45 Erieview aims to be Cleveland's first post-pandemic remote-work tower

The curving floorplates of 45 Erieview offer sweeping
views of Lake Erie for residents, but interior parts of
the building cannot be used for apartments because
the city's building code requires residential uses
to have windows. So the interior spaces will
be for work spaces and a wide range of
amenities for tenants (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

When you pore over Bluelofts Inc.'s proposed floor plans for the planned remake of 45 Erieview Plaza, several thoughts come to mind. The first one is that this appears to be the first development in Cleveland to take into account new remote-working lifestyles sought in a post-pandemic world.

That becomes apparent when you realize that the proposed development would have a stunning offering of amenities that could turn this building into a city-within-a-city. Such as.... 

Indoor putting green plus two golf simulators? Check. Movie theater and a community gaming room? Check. Rock-climbing wall, half-court basketball and pickleball court? Check. Co-working lounge and coffee/cocktail lounge? Check. Steam and massage rooms? Check. Barbershop and salon? Peloton video room? Pet spa and grooming room? You get the idea.

It's almost like being on the Axiom in the movie Wall-E -- minus the tubby people in the floaty chairs and the acceleration to hyperspace.

Ground floor plan detail for 45 Erieview  --
By the way, after you click on the image, right-click
on the enlarged image and select "open image in new
tab" where you can enlarge it further (Dimit).

But is this building, located at East 9th Street and Lakeside Avenue, cartoonish science fiction, too? That's a lot of costly amenities to put in a building in downtown Cleveland where rising rents are still below those of larger coastal cities.

Bluelofts, combined with investor Kenny Wolfe, each hailing from Dallas, acquired the building and nearby 348-space parking garage for $21 million, according to sources who spoke off the record. There are also 32 parking spaces under the building, located at the southeast corner of Lakeside Avenue and East 9th Street.

Selling the property was New York-based private equity firm Somera Road, county records show. The buyers intend to start $50 million worth of renovations and improvements by November, with optimistic completion date of late-2022 or early 2023, the sources said.

Option 1 for a second-floor plan for 45 Erieview (Dimit).

But what makes this project more intriguing is that it is more responsive to a post-pandemic world than possibly any other existing building or pending development in downtown Cleveland. And Bluelofts has experience with live-work conversion projects, mostly in southern cities.

Their plan for 45 Erieview mixes apartments and work spaces for residential tenants in the conversion of a relatively modern, 16-story office tower. This building, constructed in 1983 as the headquarters for the Ohio Bell Telephone Co., may well be the perfect place to accommodate post-pandemic remote-work lifestyles.

The reason is the 492,864-square-foot building has sprawling office floors that measure about 37,000 square feet. Most office floorplates are under 30,000 square-feet; residential towers are even less. The floor sizes perplexed other potential buyers who passed on signing purchase agreements because they couldn't imagine how to use the big floors.

Option 2 for a second-floor plan for 45 Erieview (Dimit).

But the curving, outer walls of the building's glassy north face are an attraction as they offer terrific views of Lake Erie. So that's where 200 market-rate apartments will be located. In the interior of the building is where the largely window-less work spaces for residents will be. The city's building code requires residential uses to have windows; it doesn't require them for work spaces.

The presence of so many amenities also will be useful to residents who would live in what is still predominantly an office district. There aren't as many residential amenities here as there are further south along East 9th near Euclid Avenue.

However, James Kassouf, owner of the nearby Erieview Tower and Galleria, is proposing to add residential to the 40-story tower and supportive amenities to the Galleria. But those proposals were made several years ago when Kassouf bought the property. Little visible activity has happened since.

END

Seeds & Sprouts XVIII -- Hingetown bags grocer, Innovation Square to rise, Franklin West spaces out

This is the Eighteenth 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.

This ground-floor site plan for Church+State in Ohio City's Hingetown
section shows which retail spots are leased and which ones are still
available. About half the ground-floor spaces are leased -- a feat
considering the hardships endured by many retailers during
the pandemic (Cleveland Building Department).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Hingetown's Church+State bags small grocery store

Nature's Oasis will add its third store in the Greater Cleveland area and its first in the City of Cleveland when it opens at the end of the year in the new Church+State development. The site is in the Hingetown section at the north end of the Ohio City neighborhood.

Graham Veysey, a principal in the Church+State project, confirmed the healthy, all-natural foods grocer will take about 3,500 square feet in Church, the shorter of the two buildings. Church is six stories tall while State tops out at 11. The development is named after Church Avenue and West 29th Street that was called State Street before north-side Cleveland streets were numbered in 1906. The store will open up on to Church Avenue.

Nature's Oasis first store is in downtown Lakewood with its second at the new Van Aken District in Shaker Heights. Their markets have hundreds of local products including bread and other baked goods, dairy products, produce, tea, coffee and more.

The grocer will join other new tenants at Church+State including Green Opal Salon and Great Lakes Health & Wellness; their leases were first reported by NEOtrans. They were joined by fitness center Corus45 which recently occupied a storefront facing Detroit Avenue.

