Mark Galloway is preparing to put his family's one-time farm up for sale, opening up development prospects for a swath of green space that, until early this year, had a reputation for being unobtainable.
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Through tombstones at Woodvale Cemetery, Mark Galloway can trace his family's history in Cleveland's southwest suburbs to the 1800s. At 59, he recalls when cows, sheep and chickens roamed much of the family's property on Engle Road, southeast of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Now, real estate brokers and developers quietly circle that land. The city of Middleburg Heights sees it as a likely site for light manufacturing, distribution centers, warehouses and jobs. Galloway and his wife, Susan, view it as a potential windfall, after decades of discussion and years of family strife.
The couple acquired the last slices of the property in January, after a legal battle over Galloway's father's estate. That transfer, of two parcels totaling 25 acres, united a 65-acre tract on the west side of Engle, between Sheldon and Bagley roads.
Mark and Susan Galloway now are preparing to put the farm up for sale, opening up development prospects for a swath of green space that, until early this year, had a reputation for being unobtainable. New, unified ownership is giving hope to suitors who couldn't strike a deal with Galloway's father and aunt, who controlled alternating strips of land for decades and couldn't find common ground.
"I'm more optimistic than I've been," said Gary Starr, the longtime mayor of Middleburg Heights. "In the past, you've had a brother and sister always engaged in controversy and petty bickering. If [the Galloways] are able to develop this, this could be a goldmine for the city and Northeast Ohio."
The Galloway family stopped farming during the 1980s. But June Galloway and her younger brother, William (Mark's father), had different ideas about what to do with their fallow land. William, often called Bill, floated proposals including a truck stop and a trailer park -- uses that clashed with local zoning. At odds with the city over the land, Bill Galloway unsuccessfully tried to unseat Starr in a 1999 mayoral race.
June Galloway owned 40 of the 65 acres. She, also, disagreed with her brother's vision. "June was smart," Susan Galloway said. "She was headstrong. She was the oldest. And she didn't want the younger brother bossing her around."
The siblings' sparring put a damper on any development, even though -- as Starr tells it -- local, regional and national real estate companies kept calling.
"They would go through the courting stage, but they would never marry," the mayor said. "There would be talk. Courting. Cajoling. Proposals. But nothing ever signed."
In 2012, June died at the age of 83. Childless, she left her land to Mark Galloway, her brother's oldest son. Bill Galloway died in early 2013, at 81. Court records show that his death set off a conflict between his children, who were sorting through a dispute over real estate and other assets until early this year.
Mark and Susan Galloway ended up with Bill's 25 acres as part of a confidential settlement, which they won't discuss. "We resolved the issues as families do, amicably," Susan Galloway said, "and we got that in result."
During a recent interview at a Bob Evans restaurant off Bagley, Mark Galloway reminisced about working on the land, cutting wood and baling hay. Many of his relatives were born in the farmhouse on the property. As an infant, he said, he drank cow's milk from the barn after struggling to nurse or stomach formula.
"I love land. I love working on land. That was part of me," he said.
But that sentimentality doesn't extend to keeping the land.
Mark Galloway, a pilot who is on disability, doesn't have a use for 65 acres. He and Susan, who split time between California and Northeast Ohio, own several houses in the Cleveland suburbs and don't need to live on the old family farm.
So they're planning to test the real estate market, though they don't have a firm idea of what kind of project they're looking for.
Real estate brokers said the property is a logical industrial site, with its proximity to Interstate 71 and the airport and the possibility of working with the city to build new roads and infrastructure.
"There aren't too many land parcels for office-industrial development under one ownership that are located west of the river," said Howard Lichtig, a CBRE Group Inc. vice president who knew Bill Galloway and who has kept an eye on the family's property for 30 years. "This is really what I had described to Mark and Susan -- and they've kind of adopted this -- as the crown jewel of the West Side."
Offices are a possibility, but there's more demand for new warehouse and distribution space. Retail seems like a long shot, since there are more attractive shopping sites nearby, said Terry Coyne, an executive managing director with the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank brokerage in Cleveland.
"I would sell it off in pieces, if they're willing to be patient," Coyne said, noting that smaller parcels tend to command a higher per-acre price.
Based on public records, comparable Northeast Ohio land is selling for anywhere from $75,000 to nearly $150,000 an acre -- but the higher-dollar deals involve fewer acres sold directly to trucking companies and other businesses, not developers who need to then prepare the site, secure financing and find tenants.
"The property has a great location and great potential for mostly industrial development, which is what it's zoned for," said Simon Caplan, a principal at Cushman & Wakefield/Cresco Real Estate in Independence. "The area's ripe, and there's a shortage of large land sites.
"But," he added, "I don't think that they're going to get a million-square-foot user to identify that that's where they want to go. There aren't a lot of million-square-foot users out in the market in Northeast Ohio."