A Christmas Story House, campus for sale

Tens of thousands of guests tour A Christmas Story House in Cleveland’s
Tremont neighborhood each year — especially this time of year. Some of
them stay the night in the working-class home-turned-celebrity along with
the Bumpus House, at left, thanks to the holiday-themed movie. Both were
renovated by owners Brian and Beverly Jones to look like they did in the
movie (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

That little house on Cleveland Street is on the market just in time for the holiday season and the release of a sequel to the 1983 classic movie “A Christmas Story.” And just like one of Ralphie’s father’s silly puzzles, “This one could be worth 50,000 bucks.” But the house isn’t on Cleveland Street, it’s not merely the house that’s for sale and the campus of seven properties is likely to fetch multiples of $50,000. Indeed, according to some real estate insiders, it could go for dozens of times more. Dare we say “A major award”?

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Hough busily breaking new ground

Groundbreakings for new projects are becoming more common in Hough
just as the new projects are breaking new ground in other ways, too. That
includes investing in residents and their futures. This groundbreaking was
in August 2021 for the Lumos Apartments on East 93rd Street that is re-
placing structurally deficient houses next door (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

For anyone who has been watching real estate activity in recent years in Hough, they are probably no longer surprised that investment is growing here. But what may be surprising is that the pace of it continues to increase. And, with that, there’s growing interest by local and national investors to make sure that gentrification doesn’t take hold and push away people who need jobs within an easy walk, bike or bus ride of booming University Circle.

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Reactivating downtown Cleveland

Downtown Cleveland catches the evening light on a muggy June 11, 2022,
as seen from Voinovich Park and North Coast Harbor. Downtown continues
to struggle to fill offices and retail spaces although hotels and especially re-
sidential buildings are performing much better since the depths of the global
pandemic two years ago. Helping downtown climb out of those depths is the
responsibility of many, including the Downtown Cleveland Alliance (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

In the late 20th century, downtown Cleveland rolled up its sidewalks after 5 p.m. Now, on some weekdays, it seems like downtown doesn’t roll out its sidewalks until after 5 p.m. That shows how much downtown has changed in the post-pandemic world from a commercial district to a residential, entertainment and tourism center.

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Plans revealed for big Tremont site

Looking northwest toward the former APL site in Tremont with West 18th
Place at the right, the proposed APL Apartments and Townhomes fill the
middle of the image. An improved greenspace is planned to the left of the
proposed development. No building colors or textures are shown here as
this rendering is intended to show only the scale and siting of proposed
buildings. At the upper left, near West 25th Street, is the planned West
20th Apartments and the Treo mixed-use development that’s nearly
completed (Sixmo). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Perhaps the largest never-developed piece of land on Cleveland’s near-west side now has a plan for developing it. Tomorrow, a neighborhood-level committee of the City Planning Commission will see and hear a presentation by a development team led by Knez Homes and Property Advisors Group to construct 129 housing units on a 3.65-acre plot of Tremont land Knez acquired last February, a story first reported by NEOtrans.

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Shoreway Tower plan rises

Looking eastward along the Shoreway from Edgewater Park, the proposed
12-story-tall Shoreway Tower would overlook the park and provide views of
Lake Erie. But a city design review panel had strong reservations about the
building’s proposed height (EAO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A conceptual proposal for a residential tower along the West Shoreway, overlooking Edgewater Park, got a little bit taller after it was first introduced to Cleveland’s City Planning Commission last April. Originally proposed to be 10 stories tall, the market-rate apartment building got bumped up to 12 stories and 138 feet tall which puts it over the 115-foot height restriction for that area’s zoning.

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Medical Mutual HQ staff won’t return downtown

Medical Mutual’s 10-story, 120-year-old Rose Building in downtown Cleve-
land has been mostly empty since the pandemic, as many of the insurance
company’s employees are working from home. They will not return to
work in this building in 2023 and will instead report to work at the
company’s operations center in suburban Brooklyn on a hybrid
work basis (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A spokesperson for health insurance industry giant Medical Mutual confirmed that the company’s headquarters will leave downtown Cleveland in 2023. However most of their roughly 1,000 downtown office employees never returned from remote-working during the pandemic, leaving the historic Rose Building at East 9th Street and Prospect Avenue mostly empty over the past two-plus years. Today’s news has led to some wondering if the building could be converted to residential as with other old office buildings downtown.

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Historic buildings to be razed in Flats

This group of 19th-century buildings in the 1772-1800 block of the west
side of Columbus Road in Cleveland’s Flats are proposed to be demolished
by the property owner, a Beachwood developer which currently has no plans
for developing the site (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

A row of buildings along Columbus Road in the Flats is due to be razed in the coming weeks by an active, local real estate developer. But there is no plan to replace buildings, including two from the 19th century that stand in a nationally registered historic district. Instead, according to a partner at the property’s owner, Integrity Realty Group (IRG) of Beachwood, the contiguous buildings would be demolished to keep them from falling down on innocent passersby. No structural analysis was included in the owner’s demolition requests to the city.

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