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Earlier this month, a letter was sent by an Indianapolis-area real estate developer to Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and City Council notifying them of its desire to develop a lakefront apartment project and their intention to seek Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) for it.
The proposed site, 5475 N. Marginal Rd., in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood, was pursued for a similarly sized apartment development in 2019 and briefly resurfaced after the peak of the pandemic. But that developer, Landmark Companies of Cleveland, couldn’t make the numbers work for a mid-market project.
So now it’s the Annex Group’s turn to try and develop a 4.28-acre vacant lot where East 55th Street meets Lake Erie into something more useful for more people. And the timing for this development, based on what’s happening around its site, is better than it was before.
On Aug. 1, affiliates of the Annex Group, including Union At Development Holdings LLC, notified city officials it “Will submit an application to utilize the multifamily funding programs of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) for the development of this property,” wrote Joy Skidmore, development director at The Annex Group.
The development is proposed to be called Union At Cleveland Harbor. Many of Annex Group’s developments are for affordable or student housing markets and prefaced by the words “Union at…” such as “Union at Rose Park” in Milwaukee or “Union at Tryon” in Charlotte, according to its Web site.
“The proposed development is a new construction that includes 209 multifamily units of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with an overall square footage of approximately 198,500 square feet,” Skidmore continued.
Also planned on the site are 209 new parking spaces, although it isn’t clear whether that would be constructed within the building, or an adjacent surface lot or a combination.
“The proposed project consists of a five-story building and served by elevators,” Skidmore wrote. “A central common area will include fitness center, business/computer center, community room and a small office area. The proposed project will be built in one phase. The proposed development will be financed with housing credit proceeds.”
Landmark’s 2019 development, the conceptual designs for which were approved by the City Planning Commission, proposed a five-story building with 212 apartments. Also planned six years ago were 417 new parking spaces, with 322 spaces in a surface lot and 95 spaces within the nearly 270,000-square-foot apartment building.
Some commission members pushed back on having so many surface parking spaces on the lakefront. But the developer responded that the parking would be shared with Landmark’s neighboring property, The Shoreline Apartments, 5455 N. Marginal. which has 130 parking spaces for 167 residences.
Landmark still owns the property proposed to be developed by Annex Group. However, in order for a development project to be eligible for OHFA financial assistance, the developer must have site control which means that it should at least have a purchase agreement already in place.
NEOtrans reached out to Amy Harnish, creative director at the Annex Group seeking more information about the company’s plans but no response has yet been received. This would be Annex Group’s first development in Greater Cleveland.
No development summary or project renderings for Union At Cleveland Harbor have yet been posted on OHFA’s Web site. Skidmore noted in the letter to Cleveland city officials that any objection to the project must be submitted to OHFA in writing within 30 days of her Aug. 1 letter, according to OHFA rules.
The timing of the Union At Cleveland Harbor is better than that of Landmark’s 2019 effort. Just east of the development site, the Cleveland Metroparks is constructing two new facilities at the East 55th Marina — the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Boathouse and the Patrick S. Parker Community Sailing Center.
The $18.5 million worth of new developments, including two new lakefront restaurants, marina store, classrooms and boating simulators, are expected to be completed in 2026.
Meanwhile, the $10.6 million, 2.7-mile Mandel Community Trail is also under construction to enhance the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway between East 9th and East 55th streets along North Marginal Road. It also is due to be completed next year.
In the coming years, the $300 million Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Strategy (CHEERS) could get underway. The Port of Cleveland and the Metroparks are pursuing a new island and reshaped Lake Erie shoreline next to the Union At Cleveland Harbor development site.
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