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LUMEN APARTMENTS PLUS

In the mid-2010s, it was rare to see a downtown building with rents of $2 or more per square foot. In 2021, one-third of all apartment demand in Greater Cleveland was downtown and nearby. And that demand, at least for apartments, has been strongest in Cleveland’s urban core. Unfortunately, Greater Cleveland isn’t building enough new housing to keep up with demand.

LUMEN APARTMENTS PLUS

And it may include other buildings as well, such as those to the left plus significant public realm and other infrastructure improvements to connect Public Square with the banks of the Cuyahoga River (Bedrock). The first phase of Bedrock’s riverfront development may offer a 20-plus-story office building for Quicken Loans and other tenants, as outlined in red here. Cuyahoga County’s 18-and-older population - aka the adult working population - grew 2 percent from 2010-2020, according to the Census. The reason is that as low-income families moved out, childless single professionals and couples moved in. There are now more occupied housing units in the city of Cleveland today than there were in 2010, even as Cleveland’s population fell 6 percent and Cuyahoga County’s dipped 1.2 percent. Cleveland and other former Rust Belt cities have diversified their economies and are beginning to generate real economic opportunity while remaining affordable and livable. The positive trend could be seen starting last year as global employment listing site showed that Greater Cleveland ranked higher than some Sun Belt powerhouses in the number of available jobs. Employment growth in Greater Cleveland so far this year has ranged from 2.1 to 3.6 percent, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. “What percent of your home sales go to ‘out of towners,’ meaning 100-plus miles away, moving their primary residence to Cleveland? It’s a consistent 30 percent or more from the top players I chat with.” “For over a year I’ve polled agent partners and received a consistent answer to this question,” said Gusty Molnar, partner at Social Mortgage LLC based in Ohio City. Since last year, some construction contractors refused to settle on a price for work more than six months in advance, a matter complicated by supply chain issues that delayed delivery of materials sometimes by months. That market has continued to grow despite the rising cost of construction materials and labor. Downtown has been an evolving housing market. That doesn’t guarantee it would have been though. Had there not been so many old, obsolete commercial buildings available, most of them offices, this demand for new housing by young professionals and empty nesters could have been met by new construction. A partial renovation of Erieview Tower also is planned. They will join 55 Public Square, Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Fidelity Hotel that are under renovation. There are another seven buildings under renovation or about to begin, including three more starting this summer. Another two were new commercial towers - Flats East Bank’s Ernst & Young office tower and the Hilton Cleveland Downtown. Only two were from new construction - The Beacon and The Lumen. In the previous decade, downtown added 13 high-rise residential buildings ranging from 10 to 34 stories tall - nearly all by converting obsolete commercial buildings. And we’re likely to see some of these submitted for the second round of Transformational Mixed Use Development (TMUD) tax credits, the application deadline for which is this Friday.ĭowntown Cleveland has been a busy place for construction workers, just not from new construction. Others, like Bedrock’s riverfront development, are going to have multiple buildings announced simultaneously because of the public spaces and public infrastructure that will link them. Some of these are going to be announced one at a time. I’m talking about new downtown apartment buildings, hotels, office towers and, yes, even new condo buildings. And for this article we’re not even getting into the cranes above University Circle now and in the future. Those may be just the tip of the iceberg for downtown. CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.Īre you ready for some construction cranes, Cleveland? No, I’m not talking about the tower cranes that will rise next month above Sherwin-Williams’ new HQ west of Public Square or the crane soon to arrive over the City Club Apartments on Euclid Avenue. Perhaps a half-dozen more are likely to arrive in the next year downtown with more cranes in other parts of Cleveland (KJP). The next tower crane arrives in August for Sherwin-Williams’ new headquarters.

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It came down in February 2020, a month before the pandemic hit in full force. The last tower crane over downtown Cleveland was for the 34-story Lumen apartments.