The article is published as part of an exclusive content-sharing agreement with neo-trans.blog.
Out goes the Hulett Hotel proposal. In comes a couple of redevelopment projects intended to reinvigorate the north end of West 25th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, dubbed Hingetown. It is one of the last sections of West 25th in Ohio City whose historic buildings have yet to be renovated and redeveloped. All it took was a $110 million hillside-public park project across the street to help seal the deal.
Two neighboring historic buildings were acquired this year for reuse. One of them, located at 1468 W. 25th St., is being pursued by an affiliate of Beachwood-based TurnDev and plans for it were shared May 1 by project architect Vocon Partners at the Franklin-Clinton Block Club’s monthly meeting. The other building, at 1452 W. 25th, will become the offices for a fast-growing, Cleveland-based law firm.
TurnDev spokesman Jon Pinney told NEOtrans he would comment on its project after it is presented publicly to the City Planning Commission. A block club representative did not respond to an e-mail from NEOtrans seeking more information.
Presenting to a block club is an early step to gather design feedback in the city’s development process, so there are a lot more approvals needed and steps for TurnDev and Vocon to do in turning the conceptual ideas into construction-ready blueprints. NEOtrans secured a copy of the plans from a source who wished to remain anonymous.
The preliminary plans were intriguing if not relatively small in scale — measuring a total of 22,870 square feet of historic renovation and new construction. Acquired by TurnDev is the historic S.N. Nelson Block, a 15,320-square-foot building constructed at the turn of the 19th century.
It and its 0.3 acres of land were acquired by TurnDev affiliate TD 1468 W25th St. LLC in January for an undisclosed amount. Cuyahoga County had it appraised for tax purposes at $600,100; real estate web site Zillow’s Zestimate calculated its value at $819,800.
The preliminary plans show that the three-story historic Nelson Block fronting West 25th would be renovated with a ground-floor retail-restaurant space of 2,048 square feet topped by two apartments — one on each floor. The building also has a basement that would be for retail/restaurant storage-service.
Behind this building is a largely featureless, single-story brick structure dating from about 1905. It is proposed to be demolished so that two garages could be added onto the back of the Nelson Block. Seven additional parking spaces are planned along the north side of the Nelson Block.
The demolition is also sought to enable new construction along West 26th Street. There, the development team has proposed a trio of new, three-story townhomes measuring more than 2,120 square feet each. All three would have garages behind them.
The project is quite a bit smaller than another one nearby for which TurnDev hopes to start construction this summer. Demolition of Cleveland Vibrator, 2828 Clinton Ave., took place this past winter so TurnDev could build 212 apartments divided among two new buildings to be called Hanover House and Clinton House.
Another, highly visible element of the Nelson Block is to be preserved. The Los Sol mural by David Shillinglaw on the south side of the Nelson Block is shown in Vocon renderings. The mural overlooks a parking lot on the corner of West 25th and Church which is owned and used by the West 25th Street Lofts across Church.
The neighboring, 155-year-old landmark Dr. George Crile Office Building, 2516 Church Ave., and the 125-year-old Monroe Block, 2516 Church, are not involved in this project. Across West 26th is the oldest consecrated building in Cuyahoga County — St. John’s Episcopal Church, built in 1838.
On Feb. 10, a newly formed company F.G. Realty Holdings LLC acquired the building immediately north of the Nelson Block — the Case Building, 1452 W. 25th. County records show the Case Building and its 0.26-acre property were sold by the Rieth family for $1.15 million.
F.G. Realty Holdings was formed in November 2024 by Flannery Georgalis, LLC to own the property for the law firm’s new Cleveland office. It is next door to the Taubman Law Firm which renovated another historic building for its own offices at 1444 W. 25th.
Schematic plans by DS Architecture of Cleveland to redevelop the 130-year-old Case Building as law offices were approved Feb. 20 by the Historic Ohio City Design Review Advisory Committee.
Offices will not only fill the 7,920 square feet of space in the two stories above ground, the law firm will also renovate the 3,960-square-foot basement with restrooms and storage plus offer a rooftop deck that will have an unobstructed view of Downtown Cleveland across the Cuyahoga Valley.
Flannery Georgalis’ offices are currently located in One Cleveland Center, 1375 E. Ninth St., Downtown. The firm was founded in 2017 by two former federal prosecutors — Paul Flannery and Chris Georgalis — from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Ohio.
The law firm has since rapidly expanded into multiple markets with offices in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Detroit and the West Virginia cities of Morgantown, Martinsburg and Charleston.
The Case Building had been in the Rieth family for generations. It was acquired by Harvey Sr. and Harriet Rieth in 1945 for their Rieth’s Automotive Supply Company, Inc. Harvey Reith Jr. is president of the company. Fleetwise Truck Parts occupies the building today. A vehicle parts store has been there since 1917, property records show.
As with the Nelson Block, the Case Building was proposed two years ago to be renovated and repurposed as part of the Hulett Hotel project. Hulett Hotel developer Mark Raymond, who also owns the Cleveland Hostel and Guesthouse farther south on West 25th, didn’t respond to a request for more information on why the project fell through.
However, when a revised plan for the 63-room Hulett Hotel was offered in 2023, a member of the Franklin-Clinton Block Club speculated that the overall hospitality market was too weak and there were already two other nearby hotel developments in the works.
At that time, that was Bridgeworks and the Westinghouse redevelopment. While both Bridgeworks and the Westinghouse redevelopment remain as active projects that are finalizing their development plans, neither has a hotel component anymore.
Graham Veysey, principal of Grammar Properties which is partnering with M Panzica Development to deliver Bridgeworks, told NEOtrans last year that the “Lending landscape is prohibitive for hospitality.”
But that’s hasn’t stopped Cleveland developer Dan Whalen from trying. NEOtrans broke the story last year that Whalen set off on his own from a Chicago-based developer that had constructed the huge Intro project at West 25th and Lorain Avenue. His new venture is seeking to build an eight-story boutique hotel at 1960 W. 26th in Ohio City.
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