The first phase of Fairfax Renaissance's Innovation Square is
getting ready to start construction. It is a big step forward for
the redevelopment of East 105th Street and the Opportunity
Corridor south of University Circle (City Architecture).

Innovation Square to build around holdout property

Look for construction work to start in the coming weeks to prepare the site for the first phase of Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp.'s Innovation Square development. That became a realistic possibility this week when plans for an 82-unit, mixed-income apartment building at 2260 E. 105th St. were submitted to the Cleveland's Building Department. The apartment building will be called Square 105.

Site improvements include removal of six areas of contaminated soils that will be placed in a pit, compacted and covered with 2 inches of clean fill material. General contractor McCormack Baron Salazar will also oversee removal of all pavements, structures, basements, poles, utilities and trees. Additionally, a new street will be added -- an extension of Hudson Avenue to the west side of East 105th.

However, Fairfax is going to have to work around a small property it has not yet been able to acquire for Square 105. The 0.074-acre parcel is owned by Clemark Property Associates Ltd. which also owns other east-side parcels. It acquired the property in 2016 after it was forfeited to the state, following the conviction of its prior owner Mark Makupson.

Site plan for Square 105, the first phase of the Innovation Square
that will also include new single-family homes and more multi-
family buildings. This phase is working around an East 103rd
Street property that has yet to be acquired (City Architecture).

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his reported leadership role in an interstate drug trafficking ring. Makupson's sentence was shortened because he testified against fellow drug dealers and three East Cleveland police officers. But he had to forfeit various assets including 2245 E. 103rd St.

According to Ohio Secretary of State records, Clemark was created by Makupson but now lists to Marquetta Makupson of Bowling Green. No relationship is known. Tax mailings for the property go to Tatiana Franklin of Wickliffe who also operates CRF Medical Staffing Agency, according to Cuyahoga County records and Google searches.

Estimated construction cost of Square 105 is about $10 million, according to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency which provided $8 million in tax credit equity to the project. The funding will provide for the site improvements, a 76-space parking lot (proposed for 93 spaces if 2245 E. 103rd can acquired) and the 79,500-square-foot apartment building.

This is an artist's rendering of the Franklin West apartments, 4815
Franklin Blvd., in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood (Bowen).

Ohio City apartment project drives parking solution

While construction continues on the 24-unit Franklin West apartments, 4815 Franklin Blvd. in Cleveland's Ohio City, the developer has made a change to the project to accommodate the 25 required parking spaces for it.

Developer My Place Group LLC, owned by Chad Kertesz, previously received a parking variance for 20 parking spaces on site with the five remaining required spaces in the Iglesia Del Salvador Church, 4801 Franklin, parking lot on the east side of West 48th Street.

According to a filing with the building department, when the site layout was engineered, it was determined that only 15 spaces could fit on the site with the townhouse-style apartments.

My Place Group notified the city it had revised its lease agreement with the church to increase the number of leased parking spaces to 10. The total allotted number of spaces for the development is 15 on site and 10 in the church parking lot to achieve the required number of parking spaces.

END

First building permit issued for City Club Apartments tower

At long last, the first construction permit has been issued for the
proposed new City Club Apartments tower in downtown Cleve-
land, which will have an address of 776 Euclid Ave. (Vocon).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

On Wednesday, Cleveland's Building Department issued the first of what will likely be many building permits for the construction of a 23-story apartment tower at 776 Euclid Ave. downtown. It is the first documented evidence that the nearly $100 million City Club Apartments tower is about to see tangible construction activity after numerous delays.

The permit issued is for relatively modest work -- a $115,000 job to be done by Mr. Excavator Inc. of Kirtland to install 13 catch basins with manholes, one grease interceptor, a 784-linear-foot storm and or sanitary sewer, and 120 linear feet of water distribution piping, the permit showed.

For the work to be done, it will likely require closing off and ripping up some or all of the existing parking lot at the above mentioned address. For many urbanistas, they will almost certainly rejoice in seeing a surface parking lot in downtown Cleveland torn up for site preparation to construct the planned 240-foot-tall tower called CBD Cleveland.

The 300-unit apartment building will connect to the existing parking behind, have balconies for many units, pool, fitness center and ground-floor retailers/restaurants. One could potentially be called The Hippodrome, a nod to the building and its ornate theater which stood on the site until 1981. Next door is the 1901-built City Club of Cleveland which coincidentally has a name similar to that of the planned apartment building.

Yes, Virginia, that's a bonafide building permit for
the new City Club Apartments tower. Although
it's "only" for site preparations work includ-
ing drainage, it is a job that must be done
before foundation work can start (B&H).

To avoid court orders to stop demolition, the Hippodrome Building was substantially razed in the middle of the night by Alvin Krenzler, a real estate investor who was appointed as a federal judge several months later. The site has remained a parking lot for 40 years.

But hopefully no more, as evidenced by the city's issuance of the building permit on July 14. Developing the apartment building is City Club Apartments (CCA) of Farmington Hills, MI. CCA has 22 residential properties throughout the Midwest -- from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis and south to Louisville.

