Outlined in red is the approximate location of proposed land purchases for a new SpringHill Suites extended-stay hotel on East 90th Street, just north of Chester Avenue. The Cleveland Clinic campus is seen to the south in the background along with many new apartment buildings nearby (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Site acquisition underway for extended stay
A lack of affordable, extended-stay hotel accommodations near the Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus has prompted a development team to fill that void. But in order to keep long-term stays affordable for families visiting Clinic patients, the hotel will have to be built on more affordable land at the periphery of the Main Campus. In this case — Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood.
Such a concept would have been unthinkable more than a decade ago as the neighborhood still bore the scars of the 1966 race riots. But the hotel’s roughly 3-acre site just north of Chester Avenue is in the southeast corner of Hough where a lot of development has been happening since the mid-2010s.
Planned is a 127-room, 99,000-square-foot SpringHill Suites by Marriott to be built between East 90th and 93rd streets. The development project has a preliminary estimated construction cost of $21 million.
Planned in the hotel is a fitness center, breakfast area, meeting room and an as-yet unidentified food and beverage package, according to a project summary. The project will create 300 construction jobs and 25 permanent full-time jobs with an annual payroll of about $1 million.
Partners in the project include The Riley Hotel Group and Autonomy Capital, both of Medina, plus Ortho School Properties LLC of Chagrin Falls. Ortho School Properties is acquiring the land for the development from private property owners and from the city land bank.
A first grouping of land bank properties was pledged several years ago by the city but for a different project by the same land owner, doing business as Richard Arnstine. He is president and managing member of Ortho School Properties.
The latest site plan for the new extended-stay hotel between East 90th-93rd streets north of Chester Avenue is already out of date. The site shows it is notched around three parcels on East 90th containing two homes and a vacant lot between them. But the vacant lot and a vacant house south of it are to be acquired for the development site (OSP).
Previously, while leading ARPI LLC, Arnstine partnered with others in the development of the Lumos Apartments, 1866 E. 93rd, and sought a second phase behind Lumos on East 90th. But to pursue the extended-stay hotel, more land is needed — including more city bank parcels.
“We initially launched this site as a multifamily site but as things have progressed with the economy and other things we kind of shifted gears here,” said Michael Bowen, a member and legal counsel with Ortho School Properties. “We’ve already got a commitment from Marriott.”
Today, Bowen and Department of Community Development Commissioner James Greene asked for and received the blessing of Cleveland City Council’s Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee to sell five more city land bank parcels, all on East 90th, for the hotel project.
It will now go to the full City Council for passage. The committee is chaired by Ward 10 Councilman Anthony Hairston.
“We’re about five houses down from the Cleveland Clinic,” Bowen added. “SpringHill Suites are for a long stay. So, unfortunately, if you have a mother or father who is sick and is in the Cleveland Clinic for a long period of time, they can now be five doors down from the Clinic and stay for an extended period. We thought this would be a perfect fit for this area here.”
This would be the second extended-stay hotel on Chester in Hough. First is the Residence Inn by Marriott, 1914 E. 101st St. The only other extended-stay lodging is the InterContinental Suites Hotel Cleveland, 8800 Euclid Ave. Room rates at SpringHill Suites locations in Greater Cleveland are typically half us much as InterContinental Suites’.
A rendering of a SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel accompanied the developers’ presentation for an extended-stay property near the Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus. But a spokesman for the developer said the design of the hotel could change (OSP).
Initially, four land bank parcels were requested for a recommendation at today’s committee meeting. They would be sold for $52,000 which the developer’s appraiser and the development department determined to be fair market value.
The ordinance authorizing the sale will be amended to add the fifth land bank parcel at 1817 E. 90th, which is a vacant lot. Its appraised value was not available. Land bank properties are not transferred to the recommended buyer until their land use plans and zoning are approved by the city.
The developer anticipated spending roughly $500,000 on acquiring all parcels in the roughly 3-acre site. The only parcel that isn’t likely to be part of the development at this point is an owner-occupied house at 1815 E. 90th.
“When we first started this process, we actually tried to acquire that,” Bowen explained. “The price got exorbitant so we had to pivot.”
A conceptual site plan was presented at today’s meeting and a rendering of a SpringHill Suites hotel was shown. But it isn’t necessarily what will be presented for Planning Commission’s Design Review Committee to approve. That work is still continuing, Bowen said.
“SpringHill Suites is a long-stay type of hotel and they’re designed in different ways,” he added. “I’ve seen them with pitched roofs that match the surroundings of a neighborhood so they can look more like condos or they can look like a hotel.”
An aerial view of a SpringHill Suites by Marriott location in suburban Solon. This 2004-built hotel was designed to look more like a residential structure, showing how the brand can be presented in different styles (Google).
A large surface parking lot is planned for the hotel, extending south along East 90th toward land owned by another developer, Inspiron Group of Cleveland. Inspiron built the Addis View Apartments, 1878 E. 90th, and wants to build more here someday.
“I’m very supportive of the project,” said Ward 14 Councilwoman Jasmin Santana at today’s committee meeting. “Sounds like it’s going to be transformational for that area.”
But she also had concerns about how the resident who is the lone property holdout would feel about having their home surrounded by a parking lot. The site is in Ward 7 but will become part of Ward 6 next year.
Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones, also a Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee member, recused herself from voting on this ordinance even though the ward councilperson should endorse a successful land bank sale. She said she cannot vote because her mother owns a house on Est 93rd.
“I cannot have an objective voice when it comes to this legislation,” she said. “I just knew, on the record, that I could not do that in a fair and impartial way.”
But she said she has concerns about how the Department of Community Development handles land bank property sales. She said the city tends to hold them until home builders and other developers other come along to add houses or other structures to them rather than let neighbors acquire them for their own needs or resell them for profit.
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