Commercial development projects continue to change Northeast Ohio’s landscape
The real estate boom across Northeast Ohio hasn’t slowed down this past year. You can’t help but notice the activity at Battery Park near Gordon Square Arts District, the Fat Head’s Brewery project in Middleburg Heights, commercial development along the Detroit Shoreway or in the heart of downtown with the redevelopment at Quicken Loans Arena.
This continued renaissance has numerous participants — land and property owners, corporations, development companies, architects — and each has its own focus: corporate headquarters, mixed-use developments, renovation of dilapidated property or restoration of historic buildings.
On May 16, Smart Business will present an engaging panel discussion that peels back the curtain on how many of these projects — and others — are financed.
We will also recognize more than a dozen projects that are making a significant impact on the neighborhoods they inhabit — as well as the people and organizations involved with bringing them to life.
Aloft Cleveland Airport Hotel
COMPANY: Heritage Development
George Kimson Jr., COO
The new Aloft Cleveland Airport Hotel brought an opportunity to add a presence in the vicinity of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and capture the expanding overnight air traveler, corporate transient and group meeting markets on Cleveland’s west side.
The 137-room hotel was constructed by Heritage Development in North Olmsted, adjacent to the world headquarters for Moen. COO George Kimson Jr. oversees all business decisions on the many projects and properties Heritage is involved with.
Heritage engaged ThenDesign Architecture and Snavely Group to develop the new select service hotel, which opened last summer. The final piece of the development will be a 3,500 to 5,000 square-foot restaurant adjacent to the hotel. Heritage plans to announce an agreement with a local restaurant this spring.
The hotel is expected to have positive economic and fiscal impacts on North Olmsted and the southwest Cleveland area. Build out of the hotel project supported local construction jobs and payroll during the yearlong construction period. At full operation, the hotel is expected to create nearly 30 direct, full-time equivalent jobs in North Olmsted with an associated annual payroll of approximately $834,000.
Battery Park
COMPANY: Vintage Development Group
Adelbert Marous, managing member
Located on the shores of Lake Erie just steps from the Gordon Square Arts District, Battery Park is much more than a commercial development. Vintage Development Group took this contaminated, desolate 18-acre site and transformed it into a $100 million community that will offer over 400 housing units, both for rent and for sale. The investment adds to the population base, walkability and density of Gordon Square.
Both owned and managed by Vintage Development Group, Battery Park has always been viewed by Vintage as an opportunity to breathe new life into a beloved part of its hometown. Vintage, led by Managing Member Adelbert Marous, and its parent company, Marous Brothers Construction, have been strong partners to the neighborhood.
Over 130 townhome units have been completed and sold in Battery Park to date. Two apartment buildings are underway: the Battery Park Lofts (80 units, opening spring 2018) and Park Place Lofts (50 units, construction underway). The newest phase of townhomes, Lakeside Townhomes, with 18 units under construction in 2018, has already sold out.
The Marous family continues to give back to this neighborhood, serving as chairpersons of a benefit for the Capitol Theatre in 2017 and the Gordon Square Arts District benefit in 2018.
Fat Head’s Brewery and Restaurant
Matt Cole, owner/brewmaster
www.fatheads.com
Over the years, Fat Head’s Brewery has built a strong relationship with Middleburg Heights. In 2011, the city beat Pittsburgh to be chosen as the location for the company’s production brewery. Since that time, Fat Head’s has grown in both capacity and reputation. So when the need arose to expand once more, its attention once again turned to Middleburg Heights.
Led by Owner/Brewmaster Matt Cole, Fat Head’s is in the process of constructing a new, signature 125,000-square-foot building at 17450 Engle Lake Dr. in Middleburg Heights. The expansion project reflects more than $20 million being invested in the city for the new building, machinery and equipment, furniture and fixtures, and tenant improvements.
The new brewery and restaurant will create 74 new jobs, in addition to the 37 current Fat Head’s employees already working in Middleburg Heights.
Harsax Management Co. developed the project, while Geis Cos. was contracted to engineer and construct the building. Principals from both the Cleveland and Pittsburgh offices of CRESCO Real Estate were also involved, along with the state of Ohio, Cuyahoga County, Team NEO, the Greater Cleveland Partnership and the Ohio Department of Transportation. The project is expected to be completed in June 2018.