CCA currently has four major projects in development, including the one in Cleveland. The others are a 17-story project in Chicago called the Lakeview, a six-story building in Detroit called the Midtown, and a 31-story redevelopment of the historic Union Central tower in Cincinnati. The first three projects involve new construction.

Despite the tangible progress of this week, there still has been no public record filed showing that there was a change of site control to CCA or any affiliate of CCA. Site control change can be by property transfer or long-term lease, but none has been recorded by the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer.

On May 7, city crews completed work to relocate utilities from
below the sidewalk to under Euclid Avenue so that a construc-
tion tower crane for the planned City Club Apartments
could be placed on the sidewalk (Ian Meadows).

However, such a change in site control could have occurred privately between CCA and the current property owner David Goldberg, doing business as GSK 720 Euclid, LLC, but not been filed yet by the county. Sources close to CCA said the developer is pursuing a 99-year lease with Goldberg to gain site control. Neither party was available for comment at this time.

On Aug. 21, 2020, City Planning Commission gave final approval of the apartment tower's design. One of the reasons why it has taken nearly 11 months to see the first building permit issued is reportedly because of CCA's founder, chairman and CEO Jonathan Holtzman. Sources close to the project say he has been extremely demanding and difficult to work with in getting deals done.

The sources said interior designs were reportedly changed to achieve CCA's already tight budget constraints made more challenging by record-high materials prices, such as for steel and wood. But those same sources said Holtzman has been upbeat and optimistic about the prospects for delivering CBD Cleveland apartment tower.

END

Line between Tremont and Ohio City blurs with more investment

Two major construction projects are seen here -- one in Ohio City's
Market Square and the other in Tremont's Duck Island. Separating
them, or perhaps uniting them, is the Red Line rapid transit train
station visible as the red clock tower. The near construction pro-
ject is Waterford Bluffs in Duck Island and the one below the
red construction crane is INTRO in Market Square (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM 

More new development projects are coming to the northwest corner of Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, called Duck Island. And they are coming to the east-central flank of Ohio City, called Market Square. The presence of so much activity here is starting to blur the line between the two neighborhoods.

For decades, it was pretty easy to visualize where one neighborhood ended and the other began by finding the void of buildings and city life. The only activity at that void were the riders using the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's (GCRTA) Ohio City Red Line rail station. That rail line and its trench, recently augmented by the Red Line Greenway, is the actual line of demarcation between the two jurisdictions.

But numerous developments are popping up that are causing that line to blur and perhaps even disappear. Those projects include Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors' INTRO at West 25th Street and Lorain, Stoneleigh Companies' Waterford Bluffs at West 20th Street and Lorain, Mavrek Development's Treo on West 25th south of Train Avenue and MRN Ltd.'s planned conversion of the Voss Factory, 2168 W. 25th, into apartments.

A formal groundbreaking ceremony was held June 3 for Mavrek
Development's Treo, a seven-story building with 170 market-rate
apartments, now rising at 2461 W. 25th St in Tremont (KJP).

Interestingly, the first three projects are led by Chicago-based developers, although some of their principals have Cleveland roots. But the Cleveland-based firm, MRN Ltd. is working out a deal with GCRTA to develop either next to and/or possibly above the Red Line tracks which would further unite Tremont's Duck Island and Ohio City's Market Square.

The plan, according to GCRTA sources, is for the developer and GCRTA to form a joint development company just as the transit agency and Westlake-based Carnegie Management & Development Corp. attempted before Carnegie walked away. Both GCRTA and MRN might share in the revenues from whatever development results.

GCRTA would reportedly like to use its share of the revenues to leverage federal dollars to update the 30-year-old rail station and possibly add a second or even third station entrance. Depending on what resources it can leverage, it might also consider a pedestrian underpass below Lorain to reach the West Side Market, sources told NEOtrans off the record.

Just east of the station, development along and north of Abbey Road may also further blur the lines between Ohio City and Tremont. Details of those plans came to light this week as a new townhouse development was reviewed by the city. But more development could follow.

Fifteen luxury townhomes are planned along West 20th Street just
south of Lorain Avenue in Tremont's Duck Island (Horton Harper).

The Near West Design Review Committee, part of Cleveland's City Planning Commission, gave conditional approval today of a 15-unit townhome project in Tremont's Duck Island enclave. Called W20th & Smith, the high-end development would replace five modest, late-19th century homes that were purchased in recent years by developer Matt Berges.

Located just south of Lorain Avenue along and east and West 20th Street, the new townhomes will list for sale starting in the low $500,000 range, said Berges in an e-mail interview. He added that each townhome will have two-car garages, various size interior spaces and "we are expecting a skyline view from the rooftop balconies."

In approving the townhomes, Near West committee members asked for small porches to be added to the fronts of the townhomes facing West 20th. That will require the development plans to go back to Near West for final approval in a few weeks and referral to planning commission. The commission's next meeting will likely be Aug. 6.

