The city of Cleveland recently finished the first step in a long process that might replace parking lots, warehouses and dead space with apartments, offices, hotels and parks.
View full sizeA runner rounds the corner on the East Ninth Street Pier in downtown Cleveland in July. Five teams, including local and global real estate developers, have expressed interest in all or part of the North Coast Harbor and Harbor West sites near Lake Erie. The city, which owns most of the land, is in the early stages of a process that could result in a land lease with a private developer or team.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A city search for would-be lakefront developers has turned up five teams interested in land north and east of FirstEnergy Stadium.
Local real estate investors, a global construction business and a local catering company are among the groups jockeying for positions at Harbor West and North Coast Harbor, two waterfront development sites spanning 28 acres.
The city of Cleveland recently finished the first step -- soliciting requests for qualifications -- in a long process that might replace parking lots, warehouses and dead space with apartments, offices, hotels and parks.
Citing the competitive nature of the submissions, city officials identified the developers but declined to discuss their ideas. A committee will spend the next six weeks reviewing the plans before soliciting formal follow-up proposals. By April, Mayor Frank Jackson hopes to ask Cleveland City Council to grant site control -- in the form of a lease option -- to a developer or team.
"It's kind of the first step of the first step, establishing who our private investment partner will be for these two sites," said Chris Warren, the city's chief of regional development. "It's not something where we'll get through to next spring and we'll have a developer ready to break ground."
Three of the five developers -- Industrial Realty Group, KUD International and Cumberland Lakefront LLC -- are interested in both Harbor West, which could support more than 2 million square feet of buildings on 18.6 acres, and North Coast Harbor, a more modest site identified as a restaurant and entertainment district in the city's most recent lakefront plan.
Stuart Lichter, president and chairman of California-based Industrial Realty Group, said he submitted a proposal with Chris Semarjian, a Northeast Ohio real estate investor and Lichter's partner in Ohio. Known for remaking former military bases and troubled buildings, Lichter described Cleveland's lakefront as "a worthwhile, complicated project, which I'm kind of addicted to."
He wouldn't discuss what he's proposing.
"Whether it's a project that could ultimately be done on an economic basis, we're going to find out," he said.
The global competitor is KUD, part of Kajima Corp. of Japan. The company provides management and deal-structuring services for large, public-private projects including stadiums and aquariums. A KUD executive did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Cumberland Lakefront LLC, the third company interested in both Harbor West and North Coast Harbor, is a venture formed by local developer Dick Pace and Trammell Crow Co., a real estate development and investment firm based in Dallas, Texas.
Pace turned a former automotive building in Midtown into a business incubator and has been remaking the ground-floor retail space at the 5th Street Arcades in downtown Cleveland.
"I don't think I can say much about it, other than that I did submit with a team," Pace said Tuesday.
Another local developer, Mark Munsell, is leading a group of investors who want to transform Harbor West, a wind-blown site that includes docks vacated by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.
Munsell, president of Munsell Realty Advisors in Beachwood, would not identify other members of his team. He described his proposal as "unique, ambitious and employment-generating," adding that he and his partners have been honing their concept for two years. Munsell wouldn't divulge details.
The fifth group is looking to bite off just a smidge of land -- a slice of North Coast Harbor near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Executive Caterers and companies formed by Brian Hall, who leads a Cleveland logistics company, hope to open an eatery just west of the Rock Hall.
"We're obviously not a developer," said Charles Klass, executive vice president of Executive Caterers, which is based in Mayfield Heights. "But we've been down on the waterfront for a long time. We've been the caterer at the Rock Hall since it opened, and we realized with all the ideas and development going on along the waterfront, there would be a double benefit in creating some sort of food-service operation that can not only service visitors to the Rock Hall but also be open to visitors at North Coast Harbor."
Warren said the city is pleased with the responses.
Cleveland owns most of the land, which was created using fill dirt from dredging. The properties, subject to submerged land leases between the city and the state and height restrictions because of nearby Burke Lakefront Airport, could require significant engineering work and infrastructure investment.
View Harbor West and North Coast Harbor in a larger map