The city is pushing for a mix of uses deep inside the 190-acre park, while encouraging residential development on the fringes.
View full sizeBeachwood city officials want much of the 190-acre Commerce Park area rezoned to open up redevelopment opportunities in the 1960s-era industrial district. Revised zoning would let property owners knock down obsolete buildings and replace them with taller structures; consider restaurants, health-care facilities and retail; and work within a more flexible set of rules.BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- Once a bustling industrial center, Beachwood's Commerce Park district is struggling with obsolete buildings in a shifting business environment.
Now the East Side suburb aspires to rebuild its economic backbone, by opening up the 1960s-era business park to a wider range of tenants and using zoning changes and incentives to spur property owners to reinvest.
The city's planning commission recommended Thursday night that Beachwood rezone much of the 190-acre park, to reflect the growth of health care, retail and service businesses and a relative decline in manufacturing jobs.
If Beachwood's City Council concurs, building owners could appeal to new tenants, including retailers and restaurants. Or they could remake their properties to attract doctors and medical companies seeking a perch near the University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center.
And as city officials push for a mix of uses deep inside the park, they're encouraging residential development on the fringes - starting at Chagrin Boulevard and Green Road.
That's where Beachwood real-estate investor Mark Munsell and the NRP Group want to demolish three tired office buildings and a dilapidated parking garage to create a site for high-end housing.
The project, a $40-million-plus investment, would include approximately 340 apartments and a swimming pool. The developers expect to charge the "most expensive rents per square foot" in the suburb, which already commands the top average monthly rent - $1,086, after discounts - in the region, according to Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.
Beachwood's Planning and Zoning Commission also voted in favor of a rezoning for the project, after approving a new multifamily zoning district that can be used across the city. Both pieces of legislation will head to City Council.
View full sizeThe Cevallos Lofts, a recently finished NRP Group community in San Antonio, Texas, shows the type of luxury project the developer wants to build in Beachwood. NRP, based in Garfield Heights, and real estate investor Mark Munsell hope to demolish three office buildings and a dilapidated parking garage at Chagrin Boulevard and Green Road and build 340 apartments.Mayor Merle Gorden hopes Munsell and NRP, a nationally known apartment developer based in Garfield Heights, are the first of many investors willing to put a new face on Commerce Park.
To keep businesses and attract new companies, Gorden said, the city needs to provide housing for young professionals; help property owners use their land better by rewriting old zoning rules; and link Commerce Park to the Chagrin Highlands property to the south
On Dec. 30, the city paid $1.5 million for an industrial building on 2.25 acres at the southern end of Commerce Park. That property, at 23456 Mercantile Road, will be cleared for a road into Chagrin Highlands, not far from the new Eaton Corp. headquarters site. The city hopes a connection will spur more interest in Commerce Park, a cheaper location with vacant space.
"I think you're going to see more blurring of the lines," said Jeffrey Kahn, president of the NAI Daus real estate brokerage in Beachwood and owner of two buildings in Commerce Park.
Beachwood has a lot riding on this potential transformation. With 83 buildings comprising 3 million square feet, Commerce Park anchors the southern end of the city and remains a key employment center.
The city's finance director said he did not have information on what portion of Beachwood's tax revenue is tied to the district. But filling empty space and replacing outdated buildings would contribute to city coffers.
Economic development consultants who crafted a plan for the city last year identified the park as a challenge. They recommended that Beachwood offer incentives to help investors fix up their properties and reward companies that create jobs - something the city is considering.
George Smerigan, the city's planner, said he's talked to a property owner who wants to combine two lots, clear them and construct a new office building. He would not identify the person.
Gorden said the vacancy rate in Commerce Park is close to 30 percent - though that includes the largely vacant buildings that Munsell and NRP plan to demolish. And the tenants who want space aren't manufacturers or distributors. They're businesses with showrooms, personal-training outfits, day-care facilities and dance studios.
"It's not 1980 anymore," said Brad Coven, a principal with Coven Goldman Associates, which owns six buildings in the park. "Times have changed, and the types of companies that are starting today have changed, and they don't fit into 1985 zoning ordinances. ... Twenty years ago, you didn't have that type of user who was selling things on the Internet and had a couple of walk-in customers.
"It's a good thing for everybody," he said of Beachwood's willingness to adapt its zoning rules for a changing business world. "I wish that other cities would do it, too."