Berges has built numerous single-family homes over the years, especially in Tremont, including in multiple-unit developments or as individual, custom-designed homes. Most of his products have a decidedly modern appearance.

Site plan for the W20 & Smith townhomes, shown in dark
gray at the top-center of the image (Horton Harper).

Initially, Berges considered multi-family for W20th & Smith but after getting input from the neighborhood and Tremont West Development Corp., he decided to go with a single-family townhome development, according to neighborhood sources not connected with Berges but who did not wish to be identified.

"Thanks to the 100-plus new residents that have decided to invest and live here over the past 10-plus years" Berges said. "And thanks to the 200-plus existing residents who have put up with the process."

Interestingly, a birds-eye rendering for W20 & Smith shows a multi-family, possibly mixed-use building on a site dubbed the Abbey Block to the south of the townhomes on land Berges owns. But that is not part of any imminent plans, Berges acknowledged.

"We have explored numerous plans for this Abbey Block, but have yet to settle on one," he said. "This is a unique site and opportunity that took a long time to put together. So we are trying to make sure we come up with the best possible plan for it."

The more walkable density that rises where Ohio City and
Tremont meet, the more vibrant and dynamic this area
will hopefully become. One of those projects adding
density is Stoneleigh's Waterford Bluffs on the
north side of Lorain Avenue (Vocon).

He said a part of the Abbey Block property, just south of Smith Court, is leased by Chicago-based Stoneleigh Companies until the end of the year for construction staging for its Waterford Bluffs development. That project is a 241-unit apartment building on the north side of Lorain at West 20th that NEOtrans broke the news about in March 2020. The Abbey Block may not be part of Berges' plans after the lease expires, however.

"After that we may sell the entire project to a larger developer, while we stay focused on the many single family homes we have to build," he said.

The neighborhood sources NEOtrans spoke with said there is community interest in developing the area along Abbey Road with mixed uses including ground-floor retailers and cafes. The goal is to make it a walkable center of Duck Island for nearby residents to get a cup of coffee, a bite to eat, basic grocery items and be a social setting for the neighborhood.

Some of those types of amenities, albeit on a larger scale for an intersection with a more regional draw, are coming to the Market Square area of Ohio City. More new announcements came this week about those amenities.

A new café called Leaps & Bounds, to be owned by INTRO's
developer Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors, will occupy the
development's highest-profile corner, that of Lorain Avenue
and West 25th Street in Cleveland (Bialosky).

A café to be owned by INTRO's developer will take the most prominent space in the still-building $145 million project in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood. The café, to be called Leaps & Bounds, will fill out a 3,328-square-foot ground-floor space at the corner of Lorain Avenue and West 25th Street, across from the West Side Market.

Dan Whalen, vice president of design and development at Chicago-based Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors, confirmed the café's occupancy in the nine-story-tall mixed-use development. He also confirmed that Harbor Bay will own Leaps & Bounds. But he wasn't ready to say much else about it at this time.

"We're not ready to disclose info on the hospitality side yet," Whalen said this week. "But we have 75 percent of the retail space pre-leased."

Plans for Leaps & Bounds were submitted to the city July 9 and show dining, market and kitchen facilities representing an investment of about $700,000. This follows other INTRO tenants coming to the fore.

This is the ground-floor space that Leaps & Bounds will occupy
in the new INTRO development, at the busy intersection of
Lorain Avenue and West 25th Street in the Market Square
section of Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood (KJP).

Those include Truss Cleveland a top-floor, 12,000-square-foot event center. It will have five spaces including a 6,000-square-foot main event hall, a 4,000-square-foot rooftop terrace, plus a 500-square-foot wedding suite with make-up vanities and private bath.

There will also be a two-story ground-level restaurant, as yet unidentified, but with a wood theme facing Lorain near the Ohio City Red Line rail station. A Bank of America branch and possibly a drug store are also coming to INTRO. Construction is due to be completed in Spring 2022.

INTRO is the first phase of Harbor Bay's Market Square development. It is currently the tallest mass-timber building in the USA. It will have 290 market-rate apartments over 36,000 square feet of retail and 550 underground parking spaces.

Depending on the progress of residential leasing that's about to get underway for the first phase, a future phase could add a 15- to 17-story residential tower just south of the existing development, according to real estate sources who spoke off the record.

END

Amazon to be first tenant at Brook Park's ex-Ford site

Greater Cleveland's next Amazon distribution center will be the first
phase of a sprawling industrial park that will rise on the site of two
shuttered Ford auto plants in suburban Brook Park (Clay Corp.).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Northeast Ohio's transition away from an economy of heavy industries continues as the first tenant is revealed for the former Ford Motor Co. engine and casting plants in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. That tenant, according to two sources familiar with the redevelopment, is e-commerce giant Amazon.

The 210-acre Ford Motor Brook Park Target Industrial-Advanced Manufacturing Campus, as the city calls it, will involve a multi-phase redevelopment of the 1.7-million-square-foot Ford Engine Plant No. 2 and its neighboring Cleveland Casting Plant site.

