffering will block views of the parking and station from most outside perspectives, said architect Bill Lewis of Richard L. Bowen and Associates of Cleveland.

Although the tenant was never identified at the village's meetings, "delivery station" and "Delivery Service Partners" are terms Amazon uses to identify its mid-level distribution facilities and its shipper development program.

Amazon delivery stations will also be the tenants at several new facilities now being developed in Cleveland -- one at the Madison Industrial Park in the Cudell neighborhood on the city's West Side and another at the Cuyahoga Valley Industrial Center in Slavic Village on the city's East Side. NEOtrans broke the news on those developments earlier this year.

Architect Richard L. Bowen and Associates is the architect of the Boston Heights delivery station -- as it was for the other Amazon delivery stations in Greater Cleveland. And Pure Development develops many Amazon distribution centers in the Midwest.

In 2018, the 855,000-square-foot Amazon Fulfillment
Center in North Randall was nearing completion. It will
reportedly be expanded in the next year or two, adding to
the facility and the 2,000 jobs already there (AerialAgents).

"The (Boston Heights) site is perfect for this type of facility," said Sugerman, citing access to nearby State Route 8, Ohio Turnpike and other roads. "It's also in the vicinity of new and exciting projects that have developed over time in Boston Heights -- Costco, Arhaus among others."

Construction of the Amazon delivery station is due to start in the first quarter of 2021, Sugerman said. A source said that construction on the project will probably be completed in the third quarter of 2021.

The same sources say there are more expansions planned, including a possibly sigificant expansion of the North Randall Fulfillment Center. Fulfillment Centers are the largest type of Amazon's distribution center and the North Randall facility is the largest one in Greater Cleveland. It opened in 2018 on the site of the former Randall Park Mall.

One of the sources said the 855,000-square-foot North Randall Fulfillment Center, which has 2,000 full-time employees, would be expanded by a "large amount" but added that more details were scant at this time. There is some open space to the south of the existing facility where expansion of it could occur. The rest of the site is hemmed in by streets and parking for employees and delivery vehicles.

It is one of seven Amazon distribution centers existing or planned in the Greater Cleveland-Akron-Canton area, but is only one of two fulfillment centers in Cuyahoga County. The other is an 850,000-square-foot facility in Euclid built on the site of the former Euclid Square Mall for which NEOtrans broke the story in May 2017.

END

Ohio 'megaproject' tax credit regains life at 11th hour

For six years, Stark Enterprises has proposed different public
incentives to get its large nuCLEus mixed-use development
over the finish line. It might finally be close to getting one
passed -- the Transformational Mixed Use Development
tax credit. But passage doesn't guarantee Stark will win
a credit from the competitive program (Stark).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM 

UPDATE: E&WD Committee passed Sub. SB 39 on Nov. 18

That rhythmic sound you're hearing again is a pulse after eight months of silence. It is coming from Substitute Senate Bill 39, also known as the Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) tax credit, which could be passed by the Ohio General Assembly by the end of the year.

And it's not just a pulse heard from the legislation, but from big real estate projects that would compete for tax credits following its passage. In Cleveland, those could include Stark Enterprises' nuCLEus and Millennia Companies' The Centennial, plus other potential redevelopments like the Westinghouse plant or the Richman Brothers factory.

Sub. SB 39 is scheduled for a Nov. 18 vote to be referred out of the Ohio House of Representatives' Economic and Workforce Development (E&WD) Committee for a possible floor vote by the full House soon thereafter.

It is the first action by the committee on the TMUD bill since March, before the pandemic hit. This new pulse is coming in the so-called lame-duck session -- after the general election but before the end of the 133rd General Assembly, a two-year legislative session.

The bill could be passed in one of 13 House sessions scheduled including four tentative sessions, if needed, after Nov. 18 but before the end of the two-year assembly on Dec. 31. If the legislation isn't acted on by the end of the calendar year, a TMUD tax credit bill would die for the second time.

A new bill would have to be introduced and go through the entire legislative process again. That would make it the third time the TMUD tax credit has wound its way through the legislature. An earlier version of the legislation passed the Ohio Senate 32-1 in 2019. An even older version passed the House 91-0 in 2018.

