This conceptual design for a proposed boutique hotel in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood shows wood-timbered columns, framing and flooring above the reinforced concrete first floor and foundation. It was part of the documentation for a construction permit application of the hotel’s foundation and superstructure (DLR). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Developer Whalen involved in both projects
In May, real estate developer Dan Whalen left a Landmarks Commission meeting with a design approval in his pocket and a range of possibilities in the back of his mind. Those led him to consider building his latest development, a Marriott Tribute Portfolio boutique hotel, 1950 W 26 St., in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, with an extensive amount of mass-timber construction.
Since then, his consideration turned more serious. This week, Whalen’s development team submitted a construction permit application to the city for the 129-guestroom, seven-story hotel with two food service venues.
If the permit is approved, it would be the second mid-rise mass-timber structure built in Cleveland. And Whalen would be responsible for both.
The Cleveland Foundation’s headquarters in Midtown is a short, three-story mass-timber building. But the challenge in mass-timber structural construction is to go vertical.
In his prior vocation, he was an executive at Chicagoland-based Harbor Bay Ventures. That company developed Intro, a nine-story mass-timber mixed-use development at Lorain Avenue and West 25th Street. When completed in 2022, the 512,000-square-foot structure was the largest mass-timber building in the United States.
A close look at the ceiling of the outdoor patio on the top floor of the proposed boutique Ohio City hotel shows the use of wood but as a decorative feature. What is new is the developer’s plans to use mass timber to structurally support the hotel above the first floor which would be built of reinforced concrete (DLR).
Despite rents testing the ceiling of Ohio City’s residential market, 95 percent of Intro’s 297 units leased out before its ribbon-cutting ceremony. He sought a second phase, a 16-story building potentially built with mass-timber and whose design won a national contest. Unfortunately inflation and high interest rates doomed that follow-on project.
Whalen went on to run Harbor Bay’s hospitality ventures, including Intro’s restaurants and rooftop event venue Truss. Many of those seeking to rent Truss also wanted a nearby hotel for guests. But there are no hotels from Downtown Cleveland west to Hopkins International Airport.
Whalen left Harbor Bay to create his own company Places Development to change that ignoble fact. Several other developers have also tried to fill that hotel void in either Ohio City or Detroit-Shoreway to no avail.
He held on to the idea of developing another mass-timber building in Cleveland someday, mentioning it only briefly at May’s Landmarks meeting.
Places, Cleveland-based architectural firm DLR Group, Vancouver, BC-based Aspect Structural Engineer and Karpinski Engineering of Cleveland submitted the permit application to the city’s Building Department on Aug. 6 for the hotel’s foundations and superstructure only, having an estimated price tag of $7 million.
Nestled in the Market District of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, the proposed Marriott Tribute Portfolio boutique hotel would rise seven stories above the northwest corner of Lorain Avenue and West 26th Street (DLR Group).
“The hotel will be seven levels today, constructed as one-story concrete podium and Type IV-C mass timber construction above,” wrote DLR Project Manager Amy Haney in the application.
“It (selective use of mass timber) is the current intent,” Whalen confirmed to NEOtrans. However he was cautious in saying so as it has yet to be approved by the city.
Type IV-C mass timber construction, as defined by the International Building Code, is a construction type that allows for the use of mass timber in buildings up to nine stories or 85 feet height. They require a 2-hour fire-resistance rating for the structural frame.
It also allows for fully exposed mass-timber elements in certain areas, with specific requirements for protection in concealed spaces, shafts and elevator hoistways. Spruce, pine and fir are proposed for the Ohio City hotel project, plans show.
As part of its building permit application, Aspect Structural Engineer sent to the city’s Building Department a package of structural calculations to show the wood-timbered Ohio City hotel would work. The package of calculations totaled 568 pages.
The use of green-glazed brick along the sidewalk of West 26th Street stands out in this view to provide a more cozy feel to the pedestrian experience. There is also extensive use of wood seen in the entryway and in the underside of the marquee (DLR).
The hotel is estimated to cost about $55 million to build. Places has a purchase agreement to buy the land from an affiliate of Ohio City Inc., a nonprofit community development corporation. The site is currently used as a parking lot.
“We think it’s vital to keep the ongoing growth of our district as well as to really meet the (lodging) demand that we’re seeing right now in our neighborhood that is being filled by illegal Airbnb’s,” said Ben Trimble, senior director of real estate and planning at Ohio City Inc.
There is no estimated groundbreaking date as yet for the hotel but Whalen hinted he may be getting close. The permit application is suggestive of that although many development teams submit applications to get feedback that helps them refine their plans and finalize cost estimates.
“It’s a bit too early to say,” he said of a groundbreaking data. “We’re still juggling a number of details related to the hotel to the close the financing and commence work,” Whalen said.
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