In their place will be millions of square feet of warehousing, logistics/shipping and light-industrial facilities representing a half-billion-dollar investment to serve what, so far, has been an insatiable market.

Once Ford's remaining buildings on the site (not including the still-active Engine Plant No. 1) are cleared away, new road, sewer and utility infrastructure will be built. Then, multiple new buildings will be constructed to serve big-name tenants offering thousands of jobs. Amazon represents only the first phase, the sources said.

The 210-acre Ford Motor Brook Park Target Industrial-Advanced
Manufacturing Campus is anticipated to add millions of square
 feet of new industrial and distribution facilities employing
 thousands of workers (Google/KJP).

Developing the site is a partnership of Weston, Inc. of Warrensville Heights, the DiGeronimo Cos. of Independence and Scannell Properties of Indianapolis, IN. They created a joint venture called DROF BP I LLC (spells "Ford" backwards and "BP" referring to Brook Park) which purchased the 210 acres of land in April for $31.5 million, according to county records.

All three partners have experience in developing Amazon delivery stations and other distribution centers for other clients. In Northeast Ohio, Weston built a 168,750-square-foot speculative building in 2019 at 10801 Madison Ave. in Cleveland. NEOtrans was first to report Amazon would retrofit and lease the building from Weston. DiGeronimo Companies' Independence Construction was the building contractor.

In 2015, Scannell and DiGeronimo joined forces in redeveloping the Twinsburg Chrysler Stamping Plant that closed in 2010 into the Cornerstone Business Park. Among the buildings constructed was a 248,000-square-foot Amazon distribution center representing an investment of $17 million.

When Brook Park's two Ford plants closed in 2007 and 2012, nearly 3,000 well-paid union workers and others lost their jobs. The casting plant was demolished in 2013. Its neighbor at 18300 Snow Rd. will soon follow, said Brook Park Mayor Michael D. Gammella in his Summer 2021 newsletter to Brook Park residents.

Interior of an Amazon distribution center which is highly auto-
mated. But most centers employ hundreds if not thousands of
workers inside the facility and in trucks and vans outside
each Amazon distribution facility (Clay Corp.).

"Shortly you will see demolition crews leveling the old engine plant and aluminum foundry," he wrote. "In its place will be a new building for a major corporation. Other new buildings will follow with even more new companies. This mega project will bring thousands of new jobs into our city. It is the beginning of a new era and there is more to come."

"The project will absolutely be transformational to the region," said TJ Asher, president of Weston's Acquisitions and Development in a written statement. "We're looking forward to tapping into the potential this property offers and developing a unique commercial area with the potential for significant job creation and economic impact for Northeast Ohio."

Asher called it a once-in-a-generation redevelopment project due to its scale and location. It is next to Cleveland Hopkins Airport, Interstates 71 and 480, busy mainline railroads of Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation, and is within a 20-minute walk of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's Red Line rail transit station on Brookpark Road.

The project will respond to strong market demand. Real estate firm Newmark recently reported that Greater Cleveland's industrial market achieved a new low 4.5 percent vacancy rate in first-quarter 2021 with 2.9 million square feet under construction. In the region's southwest submarket, that vacancy rate was even lower -- a mere 3 percent.

END

Millennia submits Centennial plans, seeks building permits

Built nearly 100 years ago, The Centennial was the
second-largest office building in the USA. Today, it's
the subject of detailed plans submitted to the city,
an important step toward redeveloping this grand
old dame as a city-within-a-city (Sandvick).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

UPDATED JULY 10, 2021

Earlier this week, detailed design documents were submitted to the city as an important first step to securing construction permits for one of Cleveland's largest-ever historic renovation projects.

The Centennial would convert a nearly 1.4-million-square-foot office building at 925 Euclid Ave. in downtown Cleveland into a what amounts to a self-contained town. It's a 21-story, 257-foot-tall town where more than 1,000 people would call home and many hundreds more would work, dine and shop each day.

Submission of the plans by Sandvick Architects on behalf of developer Millennia Companies was intended to trigger a zoning review by the city's building department. The zoning review is an important step toward gaining building permits to start renovation work. A spokesperson for the developer said it's also another sign of the project moving forward.

"The application is an indication of progress – while moving forward, the timeline is not firm," cautioned Valerie Jerome, director of marketing and communications at Cleveland-based Millennia.

The Centennial's widest side is along Chester Avenue. There,
the 21-story, 1,390,824-square-foot building has a com-
manding 513 feet of street frontage (Sandvick).

Earlier this year, it was hoped that financing for the $500+ million project would close in the third quarter. The Centennial's capital stack is a complicated one and heavily dependent on tax credits from multiple sources.

The resources will likely include non-competitive federal historic tax credits, a $25 million catalytic historic tax credit from the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, as well as Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency so all of the apartments could be offered as workforce housing. Milennia officials also confirmed they will seek a tax credit from the state's new Transformational Mixed-Use Development (TMUD) program.