The Millennia Companies' The Centennial remake of 925 Euclid
Avenue will feature a mix of opulence and affordability among
its mixed uses. They include a restoration of the world's largest
banking hall into a restaurant and transportation museum, with
basic retail below and 860 units of workforce housing above
in the 1.4 million-square-foot building (Millennia). 

But Rep. Mike Skindell (D-13) of Lakewood said that, barring any surprises, the amended legislation will probably pass the House again. He is a member of the E&WD Committee.

"It wouldn't be up for a floor vote if the House leaders didn't think they had the votes (to pass it)," said Skindell, who won re-election to his House seat Nov. 4.

The legislation has been amended several times since it was first introduced in the prior session in 2018. It was originally drafted by Cleveland law firm Thompson Hine LLP, working on behalf of Stark Enterprises, to aid its nuCLEus mixed-used development in downtown Cleveland.

The roughly $220+ million nuCLEus development offers a 25-story office tower atop a pedestal of retail and parking to be built on East 4th Street between Huron Road and Prospect Avenue. The project has twice been scaled back.

Ezra Stark, chief operating officer of Stark Enterprises, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this article prior to publication. Valerie Jerome, director of marketing  and communications at The Millennia Companies, was unable to secure a comment from the firm's development team prior to NEOtrans' late-afternoon deadline Nov. 13.

If passed, Sub. SB 39 would encourage insurance companies to invest in Ohio real estate megaprojects by refunding to insurance companies up to 10 percent of their investments in TMUDs. The maximum credit for a TMUD would be $40 million. A total of $100 million worth of credits would be available in each state fiscal year ending June 30 in 2021 and 2022.

Like the other large-scale proposed developments shown here,
the redevelopment of the Westinghouse plant on West 58th
Street has eluded several developers seeking to make a
go of the massive, complicated project (LoopNet).

The House's E&WD Committee has held seven hearings thus far on Sub. SB 39 to make the tax credit more palatable to rural lawmakers who saw it as benefiting only urban projects, said Josh Ferdelman, legislative aide to State Rep. Paul Zeltwanger, chair of the committee.

Within 10 miles of a major city, a TMUD refers to projects whose new or to-be-renovated connected buildings are at least 10 stories tall, measure at least 250,000 square feet and contain any combination of retail, office, residential, recreation, structured parking or similar uses. In less populated areas, smaller projects can be considered TMUDs.

The legislation's sponsor is Sen. Kirk Schuring (R-29) of Canton. Skindell said he spoke with him on Nov. 13; Schuring said he was supportive of the House's changes as long as no further changes were made. But in the lame-duck session, lawmakers often attach language from other bills to legislation that they know is likely to pass.

"If the bill stays the way it is, the Senate will accept it," Skindell said.

If so, and if the Senate issues a statement of support during its session, then it is unlikely that differences in the Senate and House versions of the TMUD tax credit bill will need to be ironed out in a conference committee. In that case, the House version would go to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature. 

Backers say the credits are justified in this state and especially in Greater Cleveland which is the 15th-most expensive metro to build an office building but has the nation's third-cheapest office rents, eclipsed only by Louisville and Albuquerque.

Another massive project whose redevelopment would transform
its surrounding neighborhood is the 660,000-square-foot Rich-
man Brothers factory on East 55th Street. It would take large
public incentives for its redevelopment to happen (LoopNet).

Skindell sought the addition of the $100 million cap on annual credit awards and the June 30, 2022 termination date of the TMUD tax credit program. He noted that, without the cap, the TMUD credits could incur as much as a $500 million hit to the state's budget per year and continue indefinitely. Skindell was the committee's lone vote Nov. 18 against referring the bill to the House floor.

The TMUD bill would set aside 20 percent (or $20 million) of the tax credits available each year for projects in less populous areas. Specifically, the new provision specifies projects further than 10 miles from a major city that has a population larger than 100,000 people, according to an analysis and comparison of recently proposed versions of Sub. SB 39 by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

And in such areas, qualifying projects must have buildings only four stories in height with a total size of 75,000 square feet. The buildings do not have to be connected. That compares to 15 stories or 350,000 square feet of connected buildings for projects within 10 miles of a major city.

