CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland City Planning Commission on Friday approved several apartment projects, including a new 23-story building that would replace an downtown parking lot.
The projects come as demand for apartments with higher rents in downtown Cleveland began to soften along with the rest of the economy. However, developers think there is enough demand to continue building.
The most high-profile project the commission OK did in the virtual meeting is probably the City Club Apartments building, set up for construction on the south side of Euclid Avenue west of East 9th Street.
The Michigan-based City Club Apartments company is developing the building is not affiliated with the Cleveland City Club, although the new building will be adjacent to the civic organization’s headquarters.
The building will sit on the site of the former Hippodrome Theater, demolished in 1981 to make way for the parking lot currently on the property.
The plans include more than 300 units, of which about half would be studio apartments. The units would range in size from about 405 square feet to 1,400 square feet and go up to three bedrooms, though the CEO of CCA has said he sees a demand for smaller, cheaper apartments for young professionals.
The ground floor would contain retail, and the developer hopes to deploy a dog care, a restaurant and a coffee shop. Denver Brooker, chief executive of Cleveland architectural firm Vocon, which is designing the project, told a design committee Thursday that CCA wants to begin construction in November.
CCA and Vocon have been tweaking the design, which will stick out of the skyline with their stripes of blue and orange on the facade, since it was introduced earlier this year. This includes adding a walkway between the building and a parking garage.
Commissioner August Fluker said Friday that he was initially ‘not in love with the blue splotches of color and orange, but I think it has grown on me.
“It’s done well in my opinion,” he said.
The commission also gave definitive OK to the following apartment projects:
Apartments proposed for West 73rd Street. (Rendering by Dimit Architects)
– A 75-unit apartment building planned for West 73rd Street, developed by United Community Developers and designed by Lakewood-based Dimit Architects.
New micro-apartments have been set up to move into Larchmere. (Submitted by Rick Maron)
– A building of micro-units, like small apartments with elements that retract to make more space, that will occupy a site along Larchmere Boulevard in the East Side neighborhood. The project was developed by Rick Maron – who retired from MRN Ltd., the real estate development company he founded – and Russell Berusch.
The Viaduct. (Rendering by Dimit Architects)
The commission also approved schematic designs for The Viaduct, a 27-story apartment tower on the Superior Viaduct on the West Bank of the Flats. The project is intended to include 165 to 173 one- and two-bedroom apartments on 19 floors, six levels of parking and two-storey amenities.
The project is also being developed by United Community Developers and designed by Dimit.
The new projects indicate that developers still believe there is a demand for apartments in the city, even as downtown landlords began to see an uptick in vacancies this year.
The Downtown Cleveland Alliance said in a recent report that 13.7% of apartments at the end of June were vacant in the neighborhood, compared to 7.8% in the same period last year. The decline came when the coronavirus pandemic forced the region and the country into a recession.
“We’ve built too much,” said Doug Price, CEO of K&D Group Development, which owns the Tower and Halle buildings, among others. “I feel that we currently have a three-year supply of housing. It does not make sense at the moment to build a new building. ”
Price noted his opposition to the City Club Apartments building. He said the downtown apartment market was softening during this recession.
He is not alone, because some landlords in the inner city have offered incentives for new tenants rather than for those who decide to renovate.
The NRP group, which manages the newly renovated Luckman building on East 12th Street, is offering two months free rent to new tenants because it has been vacant for the past few weeks.
“COVID has made an impact, and some potential tenants have expressed hesitation about relocation in general, as well as uncertainty about job security,” said Hannah Haynam, community manager at NRP Group, in a statement. “Our incentive is also to stay competitive with the market.”
Price said he hopes more tenants will sign in the spring, which is usually a busier time as interns and residents seek housing as they work at hospitals in the area.
Other developers, however, say the demand for tenants remains higher in neighborhoods outside the downtown area, and Price said properties he has remain suburban.
