Wade Park Station is planned as an affordable senior housing development on Wade Park Avenue in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. It just got a major boost in the form of 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits (RDL). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Affordable housing projects get tax credit awards
ARTICLE UPDATED MAY 22, 2025
Two new Cleveland housing construction projects and one renovation won coveted, highly competitive 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the Ohio Housing Finance Authority (OHFA) today. The awards promise a big financial boost to each of the projects which are located in the Glenville, Hough and Ohio City neighborhoods.
The winning projects were Wade Park Station, 12308 Wade Park Ave. in Glenville, Park Village Apartments, 9221 Hough Ave. in Hough, and the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment, 4242 Lorain Ave. in Ohio City, according to an update on pending LIHTC applications on OHFA’s Web site.
A 9 percent LIHTC provides a developer with the ability to receive a 70 percent subsidy of its construction or renovation costs by allowing it to deduct the eligible basis of the project’s construction budget. There were 54 housing development projects from around Ohio competing for the 9 percent award. Only 20 of them won awards.
Of the three, the largest development in terms of construction cost is the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment which is being pursued by Pennrose LLC of Philadelphia in partnership with Ohio City Inc. It is called a redevelopment because it will be built on the site of the city-owned, two-story, 19,000-square-foot McCafferty Health Center which will be demolished.
In its place will be a four-story, 69,266-square-foot mixed-use building costing about $24.14 million to construct. It is proposed to have 72 senior apartments for persons 55 years and older. Plus 1,912 square feet on the ground-floor will be commercial for-lease spaces, 13,807 square feet of common areas and 2,393 square feet of support and program space.
A conceptual rendering of a 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).
Apartments at the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment 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.
“It is great news, and we are very excited, as our neighborhood is still in great need of all types of housing, especially high-quality affordable housing,” said Ben Trimble, chief real estate officer at Ohio City Inc. He added that if additional funding and city approvals are secured in a timely manner, a 2026 groundbreaking is in sight.
“We are very grateful to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency for the award, the city of Cleveland for making this site available, to Mayor (Justin) Bibb, his staff and Councilman (Kerry) McCormack for their leadership in identifying this site as a crucial one for affordable housing, and our hardworking partners at Pennrose who have been amazing to work with,” Trimble added.
Offering affordable housing in the face of gentrification is also a goal for the neighborhoods of the other two winning applicants. Hough and Glenville have seen many new developments that have caused rents to rise quickly and threatens to force out longtime residents who have worked hard to stabilize their neighborhoods.
Park Village Apartments on Hough Avenue were built in 1968 and refurbished in 2003. But they’re apparently due for another renovation and their owner, Famicos Foundation, was awarded tax credits by the state to help pay for it (Google).
In Glenville, Wallick Development, LLC of New Albany near Columbus plans to build Wade Park Station, a three-story, 44,584-square-foot building with 40 apartments for seniors. No commercial space will be included in the $13.2 million project.
The apartments will be priced to be affordable to persons 55 years and older who are earning 30-80 percent of AMI. Most of those, or 33 units, would be affordable to persons at 60 percent AMI, according to OHFA filing. Wade Park Station is proposed to be built on vacant, city-owned land.
In Hough, the community development corporation Famicos Foundation won a LIHTC award for its planned $18.9 million renovation of Park Village, a 75-unit apartment complex that’s on both sides of Hough Avenue. The site has eight residential buildings and a community center/office building in a ninth building. A substantial rehabilitation of all units and the community building is planned.
The general occupancy apartment complex is affordable to persons earning 30-60 percent of AMI. It was built in 1968 and last renovated in 2003 — two years after Famicos acquired it. Khalid Hawthorne, real estate development director for Famicos, said the property has needed a freshening up for a while. Plans for the renovation got started several years ago, he said.
A new tax credit application or another funding source will have to be sought for a planned $22 million, 71-unit, senior affordable-rent apartment building on the site of the former Universalist Unitarian Church on Lancashire Road in Cleveland Heights (Hiti DiFrancesco + Siebold).
Many other affordable housing developments in Cleveland, Lakewood and Cleveland Heights didn’t make the cut. Among those was MLK Plaza Phase 1A, planned at 9300 Wade Park Ave. in Hough. Others included four apartment buildings planned in the BVQ District in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood — Depot Lofts at 30th, Hub 27 II, Hub 27 Phase III and Hub 27 Senior.
A fifth planned affordable apartment building in the district received LIHTC in an earlier round and could see construction this year. It will be a 69-unit workforce apartment building with a $23.15 million construction cost. Pivotal Development LLC, of West Chester, OH near Cincinnati is developing the site with the Metro West Community Development Organization.
Two inner-ring suburban projects in Greater Cleveland also were passed over for 9 percent LIHTC awards — Cleveland Heights Senior Housing, 2728 Lancashire Rd. in its namesake city and Barton Place Apartments, 16021 Madison Ave. in Lakewood.
Many other projects in Greater Cleveland and around Ohio are still awaiting news on their pending applications for lesser awards, namely the 4 percent LIHTC offerings. Those, including several of the projects in the BVQ District noted earlier, will be decided by OHFA later this year.
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