The previous version of the bill considered TMUDs to be those whose new or to-be-renovated connected buildings are at least 15 stories tall, measure at least 350,000 square feet and contain any combination of retail, office, residential, recreation, structured parking or similar uses.

The new rural set-aside would replace a provision in the bill's previous version that would increase the existing historic renovation tax credit percentage from 25 to 35 percent for projects in rural areas. Thus, certain small-town new-construction developments, not just small-town renovation projects, would qualify for tax credits.

A new bill would have to be passed to continue the program beyond June 30, 2022. Administration and issuance of TMUD tax credits would be overseen by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority rather than the state's Director of Development Services, as previously proposed.

END

Bridgeworks plans revealed, will add to Hingetown's height

Conceptual plans for Bridgeworks in Ohio City show an 11-story
apartment building and a seven-story hotel alongside repurposed,
former Cuyahoga County Engineer structures. This view looks
generally north, with the West 25th Street-Detroit Avenue
intersection visible at the bottom  (LDA-B&H).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

UPDATED NOV. 10, 2020

Conceptual plans were submitted to the city this week for a mixed-use development in the Hingetown section of Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood. According to those plans, the tallest building would rise to 11 stories or about 127 feet high.

The project is Bridgeworks, a partnership of Grammar Properties LLC and M. Panzica Development, on the northeast corner of West 25th Street and the Detroit-Superior Bridge. The project's address is 2429 Superior Viaduct.

The 11-story apartment building at Bridgeworks will feature 167 market-rate and affordable units with a 2,000-square-foot ground-floor commercial space facing West 25th. The building will have tremendous views of downtown, Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. The site is across the street from the planned Irishtown Bend Park for which site work and hill stabilization has begun.

Wedged into the corner of the apartment tower will be a seven-story boutique hotel with 130 rooms, ground-floor coffee/commons bar, art gallery and an amenity space. The hotel will incorporate several historic Cuyahoga County Engineers' buildings into it, namely a three-story former office/laboratory building, Art Moderne-designed garage and an entry to the former streetcar subway below the Detroit-Superior Bridge.

The old subway entrance will be rehabilitated to accommodate non-public functions of the hotel, according to a project summary submitted to the city. There will also be a public plaza surrounding it. Below the site will be two levels of underground parking plus a first-floor, enclosed parking area. In total, 180 structured spaces will be provided, not including 30 unassigned spaces along the street, plans show.

Conceptual site plan for the Bridgeworks development (LDA-B&H).

The total size of the development measures about 233,734 square feet. Development cost estimates are not yet available but could be similar to the $60 million price tag of the previous project jointly undertaken by Grammar Properties and M. Panzica Development -- Church+State development located a couple of blocks west along Detroit Avenue.

Graham Veysey and Michael Panzica, principals of the development's partnering firms, did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment prior to publication of this article.

Two sources close to the development who spoke off the record because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it said that enough financing has come together to allow Bridgeworks to proceed. However, the hotel brand hasn't been nailed down yet. Negotiations are continuing. The project's developers are reportedly hoping to start construction in the second quarter of 2021. Construction could take 18-24 months. 

An historic designation was awarded for the Cuyahoga County Engineers' buildings in September that would make their renovation eligible for historic tax credits. But the amount of those credits is likely to be too small to make a significant contribution to the developers' capital stack, the sources said.

The historic buildings will be retained in the development because they will reduce construction costs. Also reducing construction costs is the desire to leave undeveloped an 11,100-square-foot plot of land at the eastern end of the roughly 2-acre Bridgeworks site. That piece of land may remain undeveloped as a public greenspace or it could be developed someday, the sources said.

The developers, organized as Bridgeworks LLC, have an agreement to acquire the 2-acre site from the county after a recent property disposition process. NEOtrans broke the story nearly two years ago about the county engineers' property hitting the market and again six months later about Panzica et al acquiring the site.