The financing may close in the fourth quarter of this year, Jerome said in an e-mail response to questions posed by NEOtrans. In a phone interview, Tom Mignogna, Millennia's project manager on The Centennial, said the project will be pursued in one phase.

"It doesn't make sense to do half the building and then go back to do the other half, or pay twice for things like closing fees and attorneys fees," Mignogna said. "We want to do the whole thing all at once over a 36-month time period. We're getting incredible support from the city, county, state and federal governments. We also feel confident in our project receiving the maximum award from TMUD."

Ground-floor plan for The Centennial. That is actually the base-
ment if a visitor enters from the Euclid Avenue side of the
building. But if someone enters from the Chester Avenue
side, the ground floor is only a few steps down from the
Chester Avenue side of the huge structure (Sandvick).

While the Ohio Tax Credit Authority hasn't issued its guidance for accepting TMUD applications, the law that created the TMUD program limits the largest award to any single project at $40 million. If The Centennial gets that, it would turn around and sell the tax credit for 90 cents on the dollar, bringing $36 million to the project.

Mignogna also said the state has committed a $5 million brownfield loan, there's a $5 million loan from Cuyahoga County and a $15 million loan from the City of Cleveland. However, he would not discuss any financing that is from non-public sector sources.

Millennia has hired a joint venture of Marous Brothers and Gilbane Inc. as its general contractor for the project. Barber & Hoffman Inc. is the structural engineer. Denk Associates Inc. is the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer. Riverstone is the project's civil engineer.

Submitted documents show the building will continue to be mixed use with retail and assembly uses but the predominate use will shift from office to residential. While there will be 62,022 square feet of offices in the building, nearly 1,000 people could soon call the 1924-built headquarters of the Union Trust Bank "home sweet home."

Click here to take a virtual tour of the building.

"The existing building does not create a detrimental impact on neighboring properties in regards to height or density," wrote Sandvick Architects in its application to the city. "The proposed use is less intense than the former use."

The first-floor plan for The Centennial. This is a few steps up
from the Chester side but is level with the Euclid entrance.
This image also shows retail spaces along East 9th Street
which extend down into the ground floor (Sandvick).

Millennia, one of the nation's largest owners of affordable housing units, is pursuing entirely affordable housing in The Centennial. According to plans submitted to the city, 868 apartments with more than 1,000 bedrooms are proposed. They would range in size from 576 to 1,551 square feet.

"We think that market-rate housing downtown has reached a bubble," Mignogna said. "But affordable housing downtown has a lot of room left to run. We want to focus only on affordable."

Also proposed are sensory-friendly apartments for residents with autism and accessible apartments for those with physical disabilities. The units will have rents priced for prospective residents who earn 50-80 percent of the area's median income (AMI). Eighty percent of AMI for a family of four is $60,800, for example.

On the ground floor (as entered from Chester Avenue) as well as on the first floor (as entered from the higher-elevation Euclid Avenue), 21,978 square feet of retail is planned. Office spaces for several hundred workers are set on the first through third floors, primarily around the perimeter of a four-story-tall, L-shaped bank lobby that, when built, was the largest bank lobby in the world. It was also the second-largest office building in the USA, trailing only Chicago's Merchandise Mart.

"The lobby has Corinthian columns, vaulted ceilings, skylights, and murals by Jules Guerin, a famous twentieth-century artist noted for the murals he created for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.," historian Jim Dubelko wrote for Cleveland State University's Center For Public History.

Proposed layouts are pretty consistent from the eighth
floor to the 19th floor. These 11 floors were once all
offices but are proposed to be residential (Sandvick).

That lobby will have two new uses, according to Sandvick's plans. The banking hall along Chester Avenue is proposed to have a 16,607-square-foot museum, not including support offices. That museum is proposed to be called the Cleveland Exposition Center. It may feature items such as historic cars and aircraft from the Western Reserve Historical Society.

A 6,421-square-foot common area will connect the Chester banking hall to the shorter but equally glamorous banking hall along East 9th. The latter hall will become a 7,411-square-foot restaurant including two private dining rooms.

Look for that space to be filled by a new restaurant called the Century Club, to be created by Millennia founder and CEO Frank Sinito along with his wife Malisse. They have started and continue to operate several high-end restaurants in Greater Cleveland. They include LockKeepers in Valley View and the Marble Room in downtown Cleveland. The latter is located in another Gilded Age bank lobby, that of the former National City Bank.

Click here, then select "Record Info" and then "Attachments" to view detailed plans for The Centennial.

In those plans, the offices shown on the fourth floor were since changed to be residential because of the pandemic and its impacts on the office market. Mignogna said the project can succeed even if the office leasing is virtually non-existent.

The East 9th banking hall is the smaller of the two former bank
lobbies. It is proposed to be the Century Club, a new offering
by Frank and Malisse Sinito who, among their other fine-
dining establishments, turned the National City Bank
lobby into the Marble Room restaurant (Sandvick).

On the 21st or top usable floor are a mix of proposed uses. There are a pair of three-bedroom, penthouse apartments but still would be priced as workforce housing. One would measure 1,383 square feet and another 1,551 square feet. There are several unassigned spaces on the 21st floor totaling 8,120 square feet plus an unoccupied 2,056-square-foot space.

