Cleveland has designs on its waterfronts

By Ken Prendergast / May 5, 2023

For much of the city’s 227-year history, public officials have been accused of ignoring Cleveland’s waterfronts and especially its lakefront. But there’s now a flurry of activity to turn conceptual ideas into blueprints which will not only help city officials apply for construction funding but to actually build what’s been proposed. Those funding allocations for nine waterfront projects were all recommended by the City Planning Commission for City Council approval. Several of those funding allocations are for construction or demolition to allow larger projects to go forward.

Stokes West redesigned

By Ken Prendergast / May 3, 2023

It seems every real estate developer is having similar problems — supply constraints, rising construction materials costs and rising interest rates. Only those projects that are charging top-of-the-market rents, have investors with low expectations for returns on investment, or received a ton of subsidies are getting built. So when Stokes West, which intends to offer apartment rents that are 13-21 percent lower than its peers in and near University Circle, got design approval by City Planning Commission last summer, it was already facing an uphill climb. That changed when the development team joined forces with Geis Construction Inc. and found a way to deliver the project more affordably.

North Coast Connector: ready for its close-up

By Ken Prendergast / May 2, 2023

The North Coast Connector — a project that’s considered by many city and community development officials as the key to unlocking the potential of downtown Cleveland’s lakefront — is starting to come together. The state is moving forward on a big piece of funding for its construction. The city is moving forward on funding for detailed architectural designs. And public involvement meetings to help shape those designs will be held starting this week. To quote Gloria Swanson in the 1950 classic movie “Sunset Boulevard,” the proposed land bridge is “ready for its close-up.”

Millennia’s Centennial due this year

By Ken Prendergast / April 28, 2023

Although a “groundbreaking” ceremony for the start of one of downtown Cleveland’s largest-ever building renovations may not happen until late summer, you may see work crews going in and out of the former Union Trust Bank, 925 Euclid Ave., even earlier. That’s because an interior demolition permit application was submitted to the city this week to prepare for construction work in converting the 1.4-million-square-foot behemoth into The Centennial, featuring nearly 600 apartments, 170 hotel rooms, plus retail, restaurants and a museum.

CWRU’s $300m research center moves forward

By Ken Prendergast / April 26, 2023

A proposed Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building with a construction budget roughly equal to that of the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters’ original tab is no longer just an idea for administrators, staff and students at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). The university is already making moves to relocate classes and other services and activities out of Yost Hall, 2049 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., so it can be demolished this summer to make way for the new research center.

Little Italy, Tremont townhouses planned

By Ken Prendergast / April 25, 2023

A Cleveland real estate firm that has been renovating homes in the metro area is entering the new-construction market by building new homes in Sandusky and seeking to construct new townhomes in two of Cleveland’s hottest neighborhoods. ParaPrin Construction, located on West 105th Street, wants to construct six new townhomes in Little Italy and Tremont if its vision passes muster with the City Planning Commission.

Weston plans huge warehouse in Euclid

By Ken Prendergast / April 24, 2023

Keeping Euclid’s industrial facilities modern and competitive to attract new jobs is the goal of a large, new warehouse/light industrial facility called Tech Park 90 that could see construction start as early as June, said a representative of its developer, the Weston Group. Even more impressive is that the project is being pursued as a speculative development, meaning that an anchor tenant hasn’t been secured prior to Weston’s decision to move forward on it.

Hulett Hotel plans make a comeback

By Ken Prendergast / April 22, 2023

Six years ago, Mark Raymond planned a 25-room boutique inn called the Hulett Hotel with a mix of new construction and renovation at 1452-1468 W. 25th St. in the Hingetown section of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood but the plan faded into memory during the pandemic. Today, he’s raising some eyebrows in the neighborhood by going bigger at a time when many real estate developers are putting construction plans on hold.

The West Shore also rises

By Ken Prendergast / April 21, 2023

In the coming weeks and months, the continued metamorphosis of land uses along Cleveland’s West Shoreway from industrial to residential will yield some new features that will show just how much Cleveland is changing. Several projects along the Shoreway-turned-Edgewater Parkway will be under way at roughly the same time and offer some lofty symbols about Clevelanders’ evolving regard for its often-ignored lakefront.

Haslams’ major announcement(s)

By Ken Prendergast / April 17, 2023

Cleveland Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne and others are due to make one or more big announcements starting next week that will include the lakefront football stadium, the Browns’ Berea campus, mixed-use developments around both plus a relocated Shoreway. The announcements will be about changes intended to activate the downtown lakefront by the end of this decade in ways it hasn’t been since the 1930s and to create a year-round fan-friendly village around the team’s suburban headquarters and practice facility, according to two sources familiar with the developments.

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