Location of the Bridgeworks development is outline in white,
with downtown Cleveland in the background (Google).

Previous comments by Veysey and Panzica suggested the Bridgeworks development might top out in the 8-10 stories range. But a larger-scale project was desired based on leasing success at Church+State. That project's first residential tenants moved in several months ago with the smaller, six-story Church building nearly full and the larger State rapidly filling up.

Retail leasing at Church+State lagged due to the pandemic. But the sources said that one unidentified retail tenant has recently signed on and lease drafts are being worked on for at least two more potential restaurant-retail tenants.

It should be noted that while Bridgeworks is proposed to be 11 stories like Church+State, the latter tops out at just under 115 feet high to conform to its zoning code's height district. The height district in which Bridgeworks would rise allows 250-foot-tall buildings, so Bridgeworks could rise much taller if the developers wanted. In fact, across the street, a proposed 27-story apartment tower called The Viaduct is planned.

Bridgeworks will probably require a variance for the project's density, as the city's zoning code is antiquated and is being considered for replacement with a form-based code. The existing code allows a maximum gross floor area that's only six times the lot area. And the site is zoned for limited retail business albeit with an urban form overlay.

The extent of code variances that may need to be granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals is why Veysey and Panzica submitted the conceptual plans to the city this week, said Tom McNair, executive director of Ohio City Inc., a community development corporation.

"They want to get their hands around what variances might be required," he said. "Conceptually speaking, the project is fantastic for the neighborhood. We're approaching 1,000 units of housing along Detroit from West 25th to West 32nd. And Lower Detroit from 29th on in is even more dense. It  makes that scale (of Bridgeworks) feel appropriate. I think this is one of those areas in Cleveland where you can add that height."

Several fomer Cuyahoga County Engineers' buildings remain
on the site where Bridgeworks would rise. The buildings range
in age from 60-103 years old (Allegro).

But when plans for The Viaduct were being discussed at the Waterfront District Block Club, residents of the 11-story Stonebridge Condominiums complained that they are already facing traffic problems while trying to get out on to West 25th.

McNair called the West 25th-Detroit intersection one Cleveland's "Most important intersections." Although its traffic is far less than what it was before Interstate 90 was opened on the West Side in the 1970s, it still sees 14,000 vehicles per day.

He also noted that the intersection is the second-busiest bus stop in the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's system, trailing only downtown's Public Square. It is at the northern end of a planned bus rapid transit route called 25connects. And, there are multiple hike-bike trails in the area, including a protected bike lane across the Detroit-Superior Bridge into downtown.

"Places that have traffic congestion have a lot of good things going on," McNair said. "I'm sure there are some people who will worry about traffic congestion. But the people in Northeast Ohio who worry about traffic congestion probably haven't spent much time outside Northeast Ohio."

The block club has been working with the city's Division of Streets to re-examine traffic flow on Washington Avenue, including taking traffic surveys. But the traffic count study was hampered by lower car volume due to the pandemic.

"The issue truly is Washington Avenue," said Scott Aylesworth, president of the Waterfront District Block Club. "The short one-way section next to St. Malachi has caused untold issues. I think that since the (proposed) tower is mostly residential, the impact on traffic congestion will be nominal. If they can restore the two-way traffic (on Washington) and adjust the light timing, there should be no problems."

Tyler Kapusta contributed to this article.

END

Cleveland's real estate revs up for first time since March

There are definitive rays of hope that Greater Cleveland's real
estate market is kicking back into high gear with the presidential
election over and the pandemic's end is in sight (Xiaofan Luo).

It's as if someone turned the electricity back on and got the gears of Greater Cleveland's real estate sector turning again. Today, NEOtrans heard from a real estate professional about that surge and began asking around to see if other experts in the business locally were experiencing the same thing. Turns out they were.

The burst of activity has been sudden and significant in recent days, say people employed in various real estate functions be it leasing, buying/selling, land evaluation and construction. These activities are a leading indicator of potential economic growth.

By contrast, the residential real estate market remained active as people moved around in response to the pandemic, including Cleveland gaining new residents from more expensive, coastal markets.

