Singer Steel on Random Road in Cleveland’s Little Italy could soon enter a new chapters in its history — that of a residential and parking complex. The residential would be developed where the factory stands and the parking would be alongside the Red Line rapid transit, the power lines for which are visible at left (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Developer submits plans for Little Italy land
In November 2024, real estate developer TurnDev acquired the old Singer Steel site-turned-parking facility at 2100 Random Rd. in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood. A year later, it acquired more land. And now, the Beachwood-based developer and its architect have revealed its plans for the combined 2.8-acre property.
Architectural firm Vocon Partners LLC of Cleveland delivered conceptual plans to the city’s Building Department on Friday for a market-rate apartment building that would require demolishing the surviving skeletal frame and roof of the former steel plant.
“This project is being submitted for zoning and fire access review only,” wrote Vocon Practice Director Roberto Vega-Peralta in submitting the documentation. Shown is a “Four-story, 119-unit apartment building with 124 parking spaces and an additional adjacent plus or minus 50 for-hire parking spaces.”
The submittal comes as area employers like the Cleveland Clinic continue to grow and develop significant plans for expansion, a story broken by NEOtrans. The Singer Steel site is one of many residential developments in the University Circle area, called the Cleveland East submarket.
Two parcels of land were acquired by an affiliate of developer TurnDev. In 2024, the Singer Steel site was acquired. A year later, a strip of former railroad land alongside the Red Line rapid transit, from Mayfield Road to Cornell Road was acquired for future parking (MyPlace.CuyahogaCounty).
“Yes, the submarket is doing well there,” said Jon Pinney, spokesman for TurnDev and a partner at the downtown law firm Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. “We are proposing a boutique building with fully contained parking and excess parking for the valet system as a community benefit.”
Shortly after the industry closed down in 1994, the Singer Steel site was repurposed as a parking facility that is mostly covered by the old factory’s shed. It offers about 80 permit-only parking spaces used by University Hospital commuters during the weekdays.
In the evenings and on weekends, the lot is used by a Little Italy valet operator for visitors to the neighborhood’s many restaurants, galleries and shops. But it’s apparent that the proposed residential development would take away all of the Singer Steel site parking used by the community.
While no illustrations of the project are publicly available, the cover letter for the city application indicates the apartment building will measure about 117,880 square feet, or an average of 29,470 square feet per floor. The footprint of the existing Singer Steel structure on the site is 31,257 square feet, county property records show.
The Singer Steel site has been considered for redevelopment, beyond just parking, for at least 21 years. In 2005, City Architecture created a master plan for Little Italy that noted the factory had redevelopment potential (City Architecture).
TurnDev didn’t want to lose that neighborhood parking — and neither did the neighborhood. To compensate, in September 2025, nine months after TurnDev acquired the 1.22-acre Singer Steel property, TurnDev made another land acquisition, according to Cuyahoga County property records.
For $1 million, TurnDev bought 1.58 acres of former railroad property next to the Red Line rapid transit from Mayfield Road to Cornell Road. The seller was Little Italy Development LLC, an affiliate of Coyne Real Estate LLC whose manager is Terry Coyne, executive vice chairman at real estate brokerage Newmark’s Cleveland office.
“We plan to have a parking component as well to support the neighborhood, which is why we acquired the land adjacent to the tracks,” Pinney said in text messages to NEOtrans.
Pinney said there will be some renderings available of the proposed redevelopment once the city completes its zoning and fire department access review over the coming weeks.
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