Triton at the Flats is Silver Hills’ first project in its home town. It’s next project looks be taller and more ‘senior’ (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Silver Hills plans eight-story building
A clearer picture is emerging of Silver Hills’ proposed mixed-use development at 8014 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood after a project description was recently submitted to the city. NEOtrans broke the news of Silver Hills’ latest Cleveland development more than two weeks ago.
The newly submitted plans show a mostly residential development for seniors at the southwest corner of Euclid and East 81st Street. And, while not a high-rise, it would restore some lost density to the city’s main street between downtown and University Circle.
Silver Hills at Euclid Bell Tower is proposed to be built in a structure with two different heights. The plans say that one part of the new structure would be eight stories tall and the rest standing five stories. It makes no mention of how the site’s old church bell tower, a city landmark, would be used in the development.
“The proposed building incudes 177 one- and two-bedroom apartments, garage spaces for 42 cars on the ground floor, and apartment amenity areas on multiple levels,” wrote Silver Hills Construction Project Manger Matthew Sommer in a zoning review document submitted to the city last week.
He noted that the eight-story portion of the building is proposed as a wood-frame structure over a reinforced concrete podium. That type of a podium, called type-1B construction, provides high fire safety and allowing for high-rise or large-area structures.
Site of the proposed Silver Hills at Euclid Bell Tower senior apartment complex (MyPlace.CuyahogaCounty.gov).
Cost of constructing the building, as shown on the application, is estimated at only $20 million. Typical costs of construction should be double that for a 172,885-square-foot structure, as proposed. Even so, it would be the smallest of 12 developments Silver Hills has built or officially announced, according to its Web site.
E-mails by NEOtrans seeking more information and clarification of the project scope were sent to Sommer as well as to Silver Hills founder and Principal Seth Mendelsohn, but neither was responded to prior to publication of this article. Silver Hills is based in Shaker Heights.
Its only other Cleveland development is the former Silver Hills at Thunderbird, since branded as Triton at the Flats, located at 1960 Carter Rd. on Scranton Peninsula. Leasing is underway here as the finishing touches are put on this 300-unit riverfront apartment complex.
Although the application makes no mention of a ground-floor retail or other public space fronting Euclid’s sidewalk, the development would have to include it to conform with the city’s pedestrian retail zoning overlay. Otherwise it will have to seek a variance from the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
The site is across Euclid from the Shops at Church Square which has a Simons Supermarket, Church Square Pharmacy, Dollar Store, Dollar Mart, Bureau of Motor Vehicles office, banks, health care clinics, salons, fast food, and a veterinary clinic.
The proposed senior apartment complex at the old St. Agnes Church bell tower is at the HealthLine bus rapid transit’s East 79th Street station on Euclid Avenue (Google).
It is also one block east of an Aldi’s grocery store, one block west of a new Chipotle restaurant, and two blocks west of a large property that the Cleveland Clinic hopes to redevelop. A 2,500-space employee parking garage is planned with some mixed uses including health care offices, residential and retail filling out the rest of that 11-acre site.
A surface parking lot is also planned for the Silver Hills project but the number of spaces in that lot isn’t identified. It would be on a 1.6-acre property owned by Good Karma Broadcasting LLC. It is the parent company of radio station ESPN Cleveland 850 AM.
Silver Hills has a purchase agreement with Good Karma for the land. It will exercise that agreement if the city approves its development plans, a source told NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity.
In addition to hosting a radio transmitter tower in the center of the property, the site features a 250-foot-tall former bell tower. It is the sole survivor of St. Agnes Church that was built in 1916 but closed in 1975 due to a declining parish. The church sanctuary was razed the next year.
St. Agnes’ rectory next door, at 8000 Euclid, was demolished in the mid-2000s for a CVS drug store that was built in 2007 and closed last year. The property is available for sale or sub-lease as CVS still has a lease on the property until Jan. 31, 2034.
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