On the commercial side, office tenants are making inquiries of available spaces in downtown buildings. Commercial property users are requesting information about properties available for development and redevelopment from downtown, through Midtown to University Circle. And site preparation for new construction or redevelopment of existing buildings has kicked into a higher gear. Could this be attributable to recent headlines?

"My answer before (we first spoke today), I would say no," said David Hollister, a managing director in Newmark Group Inc.’s Cleveland office, in a Monday phone interview. "However, since we last spoke I have received two large downtown office inquiries."

Hollister said the inquires were for spaces ranging from 15,000 to 30,000 square feet, made by firms whom he couldn't name. Although they had shown casual interest before, they were more serious now.

Interest in leasing office spaces in downtown Cleveland and
elsewhere is picking up in recent days, brokers say (CBRE).

"Since March, I had just two showings for space at one (downtown office) building," he said. "Now I've had three in just the last 10 days."

What caused those and other suitors to make their overtures? It's probably too early to say for certain, but two pieces of major news broke in recent days. One was a resolution of the presidential election, removing a lot of uncertainty from the market. And the real estate market hates uncertainty. 

The other piece of big news was the Monday morning announcement by pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. that its COVID-19 vaccine has shown a success rate of better than 90 percent in drug trials. Federal approval of the vaccine is expected, allowing it to be manufactured and first administered to health care workers by the end of December and the general public thereafter.

They are the first solid signs that the pandemic could be under control in the USA in early 2021 and the worst being over in the summer of 2021. With that knowledge, the real estate industry is gearing up in anticipation of that opportunity.

"I can't derive at any conclusions (from the new office leasing interest) but the timing is certainly interesting," Hollister said.

Conor Coakley, first vice president of CBRE, Inc.'s Cleveland office, was trying to spend his Monday camping at Dwell Box in Dundee, OH. But the reawakened real estate market kept intruding on his planned peace and quiet.

Construction activity in Cleveland has been slowed but not
stopped by the global pandemic. But if the apparent recent
surge of interest in securing sites for new construction and
redevelopment sites progresses, more construction activity
could be in the cards in the coming years (file).

"It's ironic that I'm camping with my family today and I'm trying to get off the grid for 24 hours but I keep on getting calls for (site) tour requests, etc.," Coakley said. But after a pandemic-quieted spring and summer, he added "I'll take it."

It wasn't just the leasing, buying and selling of real estate that saw an uptick. So did the interest in developing or redeveloping properties in Cleveland's urban core, said the owner of a local environmental company who asked not to be named to protect his clients' interest.

"For some reason today has been off the charts with a lot of due-diligence inquiries," he said."The calls have been about purchasing enviromental remediation and due diligence as well as inquiries about properties in Midtown, Downtown and Uptown."

Given the timing, he said he suspected that the greater certainty from the wrapping up of the presidential election along with a more definitive end in sight for the pandemic were probably factors.

"I'm hearing from a lot of people trying to close deals," he added. "This time of year is normally busy but it's been extremely busy today."

NEOtrans will keep watching to see if the sudden surge in Greater Cleveland's real estate activity continues. If you're aware of any longer term trends in the coming weeks, kindly let us know. We'd like to track it and share it.

END

More hints about the future Sherwin-Williams HQ+R&D

Pickard Chilton is designing the new Sherwin-Williams head-
quarters in downtown Cleveland. The New Haven, CT-based
firm won the Office Building of the Future contest sponsored
by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. It
remains to be seen what SHW's HQ will look like (P-C).

Every few days I sift through hundreds of newly filed Cleveland Building Department records to see if something new and interesting was posted. Invariably there's something worth noting there, like the filing yesterday by Parma-based Gazde LLC for an "ice cream/coffee shop with axe-throwing" at 5807 Detroit Ave., next to the temporarily closed Happy Dog bar.

With knowledge that there are renderings out there for the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters, I saw a filing for "140 Public Square" and almost had a heart attack. That was before I remembered the new SHW HQ is probably going to have an address of somewhere between 1 and 33 Public Square.

