Market District Lofts in Ohio City are expanding
17 new apartments will be built in place of the existing office space. By Ken Prendergast, NEO Trans
This article was published as part of an exclusive content partnership with neo-trans.blog.
On most other lots, the construction of 17 new homes would be visible from the street. But if a planned expansion of the Market District Lofts in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood actually goes ahead, it could be the least noticed residential development in the city center since The Residences at the Guardian Condominiums have opened downtown. And the same developer is involved in both.
MRN Ltd. filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings last week to convert the seventh floor of the United Bank Building, 2012 W. 25th St., which is all office, into market-rate apartments. A preliminary construction estimate is $1.5 million, according to the application. The 10-story building is on the opposite corner of the West Side Market.
“It expands the Market District Lofts project by adding 17 additional residential units in the building,” MRN’s Chief Operating Officer Joseph Del Re wrote in the application. “These units will feature the same amenities as the third and fourth floors, including modern floor plans, in-unit washer and dryers, energy-efficient features such as LED lighting, water-saving bathroom fixtures and Energy Star appliances.”
The application also states that the sprinkler system will be extended from the third and fourth floors to the seventh floor. In addition, the fire alarm system will be upgraded to reflect the conversion of offices to apartments.
“The size and price of the units will be chosen to create a market-rate, workforce-focused housing product that builds on the success of the third and fourth floor units while replacing outdated and underutilized office space with a more attractive product type,” Del Re added.
According to the company’s website, rents for existing units at Market District Lofts currently range from just under $2 per square foot for one-bedroom apartments to just over $2 per square foot for the smallest studios. There are no units larger than one-bedroom apartments. Units range in size from 41 to 85 square meters, with the largest apartments on the third floor.
The floor plan of the seventh floor corresponds to that of the fourth floor, which also includes 17 units. The largest apartments offered on the fourth floor are between 65 and 70 square meters in size.
There are eight apartments on the third floor, which is only on the west side of the building, which was built in 1925. Behind that, the ground floor has a high ceiling that reaches up to the third floor. This space was the elegant former bank lobby of the United Savings and Trust Co., now the Bartleby Supper Club.
The renovation and remodeling work on the seventh floor will be nearly identical to the work on the fourth floor. Both the fourth and seventh floors take up the entire footprint of the building and measure approximately 1,300 square feet. The third and fourth floors were renovated and converted into apartments at a cost of approximately $4 million and were made ready for occupancy in 2019.
The residential areas of the building are separated by offices on the fifth and sixth floors. Del Re did not respond to two emails from NEOtrans seeking further information on the future use of these and other floors on higher floors of the building.
Cresco Real Estate recently listed nearly 6,000 square feet of office space on the seventh floor of the United Bank Building as available. City building department records show the last new office tenant on the seventh floor moved in in 2016, when Title Law renovated 2,700 square feet of space for $30,000. MRN has owned the building since 2008.
Cresco had also listed the entire ninth and 10th floors as available. But that changed in April when MRN subsidiary United Twenty-Fifth Building LLC sold two air rights lots containing those two floors to Top Floor Ventures LLC, whose tax address is listed as William Shepardson of Shaker Heights.
Shepardson is president of WHS Engineering, whose offices are on the second floor of the United Bank Building. Shepardson, son of Ray Shepardson, who led the rebirth of Playhouse Square in the 1970s, has worked extensively with MRN on many of its developments, including the renovation of properties on East 6th Street downtown and the construction of the Uptown District in University Circle.
The top two floors of the United Bank Building were vacated earlier this year. According to a report published by NEOtrans, Cleveland-based financial planning firm Skylight Financial Group, a general agency of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual), moved out of the ninth and 10th floors after a 10-year lease expired. Both Skylight Financial and MassMutual owned naming rights to the building.
The two companies leased the 8,000-square-foot second floor of The Avian at Thunderbird, 1956 Carter Road, on the Scranton Peninsula in the Flats. The BrewDog Cleveland Outpost occupies the entire ground floor of the former Cuyahoga Lumber Co. sawmill.
For more Cleveland news, subscribe to our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.
Cleveland Magazine is also available in print and is published 12 times a year with in-depth articles, helpful instructions and beautiful photos and designs.
