CLEVELAND — Playhouse Square expects to lift the curtain on a new apartment project in December.
Workers are transforming four floors of the historic Bulkley Building into 84 apartments. A quarter to a third of them will be reserved for traveling performers and crew members.
On-site housing will be an advantage as Playhouse Square competes for national tours, said Craig Hassall, the nonprofit arts district’s president and CEO.
“It’s going to make us even more important in the Broadway economy,” he said during a Tuesday construction tour. “And it makes Cleveland more of a destination for audiences, artists, education programs – a whole range of things.”
The district got a boost this week when the state announced $1.95 million in tax credits for Playhouse Square’s recent and planned investments along Euclid Avenue. That award comes from the competitive Transformational Mixed-Use Development Program.
On Monday, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved $100 million in credits for $2.6 billion worth of projects across the state. The only other Northeast Ohio winner was Valor Acres, a mixed-use development in Brecksville off Interstate 77.
The DiGeronimo Cos., a local developer, won $10 million in tax credits for the first phase of Valor Acres. The initial wave of construction started in late 2021 and will span eight buildings, including offices, apartments, parking, first-floor retail and a hotel.
DiGeronimo is putting the finishing touches on its first apartment building, where more than two dozen residents have already moved in.
The first office building, partly earmarked for DiGeronimo’s new headquarters, is scheduled to open in late 2024.
Valor Acres could eventually grow to $680 million worth of development. The property sits next to the Sherwin-Williams Co.’s future research and development campus.
State assistance, from tax credits to grants and loans, is helping projects move forward despite higher interest rates and other financing challenges. Developers often combine state aid with federal and local incentives to fill funding gaps.
“All of them are helping these projects get across the finish line,” said Lydia Mihalik, director of the Ohio Department of Development, during an interview.
Mackenzie Makepeace, the director of mixed-use development for DiGeronimo, echoed that. She described the transformational tax-credit program as a “game-changer” for the state.
“These projects are complicated, time-consuming and require the highest levels of public-private partnership,” Makepeace wrote in an email.
On Tuesday, Mihalik joined Hassall and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne for a tour of the Bulkley Building. She cited the district’s growth as an example of what collaboration can accomplish.
“Why would the private sector invest in a community that isn’t willing to invest in itself?” she asked. “I think what we have seen, over the last four or five years, is that we’ve really unlocked a ton of potential in communities across the state. … And we’re just starting to see the results.”
Playhouse Square is midway into a roughly $50 million cluster of investments, Hassall said. That includes eye-catching new theater marquees and the Bulkley Building makeover.
The nine-story building, which connects to the theaters at 1501 Euclid Ave., is also home to office tenants and restaurants. The apartments will be a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units. Rent figures aren’t available yet.
Playhouse Square, a major landlord in the district, has partnered with Westlake-based Liberty Development Co. on the project.
“We want people to live, breathe and work here and have their whole life at Playhouse Square,” Hassall said.