The reason is that 1 and 33 Public Square were the addresses of the last two buildings that stood on the northwest quadrant of Public Square. They were demolished for the Ameritrust Tower that never was, a casualty of early 1990s bank consolidations that saw Society for Savings Bank acquire Ameritrust and later saw Society and KeyBank merge.

Instead, 140 Public Square is the address of the Park Building Condominiums. The Building Department listing posted today was for a small, 100-square-foot alteration -- not a new skyscraper for downtown Cleveland.

Another of Pickard-Chilton's towers is
River Point, a 52-story, 730-foot-tall,
1-million-square-foot office tower
in downtown Chicago (P-C).

But that day will come and probably in the next month or three. How do we know? Because SHW wants their downtown Cleveland HQ and research and development facility in suburban Brecksville completed by early 2024.

That means having construction underway for the more complicated and time-consuming HQ by late 2021. Its construction timeline is about 24-36 months. This will require getting designs reviewed and refined through the months-long city approvals process by mid-2021 so the bidding process can get moving, materials can be ordered and delivered and construction can begin.

And we're already getting word that renderings are out there. News of the renderings comes from two sources.

Information about the SHW HQ renderings comes from a source close to the HQ design process. He described them as "Stunning, evocative of an East Coast especially New York-style of architecture. Very modern. Building height was about the size of the 200 Public Square but could be taller based on the angle of the rendering. There was a decorative element at the top but could've been for rooftop equipment."

The height coincides with what NEOtrans first reported in May. Back then, word leaked out that SHW and its design team was looking at an HQ in the 45- to 55-story range. That would put it at least at the 45-story height of 200 Public Square. Depending on floor heights, it could mean SHW's tower would rise to at least the 658-foot altitude of 200 PS.

Although likely smaller than what SHW wants, the
29-story 102 Street Centre in Edmonton, Alberta
offers an eye-catching design from Pickard-Chil-
ton, especially its illuminated crown (P-C).

But it falls short of the height predicted in a later report. In it, a source close to the materials and equipment procurement process said the SHW tower would "rival Key Tower" -- Ohio's tallest at 57 stories and 947 feet tall. That appears debatable if SHW's tower falls short of Terminal Tower's 52 stories and 708 feet.

The rendering apparently did not show more of the proposed SHW HQ, only of the tower that SHW plans on Public Square. The source made no mention of anything that SHW might put on the Superblock it also purchased earlier this year. The Superblock is bounded by Superior and St. Clair avenues plus West 3rd and West 6th streets.

Presumably SHW will build on the Superblock a massive parking deck surrounded by additional buildings and spaces for future buildings, plus common areas for employees and the public. Pickard Chilton is SHW's design architect for the 1-million-square-foot HQ; Vocon Partners, LLC is the programming architect.

The base building architect for the HQ and the design, base and interior architect for the R&D facility is HGA Architects and Engineers, LLC of Minneapolis. The R&D facility will measure about 500,000 square feet and be part of a mixed-use development called Valor Acres in Brecksville.

The Graduate School of Public Health at the University of
Pittsburgh is similar to the conceptual design of the new
SHW research facilities proposed to be built at Valor
Acres in suburban Brecksville (HGA).

Another source has seen the renderings for the SHW R&D facilities but didn't realize it at the time. They were described as conceptual. He said the R&D buildings were "About five stories tall, made of concrete and glass, and connected to each other by ground-level, enclosed walkways. It was an awesome design and very coastal, like something you would see on the East Coast or maybe California."

These word descriptions shouldn't come as a surprise as SHW has said that one of the goals of its new HQ+R&D facilities is for talent retention and attraction. It wants facilities designed to uplift, inspire, and promote employee interaction and innovation. In short, the facilities are designed to cause employees to want to come to Cleveland and Brecksville to live, work and play -- and want to keep them coming back to work every day.

And SHW's CEO John Morikis said he has every intention of bringing his company's headquarters employees back to the office, pandemic or not.

"We recognize that the development, engagement and sense of community our employees share has been essential to our success for more than 150 years and would be difficult to sustain over the long-term with a remote-based workforce," he said in Sept. 15 written statement.

