Workers are putting the finishing touches on the Orris apartments on Center Ridge Road in Rocky River. Most of the interior work is done, meaning that residents could start moving in as early as May 1 (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
ORRIS is first of two Center Ridge buildings planned
In recent years, Cleveland-based Krueger Group has been busily adding new apartments in Cleveland’s hottest neighborhoods in the urban core. But on May 1, they and partner RHM Real Estate Group of Lyndhurst are due to open ORRIS, 22655 Center Ridge Rd., the first new apartment building in suburban Rocky River in a decade.
Although the 54-unit, market-rate ORRIS has many of the same features as urban developments built by Krueger, others are unique to ORRIS and decidedly suburban. For example, pet-friendly ORRIS has 1.35 acres of land for outdoor amenities like a paved walking path around the building and a landscaped fire pit in front of the building.
And unlike many of its urban counterparts, ORRIS also has far more parking spaces than dwellings — 74 garaged parking spaces on two levels and no ground-floor retail space. There are five guest parking spaces outside with more to come when the second phase, a 42-unit building, is pursued pending a drop in interest rates and a loosening of construction lending that is hoped for by late fall or early next year.
Krueger Group President Bobby Krueger leans on a quartz counter in the ORRIS’s mail room. Other finishes in the apartment building’s common areas include ceramic floor tile, vertical accent lighting and recessed spots (KJP).
The developers asked for and got from the city of Rocky River a variance to reduce the parking requirements from 2.5 spaces per unit — a costly burden that would have also applied to its half-dozen studio apartments, said Bobby Krueger, president of the Krueger Group who gave NEOtrans a tour of ORRIS this week.
He said ORRIS, its name inspired by an expensive and rare floral scent with the double-R as an homage to Rocky River, has an active ground-floor space facing Center Ridge. Instead of a retail space, however, it is a glassy tenants’ lounge complete with an electric fireplace and beverage center for remote working or relaxing after a day at work.
A sunlit room in the morning and a sunlit balcony on spring and summer evenings can be had in this unit’s living room at the northeast corner of ORRIS (KJP).
Next to it is the building’s lobby off of which is the fitness center, a mail room with a secure packages space, shelves for food deliveries and lockers for dry cleaning pickups. A leasing office will be staffed part-time. Common areas are laid with ceramic floor tiles. The lighting is differentiated by functional space, intended to act as a type of wayfinding through the building.
There are six studio apartments, 30 one-bedroom units and 18 two-bedroom suites at ORRIS. The one-bedroom apartments also include what’s called junior one-bedrooms — sorta of a cross between studios and a one-bedroom.
One of ORRIS’s furnished model apartments, showing the kitchen and living room in a one-bedroom apartment configuration (KJP).
According to the ORRIS Web site, monthly rents at most units are priced at about $2.50 per square foot with the studios costing a bit more. Premium dwellings are the two-bedroom units at the back of the building, amid the scented evergreens and away from the noise of Center Ridge. As of yesterday, 20 percent of the building is pre-leased, Krueger said.
“Rocky River is an interesting community,” he said. “We designed it (ORRIS) by being a little bit heavier with the two bedrooms. So we have empty nesters. We have people who are transitioning in life whether it’s for relocation or divorce. But we also have people moving from Chicago and Colorado — young professionals coming into the market to work. There have been some families, too. So it’s the full span and covering a wide range.”
All of ORRIS’s 54 apartments, except for the six studios, have balconies. Winding its way around the building is a walking path for exercise and for tenants with dogs answering nature’s call (KJP).
Of the building’s 54 apartments, 48 have balconies, Krueger said. Only its studio apartments lack them but are actually quite large for studios, measuring nearly 600 square feet, and they have their own bedrooms.
Some of the two-bedroom apartments next to the elevator have an additional, windowed space that wraps around the elevator shaft and can function as an office, baby’s bedroom or a child’s play space. All of the two-bath units offer two full baths — two showers/tubs per apartment.
The lower level of the parking garage at ORRIS. The upper level is on the building’s ground floor. Together, they offer 74 garaged parking spaces (KJP).
Every apartment has its own clothes washer and dryer, quietly contained in a closet. And each unit has its own hidden yet accessible hot water heater. The appliances, including those amid the quartz countertops in the kitchen, are made by Samsung. The building has a Latch-brand security and entry system for the building as well as for individual apartments.
RHM is the property’s manager, same as in Krueger’s last apartment project, Breakwater Bluffs in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. Dimit Architects of Lakewood designed ORRIS. Pride One Construction of Medina built it.
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