An affordable apartment building similar to this one planned by Pivotal Housing Partners in Buffalo, NY is sought by the same developer on West 27th Street in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. A second five-story senior housing complex is also planned next door by St. Mary Development Co. (Pivotal). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
East-, west-side projects to receive 4% credits
In Cleveland, one east-side housing development and one west-side development are set to receive 4-percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA). The agency announced that determination yesterday in a spreadsheet posted on its Web site. A third project won a $1.75 million OHFA loan, OHFA said in a written statement released today.
Cleveland-based NRP was approved for the housing development loan for its Churchill Gateway II, 10700 Churchill Ave., in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. The 70-unit development previously was awarded a competitive 9-percent LIHTC that subsidizes up to 70 percent of the development costs for a low-income housing project.
This apartment complex will provide affordable housing near the fast-growing University Circle area which is causing rents to rise faster than in the rest of Cleveland. Residents will have access to University Hospitals’ community programming space that was built in the first phase. This project will consist of a four-story building with apartments affordable to residents from 30 to 60 percent of the area’s median income.
“NRP is thrilled to partner with The May Dugan Center, a Cleveland institution and certified refugee resettlement organization, to ensure that refugees, immigrants, and new Americans are connected to quality housing and services,” the developer said in its OHFA application.
Churchill Gateway II in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood won a $1.75 million loan to redevelop the former school site with a second phase of affordable housing (MA Design).
Due to receive a LIHTC award is NRP’s 120-unit Midtown Lofts development on the site of the first Dave’s Market, 3301 Payne Ave., in the Asiatown neighborhood. The other is West Chester, OH-based Pivotal Housing Partners’ 53-unit Hub 27 development, 2500 W. 27th St., in the BVQ (Barber-Vega-Queen) section of the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.
OHFA made that determination based on the merits of each project which scored high enough to be invited to submit full LIHTC applications. The 4-percent credit is a non-competitive LIHTC that typically subsidizes about 30 percent of the development costs of a low-income housing project. But the project has to score high enough on OHFA’s rankings to be invited to apply. And when a project is invited, it virtually guarantees a LIHTC award.
The proposed $42.3 million Midtown Lofts development would demolish the 67-year-old Dave’s Market that closed five years ago and tear out its parking lot across the street. In their place would be a pair of four-story buildings — one on either side of Payne. On their ground floors are proposed commercial and community uses.
NRP is partnering with MidTown Cleveland Inc., a nonprofit community development corporation, on Midtown Lofts. The pair of buildings will total about 140,312 square feet and, behind them, will be two parking lots splitting 135 spaces set on an overall development site of 2.13 acres. NRP will develop the project, construct it and manage the property once built.
Site plan for the proposed Midtown Lofts shows one building on each side of Payne Avenue in Cleveland’s Asiatown. The top or northern building is currently the location of the closed Dave’s Market and the bottom building is the former supermarket’s parking lot (MA Design).
In the north building will be 65 apartments with 55 units in the south building. Eight apartments will be affordable to those earning 30 percent of the area’s median income (AMI), 11 units will be for those earning 80 percent AMI and the rest, or 101 apartments, will be affordable to potential renters earning 60 percent AMI. According to the US Census, Cleveland’s AMI per household is $39,041. Sixty percent of that is about $23,425.
“This project will also transform a long-vacant building and a surface parking lot into a dynamic mixed-use development directly adjacent to a pop-up park space that provides programs and events for the neighborhood and is a critical priority site for the city of Cleveland,” said NRP’s OHFA application. “NRP and MidTown Inc. are incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity for financing to develop this site.”
Hub 27 is a multi-phase development planned one block west of West 25th Street, behind the Horizon Education Center, just south of Ohio City. This would be the first Cleveland development for Pivotal. The company has built and/or manages multifamily properties from Pennsylvania to Iowa and south to Texas and Georgia.
Pivotal’s building is proposed as a $20.86 million workforce housing project with Metro West Community Development Corp. engaged as a co-developer. At this early stage, the 60,045-square-foot building is planned to have about 7,708 square feet of common areas along with 3,091 square feet of program and support space like fitness, job training or other offerings.
Clean up of the former Forest City Foundry site was under way in 2022 after Opportune Development bought the property that will become home of the multi-phase Hub 27 development. The first phase will be two 53-unit apartment buildings — one for workhouse housing and the other for senior housing (KJP).
In its application to OHFA, Pivotal and Metro West noted that their target market for potential residents include teachers, firefighters, police officers, young professionals, seniors on fixed incomes, and many others who work in downtown Cleveland and the near-West Side.
A second 53-unit apartment building is also sought in Hub 27’s first phase — a senior housing project planned by St. Mary Development Corp. of Dayton. This would be St. Mary’s first Cleveland project, too. Like Pivotal, it sought an invitation to apply for a 4 percent LIHTC award. Even though it achieved a 32 score from OHFA, same as Pivotal’s, it was put on a waitlist as St. Mary’s project exceeded Cuyahoga County’s LIHTC limit.
This 5-acre plot of land was the former location of ironmaker Forest City Foundry which stood here for more than a century, starting in 1888 as the Walworth Run Foundry Co. In 2022, an investor group named Opportune Development remediated the land of any pollutants immediately after acquiring it. The site earned a No Further Action decision from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, making the site shovel-ready for new construction.
NEOtrans reached out to NRP Group and Pivotal spokespersons for comment and more information. Neither responded prior to publication of this article.
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