A proposed 13-story residential building overlooking Edgewater Park and the West Shoreway Boulevard is planned as an addition to the Shoreway Apartments. The existing apartment building will also be renovated (EAO). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Progress continues on financing, properties
Article updated Dec. 10, 2024
There’s been lots of progress lately on the development of a proposed 13-story Shoreway Tower overlooking Edgewater Park in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. Revising easements for a sewer right of way, transferring properties for a tax-increment financing (TIF) district, and advancing legislation to authorize that TIF could allow construction to start sometime in 2025.
The 110-unit apartment building will be built atop a planned parking garage with 169 stalls and 4,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space. The project is considered an addition to the existing Shoreway Apartments, 1200 W. 76th St. And work will now also include a renovation of the four-story, 45-unit apartment building repurposed in 2014 from the 1918-built Globe Machine and Stamping Co.
Combined, the renovation of the existing building and construction of the new tower is projected to cost about $92 million. The developer pursuing the project is J Roc Development based in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, Its leadership includes principal Nick Catanzarite. NEOtrans broke the story of the proposed high-rise in 2022.
Prior to its conversion a decade ago, the Shoreway Apartments was a warehouse for arts and crafts retailer Pat Catan’s, owned by the Catanzarite family. Pat Catan’s was sold to The Michaels Companies for $150 million in 2016 by then-CEO Nick Catanzarite, principal of J-Roc and son of the retailer’s founder Pat Catanzarite. The Shoreway has on its ground floor the Good Company casual restaurant and bar.
The Shoreway Apartments with its ground-floor restaurant opened a decade ago in a 1918-built warehouse. This view is looking north on West 76th Street with Edgewater Park and Lake Erie accessible via a pedestrian underpass just beyond the parked truck (Google).
Last week, Cleveland City Council approved legislation that will briefly transfer to the city the property owned by Shoreway Tower LLC and then back to the original owner. The reason is to ensure that the city owned the land before TIF legislation authorizing an agreement with the property owner was adopted. On Friday, Cleveland Planning Commission recommended passage of a second piece of TIF legislation that will soon come before City Council.
“Tax increment financing has two pieces of legislation with it,” said City Planning Director Joyce Pan Huang at Friday’s meeting. “First is the chain of title piece which I signed administratively because that’s the one day that the city has in the deed to lock in the current (interest) rate.”
“But there will be coming a second portion of tax increment financing and the department of economic development wanted to present it to you all now,” said Huang who is leaving City Hall next month to become chief impact officer at the Cleveland Foundation. “Then assuming when that legislation comes, you will give me or the (new) planning director the authority to sign off.”
“They (J Roc) will add to the existing Shoreway Building,” said Kevin Schmotzer, chief of small business development with the city’s Department of Economic Development. “The Shoreway Building was done many years ago. They are going to upgrade and renovate that. Adjacent to it they are going to build a 13-story residential tower that will also have some office space.”
Most apartments at the Shoreway Tower should have decent if not amazing views. But those at the top will have unobstructed views of the city and/or Lake Erie, with units on the east-side of the building having this view of Downtown Cleveland and the lakefront (EAO).
“I will tell you that working with (Ward 15) Councilwoman (Jenny) Spencer and the developer, I’ve worked with J Roc on other projects, they listened to the neighborhood and the residents,” Schmotzer added. “They made multiple revisions including spending a lot of time on our community benefits agreement (to) make improvements to connections to Battery Park and the bike lane that goes under the railroad tracks to Edgewater Park.”
In July, and in anticipation of the city passing those two pieces of legislation, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority board authorized up to $64 million in taxable lease revenue bonds to build the Shoreway Tower. That part of the project was estimated at $85.5 million.
Also in July, two 1970s-era agreements were modified regarding the Northwest Area Interceptor Sewer, plus the parallel Westerly Interceptor Main Branch, which travels along both sides of the Shoreway Boulevard. An easement was granted by the city in 1973 to the then-Cleveland Regional Sewer District for the Northwest Area Interceptor Sewer. The agreements restricted construction of any buildings within the easement area.
A new agreement was approved by the city in August so sanitary sewers connecting in that same area could be relocated through the Shoreway Tower property and a neighboring parcel owned by UGC Properties LLC, 1234 W. 78th St., according to Cleveland Building Department and Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer records.
The rooftop of a new parking garage upon which the new Shoreway Tower will be built will have an amenity deck on it, including a swimming pool, lounge, fire pits and possibly other features (EAO).
“In connection with the construction of a new apartment building on a portion of the Shoreway Parcel, Shoreway may have to abandon a sanitary sewer line currently located within the Shoreway parcel and replace it with a new sanitary sewer line a portion of the UGC Property and connect the new sewer line to a connection on Norfolk Southern Railroad property,” the new agreement noted.
In fact, the need to relocate the sewer is the reason why J Roc is pursuing a high-rise in the first place. A 10-story building with 37 fewer apartments was originally planned — until a19th-century, unmapped sewer line below a vacated West 78th was discovered. To afford the costs of relocating the sewer line, more revenues and thus more apartments were needed, said Adam Comer, J Roc’s development manager.
The small, 1.17-acre Shoreway property wouldn’t allow more apartments to be added with a wider building, so J Roc decided to go taller. In a revised design, the tower was proposed to have 95 units. But the current design for the 200,000-square-foot tower with more efficient floorplates and 110 units was approved by the city’s Landmarks Commission in March.
In August, the Shoreway Tower project won a $2,278,756 Ohio Brownfield Program grant for cleanup and remediation of the site. Remediation activities include soil removal and disposal of contaminated materials, soil capping, and re-routing of the existing storm/sanitary line.
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