With about 34 acres of land next to Interstate 77 zoned as semi-industrial, a large warehouse or some other light-industrial facility like this one could be constructed on the Morabito Business Park land that is being offered for sale by its owner (ULI). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
34-acre site off I-77 marketed as business park
It’s not the first time Morabito Companies has had its large swath of land in Cleveland’s Slavic Village be put on the market for development. But it is the first time they’re trying it as a FSBO, or for sale by owner — without listing it via a real estate brokerage.
The site is heralded by a shovel-ready, nearly 34-acre parcel at 3535 E. 49th St. It also has access at 5201 Kirkham Ave. and 3560 E. 55th St. Plus, there are multiple smaller parcels surrounding it on East 53rd, 54th and 55th streets, plus on Huss and Eliza avenues — all owned by Morabito.
And the sale offering follows two events that occurred in February — one bad and one good. The bad was the passing of Anthony “Tony” Morabito, 84, who was in business with his brother and partner Ben Morabito for most of their lives. It left Ben Morabito scrambling to pick up the pieces.
“We worked shoulder to shoulder for 60-plus years,” he said.
But the good was a finding of no further action (NFA) required following an environmental clean up and assessment of the property. The NFA related to corrective actions involving hydrocarbons and fuel contamination at a vehicle fueling station on the site, Morabito said.
Parcels shaded in purple are owned and for sale by the Morabito Companies. And there are additional, publicly owned parcels adjacent to Morabito’s which could be brought into the fold to make this redevelopment site even larger (Morabito).
“We purchased the first property from Hunkin Conkey (Construction Company) in 1973 and continued adding (land) over the next couple decades,” he said. “We operated and serviced a fleet of nearly 100 trucks from this site for 50 years.”
Morabito said he is available to meet prospective buyers and show them property at their convenience. He can be reached at 216-952-0605 or by e-mail at ben.morabito@sbmtruck.com.
His brochure for the property touts its proximity to area highways, public transportation, rail lines, the Port of Cleveland and Cleveland Hopkins Airport. It is also next to the new Morgana Run Trail, built on the former Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad right of way.
The sale offering doesn’t include multiple publicly owned adjacent parcels contiguous to the Morabito lands. Among those are the 1.27-acre former Mound School. The school site was recently cleared and cleaned so a developer could seek to incorporate it and many city parcels to further expand a rare, large urban canvas.
Seen from East 49th Street, with Interstate 77 directly behind the camera, the Morabito Business Park has been advertised for sale at various times. But now that the site has been cleaned up, Morabito has put the property back on the market as a for-sale by owner offering (Google).
Slavic Village Development, a nonprofit community development corporation, worked with Morabito on site clean up, marketing and getting other nearby properties like the Mound School site shovel-ready for the next end user.
Officials at the nonprofit have sought new owners seeking to bring jobs to the neighborhood which has seen industrial jobs decline for decades and much of its former Eastern European population depart for the suburbs.
The site is big enough that it could accommodate one or more industrial or warehouse buildings totaling about 500,000 square feet. And the property touches multiple streets, allowing for various access points to and from nearby main highways including Interstates 77 and 490.
Morabito has received interest in the site over the last few years. It recently had a purchase agreement pending with an unidentified buyer, but he suspects the deal was canceled due to recent government cutbacks.
Publicly owned lands next to the Morabito property could be brought into the fold by its next user. These lands include city landbank lots, unused streets like this section of East 54th Street, or the former Mound School property at right. Morabito Trucking’s buildings are visible in the background (Google).
Several years ago, Atlanta-based Stonemont Financial Group worked with brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle to reel in potential end users for the site, dubbed Commerce Park 77. NEOtrans broke the news that Amazon was among those interested — a story Morabito has since confirmed.
Stonemont has since moved on, prompting Morabito to reach out to others for help in marketing the site. He also has worked with the Site Readiness Fund for Good Jobs Cleveland (SRF) to help promote it.
“I have been very encouraged by his (Morabito’s) work to get his property ready for the market,” said SRF Managing Director Brad Whitehead in an e-mail to NEOtrans. “He had a successful business on the site for many years and is now looking to sell it. While we at Site Readiness are not financially involved in the property, we are very keen to see it be successful.”
Historically, the property was divided among three main uses. The northern part was used for Canfield Oil Company’s Plant No. 2 until about 1960. The southern and western portions were used by the Cleveland Slag Company for steel mill aggregates like coke and slag until the 1970s. And the eastern part was owned by Hunkin Conkey Construction.
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