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It's already happening. Spillover into lower Glenville is very strong; but of course, as tough as things are in parts of Glenville, this section of Cleveland is in much better shape, overall, than East Cleveland, which is beyond life supports...
The lower Glenville area along Wade Park and to the north and west, is very strong, esp along Ashbury and Lee Aves and Rockefeller Park which, in fairness, have always been rather strong, with large old Cleveland Heights-esq homes (less so along Lee, which was really down-and-out but being radically upgraded). But if you go along E. 118th to the north and east up to Lakeview Ave, you'll see a slew of new infill houses built/being built mainly by aggressive local developer Bo Knez (and others), who is sprucing up struggling-to-good neighborhoods on both sides of town. And those beautiful old 4 and 6 unit brick walk-up apartments, many of which were condemned and boarded up, have been/are being brought back to life... check out the below:
20 years ago this strip of old commercial and apt buildings was a total wreck... Today, it's been fixed up and very viable. Many CWRU grad students have moved in. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5170...8i8192!5m1!1e2
East Cleveland is a tougher nut to crack because it is in such terrible shape. But there is a tad of daylight... Knez is is now renovating the spooky, long abandoned Hough Bakery HQ into condos on Lakeview Ave next to the elevated Rapid/RR tracks. Just a block away on Wade Park Ave, next to those elevated tracks, Knez is developing an all-new townhouse community. Both these developments straddle Glenville and East Cleveland. Also, on the other side of the tracks (at Lakeview & Euclid), are the decade-old Circle-East townhouses developed between a partnership of East Cleveland's Gary Norton (the last sensible/non-corrupted/progressive EC mayor, who was sadly run from office) and UCI's Chris Ronayne. Those units are holding up well. Another developing Glenville street that bumps up against the E. Cleve border is E. 115th.
It's already happening. Spillover into lower Glenville is very strong; but of course, as tough as things are in parts of Glenville, this section of Cleveland is in much better shape, overall, than East Cleveland, which is beyond life supports...
The lower Glenville area along Wade Park and to the north and west, is very strong, esp along Ashbury and Lee Aves and Rockefeller Park which, in fairness, have always been rather strong, with large old Cleveland Heights-esq homes (less so along Lee, which was really down-and-out but being radically upgraded). But if you go along E. 118th to the north and east up to Lakeview Ave, you'll see a slew of new infill houses built/being built mainly by aggressive local developer Bo Knez (and others), who is sprucing up struggling-to-good neighborhoods on both sides of town. And those beautiful old 4 and 6 unit brick walk-up apartments, many of which were condemned and boarded up, have been/are being brought back to life...
I wouldn't be surprised if Glenville and even western East Cleveland won't experience a gentrification story much like German Village in Columbus, with a time lag of 60-70 years.
Some believe the beautiful Schiller Park made the German Village rebirth possible, but Schiller pales significantly compared to University Circle and Rockfeller Park in Glenville's frontyard. Glenville also benefits from the many recreational amenities at the city-managed Gordon Park and the lakeside offerings and POTENTIAL of the portion of Gordon Park now managed by Cleveland Metroparks north of the I-90 shoreway, all in Glenville's backyard.
Glenville housing stock also may be better on average than the smaller homes that characterized GV in 1960.
As always, astute first movers reap the rewards (note this is a 1983 article):
<<Once slated for slum clearance, these 233 acres have undergone constantly accelerating rehab that began about 1950. The tourists and parking problems which that activity brought are seen as bad news by some residents. But the good news is that from 1962 to 1982 the average fair market price of homes has increased by 538 percent, while many other inner-city neighborhoods have been on the decline.
And there are more than a few stories about owners getting $100,000 today for what they paid $6,000 for two decades ago, according to Shirley Kientz, full-time secretary of the German Village Society. >>
One tip for anyone considering Glenville. As in GV, enclosed parking may be worth a substantial premium, even if the owner has to add it.
Glenville, Hough and East Cleveland may be major beneficiaries of the Great Climate Change Migration that many expect to accelerate over the next two decades. See post 22 here:
Breaking stride with lender forbearance and other measures that shopping center owners have used to cope with the pandemic's economic fallout, the lender behind an $11 million mortgage on Shaker Square has filed to seize the property through a foreclosure proceeding.
Wilmington Trust National Association of Delaware and Washington, D.C.-based special servicer CW Capital Asset Management on Dec. 17 filed a foreclosure proceeding in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to recoup the landmark shopping center on Cleveland's East Side from Coral Shaker Square LLC, an affiliate of Coral Co. real estate development and management concern.
Wilmington and CW represent bond holders who bought the securitized real estate loan, referred to in CMBS parlance as the "COMM 2015-CCRE25 Mortgage Trust Commercial Mortgage."
In the case, assigned to Judge Ashley Kilbane, lawyers for the lender asked the court to appoint a receiver for the property who would be authorized to sell the shopping center, which was created in 1929 by real estate developers the Van Sweringen Brothers to serve their adjoining Shaker Heights real estate development, complete with public transit connecting it with downtown.
The loan was originally $12 million when it was taken out in 2015. Peter Rubin, Coral CEO, told Crain's Cleveland Business last summer that the original loan had expired in June, but his company's efforts to secure replacement financing had stalled during the pandemic. Coral acquired Shaker Square in 2004 after a multimillion-dollar redevelopment program failed.
