Property investment may include new-build
We may be only a few weeks away from learning more details about a possible sale of Downtown Cleveland’s historic Rockefeller Building. But the grapevine is already buzzing as to what might happen after a sale is closed.
Rico Pietro, a principal at Cushman & Wakefield – CRESCO Real Estate brokerage in Independence, told NEOtrans that a Purchase Sale Agreement (PSA) for the 17-story building and its nearly 2 acres of land at 614 W. Superior Ave. is due to be finalized in the opening days of 2026.
While he declined to identify the buyer or a transaction price, he said the buyer was based out of town and has deep pockets, enough to pay cash for the property. The Rockefeller Building, constructed in 1905-10, was last transacted in 2021 for $13.35 million by Rockefeller Building Associates, property records show.
“We are a few weeks away from getting a PSA finalized,” Pietro said. “I should know more then.”
“I don’t have any direct knowledge of our likely buyer’s development plans,” he said. “First-floor retail and assumption that apartments are the default intentions of most redevelopers.”
The Rockefeller Building property is more than just the historic 17-story building. It’s also two parking lots and a century-old garage that’s likely to be demolished (GLSD).
But a source who spoke to NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity said the buyer is likely an investor in BridgeInvest, a Miami-based lender that took over the property in July after Rockefeller Building Associates defaulted on its obligations.
Since the prior owner didn’t secure the building, vandals and thieves were able to enter it to damage and steal its ornate, Gilded Age furnishings. Windows were also broken and the basement was flooded when metal pipes were stolen.
The source also said that the buyer has interest in developing the rest of the Rockefeller’s building land which includes a parking lot to the west of the building and a 1925-built garage behind for which the prior owners got approval from the city in 2021 to demolish. The garage remains standing.
While development plans are unknown at this time, recent design concepts show two residential and/or hotel high rises proposed for the site. One would rise west of the historic building and another to the north, where the garage is.
Pietro told NEOtrans last summer that the Rockefeller Building and a neighboring, 2.33-acre swath of surface parking lots owned by Cleveland-based Stark Enterprises were marketed simultaneously to attract more interest from investors located outside of Northeast Ohio.
A conceptual rendering of a potential high-rise residential development immediately west of the Rockefeller Building along West Superior Avenue (contributed).
“They (the likely buyer) are focused on this (Rockefeller) property, not the Stark lots,” he said today. “That doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in the Stark lots.”
Stark’s West 9th Street Parking LLC paid $9.5 million the surface lots in 2014 but never formally proposed a development for it. Those parking lots are one of the last “parking craters” left downtown.
Sherwin-Williams built its new headquarters on one crater just west of Public Square and Bedrock’s Cosm/Rock Block development is under site preparation for another in the Gateway District, across Huron Road from Rocket Arena.
“BridgeInvest is working to secure the property and keeping the city updated,” Pietro said. “Once a new buyer comes in, they will do the full securization, site abatement and demolition of the interior. We’re doing our best to be a good neighbor in a bad situation.”
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