The modern lines of the Center for Chemical & Forensic
Sciences building at the University of Rhode Island also
bears some similarity to the proposed design of SHW's
R&D facilities in Brecksville (HGA). 

It isn't known publicly yet how the facilities will be designed to be COVID-compliant -- or even if they will be, considering that the HQ won't be completed until early 2024. I'm sure we all hope the global pandemic is in our rearview mirrors by then.

Vocon has a number of other clients locally who are trying to redesign their workplace interiors to get employees back to work in a safe manner. Potentially, SHW, a growing company, could provide more square footage at the outset for their existing employees and then divvy up that space later on for additional employees after the threat of the pandemic subsides.

In the case of CrossCountry Mortgage's new downtown Cleveland headquarters, it will feature residential units next door that will be marketed first to company employees. So even if employees are working remotely, they will be only steps away from responding if they need to do anything at their office.

It remains to be seen if and how the HQ+R&D are designed to accommodate the pandemic. But it seems certain that both facilities are being designed for talent retention and attraction. Those are goals that never seem to go away.

END

Chicago developer considers downtown Cleveland tower

This unofficial massing is shown to demonstrate the potential
scale of a possibly significant project under consideration for
2.24 acres of land at the northwest corner of West 3rd Street
and St. Clair Avenue in downtown Cleveland. However, the
actual project if built could look very different. Therefore,
its backers are being very tight-lipped (Ian McDaniel).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

UPDATED NOV. 3, 2020

Here comes another proposal for a Cleveland tower -- but with a word of caution. It's still progressing and considered not close to being realized. But the players involved are serious ones, including another big Chicago developer that wants to invest in Cleveland.

That Chicago developer is Magellan Development Group LLC. This developer builds skyscrapers. Lots of them. And not just in Chicago -- the birthplace of the skyscraper. They've built them in Nashville, Miami, Austin and Minneapolis.

But Magellan plops 30- to 50-story towers around Chicago without blinking an eye. Their latest is Vista Tower, the third-tallest in the Windy City. The 101-story, 1,198-foot-tall, $1 billion tower opened earlier this year.  

The Cleveland site they've picked is a direct result of Sherwin-Williams agreeing to build their new global headquarters in downtown Cleveland. Three sources who agreed to speak off the record confirm Magellan is looking at building on the northwest corner of West 3rd Street and St. Clair Avenue. That's right across St. Clair from Sherwin-Williams' HQ site.

Warrensville Heights-based Weston Group owns most of the property for the Magellan tower. The site measures 2.24 acres -- a huge development canvas for downtown Cleveland. To reduce upfront costs, Weston's property will apparently not be sold. Instead, Magellan, Weston and its favored general contractor Gilbane Building Company are reportedly looking at a joint venture to deliver this project.

The mostly Weston-owned site for the proposed West 3rd-St.
Clair project is outlined here in red. The Justice Center is at
the right and the planned site for the new Sherwin-Williams
headquarters is at the lower left (Google).

At last reports, the project would involve ground-level retail and entry lobbies with a multi-level parking deck above. Built atop that pedestal of parking and retail would reportedly be two basic structures. The taller of the two would be a roughly 30-story tower for residential units and a five-star hotel.

A tower that's a few stories shorter than 30 could be built on a concrete pad foundation. But a tower that's 30 or more stories tall would require more expensive supportive caissons dug down to bedrock some 200 feet below the surface. That could reduce the financial viability of a proposed tower.

Depending on the tenant or tenants, the smaller structure would be the office building, perched atop the parking deck. Magellan and Weston reportedly would not build the office building until there is a tenant or tenants identified. There are multiple potential office users who might relocate to such a building.

As for the hotel, the developers want a five-star brand since downtown lacks one and visitors to the Sherwin-Williams HQ are demanding five-star lodging, sources say. The Ritz-Carlton at Tower City Center is a four-star hotel.

