Waiting for a new future is the east end of Wade Park Avenue where it intersects with Lakeview Road at the border of Cleveland and East Cleveland. That’s where the old Hough Bakery plant still stands in the background, awaiting a new owner. At right is the plant’s former employee parking lot where townhomes were approved several years ago. And just past the house at left is where senior apartments are planned (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Wade Park Station senior apartments may rise here
A Central Ohio developer is proposing a senior affordable housing complex across the street from the long-vacant Hough Bakery plant, which appears to be a part of renewed interest in redeveloping this area. The site, in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood is also across the street from East Cleveland’s Circle East District.
The neighborhood where the senior housing project, Wade Park Station, would rise has seen much abandonment since the 1992 bankruptcy and closure of Hough Bakery, 1519 Lakeview Rd. Its plant has sat vacant and decaying ever since despite being less than one mile from one of Ohio’s largest and fastest growing job centers — University Circle.
It’s not for a lack of trying. A partnership of Painesville-based Knez Homes, one of Northeast Ohio’s largest homebuilders, and Jim Miketo, owner of Forest City Shuffleboard Club in Ohio City, bought the 3.7-acre bakery site in 2019. The partnership planned 57 housing units and 180,000 square feet of commercial space, retaining the historic structures along Lakeview.
Then the pandemic hit, followed by high inflation and rising interest rates. Knez continued to build single-family infill homes on vacant lots in Glenville in partnership with Famicos Foundation, a community development corporation. Miketo continues to develop properties in Ohio City.
Shaded in red near the center of this satellite view is the proposed half-acre site for the Wade Park Station senior apartments. Across the street is the abandoned Hough Bakery plant which extends into East Cleveland and Knez Homes’ proposed Lakeview Commons. To the east in East Cleveland is the Circle East redevelopment district (Google).
But Knez shelved many of its other urban core development projects including the Hough Bakery site. Knez also shelved a 37-unit, for-sale townhome development called Lakeview Commons, proposed to be built on the bakery’s 0.9-acre employee parking lot along Wade Park, across from the Wade Park Station development site.
Lakeview Commons is fully entitled, having its development plan approved by Planning Commission in 2021. Knez had offered both the Hough Bakery site as well as the Lakeview Commons property for sale. LoopNet shows that both properties were listed for sale at one time but they are no longer listed.
NEOtrans asked Bo Knez, founder and owner of Knez Homes, about the status of these properties. “I can’t comment on your question at this time,” Knez said. “Hopefully, I’ll have something for you soon.”
There is development already pending at this intersection. Wallick Development, LLC of New Albany is seeking Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) to afford building Wade Park Station. The 40-unit apartment complex is proposed to rise at 12308 Wade Park Ave.
A senior affordable housing development called Wade Park Station is planned at the east end of Wade Park Avenue where it intersects with Lakeview Road. The three-story apartment building would rise on land currently owned by the city on the northwest corner of that intersection (RDL).
The apartments will be priced to be affordable to persons 55 years and older, earning 30-80 percent of the area’s median income (AMI). Most of those, or 33 units, would be affordable to persons at 60 percent AMI.
“Wade Park Station is the proposed new construction of a 40-unit development that will provide a high quality, safe housing option for the local seniors of Cleveland,” said Wallick in its OHFA application. “The development will provide 30 one- and 10 two-bedroom units in a three-story residential building.”
The developer said those apartments will offer “competitive” unit sizes and features that include fully equipped kitchens with dishwashers and garbage disposals. Each unit will have a washer and dryer, spacious closets and ample storage. Site amenities will consist of a community room with seating, exercise room, outdoor patio and supportive service coordination.
The vacant land on which the new apartments would be built measures about one-half of an acre. The five parcels comprising the site are all owned by the city of Cleveland’s Land Reutilization Program, dubbed the land bank. The developer has a pending purchase agreement. OHFA requires financing applicants to have site control of their proposed project sites.
This 37-unit townhome development was approved by the Cleveland Planning Commission at the southeast corner of Lakeview Road and Wade Park Avenue, at right. At left, Lakeview goes under the Red Line rapid transit tracks. The property may have a sale pending (Sixmo).
Given the high prices of construction these days, Wade Park Station’s projected $13.25 million development cost is surprisingly and comparatively low. Wallick requests just under $10 million in 9 percent LIHTC spread over 10 years, allowing it to deduct the eligible basis of the project’s construction budget. There 17 senior housing projects around the state competing for the 9 percent LIHTC from OHFA this year.
“The proposed development will be financed with equity from the sale of 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from OHFA, a ($1.75 million) Housing Development Bridge Loan from OHFA, a conventional first mortgage and construction bridge loan, funding from local sources, GP (General Partner) Capital Contribution/Loan and deferred developer fee,” wrote Jimmy McCune, vice president of development at Wallick, in a Feb. 28 letter to Cleveland City Council.
Wallick’s general partner is its own affiliate, Wallick Asset Management LLC. Another affiliate, Wallick Construction LLC, is the general construction contractor. And yet another affiliate, Wallick Properties Midwest LLC, intends to manage the senior housing complex after it is built. Shaker Heights-based RDL Architects is designing the project.
Wallick is seeking another development in Cleveland. On the west side, in the BVQ District of the Clark-Metro neighborhood, the developer has applied to OHFA for LIHTC and a loan to build The Depot Lofts at 30th, 3119 Train Ave. The $19.65 million, 60-unit apartment building will be for refugee resettlement in partnership with the May Dugan Center.
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