A locally based development team pursuing an Ohio City apartment building on West 26th Street has received approval of its conceptual plans from a design-review panel (GLSD). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Rezoning sought to push project from houses
A 109-unit market-rate apartment building planned along West 26th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood recently passed its first hurdle. But it has more to come, including a rezoning, vacating an alley, design-review approvals and winning over urban neighbors who expressed fears of the multi-family development.
The first hurdle it surpassed came Jan. 22 when the Near West Design Review Committee unanimously approved a conceptual design for the project. The proposed development is planned across West 26th from another that’s awaiting construction — redevelopment of the historic Voss Industries into mixed uses called The Carriage Co.
In fact, this latest project is planned on the former Voss employees’ parking lot, now unused. The 1.5-acre acre site stretches from Chatham Avenue to Monroe Avenue along the west side of West 26th.
The proposed four-story development requires only one demolition — a house at 2148 W. 26th. And it requires partially vacating the mid-block Hancock Avenue alley, according to preliminary site plans.
Ground-floor site plan for the proposed West 26th Street apartments. The site, now unused, was an employees’ parking lot for the now-closed Voss Industries plant. That plant is to be redeveloped, too (GLSD).
An affiliate of MRN Ltd., The Carriage Co. developer, still owns the parking lots. Seeking the apartment building is a new partnership between two experienced local real estate developers — Dan Whalen and Luke Palmisano.
The partnership, whose name hasn’t been publicly released yet, has a purchase agreement pending with MRN which it will execute if and when all hurdles are put behind it.
“I wanted to work with Dan and work on projects in Cleveland,” said Palmisano, who recently left working with the Ratner family on friendly terms. “We want to work on simple multi-family projects. The city needs housing.”
The duo also said this is their first project working with Geis Companies. They said they were impressed with Geis’ design-build organizational set up that gets shovels in the ground relatively quickly. The partners said they have their own property manager in mind although they declined to publicly disclose it at this time.
View of the rear of the proposed West 26th Street apartments, looking southward from Chatham Avenue (GLSD).
He described the proposed apartment building as offering comfortable housing at market-rate rents. But this product won’t test the top of the Ohio City market. It will have its share of amenities, however, including a fitness room and a rooftop terrace, Palmisano said.
That’s different from the nearby Intro development at West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue that Whalen oversaw several years ago when he was with Harbor Bay Realty Advisors. Intro opened with rents topping $3 per square foot. Despite that, its 298 apartments leased out before its grand-opening ceremony.
In this latest development, there will be 85 off-street parking spaces provided for in the development, plus another 76 on-street parking spaces next to the development site. Whalen said the to-be-vacated alley is supported by the six owners of properties along it, per a letter they signed. He also has gone to neighborhood block club meetings to get the input of residents.
“My M.O. (mode of operation) in these types of things is to actually never come out with a project in the face and say this is what we want to do,” Whalen said. “It’s to listen, take the feedback and then come forward with a project.”
Street-level view of the front of the new apartment along West 26th Street, looking northward from Monroe Avenue. The driveway at left will likely be gated for fire department access only (GLSD).
Currently, about two-thirds of the site is zoned semi-industrial with the northern one-third zoned for two-family residential. Both zoning districts have a 35-foot frontage height limit for the site. The semi-industrial use allows the four-story, 47.5-foot-tall multi-family development to be built but it would have to be placed closer to the homes to the west along West 28th Street.
“So they could go up to 50 feet there (with existing zoning) but they’d have to be closer to the neighborhood on West 28th Street.,” said Cleveland’s Chief Zoning Administrator Shannan Leonard. “For every foot you step back off of West 26th Street, you can go up 2 feet (with a new building).”
Changing the zoning to multifamily with a 60-foot frontage height change and a 5-foot setback allows the proposed development to be pushed toward West 26th and away from the existing homes on West 28th.
Leonard also said a proposed 5-foot setback would provide some additional space along the sidewalk so West 26th “isn’t like a tunnel.” The former Voss buildings across the street are up to 58 feet tall, Whalen said.
A comparison of proximate building heights which could form the basis of a solar shade study requested by the City Planning Commission’s Design Review Committee prior to consideration of rezoning the development site (GLSD).
A proposed rezoning for the development was heard by the City Planning Commission’s citywide Design Review Committee on Jan. 17. But that committee tabled it because it wanted to see a design massing and solar shade study.
Those items will be shared with the citywide design review committee when it takes up the rezoning again and, separately, reviews a proposed, more detailed development plan called a schematic design.
Some residents at the Jan. 17 hearing expressed concern that the four-story development would cast too much shade on their homes in the mornings. Some even feared it would be “like New York City” while others worried the development would ruin their property values.
Separately, Whalen’s new firm Places Development is leading another development project nearby, a proposed hotel at West 26th and Lorain Avenue to which NEOtrans broke the story. But he said Places will likely go away after that project gets under construction and Whalen will pursue new developments only via the new partnership. After some more public meetings on design refinements, he said he hopes to break ground on the hotel by the end of summer.
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