An early conceptual rendering of the potential size and shape of the senior affordable housing proposed for the McCafferty Center site, as seen at the northeast corner of Lorain Avenue and West 44th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood (City Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
State tax credit application details site plans
Six weeks ago, city officials announced that they had picked Pennrose, LLC and its proposal to build senior affordable apartments on the current site of the Thomas F. McCafferty Health Center, 4242 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. Now, with a Pennrose-led development team submitting to the state its application for Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for the project, the public can see the developer’s proposed plan.
Dubbed the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment, this $24.14 million project is proposed to feature 72 senior apartments that will be affordable to 30-70 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). According to the U.S. Census, Greater Cleveland’s AMI in 2024 was $42,145 per household with a per capita income of $27,253. Proposed are 62 one-bedroom apartments and 10 studios over a ground-floor commercial and community spaces.
The studios are a unique feature for a senior apartment building. But the proposed design also offers storage lockers for residents. Plus about 1,912 square feet of ground-floor space will be for commercial for-lease uses, 13,807 square feet of common areas and 2,393 square feet of support and program space, according to its LIHTC application to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA).
Preliminary plans show the building will offer a range of on-site amenities, including property management services, a fitness center, a community room and non-profit/social services on the ground floor to be provided for the community’s benefit. The provider of those services has not yet been publicly identified.
Site of the proposed Lorain Avenue Redevelopment sought by Pennrose LLC and Ohio City Inc. is bounded by Lorain Avenue on the south, West 44th Street to the west and Fulton Court to the north (City of Cleveland).
The city-owned 1.5-acre development site is located on a frequent, 24-hour bus route — Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) No. 22 Lorain route. And it is two blocks west of GCRTA’s No. 45 Ridge-Fulton route.
“This project, a partnership between Pennrose LLC and Ohio City Incorporated (OCI), will transform the former Thomas F. McCaffery Health Center site into an environmentally sustainable, transit-oriented and affordable residential community,” Pennrose said in its OHFA application.
OCI is the neighborhood’s community development corporation. Also to be engaged is the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority. Pennrose said “The development team plans to utilize project-based voucher subsidy from the local housing authority.”
A conceptual rendering by Cleveland-based City Architecture shows a long, four-story building fronting Lorain. At the northeast corner of Lorain and West 44th Street, a plaza and a covered entryway to a glassy ground-floor space are proposed. Surface parking will be behind the new building, along Fulton Court.
The Thomas F. McCafferty Health Center, at the northeast corner of Lorain Avenue and West 44th Street, will be demolished and the city-owned land is proposed to be developed by Pennrose and Ohio City Inc. (Google).
At a City Planning Commission meeting in January, Pennrose and city officials said the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment project will work in tandem with the Lorain Avenue Midway project currently in the community planning stages of development.
That project will require additional public right of way to expand the bike and pedestrian infrastructure along Lorain. Site plans shown in January indicate that the land was set aside by Pennrose for that widened right of way.
The building will be built by general contractor John G. Johnson Construction Co. of Cleveland. Upon completion, the property will be managed by Pennrose Management Co. based in Philadelphia but with a local office, the OHFA application noted.
Pennrose requests from OHFA $17.8 million from a highly competitive 9 percent LIHTC spread over 10 years, allowing it to deduct the eligible basis of the project’s construction budget. It is also seeking a $1.75 million housing development loan from OHFA.
A proposed change to the Lorain Avenue public right of way in front of the current McCafferty Health Center and how the Lorain Avenue Midway corridor enhancement of pedestrian, bicycle and transit infrastructure could impact the proposed development site (City of Cleveland).
“Ohio City has seen a lot of market rate and luxury rental development in recent years,” said Trudy Andrzejewski, Cleveland’s bureau chief for neighborhood revitalization. “As rents rise, so does the need to increase the focus on affordable housing, especially for Clevelanders on fixed incomes. A thriving neighborhood balances growth with preservation and a big part of that is keeping longtime residents who built the community within the community.”
The development would replace the existing 19,000-square-foot McCafferty Health Center at the northeast corner of Lorain and West 44th Street. It’s a center that, according to city officials, should be redeveloped to better serve the needs of the Ohio City community as the building is only 25 percent occupied by the Cleveland Department of Public Health (CDPH).
In August 2024, the city issued a request for qualifications from developers seeking to meet the demands of the scope, crafted by the CDPH, City Planning Commission, OCI and Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack. The RFQ resulted in the city selecting Pennrose.
Previously operated by MetroHealth, the center changed hands to the city of Cleveland’s ownership and provides family health services including immunizations and pregnancy testing. The existing CDPH services will move to the Clark-Fulton neighborhood, where they will lease space in the Northern Ohio Blanket Mills, 3160 W. 33rd St.
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