"We have an idea for them but don't want to release it yet," Mignogna said.

But the notable feature on the 21st floor is a 5,032-square-foot indoor event space with kitchen plus private meeting rooms and a library. It was originally the Mid-Day Club from 1924 to 1990, then Sammy's Metropolitan Ballroom, then the Metro Club. Plans show the assembly room would open up to an outdoor event space on the roof.

Additional building amenities are proposed to include a fitness center, lounge, bike storage, laundry room, community room, on-site management offices, mail room and parcel/locker room and wine cellar. Every residential unit is proposed to have a storage locker. All of the storage lockers would be on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, mixed in with other uses.

The ground floor retail spaces include reusing a former arcade where Rickey C. Tanno Jewelers was located from 1949 to 2018. It was the last retail tenant to leave the building. 

Plans also show the 5,255-square-foot former bank vault on the ground floor hasn't found a proposed new use yet but could also be coordinated with the Century Club, Mignogna said. Another feature of the ground floor is that it will continue to be connected by a spacious, brightly lit pedestrian tunnel below Chester to a 1,100-space parking garage.

END

SHW skyscraper's crown soars, street-level bores

This is the most detailed image of what Sherwin-Williams' new
headquarters complex will likely look like, based on official
massings and input from the HQ design team to NEOtrans'
graphic artist. This unofficial rendering shows the HQ
tower's unique crown that's planned (Ian McDaniel).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

While City Planning Commission members review months-old massings of the planned Sherwin-Williams headquarters delivered to them only last week, you're getting the first look at more detailed images of what the new HQ will reportedly look like.

SHW's design team is comprised of hundreds of people from among lead architect Pickard Chilton, HQ interior architect Vocon Partners LLC, and base building architect HGA Architects and Engineers, LLC. They are all guided by a group of SHW executives called the Building Our Future Committee (BOF).

As the city is poring over the conceptual-level massings prior to the City Planning Commission's July 20 meeting, SHW has already moved into composing schematic-level designs. Those are more detailed drawings that the commission isn't going to see until Aug. 31.

Schematic plans aren't usually drawn until after conceptual plans are approved by a planning commission. Otherwise, the schematic plans would have to be redrawn or at least refined. But SHW's design team doesn't expect many surprises as it has been in regular contact with the city's planning department throughout.

As seen from the east side of Public Square, SHW's nearly 50-
foot-tall learning pavilion is shown in front of the 600-foot-tall
headquarters HQ tower in this unofficial view (Ian McDaniel).

On the other hand, planning department staff are city employees who guide project plans. They don't decide whether the projects will get the green light to apply for building permits. That's the job of volunteers who serve on the planning commission.

These latest images shared by NEOtrans show the SHW tower at West 3rd Street and and Superior Avenue topping out at just over 600 feet tall. The height was decided by the BOF Committee last month but not yet communicated to the planning commission.

Also decided by BOF but not yet seen by planning commission is how to top-out the skyscraper. It will not look like any other skyscraper in downtown Cleveland. In fact, there aren't any towers that we at NEOtrans are aware of which have this unique set of rooflines. In some respects, it's a slice of how multiple sawtooth rooflines appeared atop some area factories.

A word of caution -- some of the graphics shared here are not official. While some of the graphics themselves do not come from sources on SHW's HQ design team, word descriptions used to sketch these massings did come from the design team. It is our understanding that these are the most detailed and accurate we have posted so far as we have gathered more information.

Official master plan for SHW's global HQ in downtown Cleveland.
The existing 987 surface parking spaces will be replaced with
about 1,200 spaces in lots and decks on SHW's property
for up to 3,500 SHW employees. Existing parking,
public transit, biking and walking will pro-
vide the remaining HQ access (SHW).

The massings posted here also show the true height of the learning pavilion on Public Square. It will accommodate SHW's conference center for training purposes and the Center of Excellence's historical displays for new recruits and VIPs. Although it will be only two stories tall, the pavilion will rise nearly 50 feet above Public Square, sources said.

Earlier concepts for the pavilion on Public Square had it rising three stories tall but the third floor wasn't deemed necessary. Also removed from the pavilion's plan was a rooftop patio for employees. The two terraces planned in the lower mid-section of the HQ tower will provide the HQ outdoor, social setting for executives to sip their after-work martinis or to host other social gatherings. One terrace will face Public Square and the other will face westerly into the setting sun. 

NEOtrans has also reported for months that the SHW HQ would have two skywalks extending from the HQ tower. One would be above West 3rd to the Public Square pavilion and the other above Frankfort Avenue to the new parking deck.

City planning department officials pushed back on the skywalks, sources said. But when the City Planning Commission, City Council and the mayor’s committee on streetscapes and infrastructure recently allowed two skywalks into JACK Entertainment's casino (only one of which was built so far), its case for objecting to one or both of SHW's skywalks was weakened.