Gervasi Distillery & Boutique Hotel
COMPANY: Gervasi Vineyard
Scott Swaldo, general manager
From the concept as a winery in 2010, the large 55-acre estate known as Gervasi Vineyard has grown considerably over the past eight years. The destination resort is built around a state-of-the-art winery currently offering 28 varietals of wines made on site, which includes three estate wines made from grapes grown at Gervasi Vineyard. In addition, Gervasi Village houses three distinct restaurants on the property.
The company, led by General Manager Scott Swaldo, will be expanding Gervasi Village with the addition of a boutique hotel and a distillery. Construction of this two-building expansion will begin this spring.
The single-story hotel will host 24 large, luxurious individual suites featuring king-sized beds, fireplaces, heated floors and other high-end amenities. A covered patio will be adjacent to each room, allowing guests to enjoy the picturesque view of the courtyard and pond. The 18,000-square-foot structure will feature a shared lobby with an exercise facility for guests.
Gervasi will continue to work with the same engineers (Thorson Baker + Associates and Scheeser Buckley Mayfield LLC), architects (FMD Architects) and builder (The Cornice Co.) as it has with all other buildings on the estate. Construction is expected to wrap up in late 2018 or early 2019.
Halle Building
COMPANY: K&D Group
Karen Paganini, president | Douglas E. Price III, CEO
The Halle Building obtained designation on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 for good reason. Since being placed into service in 1927, it has been an integral building in the fabric of the Playhouse Square District and downtown Cleveland.
K&D Group believes the Halle Building has a lot more to offer, which is why it has chosen to sponsor an expansive project that will respect and preserve the building’s historical relevance. It will also embrace downtown’s future by increasing housing, retail and office supply in a market that so desperately needs it.
The primary goal of this project is to bring new high-end residential, retail and office units to market, all while restoring the Halle Building to its rightful place in the downtown Cleveland landscape. More specifically, the plan is to convert the 11-floor space into five floors of commercial/retail space and six floors of residential space. At a minimum, the Halle Building project will produce a twofold economic benefit to Cleveland’s economy.
K&D, led by President Karen Paganini and CEO Douglas E. Price III, is the sponsor and project developer. Berardi+Partners Inc. is the architect and Cleveland Construction Inc. is the general contractor.
Hudson Crossing Business Park
COMPANY: Premier Development Partners
Spencer Pisczak, president
Premier Development Partners has spent more than three decades successfully managing the demands of its clients while delivering high-quality buildings under tight deadlines, doing so on time and on or under budget. Estimated at a project value of $25 million, the recent developments within the 130-acre Hudson Crossing Business Park were no exception.
Hudson Crossing Business Park features four newly developed facilities completed in 2017, including office, health care, mixed-use and industrial/flex spaces on 38 acres. Bringing more than 500 new jobs to Hudson, the projects join the already developed WBC Group headquarters and SkyZone’s indoor trampoline park, which was also built by Premier.
To help achieve its project goals, Premier partnered with Davison Smith Certo Architects to present the most sustainable method of construction that fit with the creative leadership and corporate visions of its clients and tenants.
The ability to manage many projects at once, including these four different intended uses, is a valuable skill and gives Premier a unique competitive edge. The company navigated through the initial planning concepts and financials, bringing the project into the implementation phase, through challenges and then to completion.
Premier is led by President Spencer Pisczak.
IBM at the Cleveland Clinic
COMPANY: Hemingway Development
Fred Geis and Jim Doyle, principals
The IBM at the Cleveland Clinic project, owned and developed by Hemingway Development for IBM, is located at the corner of Cedar Avenue and East 105th Street, on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic and located within the Fairfax District of Cleveland. The project is a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility that was built to suit IBM.
Explorys, a Cleveland company that merged with IBM, will reside in the 43,000-square-foot research and development center, which allows the company to stay in Cleveland and retain over 300 jobs. The site will headquarter the IBM Watson of health care. The company will be able to serve the major medical institutions of the area out of the new facility. This project is also the anchor to the entrance of the new Opportunity Corridor.
The city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, Home Savings Bank and equity from private individuals and investors played key roles in enabling the project to move forward.
