Greater Cleveland: poverty amid plenty

Construction has been one of Greater Cleveland’s most robust job sectors
for growth as has education/health services. Both employment sectors
are represented here in this photo of Case Western Reserve Univer-
rsity’s expansion of its South Residential Village in the Uni-
versity Circle- Little Italy neighborhood (Independence).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Amid the good news in Ohio and especially in Greater Cleveland that unemployment has fallen to pre-pandemic lows is the harsh reality that inner-city joblessness remains high. This is despite thousands of jobs made available by economic growth and retiring Baby Boomers. Meanwhile, three-fourths of all available jobs are beyond the reach of public transportation or, where public transportation is fast and frequent, there are many jobs but few quality housing options.

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Stokes West gets go-ahead

Stokes West, a seven-story apartment building offering below-market-rate
rents and smaller apartments, two-thirds of  them furnished, could see con-
struction start by August after it won final approval today at City Planning
Commission (LDA). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Developers of a large apartment complex in Cleveland’s University Circle could start construction of the $40 million project before August if all goes well in the coming weeks. That optimism was earned today after City Planning Commission gave the project final approval of its new, overhauled design and a zoning change to accommodate that design. The development is different from several others nearby because it isn’t trying to brush with or break through the top of the market when it comes to rents. Instead, Stokes West intends to offer smaller, more affordable apartments, many of them already furnished for new arrivals in Cleveland and from across the world.

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From Jersey barriers to Raptors on Public Square

Nine of these retractable Raptors will be installed in Superior Avenue
on each side of Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The Raptors
will be kept in the down position most of the time but will be raised
during special events. Also to be installed will be 60 bollards along
the sides of Superior in the middle of the square (JCFO).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Nine of these retractable Raptors will be installed in Superior Avenue on each side of Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The Raptors will be kept in the down position most of the time but will be raised during special events. Also to be installed will be 60 bollards along the sides of Superior in the middle of the square (JCFO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Out go the Jersey barriers. In come the Raptors. That was the decision today by the Cleveland Planning Commission to redesign downtown’s Public Square from its 2016 redesign. In fact, the $3.5 million plan as approved would restore one aspect of the 2016 Public Square renovation which cost $50 million. That would be to restore the planned sharrows on both sides of Superior Avenue in the middle of the square. The approved redesign places 60 new bollards along the slimmed-down street which will remain bus-only through the square.

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As Duck Island fills, Berges goes SOLO

Construction is wrapping up at the West 20th at Smith Court townhomes
in Tremont’s Duck Island enclave and all 14 of the homes have sold out.
This view was taken in March. Developer Berges Home Performance
sees strong demand continuing and is expanding west into Ohio City’s
SOLO district (Noah Belli). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Don’t tell Matt Berges that new home construction in the U.S. is in a 15-month-long slump. The owner of Cleveland-based housing development firm Berges Home Performance LLC will tell you that success depends on what you’re building and where. The where in this case is the near-West Side, specifically Duck Island, a neighborhood Berges helped rebuild. But it is running out of space for more new homes, prompting the 23-year-old firm to look elsewhere to satisfy an as-yet insatiable housing demand.

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Six local housing projects win tax credits

Plans by real estate developer Flaherty and Collins to build the Depoton
Detroit got a boost by winning Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from
the state yesterday. The affordable housing development is planned
next to the Greater Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s
West Boulevard-Cudell rapid transit station (City Architecture).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Six housing developments in Cuyahoga County won federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs) yesterday from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), improving their chances of seeing construction in the near future. Those projects and 23 others elsewhere around the state received conditional LIHTC commitments. Developers will use those awards to leverage additional financing in the creation or rehabilitation of rental housing for low- to moderate-income Ohioans.

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Federal Equipment expands in Cleveland’s Kinsman

Federal Equipment Co. plans to add this office building onto its existing
warehouse on East 79th Street to accommodate its growing business
 (City Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Historically, when a company outgrows its aging facilities in the urban core, they tend to move out to a larger, more modern structure in the suburbs. But not Federal Equipment Co. which is expanding its presence in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood that it’s called home for more than six decades. It’s the latest real estate investment along the Opportunity Corridor and the Blue/Green light-rail transit lines in an area of the city derisively dubbed as the Forgotten Triangle, until now.

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Cleveland is seeing ‘brain gain’ – for a change

Rebuilding regional historic assets like the West Side Market and its
signature clock tower, developing fallow industrial land with urban river-
front housing seen at right, and construction cranes over downtown are
all results from and/or causes of increased net-migration of college-
educated people to Greater Cleveland (Iryna Tkachenko).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For decades, Greater Cleveland has suffered from the loss of its college-educated citizens primarily to star-studded cities on the East and West Coasts. Now, for a change, this former industrial powerhouse on the North Coast is enjoying a net in-migration of more brain than brawn. And while the region is still seeing net outmigration of those without college degrees, the results are at worst uneven.

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