Workers on Sept. 12 were busily attaching exterior panels to the 11-story Library Lofts development at Circle Square in Cleveland’s University Circle. This week, the first residents are moving in. In the background at right is The Artisan apartments, part of Circle Square and the tallest structure in University Circle (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
MLK Branch Library may open near MLK Day
With a partial occupancy permit from the city awarded, arriving residents are opening the book on Library Lofts — the latest building to be offered at the Circle Square district of Cleveland’s University Circle. Like a novel with a thick plot, progress on the apartment building-over-public library has taken lots of turns, though it’s not done yet. But this page-turner is almost there. And what a poetic conclusion it may turn out to be.
Library Lofts, 10555 Euclid Ave., is two buildings in one. Construction of the 207-unit apartment building on floors 3-11 is the responsibility of one group, Construction of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Branch of the Cleveland Public Library (CPL) is the responsibility of another. Coordinating the two wasn’t easy. Add to that inflation, supplier issues, change orders and cost overruns have put the project a half-year behind schedule.
The certificate of occupancy from the city, awarded Sept. 19, allows for residents to move into 111 apartments on floors three through seven. Work is continuing on finishing the apartments on floors eight through 11. Construction cost of the residential portion is $42.2 million, according to Building Department records. CPL data shows the library portion cost about another $20 million.
Steve Rubin, vice president of developer UC City Center LLC, a company created by Cleveland-based Midwest Development Partners (MDP) to help plan for and deliver the 4.5-acre Circle Square district, said he expects the rest of the apartments to be done by early November. Another certificate of occupancy will be requested then, he said.
The community lounge at Library Lofts is located on the building’s third floor, which is the lowest floor in the residential portion of the 11-story structure. Below this lounge is the new two-story MLK Branch Library which is still under construction (Bialosky).
“The first move-ins have already begun,” Rubin said in a phone interview. “It’s a very different property than The Artisan (that opened June 2023 at Circle Square). Library Lofts is all studios and one-bedrooms, so it has a lower price point and offers some differentiation between products. It allows us to reach to the widest group possible.”
Although the housing at Library Lofts is less expensive than at the 24-story Artisan, 10600 Chester Ave., it’s because the apartments are smaller. Most of Library Lofts’ units are priced at more than $3 per square foot which, for Cleveland, is at or near the top of the rental market. As of today, 11 units have leased, according to Library Lofts’ Web site.
Completion of Library Lofts’ top floors will coincide with the completion of the library itself on the first and second floors. Construction of the MLK Branch Library is also due to be completed in November. But moving and reorganizing everything from the 1970-built branch around the corner at 1962 Stokes Blvd. to the new branch will take about two months, said library Chief Operating Officer John Lang.
He said the preliminary plan is to hold the grand opening of the new MLK Branch Library at noon Jan. 25 — five days after Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration ceremonies. Jan. 25 is a Saturday when it is hoped that more people could attend the library’s grand opening event.
A living room in one of Library Lofts’ new apartments. There are 207 studio and one-bedroom apartments of which 111 are now available for occupancy. The rest could be available as early as November (LiveLibraryLofts.com).
“That’s slightly tentative as we finish up construction and plan for furniture, technology, collections, etc.,” Lang said. “An official announcement from our marketing team should be forthcoming soon.”
Funding for the new MLK Branch Library is coming from a 2017 voter-approved 10-year, $100 million-plus bond issue to replace or rebuild all 27 neighborhood branches, followed by a $65 million renovation of the Main Library downtown. Also, CPL will receive $5.2 million from MDP’s contractual acquisition of the old MLK Branch Library and its land.
Once the new MLK Branch opens, the old one will be demolished. In its place Circle Square’s developers will build a parking garage with ground-floor retail south of The Artisan along Stokes to abut a rebuilt Reserve Court alley, Rubin said. On top of that expanded retail-parking podium, MDP anticipates constructing a mid-rise hotel.
To help build that retail-parking podium, MDP received in December 2022 $8 million in state tax credits from the Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) program. The program is intended to help move complex, costly, mostly urban megaprojects forward. However, no schedule for that work at Circle Square has yet been set.
The city-approved masterplan for the Circle Square district. In the Main Block-North, The Artisan tower, its parking and the public ramp-parking deck were built. Library Lofts is nearing completion. And the East Stokes block has received conceptual approval by the city (Bialosky-MDP).
Instead, developers UCC City Center LLC and PCP Voyager are joining forces to build another 24-story apartment building over ground-floor retail plus second-floor offices along the east side of Stokes, south of Chester. With a working title of East Stokes Tower, the project was announced last week at the City Planning Commission where it won conceptual design approval. NEOtrans first revealed the high-rise project several days earlier.
MDP’s UCC City Center is led by co-presidents Elie Weiss and Zac Ponsky who also are counted among the partners at PCP Voyager. The latter firm is actually taking over for Chicago-based White Oak Realty Partners which, along with Power Construction of Chicago, built The Artisan. A year after opening, The Artisan reached 90 percent occupancy.
“The Artisan has been very successful,” Rubin said. “We’re very pleased with it.”
So the same parties are joining forces on East Stokes and aggressively moving forward on that project, too. They could seek approval as early as the middle of next month for detailed schematic designs with final approval possible by the end of the year. Construction could start in the spring. Designing the new tower is Seattle-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz. It was the architect of Ohio’s tallest residential skyscraper — the 34-story Lumen in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square.
A rendering of the Circle Square development, per the 2020 masterplan. At lower left is Library Lofts. Top-center is The Artisan. Top-right is an earlier concept for the East Stokes Tower. At lower right is a future office building. Lower-center is the historic Fenway Hall senior apartments. Behind it is a future hotel where the old MLK Branch Library now stands (Bialosky).
Rubin said the city-approved masterplan for Circle Square envisions ground-floor retail in new buildings lining both sides of Stokes. The street will be redesigned. Vehicular lanes will be be reduced and sidewalks on both sides of the street will be widened to 20 feet along with new streetscaping features.
“One of the exciting parts of developing the east block (of Circle Square) is having a two-sided retail street,” Rubin explained. “It will be an added amenity to the neighborhood we’re creating. We’ll be glad to start that sooner rather than later.”
But another element that’s in the Circle Square masterplan that may take longer to achieve is a proposed high-rise office building on the northeast side of the Euclid-Stokes intersection. Although there’s no significant Class A office buildings for lease located in between downtown and the east submarket, building one in the post-pandemic, remote-work office market is a difficult endeavor, even in a fast-growing area like University Circle, Rubin said.
With a construction cost estimated at nearly $500 million and more than 1 million square feet of new buildings, Circle Square is one of the largest multi-phase developments in Cleveland history. Planned are more than 800 apartments, 36,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a hotel, parking, and the new MLK library. The district is expected to create more than 200 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs.
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