Geis Cos. performed the design, architecture, construction and management of the project, while Hemingway, led by Principals Fred Geis and Jim Doyle, worked with a number of public and private entities and organizations to make it a success.
Nestlé Harper Road Building Renovation
COMPANY: Nestlé USA
Kira Kabo, head of corporate facilities & security
The Nestlé Harper Building renovation in Solon was a pilot project for the Nestlé Smarter Workplace program in North America. The 600 employees housed in Solon were the first in the U.S. to adopt the new concept. Nestlé offices around the world, including Milan, Copenhagen, Warsaw and Mexico City are currently using a similar model.
Everyone, including senior leadership, works in a common, open and collaborative environment utilizing a variety of unique spaces and amenities designed to accommodate individual workstyles.
Prior to the transformation, the maximum capacity of the Solon space was about 220. Today, it can accommodate more than 670 employees. This project enabled Nestlé USA to relocate 321 positions into two large divisions — technical and production, as well as supply chain and procurement — to the building and consolidate the ensuring supply operation in Solon.
Nestlé partnered with Westlake Reed Leskosky, which is part of DLR Group, to create a modern, functional office to accommodate its growing workforce and implement the new Smarter Workplace concept. Infinity Construction Inc. served as a negotiated general contractor. Kira Kabo, head of facilities and security for Nestlé USA, was the leader for all aspects of the project implementation.
Pinecrest
COMPANIES: Fairmount Properties & DiGeronimo Cos.
Eric Louttit, chief investment officer, Fairmount Properties
Pinecrest is a 750,000-square-foot mixed-use district currently under construction in Orange Village. The project is a joint venture partnership between Fairmount Properties and the DiGeronimo Cos. The project includes 400,000 square feet of exceptional retail options, chef-driven restaurants and unique entertainment venues.
Pinecrest was built on the site of a former housing development. Developer David Lewanski had assembled the land and when Fairmount Properties, led by Chief Investment Officer Eric Louttit, stepped in, approximately 80 percent of the houses were at purchase contracts. The project was also within weeks of a community-wide referendum. While original plans called for a power center, Fairmount saw the greater potential for a central downtown and mixed-use district for Cleveland’s eastern suburbs.
RTKL Architects, now CallisoRTKL, along with Independence Construction and the local and national brokerage community were key to the project’s success as they had the confidence to represent the project and share it with their tenants. There is also a strong public-private partnership that was built with Orange Village Mayor Kathy Mulcahy and the village council. While the property will bring a significant number of new-to-market, best-in-class brands, those involved hope that Pinecrest will be as much about culture as it is about commerce.
Platform Brewery
Justin Carson, president
www.platformbeer.co
Platform Brewery is a microbrewery that opened in 2014 on the near west side of Cleveland. In 2015, construction began on a 120,000 square-foot building that currently houses most of the company’s production. Today, Platform serves beer across Ohio, with locations in Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton.
The development of Platform’s production facility, located at 3506 Vega Ave., is significant. The location is part of the Clark-Fulton Neighborhood, which was home to a number of breweries in the late 19th century that were important economic drivers on Cleveland’s west side.
Prior to Platform taking interest in the building, it had sat vacant and abandoned for 30 years. Today, this building restores hope and pride to a community that has suffered rampant abandonment and neglect since the 1970s. There is hope that the project will encourage others to invest in the neighborhood and surrounding communities.
Today, Platform, led by President Justin Carson, continues to measure success with its growing sales team and expanding operations. Most notably, the company met and exceeded the city of Cleveland’s job growth requirements within one year and managed to max out its capacity in the building within three years. The site is currently capable of producing 150,000 barrels of beer annually.
Quattro Condominiums
COMPANY: Bluewater Capital Partners LLC
Russell H. Lamb, member
Quattro Condominiums, headed up by Russell H. Lamb, a member of Bluewater Capital Partners LLC., the project’s developer, is a new construction condominium in the heart of Cleveland’s historic Little Italy neighborhood.
It consists of one five-story residential building with 26 units ranging from 2,093 to 3,211 square feet, including four two-story townhome style units along the building’s Random Road frontage.
The Quattro building aims to introduce a modern living experience in the historic context of Little Italy and bring new life to under-utilized industrial land, located in a thriving residential area. The project adds to the future stability of this neighborhood as one of the most attractive places to live in Cleveland.
