A $60 million development that just broke ground in Cleveland’s Ohio City is one of several projects reshaping the neighborhood.
The Chagrin Falls-based Snavely Group closed on a surface parking lot at West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue on Sept. 30. Construction workers started moving dirt the following Monday.
Developer Pete Snavely plans to bring 194 market-rate apartments, along with a boutique grocery store and a charter school on the ground floor. The project will also feature outdoor amenities including a pool and fire pit. It’s set to open in the spring of 2018.
Snavely also purchased a block of buildings across the street with plans for more retail space and 38 affordable apartments.
“Hingetown is a hot neighborhood right now. People want to be in this neighborhood,” Snavely said. “It’s going to have views of downtown, views of the lake; it’s going to be the hottest thing in town.”
Retail vacancy along West 25th Street is below two percent, down from about 40 percent in 2010, according to Tom McNair, executive director of Ohio City Incorporated.
He said about 10,000 people call the neighborhood home, with growth now focused on long-vacant lots along Lorain and Detroit Avenues.
“We wanted to make sure that we came up with a strategy that was able to fill that without ruining what was so special about the neighborhood, which was the historic single family homes in the middle,” McNair said.
W 25 St lofts opens in November - 83 apartments taking over a former brewery pic.twitter.com/eBYLc9ljSe
— Derick Waller News 5 (@derickwallerTV) October 12, 2016
At W. 25th and Church St. developers Rick Foran and Chris Smythe are completing work on the West 25th Street Lofts, a collection of 83 apartments built inside an 18th century warehouse. One 2,000 square foot, three bedroom three bath loft rents for about $3,100 a month.
Foran and Smythe said the project is about 75 percent leased before an expected November opening.
“It’s a historic project, reuse of a lot of industrial and post-industrial architecture,” Foran said.
“We pinch ourselves,” Smythe added. “Ten years ago, I don’t think any of us envisioned what was going to happen to downtown Cleveland. I mean, we all talked about it, but it never happened and all of a sudden, it took off.”
It’s investments these developers said will help transform a notoriously gritty neighborhood into a safer place to live.
“It’s going to be well-lit. It’s going to be well-secured,” Snavely said, “There's going to be more people here, which is going to make it a safer place.”
McNair said safety is his top priority. Neighbors and visitors can get free escorts at night, and a neighborhood camera system is expanding. He also said his nonprofit partners with second district police to offer home safety assessments. McNair said neighbors who choose to implement the police recommendations could qualify for matching grant money from Ohio City Inc.
