With a working title of the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment, a new building offering affordable housing atop a new office for Ohio City Inc. will replace the aging, nearly vacant McCafferty Health Center, providing more housing choices in a neighborhood with high rents (City Architecture). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
125 apartments, 40 houses win credits
Three Cleveland developments won competitive, highly coveted tax credits that will help push each of those new housing projects toward construction. In total, the trio will add 165 affordable residential units. But one of them is actually the construction of 40 new houses that offer an opportunity at home ownership.
The three projects that won 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) are Living At 55, the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment, and the South Collinwood SFLP Homes. This LIHTC program helps subsidize up to 70 percent of a development’s construction costs.
Unfortunately several Cleveland project applicants didn’t make this cut in this year’s round. Among those not getting LIHTC awards are Lorain West, MLK Plaza Phase 1A, and Woodhill Center South.
MLK Plaza hasn’t won LIHTC for several rounds. Other components of the Woodhill redevelopment have funding and were built. Lorain West is a brand-new development that NEOtrans recently broke the story about.
The $39.1 million in 10-year federal 9% LIHTC awards were decided and announced yesterday at an OHFA board meeting to assist developers in the creation or rehabilitation of rental housing for low- to moderate-income Ohioans in 17 cities and 17 counties.
Site plan for the Lorain Avenue Redevelopment at the northeast corner of Lorain and West 44th Street. The plan also shows how Lorain Avenue will be redesigned with a new cycle track and landscaping along the north side of the street right of way (City Architecture).
“There continues to be demand for quality, affordable housing throughout Ohio,” said OHFA Executive Director Bill Beagle. “Today the OHFA Board approved funding for 25 housing developments that will help address this need and provide safe, affordable housing for older Ohioans and Ohio’s growing workforce.”
The largest project to win tax credits was the $27.2 million Lorain Avenue Redevelopment, 4242 Lorain Ave., in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. It also applied for senior housing tax credits as part of a complicated eligibility and application process which co-developer Pennrose LLC of Philadelphia explained on its site.
But the outcome is that a 62-unit general-occupancy apartment building will be constructed on the site of the former Thomas F. McCafferty Health Center, providing affordable housing for families earning between 30-70 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). Cleveland’s median household income is approximately $40,801, according to the U.S. Census.
The project is a partnership between Pennrose and Ohio City Inc. (OCI). The latter will occupy a ground-floor nonprofit space that will be the new permanent office for the community development corporation to strengthen its community engagement and resident support services.
“We are very happy that this project is on its way,” said OCI Executive Director Jane Platten who was out of the office until next week but wanted to share her excitement about the win.
Living At 55 is a senior apartment building planned to be built on the site of the former Sterle’s Country House. The site is seen here at the northeast corner of East 55th Street and Prosser Avenue in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood (City Architecture).
“We are incredibly proud to win an award for the 9 percent LIHTC from OHFA,” said Ben Trimble, OCI’s chief real estate officer. “This is the most crucial step in assembling the financing for the project, but not the only one, and there is a lot of work ahead in raising the rest of the capital stack for the project.”
However funding for the demolition of the city-owned McCafferty Health Center has yet to be identified. Trimble said he remained hopeful that the funding could be found soon to allow construction of the new mixed-use development to begin as early as mid-2027.
“We are so grateful to our partners at Pennrose, the City of Cleveland, City Architecture and John G. Johnson Construction,” he added. “We will take a few moments to celebrate, and then get back to work.”
Next largest was a newly announced $21 million development called Living At 55, a play on words which describes not only the senior housing for persons 55 years and older but also its location, at 1401 E. 55th St. in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.
Co-developers of Living At 55 are the Famicos Foundation, a community development corporation working in east-side Cleveland neighborhoods, and Columbus-based Lowenstein Development LLC.
On Jan. 24, 2023, the evening before its demolition, Frank Sterle’s Slovenian Country House sat under the dusting of a recent snow, heavily damaged by a November fire (NEOtrans).
The site held the former Frank Sterle’s Slovenian Country House for 68 years — an icon in Cleveland’s Slovenian and Croatian communities until it closed in 2017. Two days before Thanksgiving, on Nov. 22, 2022, the vacant structure was heavily damaged by a fire. It was demolished two months later.
“We knew we put in a competitive project,” said Famicos Executive Director John Anoliefo. “We scored it (using OHFA’s scoring criteria) before we sent it in so we had high hopes it would make it despite the competition. I’m excited and on cloud nine.”
Because of OHFA’s tax credit program processes, it will probably be the end of the year before its financing can be finalized. Then the private financing will need to close sometime in spring 2027. But Anoliefo said he hopes to get construction underway before the end of 2027.
Aiding the project is the Cleveland Clinic Foundation via a $1 million grant to Famicos. It is the continuing of a partnership between Famicos and the Clinic which offers health care and wellness programs to seniors at Famicos’ properties. Anoliefo said more Clinic-Famicos partnerships and programs are in the works.
Other developments along East 55th are moving forward. Yesterday, Union at Cleveland Harbor, won a $2.5 million Housing Development Loan and an allocation of $10 million in Ohio 4 percent LIHTC.
These lease-to-purchase homes were constructed about 15 years ago on Buhrer Avenue in Tremont, near the Christmas Story House (CHN Housing Partners).
And on June 1, a formal groundbreaking ceremony for the $64 million Warner Swasey redevelopment is scheduled, although site work for that project has been underway since winter. It also benefitted from recent OHFA tax credit awards.
That’s having neighborhood spin-off benefits. Retail developments are occurring, too. A to Z Furniture & Appliance, 1860 E. 55, is expanding with a $590,000 investment and a new AutoZone is repurposing a former Dollar General at 2272 E. 55th for $1.6 million.
“There is momentum,” Anoliefo said. “A lot of people are noticing from out of state and looking for partnerships on East 55. It’s a major thoroughfare.”
Last but certainly not least are 40 scattered-site South Collinwood SFLP Homes for general occupancy. It also won a 9 percent LIHTC award. SFLP refers to single-family lease-to-purchase housing.
The developer is Cleveland-based CHN Housing Partners which offers a lease-purchase program for its single-family homes. It is a 15-year pathway to homeownership for low-income families by providing affordable monthly rent, long-term financial coaching, and a clear, subsidized route to owning a single-family home.
South Collinwood SFLP Homes are single-family lease-to-purchase residences to be built on 40 vacant former land bank lots (CHN Housing Partners).
“CHN’s nationally recognized lease purchase program has created homeownership opportunities by successfully transferring more than 1,200 homes to income eligible buyers,” said CHN in a written statement. “CHN’s service delivery program will provide wrap-around services to lease purchase families to help improve their education, career, and physical and financial health.”
The developer will use the tax credits to construct the 40 homes at a cost of $14.56 million and be able to offer them to families at or below 60 percent AMI. South Collinwood Homes will provide approximately 36 three-bedroom, two-story homes and a quartet of three-bedroom one-story accessible homes.
The project will be scattered among CHN-acquired properties formerly held by the City of Cleveland Land Bank and Cuyahoga Land Bank in the Collinwood neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland.
A preliminary list of sites include vacant lots on Castalia Avenue, Coit Road, East 141st, 145th, 146th and 149th streets, Galewood Drive, Glenside Road, Idarose Avenue, plus Woodworth Avenue, according to a February letter to Cleveland City Council from CHN’s Chief of Asset Management Mark Whipkey.
OHFA reviewed 62 applications requesting more than $98.4 million in credits. Recipients were selected based on the policies and goals of the program, including affordability, geography, accessible design, supportive services, leveraged economic investment, and proximity to amenities.
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