The building’s architectural design respects the traditional brick and masonry construction prevalent in the historic Little Italy neighborhood. It blends these materials with modern features in a contemporary style to bridge to the world-class institutions of University Circle. Further, the project created an indirect economic impact to the area’s retail and hospitality businesses as well as RTA’s HealthLine transit system and new Mayfield Road rapid station.
Pride One Construction is the general contractor. RDL Architects designed the development and completed common space interior design services.
Relocation of Children’s Museum of Cleveland
COMPANY: Children’s Museum of Cleveland
Maria Campanelli, executive director
The Children’s Museum of Cleveland had been in business for 35 years, welcoming 100,000 diverse visitors annually. CMC acknowledged that its space was too small to support a city the size of Cleveland. When its lease at the University Circle site was not renewed to make way for a luxury apartment tower, the challenge to the museum board and staff was to decide between closing the museum, merging with another organization or finding a new home.
As the only museum in Northeast Ohio dedicated exclusively to the development of young children from birth to age 8, CMC was committed to finding a site for a new home. After reviewing 22 sites, the Stager Beckwith mansion on the famous Millionaire’s Row was found to have all the amenities to support a thriving children’s museum.
CMC, led by Executive Director Maria Campanelli, had been raising $300,000 annually to support its operating model. It found a way to compel the community to support $9.6 million of a $10.7 capital campaign to make the project a reality.
Project partners included Krill as builder, AoDK as architect, IQ Advisors’ Tim Panzica as the owner’s rep, Karen Katz as exhibit designer and Richardson as interior designer.
The Lofts at Lion Mills
COMPANY: Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization
Jeff Ramsey, executive director
Located at the corner of West 25th Street and Meyer Avenue, The Lofts at Lion Mills sits at the southernmost boundary of La Villa Hispana, an organization with a vision for a vibrant and inclusive Latino cultural district in the heart of the Clark-Fulton neighborhood, the highest density Hispanic enclave in Ohio.
The development offers affordable housing for families within a short distance from some of the west side’s largest employers.
A 2015 study of the West 25th Street Corridor found a lack of affordable housing in close proximity to work is a major factor in high employee turnover for the 38 major employers along the corridor.
The Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, as developer and owner, led by Executive Director Jeff Ramsey, brought new life to the 56,000-square-foot historic, but underutilized commercial structure. The $11 million dollar renovation added 36 units of affordable housing to the high-traffic neighborhood.
With its proximity to local employers, The Lofts at Lion Mills provides benefits, such as a more content and committed workforce, lower employee turnover, easier employee response during emergencies, an increased tax base and increased commercial spending capacity.
Marous Brothers Construction was the design-builder for the project.
The Lofts at West Side Community House
COMPANY: WSCH LLC (a Bluewater Capital Partners LLC entity)
Damon M. Taseff, managing member
The Lofts at West Side Community House are located in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. The project involved converting a vacant, historic, 25,000-square-foot building into a mixed-use facility with 19 apartments, English-style basement offices, and a retail coffee shop with an outdoor seating area.
The development team — Bluewater Capital Partners as developer, Beegan Architectural Design as architect and Fiorilli Construction as contractor — collaboratively reconfigured the original design. Construction began in early 2014 and was completed before the end of that year.
The building was designed to be Cleveland’s first “bicycle friendly” apartment building. Partnerships with Bike Cleveland and The Bike Rack provide free membership to tenants who all have access to a bicycle lounge, complete with tools and work areas to repair, wash and tune-up their bicycles. Tenants and their guests have access to a bicycle ride-share program, and each apartment has a wall-mounted bike rack for two, designed by resident artisans with wood salvaged in Cleveland.
Prior to the project, the building sat vacant for seven years. Now, property values surrounding the structure have benefited since the building is fully occupied and no longer boarded up.
Damon M. Taseff is the managing member of WSCH LLC, a Bluewater Capital Partners LLC entity.
East Cleveland Corps
COMPANY: The Salvation Army
Brian Glasco and Christine Glasco, majors
As a result of a 2012 program study, a strategic initiative to strengthen and expand The Salvation Army’s services throughout Cleveland was developed. An analysis of the east side revealed significant gaps in the delivery of human and social services. So, The Salvation Army, after discussions with East Cleveland community leaders and residents, decided to build a new corps in East Cleveland to fill these gaps and provide critical services
Since the new, 35,000-square-foot facility opened, the East Cleveland Corps has assisted an average of 1,130 individuals per month with a variety of social services, including providing nearly 700 bags of emergency food assistance. The after-school program is providing after-school care and homework assistance to 70 children in the community.
