The conceptual rendering of East Stokes is likely to change but it isn’t publicly known by how much. Construction costs for the proposed tower came in higher than expected, forcing the development team to look at ways of cutting costs and possibly increasing revenues from the planned component of the Circle Square district in University Circle (SCB). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
East Stokes’ construction cost more than expected
Design review of East Stokes, what would be University Circle’s tallest building, was moving along at a rapid clip last fall. Things were moving so quickly that the development team, led by PCP Voyager, anticipated that if City Planning Commission could approve the final plans by Thanksgiving, a spring groundbreaking of 24-story apartment tower might be possible.
After a unanimous approval of conceptual plans by the commission’s Design Review Committee in September, project architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) of Seattle returned for approval of more detailed, schematic plans in October. But it never returned for final approval. The silence since then has been deafening.
“There’s nothing new to report,” said Steve Rubin, vice president of developer UC City Center LLC, in an e-mail to NEOtrans. UC City Center is a company created by Cleveland-based Midwest Development Partners (MDP) to help plan for and deliver the 4.5-acre Circle Square district. It is working in partnership with PCP Voyager on the project.
The 269-unit East Stokes is still planned to be the next phase of Circle Square, according to a source familiar with the project who spoke to NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity. The development is proposed on Chester Avenue, between Stokes Boulevard, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and a future extension of Reserve Court.
But the reason for the delay is that, as the plans were being refined, the construction costs for the project came in higher than the development team expected. East Stokes is still shown on PCP Voyager’s Web site although clicking on its image doesn’t open up a project page with more details as it does with several other projects.
A ground-floor plan for East Stokes is shown to the right of Stokes Boulevard. Across Stokes is the location of The Artisan apartments tower, currently the tallest building in University Circle (SCB).
Planned to rise to 273 feet tall, East Stokes would be 6 feet taller than University Circle’s current height champion — the neighboring Artisan tower, 10600 Chester. The Artisan was built by Chicago-based White Oak Realty Partners and Power Construction of Chicago.
White Oak Realty was taken over by PCP Voyager, whose partners include Elie Weiss and Zac Ponsky. They are co-presidents of MDP’s UCC City Center. Power Construction would also build Stokes East. In other words, much of the same team that built the Artisan would build Stokes East. A year after opening in June 2023, The Artisan reached 90 percent occupancy.
East Stokes’ plans are being reworked to reduce its costs while still producing the revenue necessary to afford construction. Although the source didn’t reveal what design changes are being considered, the city-approved Circle Square masterplan might allow the East Stokes North block to be built out with significantly larger floorplates.
That could let the developer to keep the same number of units or even increase them without amending the masterplan. But it would crowd the proposed site of a future office building on the East Stokes South block, across a planned extension of Reserve Court to MLK Boulevard.
Looking east with Chester Avenue on the left and Stokes Boulevard on the right. While the East Stokes project could be reduced in height and widened to fill out the block atop the parking garage behind, the building would significantly block views from a future office building proposed to the south, shown here as a feature-less block (SCB).
Instead, some value-engineering could be used to reduce costs. That may include reducing the number of balconies, the number of elevators or floor heights. Building materials and interior finishes could also be changed to trim expenses. Building programming could also be adjusted.
East Stokes’ preliminary plans that were approved last fall showed a six-story pedestal fronting Chester. In that pedestal would be several dozen apartments above 13,680 square feet of offices and 17,100 square feet of ground-floor retail. To the south would be a six-level garage with 251 parking spaces.
Atop that pedestal would be another 14 stories of apartments with several amenity decks above that. Proposed amenities were a clubhouse, game room, fitness center, lounge, co-working space, spa, pool, private grilling area and fire pit, the initial plans showed. NEOtrans was first to reveal the proposed apartment tower.
Progress continues on other components of Circle Square. Cleveland Public Library’s (CPL) new MLK Branch Library opened Jan. 25 on the first two floors of the 11-story Library Lofts building, 10555 Euclid Ave. The new library replaced a 1970-built building, located around the corner at 1962 Stokes Blvd. It will be demolished.
The Circle Square district in University Circle is one of the largest multi-phase developments in Cleveland history. It has a construction cost of more than $500 million and more than 1 million square feet of new buildings. Planned are more than 800 apartments, 36,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a hotel, parking, and the new MLK library (SCB).
The Circle Square masterplan shows the old library would be replaced with a parking garage having ground-floor retail along Stokes. It would be built so that a mid-rise hotel could be constructed on top of the parking-retail podium.
There is no timeline yet for constructing that garage. However $8 million in state tax credits from the Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) program were awarded to it in December 2022.
On floors 3-11 of Library Lofts are 207 apartments. The first units on floors 3-7 were ready for occupancy starting Sept. 19, 2024 with the remaining apartments on floors 8-11 completed and available for occupancy two months later.
Construction cost of the residential portion of Library Lofts was $42.2 million, according to Building Department records. CPL data shows the MLK Branch Library cost about another $20 million.
END
