Just beyond the sign for developer TurnDev is the vacated Cleveland Vibrator building in the Ohio City neighborhood. It will be razed for a large, two-building apartment complex for which construction could begin in spring-summer of 2025 (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Site is one of the largest left in Hingetown
In the coming weeks, demolition crews are due to level the fabled Cleveland Vibrator machine shop, 2828 Clinton Ave., in the Hingetown section of Ohio City for a large apartment complex. Site preparations for two new apartment buildings will take place over the winter with construction work to follow, said Jon Pinney, managing partner at the project’s developer TurnDev.
Planned to be built on the nearly 2-acre site are two L-shaped buildings totaling about 212 apartments. A six-story apartment building with a modern design, called Hanover House will rise at the southwest corner of West 28th Street and Church Avenue.
In early August, a sign for TurnDev was placed on a fence at the corner where Hanover House will be built. Hanover refers to Hanover Street — West 28th’s name before 1906. At the block’s opposing corner, at West 29th Street and Clinton Avenue, a five-story, traditionally design building called Clinton House, is planned.
In the courtyard between the two apartment buildings, at the center of the block, will be a parking garage topped by a private pool and amenity deck with indoor and outdoor lounges, plus outdoor grills and fire pits. There will be separate lobbies for the two buildings, a fitness center and Zoom Rooms that offer video conferencing spaces for residents who are remote-working.
Overview of the planned redevelopment of the 2828 Clinton site in the Hingetown enclave of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood (Vocon).
“Probably spring or early summer,” Pinney said when he was asked when construction work might begin. He said the project’s architect “Vocon is working on construction drawings now.”
Getting the site ready for the construction will be time consuming, including the removal of old foundations, some of which go back nearly two centuries. Cleveland Vibrator was built on the site of a former church. Demolition of the vacant, 24,138-square-foot former machine shop was not driven by saving on insurance or other costs. Pinney is also managing partner at Cleveland law firm Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP.
“We’re preparing the site for construction,” he said. “Cost was not a factor.”
After some minor modifications to the design of the proposed apartment buildings, the city’s Planning Commission gave the project final design-review approval last year, Pinney said. The Landmark Commission provided the developer with a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the 1920-built Cleveland Vibrator structure and add new buildings to Ohio City, a designated historic district.
The old Cleveland Vibrator machine shop, seen here at the corner of West 29th Street and Clinton Avenue, won’t be standing much longer. Proposed at this street corner is the Clinton House, half of a two-building apartment development by TurnDev (KJP).
At the direction of property owner 2828 Clinton Avenue LLC, an affiliate of TurnDev, C&J Contractors Inc., submitted an application last week to the Cleveland Building Department for a demolition permit to take down Cleveland Vibrator. Cost of the demolition work is estimated at $187,031, according to the application.
The 101-year-old company Cleveland Vibrator relocated in 2019 to Hinckley Industrial Parkway in Cleveland when its property was acquired by investors led by advertising firm AdCom CEO Joe Kubic and Chagrin Falls-based developer Snavely Group. They purchased the property for $3 million under the name 2828 Clinton Avenue LLC.
But that company was acquired in 2022 by new investors led by TurnDev and another principal investor, reportedly Ron Leonhardt Jr., CEO of CrossCountry Mortgage. Acquiring a company that owns a property rather than buying the property itself can offer certain legal and tax benefits compared to buying the property only.
Right after the peak of the pandemic, Saucy Brew Works, a brewpub and pizza chain whose first location is across Church at 2885 Detroit Ave., leased the former Cleveland Vibrator building and property for its Vibe Garden which was open in the spring, summer and fall for several years.
END