The East Cleveland Corps has hosted large community events from block parties, performances, an annual board meeting for the Cleveland Development Advisors, and a fence mural project in partnership with The Cleveland Institute of Art.
Majors Brian and Christine Glasco, The Salvation Army officers who operate the East Cleveland Corp, have worked to ingrain the corps to be a stable fixture in the community for years to come.
Temple Corps
COMPANY: The Salvation Army
Daniel Alverio and Karen Alverio, majors
The Salvation Army has long had a presence in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. But the old-school building, which served as the Temple Corps Community Center, was extremely degraded, inefficient and too expensive to renovate. With the assistance of Van Auken Akins Architects LLC and Marous Brothers Construction, The Salvation Army built a new facility on the current property.
Prior to the new building opening, programming for children was unable to expand because of the spatial limitation of the old building and because of the state requirements to operate a licensed after-school program. The expansion meant updated and flexible classrooms and a state-compliant education wing, which has enabled the corps to serve more families.
Led by Majors Daniel and Karen Alverio, Temple Corps Community Center is programmatically the largest corps in Greater Cleveland. Along with hot meal programs and the emergency food pantry, Temple also operates an after-school Learning Zone program and summer day camp.
The new building has given neighbors access to a computer lab, recreation and exercise facilities, as well as a homeless shower facility. Temple Corps also assists adults who are seeking employment, providing clothing vouchers to clients who have upcoming job interviews.
West Park Corps
COMPANY: The Salvation Army
JR Fritsch and Candy Fritsch, captains
The West Park Corps is the fastest growing Corps Community Center of The Salvation Army in Northeast Ohio and houses the largest Salvation Army food pantry in the city. The renovated and expanded facility has enhanced existing programs and enabled The Salvation Army to meet the increasing needs of community members.
Community partners, AoDK Architecture and general contractor Lawler Construction, were hired by The Salvation Army for this project. The renovation enabled the state licensed after-school program to double in capacity and create a separate, upstairs wing for the children of the program. The renovation also provided for a new chapel, lobby and office area, and senior program wing, which operates daily for the seniors of the community.
West Park Corps now has larger refrigeration and freezer space that will help meet the demand of the community. On average, the West Park Corps provides 840 bags of groceries through its emergency food pantry per month.
Integrating with the new construction and development on the Lorain Avenue corridor of Cleveland’s west side, West Park Corps Community Center, led by Captains JR and Candy Fritsch, is making an impact in the daily lives of its clients, and providing a strong foundation for the diverse and growing neighborhood.
Zelma George Shelter
COMPANY: The Salvation Army
Beau Hill, executive director, The Salvation Army Harbor Light Complex
Seeing growing poverty rates and increased demand for services, including a need for new shelter facilities in downtown Cleveland, The Salvation Army acquired land adjacent to Harbor Light for a new family shelter. With the dedication and hard work of Perspectus Architecture and Welty Building Co., The Salvation Army opened the Zelma George Emergency Family Shelter at the end of 2016.
During the first year of operation, ZGS provided shelter and wraparound social services to 244 families (766 individuals) of Greater Cleveland. Working closely with law enforcement, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, the Renee Jones Empowerment Center and the Collaboration to End Human Trafficking, 21 adult individuals were served in the Human Trafficking Suite at ZGS in 2017.
The ZGS occupies two floors within The Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Complex, headed by Executive Director Beau Hill. The Harbor Light Complex provides many social services to the community, including community corrections, electronic monitoring and medically supervised drug detoxification programs, along with the family shelter.
The ZGS plays a critical role in serving the community’s homeless population. The Salvation Army is the largest provider of shelter services within the Cuyahoga County Continuum of Care and currently provides 40 to 50 percent of the available beds for homeless families.
The Standard Building
COMPANY: Weston Inc.
