This is the thirty-fifth edition of Seeds & Sprouts – Early intelligence on Cleveland-area real estate projects. Because these projects are very early in their process of development or just a long-range plan, a lot can and probably will change their final shape, use and outcome.
Two historic buildings on Lorain Avenue in Cleveland’s Kamms Corners neighborhood are about to unite in ownership for the first time. At left is a 151-year-old building at the southwest corner of Lorain and Rocky River Drive built by Oswald Kamms. At right is the Public House, built 100 year ago (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Public House acquires Kamms Corners Building
On the Web site for the Public House, 17219 Lorain Ave., the ownership group of this longtime establishment announced yesterday that it has acquired an even more historic structure — the building next door, 3866 Rocky River Dr. That building was built in 1875 by shopkeeper Oswald Kamms, namesake for the Kamms Corners district dubbed Cleveland’s “Green Mile” for its Irish businesses.
The 9,100-square-foot structure set on nearly half an acre was acquired for $500,000, according to Cuyahoga County property records. But the Public House’s ownership group, The Publicans Inc., said they haven’t yet decided how to use their new acquisition. The Publicans Inc. is comprised of Kevin Arth, Therese Chambers Arth, Mike Graven, Joyce Sizer and Sean Hearns.
The Publicans owned The Public House since 2002, buying it from John Price. But Price owned it for less than three years. Prior to that, the Chambers family owned and operated The Public House, having bought it in 1989 from its longest owner — Edward P. and Florence L. Joyce.
The Joyces bought The Public House from Lena and Helen Colbrunn in 1942, county records show. Edward Joyce was the brother-in-law of Iggy McIntyre, owner of Pat Joyce’s Tavern which had two locations downtown, one in Fairview Park and another in Rocky River in the mid- to late-20th century.
Selling the corner property was Kamms Plaza – Tonys LLC and its managing partner James Carney who tried a couple of different restaurant concepts including the Ironwood Cafe and then Kamms Cafe. Carney’s group owned it since 1999, shortly after a devastating fire in 1997 closed the prior business Tony’s Restaurant that had been in operation since 1962.
“We’re extremely thankful to James Carney, Lisa Kay and their team, KeyBank, Cleveland City Councilman (Charles) Slife and our legal counsel, Mike O’Malley, for helping make this possible,” said Hearns. “This was truly a collaborative effort. We’re now taking the time to evaluate next steps and will share more details once plans are finalized.”
National Foods Packaging is expanding on Madison Avenue on Cleveland’s near west side, adding new facilities and more jobs for the 25-year-old supplier of restaurant foods (Google).
National Foods Packaging adding facilities, jobs
A Cleveland-born food manufacturing company with business nationwide plans to significantly expand its facilities this year on the city’s near-West Side. National Foods Packaging Inc. submitted plans to the city this week to build a 48,265-square-foot warehouse and shipping dock on land it owns next to its existing plant at 8200 Madison Ave. in Cleveland’s Cudell neighborhood.
Addition of the new structure is projected to cost about $500,000 according to a permit application submitted by the project’s designer, Valley City, OH-based The Foundation Architecture, LLC, to the city’s Building Department.
Dale Grieder, a project manager at The Foundation Architecture, wrote in the permit application that the new structure will be a “pre-engineered building” and set in place next to the existing manufacturing facility. But the new structure will be separated from the old by a three-hour-rated fire wall.
There are more than 80,000 square feet of food manufacturing and warehouse facilities on the 5.7-acre site. Nearly half of the land is vacant. The company serves corporate and institutional customers throughout the continental United States, according to National Foods Packaging’s Web site.
The company occupies remaining buildings of the former Lamson & Sessions Co., a manufacturer of bolts, nuts and other fasteners founded in 1866 in Southington, CT but moved to Cleveland three years later. In 1981, the company sold its industrial fastener division to Russell, Burdsall & Ward Corp. which closed the Madison Avenue plant.
Cleveland has a number of growing food-related industries although many are on the city’s East Side, including on East 55th Street and around the Opportunity Corridor. But one is expanding just up Madison — Camelot Bakery, a 17-year-old company that is building a 10,000-square-foot, two-phase expansion.
Business expansion is happening everywhere in Cleveland, including at A to Z Furniture & Appliance on East 55th Street and Commerce Avenue on the city’s near-East Side. The growing retailer is expanding into a neighboring building, seen at far left with the blue border along the sidewalk (Google).
A to Z Furniture expanding next door
Some of Cleveland’s growing businesses are relatively new. On the other hand, A to Z Furniture & Appliance, 1860 E. 55th St., in Cleveland’s Goodrich–Kirtland Park neighborhood, has been around for 60 years.
But for the last 20 years, A to Z has been under the ownership of Yoav “Joe” Golan, a former employee whose attention to customer service has the company needing more space to handle the growing business. How much more?
This week, the company submitted an application to the city to expand its 9,000-square-foot store into a neighboring 4,000-square-foot, 116-year-old retail building. An A to Z affiliate, 1860 E55th LLC, bought the expansion property in 2023 for $90,000, county records show.
And, according to city records, the furniture retailer plans to invest $500,000 to completely remodel the interior and exterior of the building as a “stand-alone furniture showroom,” wrote Jeff Foster, president and principal at Cleveland-based Payto Architects, in a building permit application.
A to Z Furniture & Appliance supplies a full line of furniture, from living room, family room, bedroom and dining room furniture plus mattresses and residential appliances. It also delivers and installs furniture and appliances using the latest equipment and software tracking as well as offering flexible financing.
The former Cleveland Compound Student Housing near Cleveland State University was purchased by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless to serve as a warming shelter (Cresco).
Downtown warming shelter in the works
Following its purchase in December by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, the old Cleveland Compound Student Housing, 1530 E. 19th St. near Cleveland State University, is about to be converted into a warming shelter for the homeless.
An application was submitted to the city this week by designer ADA Architects of Lakewood for the project, which primarily involves changing the legal residential use classification of the building from R2 to R1 which is a lower-density residential living arrangement.
“This project is a turnkey building,” wrote Nick Toich, design coordinator at ADA Architects, in the application. “Architectural, plumbing, mechanical, and electrical work are not included in this scope.”
Also, a cost of any improvements to the 5,200-square-foot, 1928-built structure was not identified in the application. A Cushman & Wakefield-CRESCO marketing brochure for the property said the building was renovated in 2022.
The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless bought the property for $650,000 from Polaris Property Group LLC which was asking $750,000. The building has 12 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, lounge, kitchen and laundry facilities on-site, the marketing brochure noted.
Building 217 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, an abandoned cargo dock along State Route 237, will be demolished (Google).
Vacant airport cargo building to be razed
While NEOtrans wishes it could report that a long-vacant air cargo building at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport was being demolished for something sexy like a new office building or an expanded airline crew quarters, unfortunately that’s not the case.
Instead, the City of Cleveland’s planned demolition of Building 217, a two-story, 69,860-square-foot cargo warehouse built in 1965 at 6000 Cargo Rd., will be for a nice grassy field. The site is just off State Route 237, near the intersection of Eastland Road. Another air cargo building immediately south of here is not affected.
After the foundations and footers are removed, “The demo site will be backfilled and graded to match existing contours. Then it will be seeded and strawed,” wrote Stacy Corrigan, project coordinator at demolition contractor Baumann Enterprises Inc. of Garfield Heights.
Cost of the building’s demolition, removal and site restoration is estimated at $446,000, according to its permit application to the city. Work should get underway at the start of spring — just in time for the grass to grow.
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