Thanks to financing from the Port of Cleveland, a new AC Marriott Hotel at Valor Acres in Brecksville is due to start construction as early as next month. The $42.9 million hotel will add to the mixed-use offerings at Greater Cleveland’s newest lifestyle center (Meyers+Associates). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Financing to help deliver three new developments
A trio of projects — two in Cleveland and one in Brecksville — got a total of $92 million in financing approved by the Port of Cleveland to help get them closer to construction. Two are mixed-use housing developments in Cleveland totaling 355 residential units. The third is a new, 136-room AC Marriott hotel at Valor Acres, the former Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital site in Brecksville.
Port of Cleveland Chief Financial Officer Carl Naso said these projects, adding to more than $5.4 billion in financing for close to 200 projects in Cuyahoga County since 1993, reflect the Port’s continued role as a catalyst for community revitalization and regional economic growth.
“These investments reflect the Port’s commitment to using creative financing tools to advance transformative projects,” he said in a written statement issued after the Port board’s vote today.
“Whether it’s affordable housing in our neighborhoods or hotel development on a former hospital site, we’re helping move catalytic projects forward while protecting public dollars and delivering long-term value to the region,” Naso added.
The 136-room AC Marriott Hotel at Valor Acres in Brecksville will be in a walkable setting, surrounded by restaurants, shops and large office buildings (Meyers+Associates).
Closest to construction is a six-story AC Marriott Hotel at Valor Acres in Brecksville — the ambitious redevelopment of the former VA Hospital site. Valor Acres is a 185-acre mixed-use development that also features housing, retail and offices, including the headquarters for the DiGeronimo Companies and the new Sherwin-Williams Morikis Global Technology Center.
Following today’s award by the Port of $32 million in taxable lease revenue bonds, construction of the $42.9 million hotel is due to get underway next month. When completed in early 2027, the hotel will have 136 rooms and a rooftop bar. The hotel is planned by DiGeronimo Development LLC, Crawford Hoying LLC and Shaner Hotel Group.
Up to $25 million in taxable lease revenue bonds were approved by the Port board for Bridgeworks in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The $82.5 million mixed-use project will redevelop a nearly 2-acre property, site of a vacant Cuyahoga County Engineer’s offices, labs and garage at 2429 W. Superior Ave. — at the northeast corner of West 25th Street and the Detroit-Superior Bridge.
NEOtrans revealed on May 30 that contractors for Bridgeworks LLC, a Cleveland-based partnership of M. Panzica Development and Grammar Properties, submitted a demolition permit application to the city for most of the former county structures on the site. But two weeks later, the Web portal for the Cleveland Building Department shows the city has yet to approve it.
Financing for the long-planned Bridgeworks is in place but building permits for the project are not. One of those permits is for the demolition of on-site buildings which was submitted to the city two weeks ago but hasn’t yet been approved (GLSD).
“The development team is working hard and has been working hard to gain a path to move the unique project forward and this (demolition) is a first step that allows them to do it,” said Brandon Kline, vice president of design at Geis Companies which designed and will build Bridgeworks.
With construction scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2027, Bridgeworks promises 219 workforce apartments, a 199-space garage, and 1,200 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to a project summary from the Port of Cleveland. The presence of a commercial retail space here has been an on-again, off-again feature.
Lastly, $35 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds as an “inducement request” was approved by the Port board for the Watterson Lake Apartments and Townhomes. This new mixed-use affordable housing development by Pittsburgh-based Bridging the Gap Development (BTG) is planned at West 74th Street and Detroit Avenue in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
The proposed Watterson-Lake Apartments and Townhomes in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood was recommended for financing from the Port of Cleveland and will help the project finalize its financial package. But being a recommendation, rather than a final approval, shows the project is not ready to start construction (Stantec).
This vote was a non-binding action but BTG, led by emerging developer Derrick Tillman, said the Port board’s recommendation was needed so it could acquire Low Income Housing Tax Credits to help subsidize the project’s $50.8 million in construction costs. Port officials said full consideration and approval of the bonds will be made at a later date.
Watterson Lake will include 136 units ranging from studios to four-bedroom rental townhomes, all affordable to households earning 80 percent or less of the area’s median income of $39,041 per household. Thirty units will be under Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority project-based voucher contracts. The building will feature 9,100 square feet of retail, a playground, and community meeting space.
BTG was selected by Enterprise Community Partners, a well-funded national nonprofit organization, to benefit from its Equitable Path Forward initiative. That initiative is a five-year, $3.5 billion nationwide program to help economically and socially disadvantaged developers gain access to capital and resources so they can build affordable housing.
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