The developer is revising its designs in response to critiques from a downtown Cleveland design review committee and the Cleveland City Planning Commission. Public officials expressed few concerns about the demolition of the former Jewish Federation of Cleveland buildings, including an office building designed by Edward Durell Stone.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- City planning officials put off a decision this week on a proposed 500-plus bed student-housing development near Cleveland State University, giving the developer more time to address concerns about the project's design.
Members of a downtown design review committee and the Cleveland City Planning Commission largely focused on the new construction, which would replace two buildings and parking lots owned by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. During meetings on Thursday and Friday mornings, board members offered little resistance to Clayco Realty Group's plans to demolish the buildings, including the federation's former headquarters at 1750 Euclid Ave.
Clayco, a large real estate company with offices in Chicago and St. Louis, has a contract to buy the 1.7-acre site and hopes to clear it for a 217-unit apartment project that could house 509 students. On Friday, a Clayco executive said the development would be "in the $50 million range."
The company aims to start construction in the spring, putting the building on a timeline to open for the fall 2015 semester.
A private project, the apartments are not associated with Cleveland State University. But Clayco and other developers are watching the university's growing enrollment and betting that they can capture a slice of that growth, along with students from Case Western Reserve University and other area schools.
View full sizeThe eight-story apartment building would include a four-story parking garage, tucked under its southern end at Prospect Avenue and East 18th Street. A fitness center would look out over a heated pool and grilling area on the roof of the parking structure. Renderings show vines growing on a steel mesh wall surrounding the parking deck. "I'm satisfied with the direction of the project," Craig Brown, a landscape architect and member of the city's downtown design review committee, said during Thursday's meeting. "It's just the architecture."
Committee members raised concerns about a number of design features, ranging from the feasibility of wrapping a four-story parking garage on Prospect in greenery, to the appearance of the proposed Euclid-and-East 18th Street entrance to the eight-story apartment building.
If the city is losing the federation's former headquarters -- designed in the 1960s by Edward Durell Stone, a noted architect -- then whatever replaces it needs to be something great, said Jennifer Coleman, the committee's chairwoman.
"Architecturally, there's a lot of heat on this building," she said, adding "We've got to get this right in order to feel right about losing something important. ... I'm not sure we're there yet."
The federation building arguably is a lesser work by Stone, an early proponent of modern architecture. His best-known projects include Radio City Music Hall, the Kennedy Center and New York's Museum of Modern Art, which has since been renovated.
In an email this week, Stone's son protested the demolition and argued that the federation building, though small, is notable.
"As a son, as an architect and as a critic of the dumbing-down of our built environment, I personally think that it's a shame when a building of character and distinction by an important American architect is demolished in favor of an undistinguished and charmless box," Hicks Stone, who penned a biography of his father, wrote to The Plain Dealer.
A representative for the Cleveland Restoration Society said the group has not taken a position on the demolition. The society did ask for photo documentation of the building if the city approves Clayco's plans.
The Jewish federation moved from downtown to new offices in Beachwood in 2010. After announcing the moving plans in 2008, the nonprofit group searched for potential reuses, ranging from schools to an international welcome center, for its headquarters. The properties were not formally listed for sale.
Various public proposals fell through. And real estate brokers pointed out that the federation building and the neighboring Playhouse Square Building, an older structure also known as the Rogers building, needed major infrastructure investments and would be difficult to adapt for modern offices or multiple tenants.
On Friday, members of the Planning Commission expressed enthusiasm about the potential new use. But they asked Clayco to consider incorporating ground-floor retail into the project, particularly along Euclid.
Commission member Lillian Kuri lauded the architecture but said she would have a hard time voting for the project without a street-level retail component.
Other commission members echoed the design review committee's questions about how to make the edges of the 234-space parking garage more exciting -- with a corner retail space or room for short-term, seasonal stores, for example.
"We're not in the habit of forcing retail so it sits there vacant," said Rob Lochner, a Clayco vice president of development, pointing out empty retail spaces on Euclid and other nearby streets. "What we thought about was putting in the infrastructure for some pop-up retail to be there on game days, things like that."
Clayco plans to revise its designs during the next few weeks. The developer could appear at another round of design review and planning meetings later this month, with hopes of obtaining full approval for the project in January.
The company is not asking for any public incentives beyond tax abatement, which is routinely awarded to residential projects in the city.