Another view, this time looking generally south, shows the
potential project in relation to the planned site for the new
Sherwin-Williams headquarters. Also nearby is the Justice
Center complex which includes its two jail buildings. The
jail is expected to move out of downtown in the next few
years. The Magellan-Weston project is at the eastern edge
of the Historic Warehouse District (Ian McDaniels).

Local real estate developer Scott Wolstein was reportedly brought into this project due to his ability to bring deals together, especially involving Starwood-brand hotels. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that a Starwood flag would be the hotelier in this project.

And considering that downtown Cleveland projects similar to this one, namely nuCLEus, have had difficulty getting off the ground, Wolstein was unwilling to discuss this potential Magellan-Weston project.

"Unlike a lot of developers, I prefer not to discuss future projects unless and until I have all the pieces in place," Wolstein said in a recent e-mail interview with NEOtrans. "Timing depends on a variety of issues including market demand, entitlements, subsidies, availability of financing, etc."

Ed Asher, president of Weston Residences, Equities and Development, acknowledged receiving an e-mail asking questions about this project but did not otherwise respond to it.

Street-level view of the mostly Weston-owned properties at
the northwest corner of West 3rd and St. Clair. The yellow-
ish building is the Bertsch Building. Behind it is the larger,
seven-story Marion Building. Both would be demolished to
make way for the potential Magellan-Weston project (KJP).

J.R. Berger, principal of Magellan, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on and confirmation of the project. Berger is responsible for evaluating development opportunities for Magellan nationwide.

Tom Yablonsky, executive director of the Historic Warehouse District, said he wasn't aware of the Magellan-Weston proposal but noted that any proposed demolitions would be carefully examined.

"The Warehouse District is both a Cleveland Landmark district and a National Register historic district." Yablonsky said in an e-mail. "The Marion Building and the original Wohl’s Hungarian restaurant building  are contributing buildings to the historic district; thus any proposed demolition will receive significant scrutiny and regulatory review."

The site has two surface parking lots on either side of the Marion and Bertsch buildings. Weston owns everything except the 117-year-old, 12,178-square-foot Bertsch Building, 1280 W. 3rd. It sold in March in an entity sale to the law firm Koeth Rice & Leo Co. which has its offices there. However, Weston is responsible for leasing at the Bertsch Building.

The Marion Building dates from 1913 and measures 104,698 square feet. In addition to accommodating the offices of numerous law firms due to the Justice Center across the street, it is also the longtime home of Karl's Inn of the Barristers. Both the Marion and Bertsch buildings are proposed to be demolished.

A decade ago, Weston was a suitor for the planned, new
 Cuyahoga County administration building that eventually
was built on East 9th Street at Prospect Avenue. Weston's
entry was this -- a 12-story building on the same corner
of West 3rd and St. Clair where a much larger building
is proposed by Magellan and Weston (Weston-URS).

Weston has the capital resources to help make this project happen but will probably need subsidies to make the numbers work, owing to Cleveland's high construction costs and low rents. Weston recently owned the nearly 6-acre "Superblock" of parking lots bounded by West 3rd and West 6th streets, plus St. Clair and Superior avenues.

Weston sold them to Sherwin-Williams earlier this year for $40 million for its HQ. To round out its HQ site, 1.17 acres on Public Square were acquired by the global coatings giant from the Jacobs Group for $9.2 million, public records show.

Prior to selling its Superblock properties, Weston moved all of its parking leases from the Superblock to the lot at the northwest corner of West 3rd and St. Clair. That includes parking for The Standard, an apartment building Weston refashioned from the former headquarters of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Presumably, The Standard's parking would be incorporated into the new Magellan-Weston project.

In March, Allstate Life Insurace Co. terminated a lien on the two Weston-owned surface parking lots along West 3rd north of St. Clair, public records show. Removing the lien makes it easier for those properties to be sold or otherwise folded into a joint venture for the proposed development.

Also, those involved with the Magellan-Weston project reportedly assume that the Cuyahoga County Jail on the east side of West 3rd will be moved in the coming years to a location outside of downtown. That is the apparent direction of the Justice Center Steering Committee that is evaluating the possible construction of a new consolidated jail facility as well as a new courthouse. The courthouse will probably stay downtown.

END