This 1.78-acre site is surrounded by successful developments but, for whatever reason, this one has had difficulty in getting shovels in its soil. Multiple developers have tried and failed to build housing or mixed-use here in recent years. The land is back on the market again (CBRE). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Fully entitled site offered in hot neighborhood
ARTICLE UPDATED JULY 22, 2024
In a move that came as a surprise to some members of its own development team, a New York-based developer has decided to sell one of the last-remaining open development sites in Cleveland’s hot Gordon Square neighborhood near Lake Erie. The offering of 1321-1357 W. 73rd St. comes after its owner, Joe Zagelbaum of Brooklyn, NY, went through a year-long process to get plans approved by the city for a 196-unit apartment complex.
It was the third developer in five years who tried but failed to develop the site in a neighborhood where multiple developments have succeeded and more are planned. The latest, the 13-story Shoreway Tower, was just awarded financing earlier this week by Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. Other plans are still pending like those for the Breakwater Residences.
NEOtrans sent two e-mails to Zagelbaum to ask why he’s selling the 1.78-acre property he acquired for an undisclosed price only two years ago. Zagelbaum opened but otherwise did not respond to the e-mails. NEOtrans also reached out to members of the development team who were brought together by Zagelbaum to develop plans for the West 73rd Apartments that were approved by the city last summer.
“This is honestly the first I’ve seen of it,” said one development team member who spoke on the condition of anonymity, after NEOtrans sent the real estate listing for the West 73rd site. A spokesperson for the Northwest Neighborhood Community Development Corp. told NEOtrans they had no insights at this time regarding Zagelbaum’s decision to sell.
A buyer for the West 73rd Street property owned by a Brooklyn, NY investor would also get the plans, approvals and tax abatement for a proposed 196-unit apartment complex in a fast-growing section of Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood, brokerage CBRE says. This view of the West 73rd Street Apartments is from the intersection of Herman Avenue and West 73rd (HortonHarper).
CBRE’s brokers, Jamie Dunford and Joseph Khouri, who are marketing the site also did not respond to inquiries from NEOtrans. Zagelbaum and Lakewood Planning Commission staff were similarly asked about the status of a proposed Lakewood redevelopment by Zagelbaum.
In early 2023, an affiliate owned by Zagelbaum bought the mostly vacant Lakewood Center West office building, 14650 Detroit Ave., for $2.4 million, county records show. He announced plans to turn the seven-story building into apartments and ground-floor/basement commercial. Since then, the Lakewood project has gone quiet, too.
“Our Building Department has communicated that the project is still progressing,” a Lakewood planning department staffer told NEOtrans. “We don’t have any information regarding his intention to sell.”
“It looks like a really beautiful community,” Zagelbaum said in a phone interview with NEOtrans in March 2023 about his interest in developing the two sites in Greater Cleveland. “It’s an opportunity for us and for the neighborhood.”
Early last year, Joel Zagelbaum bought the seven-story Lakewood Center West office building at left with the intention of converting most of it to residential. Despite a lack of apparent activity on the project, a Lakewood city official said the project remains active (Google).
Unlike the West 73rd site, there is no known listing for the sale of the Lakewood building or, for that matter, the lease of it. Google shows three office tenants offering psychiatric counseling, addiction treatment and disability services are there. In the past year, Lakewood Optical moved out of the building as did community development corporation LakewoodAlive.
In Gordon Square, Zagelbaum’s development team produced plans for two 97-unit, 88,000-square-foot apartment buildings that were ultimately embraced by a majority of the neighborhood after some initial pushback to the first proposed plans. The early opposition was to the undersupply of parking at the property — 140 off-street parking spaces plus 15 on-street spaces.
So the team increased the alternative transit option infrastructure in the two buildings. That included more bike parking inside the buildings and guest bicycle parking in between the buildings. The plans also had electric scooter parking and ridesharing-defined zones in front of the buildings, plus real-time status and informational displays for transit services in the neighborhood.
The CBRE marketing materials tout that the site is fully entitled for development of the building plans. And it is grandfathered into the 15-year, 100 percent real estate tax abatement with the city of Cleveland, CBRE said. For new market-rate housing developments in this and other hot neighborhoods, the city’s tax abatement on new construction fell to 85 percent after Dec. 31, 2023.
A city-approved site plan for the West 73rd Street Apartments that will have courtyards in the middle of the both buildings to provide natural light to the interior units (Horton Harper).
“Site is fully entitled and construction can commence immediately upon closing of the property,” the CBRE listing notes. “Full sets of drawings (are) available which makes this a true ‘buy and build’ opportunity.”
Any other designs considered here would have to go back through the city’s oft-contentious design-review and approvals process, and would lose the 100 percent tax abatement. Zagelbaum was the third developer to try to construct housing on the West 73rd site since 2019.
In 2020, United Community Developers planned a 73-unit apartment building here, also called the West 73rd Street Apartments. And despite winning unanimous design approval from City Planning Commission, the developer lacked the financing to deliver the project.
So did a prior developer, an affiliate of Cleveland Custom Homes located in Westlake. In 2019, it was just days away from a scheduled groundbreaking ceremony for a 21-townhouse development called Edgewater Hill Luxury Townhomes before the project was put on hold.
END
