The Van Aken Plaza at the east end of the Shaker Square commercial district is coming down. After 85 years, the venerable shopping center along Van Aken Boulevard, south of the two-story office building at right, will be demolished for future development, possibly a modern, competitive, multi-family building atop ground-floor retail spaces (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Demolition, site clean-up funds activate project
Development projects in Shaker Square and elsewhere in Greater Cleveland that have languished in recent years are showing signs of life again. That new energy is thanks in part to new state funding that was awarded to make their development sites ready for construction and renovation.
Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik announced $58.2 million in state support last week to help clean up and redevelop 61 hazardous brownfield sites in 33 counties. Eight projects in Cuyahoga County stand to benefit from that funding. And several of those are developments that were proposed at various times in recent years.
One of those recipients was Cleveland-based Paran Management Co., doing business as Bonwit Teller LLC. It received $802,369 for cleanup, remediation and ultimately demolition of the 34,000-square-foot Van Aken Plaza, 2720-2782 Van Aken Blvd., at the east end of Cleveland’s Shaker Square commercial district. State officials said the work involves the remediation of asbestos, universal waste, lightbulbs and transformers.
“A mixed-use redevelopment is planned for the Shaker Square district, involving the demolition of a dilapidated structure and improvements to the existing parking topography,” an Ohio Department of Development spokesperson said in a written statement. “The redevelopment aims to create retail and residential opportunities, generating approximately 20 new jobs.”
Paran Management has proposed an apartment building in place of the Van Aken Plaza. In 2018, a 135-unit building was considered and then was reduced to 110 apartments in the face of rising construction costs and interest rates. But demand for housing and rents continue to rise, making the project more realistic (RDL).
Josh Shamburger, Paran’s director of marketing communications, said the curved, two-story building with offices over retail at the corner of Van Aken and Shaker boulevards will be retained. It was built in 1939-1940 while the 1939-built Van Aken Plaza was expanded at the south end in 1979, county records show. There was parking on the plaza’s rooftop until about the turn of the century.
“Our office building is and has been our headquarters for the last 26 years and we plan to have the available retail and office space for lease,” Shamburger said. “After the demolition of the old shopping center, the land is to be held for future development. We are grateful for the support we have received from the community throughout this process. More details to come.”
He would not put a timeline on how far into the future the development might occur. Meanwhile, community development organizations Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc. and Cleveland Neighborhood Progress have invested millions of dollars into improvements of the public spaces and commercial buildings facing Shaker Square after they bought them in 2022.
Plans are coming together for a potential redesign of the square. Surveys for that planning work showed that its retailers depend on walk-in/bike-in traffic from the surrounding neighborhoods. More residential development within walking distance of the square was cited as a need to boost retail and commercial activity at Shaker Square.
This graphic shows the two single-story buildings at left to be demolished. Building 3 was constructed in 1939 and Building 4 was built in 1979. They total 34,035 square feet and will be razed. To be kept are buildings one, built in 1939 and building 2, built in 1940, totaling 15,535 square feet of office and retail spaces (Paran).
The Bonwit Teller name comes from the luxury clothing and housewares retailing chain that had a store in Van Aken Plaza until the 1970s. Twice since the late-2010s, Paran has proposed a multi-story apartment building with more than 100 residential units atop ground-floor retail on the site of the plaza.
Paran officials said the project would add modern housing to the aging inventory around Shaker Square and respond to the strong leasing activity at First Interstate Properties Ltd.’s 121 Larchmere development in the nearby Woodland-Larchmere District.
The market-rate building had rents starting at $995 (now $1,400) for studio apartments when it was completed in 2021 and leased out in just six months. Out of 88 units, 121 Larchmere has only four apartments listed as available — one studio, a pair of one-bedroom units and a two-bedroom suite.
Paran officials said that Shaker Square’s proximity to University Circle and its rapid transit access to Downtown Cleveland — two of Ohio’s largest employment hubs — should make it an attractive residential market if it had a more competitive inventory of housing stock.
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