This highly visible but long-vacant multi-family home on East 105th Street in Glenville, just north of the Veterans Administration Hospital, is about to get some long lost love with a major rehabilitation project (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Project 1500 to boost East 105th corridor
Today, there were two blessings. One was a ceremonial blessing of a flagship development that’s just getting started in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood by new real estate developer Tiffany Hollinger.
The other blessing came in counting all of the help she got from just about everyone Hollinger has come across in her transition from realtor and real estate investor to developer in what has traditionally been a male-dominated field.
Her first development is the reconstruction of a 116-year-old former mansion-turned-boarding house into a less-crowded, five-unit apartment building for local workers, students and their families. Located at 1500 E. 105th St., at the northwest corner of Wade Park Avenue, Hollinger calls the effort Project 1500.
The two-story brick house has sat empty for nearly eight years and become an eyesore at the gateway from University Circle, at the north end of the Veterans Administration Hospital, to Glenville’s Circle North district.
“I have a house around the corner I renovated for student housing at Case (Western Reserve University),” she told NEOtrans in a phone interview. “I see this beautiful, historic house and its location right across from VA Hospital and close to Case and the medical students there. I see it’s a terrific location and a great investment opportunity.”
Famicos Foundation sold the 5,000-square-foot structure and its 0.2-acre parcel to Hollinger Financial LLC in December 2024 for $60,000, Cuyahoga County property records show.
Built as a single-family home, the size of 1500 E. 105th is best seen from its Wade Park Avenue side. The garage at left will be demolished and replaced with a parking lot for tenants (Google).
Her brand-new company, Astraea Development LLC, was incorporated in January 2025. Project 1500’s architect is Quadriga Studio; the general contractor is Yosemite Construction; the owner’s representative is Noble Construction; her lender is Village Capital Corp.; and Famicos is the project’s community partner.
Despite her enthusiasm, investment and blessings, she said she has concerns about the project. Which ones?
“Everything concerns me about it,” Hollinger laughed. “But the bones are very good. It’s in a good structural condition. But inside it is a mess.”
She plans to rebuild the structure from the basement to the roof — four floors worth. Each of the five apartments will have two or three bedrooms and their own outside entrances. The boarding house’s garage will be demolished for a parking lot that will use the garage’s driveway and curb cut off Wade Park.
“I’m extremely excited about this,” Hollinger said. “This will be workforce housing and for medical professionals who need housing and have a family with them.”
She said Project 1500 represents more than bricks and mortar to her. Hollinger said it represents belief in the East 105th corridor, belief in reinvestment without displacement, and belief that thoughtful development can strengthen both families and neighborhoods.
In the 9100 block of Wade Park Avenue, between two groups of historic townhouses, is a vacant piece of land Tiffany Hollinger acquired last year from the city land bank for a future development (Google).
In fact, Hollinger believes in those things so much that she is already making her next real estate play. Last year, she purchased from the city land bank 10 small parcels farther west, in the 9100 block on Wade Park and the next parallel street south of it, Birchdale Avenue.
Proposed to rise on that land, in between two groupings of historic townhouses, would be a new-construction, 24-unit, walk-up apartment building. It’s next door to another planned development, a remake of the old MLK Plaza into a mixed-use development by Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures, LLC (NREUV).
That developer is putting the finishing touches on Ninety-Four Ten, at 9410 Hough Ave. The project is a renovation of a 10-story, once-derelict building into 116 affordable apartments plus a new, attached community services building.
Washington DC-based NREUV is led by Gina Merritt who, like Hollinger, wasn’t deterred by the fact that there aren’t many minorities or women — let alone both combined — in the real estate development world. Hollinger said she was inspired and guided by Merritt.
“She was an inspiration to me, absolutely,” Hollinger said. “I’m just looking at adding to things that are already going on. Everyone I’ve run across has been very helpful. That and blind ambition is what keeps you going.”
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