This pair of century-old apartment buildings on either side of East 105th Street at Colonial Avenue are among 20 Glenville buildings that were acquired by investors who are renovating them with affordable housing (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM
UPDATED OCT. 9, 2021
Denver and Cleveland investors jointly acquired 20 Glenville apartment buildings with the intent of renovating them with affordable housing. The investors, Cardinal Housing Group and Salus Development, are committing $16.6 million to property acquisitions and rehabilitations, according to city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County records.
Building permit applications were filed over the past couple of weeks for the 20 historic apartment buildings, all of which have brick exteriors and were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They are smaller buildings, ranging in size from two to 17 apartments each. The county has rated each of the buildings to be in fair or better condition.
Through a non-profit organization, the investors propose to put $11,387,001 into renovations in total for all of the buildings, city building department records show. The investment per building ranges from $175,398 to $984,852.
Salus Development specializes in recapitalizing and overseeing renovation of affordable housing throughout the Midwest, but primarily in Ohio, said Michael Laskey, president of Salus Development. It is the developer and will be a large percent of the general partnership when it closes on financing and begins construction. LDA Architects Inc. of Cleveland is the architect of record.
Locations and addresses of the 20 Glenville apartment buildings purchased by a partnership of the Cardinal Housing Group, Salus Development and a nonprofit group headed by a former federal housing official Dennis Morton (LDA).
The portfolio of apartment buildings on 22 parcels was acquired in October 2020 for $5,262,064 through a non-profit affiliate named Cardinal-Glenville MM LLC. The seller was American Community Developers Inc. (ACD) of Harper Woods, MI, a Detroit suburb. ACD was doing business locally as Glenville Apartments Limited Partnership and Boardwalk Apartments Limited Partnership.
Glenville has been seeing a large increase in new construction and renovation in recent years as employment in and around University Circle continues to grow. Also Glenville is also being aided by home buying and renovation programs like Greater Circle Living (GCL) and the city of Cleveland’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI).
Property records show ACD had owned the properties since 1994 and had an active Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subordinate loan with an original principal of $1,228,107 from 2003. There was also a 2003-dated note to Greystone Servicing Corporation Inc. of Georgia with an original principal of $653,000. Information about other debts or liens on the properties were not readily available.
John Williamson, senior vice president at American Community Developers, said his company no longer has any involvement with the Glenville properties. Laskey said the development partnership was grateful for being able to acquire these apartment buildings.
These three brick apartment buildings on Elk Avenue, just west of East 105th Street, were purchased by a development partnership and are of a style that is common throughout Greater Cleveland. Most of these were built at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th century to accommodate Cleveland’s booming population. Today, those that remain and are in fair condition or better are being refurbished to provide comfortable, affordable housing (Google).
“We are eager to get started on this important investment in affordable housing in Glenville,” Laskey said. “We believe in the Glenville neighborhood and look forward to working with the city of Cleveland, State of Ohio, and US Department of HUD to improve Boardwalk Glenville Apartments for its residents and neighbors.”
Dennis G. Morton is listed in property records as manager of Cardinal-Glenville MM that acquired the properties. And he was listed as manager of Cardinal-Boardwalk MM LLC which submitted the renovation building permits. On LinkedIn, Morton is shown as president of AJM First Capital, a loan originator. Morton is president of the board of the non-profit organization that acquired the properties and is part of the ownership of the new development. AJM is not an investor or the developer.
“Dennis is simply continuing the good work he did at HUD as a member of the non-profit board proving valuable services to this important Glenville affordable housing asset,” Laskey added.
An e-mail and a personal message on Twitter left for Khrys Shelton, director of real estate development at the Famicos Foundation, also were not returned. Famicos is a community development corporation for Glenville and other east-side Cleveland neighborhoods.
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