TJ Asher, president, Acquisitions and Development
The Standard Building, located at the southwest corner of Ontario Street and Saint Clair Avenue in downtown Cleveland, is a locally designated landmark in the Euclid Avenue Historic District. The 22-story, glazed terra cotta commercial office building reopened at the beginning of 2018, after two years of rehabilitation, as The Standard, a 20-story, luxury 281-suite residential apartment building.
Weston Inc. was the leader developer and owner, led by President of Acquisitions and Development, TJ Asher. The company was helped by Sandvick Architects and Marous Brothers Construction, among others.
Once a home to Standard Trust Bank, the building’s grand two-story bank lobby is now a shared community space sitting at the top of the grand marble staircase surrounded by glass walls that bring in natural light.
The exterior work focused on the retention and repair of the existing historic fabric, with no significant alteration of the façades. All existing masonry was cleaned and repaired, with severely damaged materials replaced to aesthetically match the original.
A programmable, multi-colored exterior lighting system was added to dramatically highlight the building’s decorative cornice at the top, as well as the unique large arch-topped window bays above the storefronts at the street level, helping to enrich Cleveland’s skyline.
University Place Townhomes
COMPANY: Bluewater Capital Partners LLC
Russell H. Lamb, member
University Place Townhomes is a 19-unit residential townhouse development in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. Beginning with a creative site plan designed around an interior European courtyard concept, the site was laid out into five buildings with each building offering a different mix of unit types. Townhomes, row houses and a unique coach house present something for everyone.
This urban infill development began in mid-2012 with initial concept and idea creation. The assembly of five blighted parcels took place over eight months, while design and construction took place over a two-year period.
The project has had a significantly positive impact on University Circle, Case Western Reserve University and additional East 118th Street residential development initiatives. By consolidating the land and clearing the blighted buildings, the project was instrumental in changing the visual and implied negative perceptions of this campus-edge neighborhood and laid groundwork for additional residential investment on East 118th Street.
The strong development team — Bluewater Capital Partners as developer, headed by Member Russell H. Lamb, Dimit Architects as architect, Fiorilli Construction as contractor, IQ Advisors as owners’ representative, and Keller Williams Realty as the real estate agent — collaboratively bridged the project’s financial complexities with creative solutions in project phasing that preserved project cost economies.
West 25th and Detroit/Ohio City
COMPANY: Snavely Group
Peter Snavely Sr., president
Led by President Peter Snavely Sr., the Snavely Group, with partners Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. and the Orlean Co., started construction on a $60 million mixed-use, transportation-oriented development at West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue.
The North Building project includes 50,000 square feet of commercial space, with 194 market-rate apartments, parking and community park improvements. A 19,000-square-foot educational facility, to be occupied by The Music Settlement — a nonprofit early childhood education, music education and music therapy provider — will anchor the project, along with a grocery store.
There is a planned second phase in which the upper floors of the Forest City Bank building and Seymour Block will be developed, adding 38 housing units, commercial space and parking, along with a co-working space and a complement of restaurants.
The goal of the project is to revitalize the surrounding low-income communities, and activate one of Cleveland’s most-traveled intersections while preserving history and fostering community. The hope is the project will transform a neglected gateway into an area with a defined, multimodal, transit-oriented development, providing residents — 37.2 percent of whom currently live below the poverty line — with connectivity, access to early education and healthy food options.
West 25th Street Lofts
Rick Foran, partner in charge of design and construction | Chris Smythe, co-developer
Through West 25th Street Lofts LLC, developers Rick Foran, partner in charge of design and construction at Foran Group Development LLC, and Co-Developer Chris Smythe of Smythe Property Advisors LLC, oversaw the adaptive reuse of four historic buildings in the West 25th Street Lofts project. This historic 83-unit loft apartment property, with 9,600 square feet of commercial space, is located in Hingetown, a once-blighted section of Ohio City.
The neighborhood, at the time, was at the wrong end of West 25th. The southern end saw considerable investment in apartments, new restaurants and craft brew pubs. The Hingetown area, however, was characterized by abandoned, vacant industrial buildings, some single-family bungalows and scattered public housing. It was in a federally designated economically distressed area. The West 25th Street Lofts has had a catalytic impact on the neighborhood.
Construction on the $27 million project began in July 2015. Residents started taking occupancy in late 2016 and the project has leased very quickly. The apartments are now 98 percent leased, bringing 150 new residents to a neighborhood where there were none a few months ago.