At that time, the property was 45% empty, but in the years since it has been more than 90% occupied. However, the pandemic's heavy weight on restaurant and retail operations was felt at Shaker Square this year as the property lost, then regained, multiple retail tenants. It also lost one of its largest office tenants when Perspectus Architecture relocated downtown this summer, saying it needed more space than the square could provide.
Cleveland Councilman Blaine Griffin, whose Ward 6 includes the octagonally shaped shopping area, said he was not surprised the lender action had ensued.
"(Rubin) has been a good owner," Griffin said. "He has focused on community engagement, which this property needs. We hope he can retain a role in the property going forward. But as a community, we have to work with community development organizations and nonprofits to find a way to retain this valuable asset. We all have to rally together to find a way to save Shaker Square."
Griffin said his greatest worry is that an out-of-town developer might snatch up the 20,000-square-foot mixed-use center and not be as responsive as a locally based owner such as Coral. He said he has heard other shopping center groups express interest in the property, but he does not know how serious their interest is.
Rubin on Tuesday, Dec. 22, declined comment on the suit.
Shaker Square is known for its status as a transit-oriented development, now with a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority station serving it. However, it also was designed as a shopping center that also provided parking. High-toned retailers originally dominated the property. The plaza has an American Colonial design similar to what the Van Sweringens used in Shaker Heights.
So do you think the area around Larchmere and Shaker will be developed more too?
There are currently four new housing developments in either the planning or construction phases within the Larchmere neighborhood:
1. Fairhill Court on Fairhill Road (sign with contact information posted...advertised nine (9) for-sale units...Fairhill Club LLC purchased the land from Cleveland Skating Club in June 2020)
2. North Park Place at intersection of Fairhill/Stokes and MLK (33 units have already been listed for sale) (http://www.northparkplace.live/)
3. 121 Larchmere at East 121st Street and Larchmere Boulevard (90 rental units under construction) (https://121larchmere.com/)
What Cleveland really needs to do is straight up ban awful massive parking lots, drive thrus and gas stations at major intersections. It's hard to take a place seriously when these are your major intersections (you do not see this in thriving cities):
Maybe I'm just complaining for no reason- but how can this just be allowed to happen? Could we at least mandate parking goes behind buildings and not so hideously out in front of everything? Absolutely nobody wants to walk around areas like that, it's just so ugly.
Slavic Village is rough, but at least I can see a future here
So much of the east side is just trashy highway exit type development. It's not a place to live. How much fast food do we really need anyway? I'd love to see even a tiny fraction of the west side money find its way over here to fix some of these eye sores and rebuild a little pride into the community.
I would also love to see all billboards completely banned, especially personal injury lawyers. And ban those guys from RTA as well. How undignified it is to get on a bus with an obese lawyer covering half of it. It's not respectful to the people that take the bus, and incredibly trashy for everyone that has to look at it. I thought I had a picture of this but I guess I don't, but if you go down Lorain-Carnegie as you approach Ohio City or leave Ohio City, the Guardian on the south side of the bridge is flanked by a massive Popeye's chicken sandwich ad on going one direction and a Tim Misny add heading the other way. I honestly cannot stand it.
What Cleveland really needs to do is straight up ban awful massive parking lots, drive thrus and gas stations at major intersections. It's hard to take a place seriously when these are your major intersections (you do not see this in thriving cities):
Maybe I'm just complaining for no reason- but how can this just be allowed to happen? Could we at least mandate parking goes behind buildings and not so hideously out in front of everything? Absolutely nobody wants to walk around areas like that, it's just so ugly.
Slavic Village is rough, but at least I can see a future here
So much of the east side is just trashy highway exit type development. It's not a place to live. How much fast food do we really need anyway? I'd love to see even a tiny fraction of the west side money find its way over here to fix some of these eye sores and rebuild a little pride into the community.
I would also love to see all billboards completely banned, especially personal injury lawyers. And ban those guys from RTA as well. How undignified it is to get on a bus with an obese lawyer covering half of it. It's not respectful to the people that take the bus, and incredibly trashy for everyone that has to look at it. I thought I had a picture of this but I guess I don't, but if you go down Lorain-Carnegie as you approach Ohio City or leave Ohio City, the Guardian on the south side of the bridge is flanked by a massive Popeye's chicken sandwich ad on going one direction and a Tim Misny add heading the other way. I honestly cannot stand it.
RTA (still new) GM India Birdsong said she would like to stop those personal injury lawyer ad wraps on buses. They definitely carry a negative connotation.
"Downtown" Slavic Village (E. 55 & Broadway) has a lot of potential. There are beautiful apartment and commercial buildings in the area that somehow have survived the wrecking ball... It's a very in-tact district, not unlike Lorain Station on the West Side (although Lorain Station is considerably ahead and in a stronger residential area economically). But a lot of those Slavic Village buildings are blighted/abandoned and are probably in poor physical shape. The beautiful, massive mixed-use Olympia (apt + movie theater + retail) building along with the famed Hubcap Heaven building are among the few rehabbed/intact ones along that corner. Just to the north, along E. 55, there's a surprising, impressive area of large homes and a few well-kept apt buildings that almost seem out of place considering the poverty and blight on some of the side streets in the area. Of course there's been considerable house/townhouse development south of Broadway in/around E. 63rd Street.
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Projects in Cleveland's Downtown, Campus District and Shaker Square Benefit from State Historic Preservation Tax Credits