SHW's long range plan for its HQ campus in downtown Cleveland
offers about 2.8 acres of land for SHW expansion as well as for
supportive development along West 6th Street and St. Clair
Avenue. But the parking garage and a vacated Frankfort
Avenue will be largely a dead zone with few active
uses like restaurants or retail along it (SHW).

SHW has also reportedly made the case that the skywalk over West 3rd won't take much pedestrian activity off downtown streets. In fact, most users of the pavilion will walk on city sidewalks to reach it.

They will primarily be out-of-town SHW vice presidents, salespeople, information technology, human resources and other on-the-job development trainees walking from downtown hotels to attend one-day or multi-day training sessions at the pavilion. No hotels will be connected to the pavilion unless one is built someday on land being held for future expansion of the HQ or other development along West 6th Street and St. Clair Avenue.

Currently, training is done at locations in the southwest suburbs and University Circle. Moving it downtown means more pedestrian activity around the new HQ and its Public Square pavilion. And for those visiting the existing HQ from out of town, many currently stay at two hotels -- the Ritz Carlton and the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. From both of those, they can visit the existing HQ without ever setting foot on a downtown sidewalk. At the new HQ, they will have to step outside.

Instead, the skywalk over West 3rd is for board members and C-suite-level executives to attend board meetings and other high-level confabs at the pavilion. They will be able to do so without having to put on their coats and boots just to cross the street. Yes, it's an executive privilege, but SHW is paying for it.

City Planning Commission voted unanimously on July 2 to vacate
Frankfort Avenue between West 3rd and West 6th streets. If
City Council concurs, SHW will avoid further debate over
whether it must provide active uses along the Frankfort
side of the parking deck it proposes to build (CPC).

For those who want downtown buildings to have a street presence and create pedestrianism, the greater concern exists with the proposed parking garage and SHW's proposed treatment of Frankfort.

First, design team sources say the parking garage will have only one small commercial space available for lease. It will be the only publicly accessible space in the entire HQ complex. Proposed to be on the West 3rd side of the deck, it would measure only 2,000 square feet of floor space, although presumably it could be subdivided into more than one storefront.

Unfortunately, the active use proposed along the West 3rd side of the parking garage is at the bare minimum of what is required under the city's building code. An active use is considered to be a store, restaurant, café, business, hotel or similar.

The code requires a liner building to be constructed along the street frontage of a parking garage. That liner building must be at least equal to the width of the parking structure it screens, minus all permitted vehicular access points. Active uses in the liner building are required along 70 percent of the building's frontage. The depth of the liner building from the sidewalk must be no less than 15 feet, per city code.

As NEOtrans reported last month, the new SHW tower will be
Cleveland's fourth-tallest tower as it will top out at just over
600 feet above Superior Avenue (Ian McDaniel).

If the 2,000 square feet of floor space in the liner building doesn't change prior to its Aug. 31 submittal, SHW's design team did the absolute minimum required. The West 3rd frontage of the parking structure, minus its vehicular exit, is about 190 feet. And 70 percent of that is 133.33 feet. Multiply 133.33 feet times the 15 foot depth and you get 2,000 square feet.

Design team sources said no additional floors are proposed as part of the liner building. Above the first floor will simply be additional screening -- a false front for the parking garage to make it look like a real building and not a parking deck.

Second, not even a false front was proposed for Frankfort, a street SHW is asking the city to vacate. Vacating a public right of way causes it to be absorbed by adjoining parcels. The parcels adjoining Frankfort are owned by SHW.

SHW considers Frankfort to be an alley. City planners consider it to be a street. If it is a street, then SHW must provide a liner building with actives uses along Frankfort's frontage, minus its proposed vehicular entrance at the west end of the deck. If it is an alley, SHW doesn't have to provide active uses or even a liner building. By vacating Frankfort, that debate is moot.

As seen from the city's east side (above) and west side (below),
it is pretty evident that SHW's new HQ tower will be Cleveland's
fourth-tallest skyscraper and be a significant new presence in the
downtown skyline for decades to come (both by Ian McDaniel).

So instead of narrow Frankfort becoming a street full of life similar to East Fourth, lined with shops and restaurants primarily for pedestrians, it risks becoming a lifeless chute for cars and service vehicles like Walnut Street east of East 9th Street.

Vacating Frankfort was unanimously approved by City Planning Commission July 2. Cleveland City Council approval also is required; its next meeting is July 14. Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents downtown, reportedly supports the vacation of Frankfort. Council as a whole seldom goes against the wishes of a council member when it comes to matters involving their own ward.

Conceptual plans may be approved by planning commission without significant changes July 20. More detailed schematic plans will be submitted to the commission Aug. 31 for approval on Sept. 14. According to SHW's timetable, final designs will be given to commission Nov. 16 with the expectation that its members will approve them Nov. 30.

Considering that SHW's design team is anticipating the city's next steps, as evidenced by SHW already working on schematic designs, look for SHW to be ready to move quickly on getting shovels in the ground shortly after getting the city's final go-ahead at the end of November.

END