Another chunk of property next to Edgewater Parkway with Lake Erie vistas is being scheduled for a major residential project, this time west of the West 76th Street area that’s already home to multiple new housing developments.
It’s a 2-acre property stretching north from 8400 Lake Ave. in Cleveland to a site near Edgewater Parkway, formerly known as the West Shoreway.
That’s where a joint venture by Property Advisors Group of Pepper Pike and Knez Homes of Concord Township won conceptual approval Friday, March 4, from the Cleveland City Planning Commission for a group of three-story townhomes and a 170-suite, seven-story apartment building.
Brandon Kline, director of design development at Geis Cos. of Streetsboro, told the commission that the properties would have modern industrial design, which would allow them to relate to the historic industrial neighborhood nearby. Particulars of design will be added later, as the March 4 review was to inform the commission about the general massing and development of the site.
The apartment building will be developed by Property Advisors, a real estate development, ownership and management firm, as a family project, according to Brad Nosan, its vice president of leasing and acquisitions.
“We got involved here because we love the location,” Nosan said in an interview after the planning commission session. “I live in Ohio City and have always loved its potential near the Shoreway. We don’t know the for-sale housing market and invited Knez to join us.”
The other part of the catalyst was the reconstruction of Lake Avenue with bike paths, Nosan said.
Bo Knez, the owner of Knez Homes, said in an interview he was excited to join the project because it involves an underused site.
“It’s somewhat of a missing link between two high-demand neighborhoods — the Edgewater area and Detroit-Shoreway,” Knez said. Pricing for the townhomes is not yet set because of the volatility of pricing of construction materials, he said.
The townhouses allow the project to respect the height of single-family homes nearby on Lake Avenue and to buffer the apartment tower from the street, Kline said. The townhouses would be in three buildings, including one that would be parallel to Lake Avenue.
The 8400 Lake project, with its mix of low-rise townhouses and the seven-story apartment building, is designed to suit Cleveland’s proposed urban infill development zoning, which has yet to be adopted by Cleveland City Council.
Nosan said the new zoning will allow developers to have more clarity in planning real estate projects than in the past and to make better use of constrained urban sites. Should the project be ready to go before the city adopts the new zoning, he said the developers would seek variances for it to proceed.
Geis is serving as the design-builder for the apartment. Sixmo Architects of Cleveland will design the townhouses.
Undertaking the apartment project is part of an eight-year plan to diversify the offerings of Property Advisors, which originally developed office/warehouse properties. In the past few years, the firm has developed self-storage and student-housing properties in other states and office buildings in Green, in Summit County, Nosan said.
Joyce Huang, Cleveland city planning director, told the commission that more than 40 neighborhood residents attended sessions on the project for community input held by Northeast Shores Development Corp. Area residents wanted to ensure the project provides as much foliage as possible because it will remove a heavily treed area and take steps to activate the Lake Avenue side of the project, she said.
Kline said the project will include green space and will incorporate a courtyard open to the community as part of the apartment building’s design.
Plans call for starting to construct both phases of the project by year’s end. Nosan declined to comment on how much the entire development will cost to produce. He said his company controls the entire site for the project.