Millennia, 13 others expressed interest
For a large, vacant, old building needing significant repairs before it can even host new occupants in a soft market, there is a healthy amount of interest in buying The Centennial, 925 Euclid Ave. in Downtown Cleveland. The difficulty in redeveloping the building resulted in a lender foreclosing on the property.
A court-appointed receiver of the 1.45-million-square-foot office building said he has so far received 13 non-disclosure agreements from interested parties in a pending sale of the property. The question that remains to be answered is how serious is that interest and if the sale will ever happen.
The reason why it may not happen is the building’s current owner, Cleveland-based Millennia Companies which acquired the building through its affiliate HH Cleveland Huntington, LP, wants to retain the property according to court records.
U.S. District Court Judge Charles E. Fleming on June 30 set the schedule for a court-monitored sale. The deadline for qualified bid is Oct. 24. Bidders will be notified Oct. 28 if an auction will be held. An auction, if necessary, will be held Nov. 3. Deadline for objections to a sale to be submitted to the court is Nov. 10.
The proposed ground floor uses of the Centennial redevelopment. The ground floor is at street level on the Chester Avenue side but below street level on the Euclid Avenue side (Sandvick).
The foreclosure and sale was prompted by Millennia’s primary lender Deutsche Bank AG, New York Branch. Millennia was unable to make regular payments on a $33.4 million loan from Deutsche Bank. Cuyahoga County joined the matter as it awarded the project a $5 million loan. Millennia has $2 million in unpaid property taxes to the county.
Millennia objected to the receiver, the proposed sale, the provision of evidence of the property’s value, and the use of a stalking horse bidder in a sale but was overruled on each, according to a June 30 memorandum opinion and order by Fleming.
Citing state law, Millennia’s representatives asked for and received from Fleming on June 30 to have 30 days to redeem its equity in the property, court records show.
“Defendants (Millennia) object that any order by the court authorizing receiver to sell the property and setting the proposed sale procedures must include language setting forth the statutory time period for parties to exercise equity of redemption pursuant to Ohio Revised Code,” Fleming’s memo noted.
The Centennial’s proposed first-floor uses, which are at street level on the Euclid Avenue side and show the floor plans for the L-shaped former bank atrium, once the largest in the world (Sandvick).
In a redemption, Millennia would have to pay back the entire $40.4 million by July 30 to prevent the sale process from going forward. Requesting such a short period of time suggests Millennia may have access to such resources or will soon.
Millennia’s Chief Investment Officer Angelica Sinito did not respond to an e-mail from NEOtrans seeking more information prior to publication of this article.
She and others at Millennia gained new roles last year after company founder and CEO Frank Sinito stepped away from managing Millennia’s substantial affordable housing portfolio.
Millennia is one of the nation’s largest multifamily housing owners and managers of more than 200 properties. In 2024, it began selling most of its government-subsidized affordable housing portfolio such as properties in Memphis or faces court-ordered sales such as in Utica, NY.
In October 2011, Huntington Bank was in the process of packing up and moving out of 925 Euclid for 200 Public Square. But the huge bank atrium was still open to the public and a security guard kept watch (NEOtrans).
Millennia has said it is focusing on Northeast Ohio properties and will develop luxury, market-rate and commercial real estate. This follows a five-year debarment by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and growing scrutiny over severe living conditions and financial mismanagement across its properties.
The U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, appointed John K. Lane of Inglewood Associates LLC as 925 Euclid’s receiver after the foreclosure action was filed Jan. 9. with the court.
“I can’t speak to what Millennia will do,” Lane said. “If Frank Sinito can pull it off, great. That’d be wonderful. If he can’t, the whole purpose of receivership is to provide a backstop process to sell it.”
He said if Millennia doesn’t redeem its equity in the property by July 30, he has so far received 13 signed non-disclosure agreements from interested parties locally, nationally and even internationally in a pending sale of the property.
Evidence of Huntington Bank’s final days at 925 Euclid sat in boxes on the floor of the other flank of the building’s magnificent bank atrium in October 2011 (NEOtrans).
“How many of those are going to be serious or not is unknown,” Lane said. “But I think we’re making good progress to find a potential buyer. It’s a big, difficult building to redevelop. It’s been vacant for more than a decade.”
The former Huntington Building was vacated through the 2010s. Millennia in 2015 acquired 925 Euclid and planned a $500 million redevelopment of the 1924-built, 21-story office building into The Centennial, a mixed-use complex. Planned is workforce housing, offices and retail spaces.
In December 2024, the project won a $10 million Ohio Brownfields Program grant for asbestos removal, lead-based paint remediation and soil gas mitigation. Previously Millennia won $70 million in tax credits from the state and federal governments to aid in the complex, costly redevelopment.
The Centennial is at Euclid and East 9th Street. Across East 9th, PNC Bank is investing up to $200 million to renovate, modernize, amenitize and diversify uses at its 35-story PNC Center. But across Euclid, Heinen’s is closing its downtown grocery store at the end of the month.
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