The Port of Cleveland is better known for freighters and cargo cranes than for starter homes. But this month its board voted to help put new houses on empty lots in one of the city's longest-struggling neighborhoods.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Port of Cleveland Board of Directors approved support for two housing projects, according to the Port. One is 10 single-family homes in Cleveland's St. Clair-Superior neighborhood. The other is a 120-unit affordable assisted living community in Euclid.
"This is an example of the Port using our financing tools creatively to support innovative efforts by partners like the City of Cleveland and City of Euclid on projects that address real community needs," said Rhonda Winslow, the Port's vice president of development finance.
Ten homes on East 67th Street
In Cleveland, the board approved a low-interest loan for 10 new for-sale, owner-occupied houses on vacant land bank lots on East 67th Street. The site sits inside the city's recently announced Housing Innovation District.
Knez Homes is developing the project. It was picked alongside Legacy RED through a competitive City of Cleveland process. The homes will be the St. Clair-Superior part of the city's Housing Innovation District Market Pilot, which aims to add for-sale housing in neighborhoods hit by decades of vacancy and heavy rental concentration. The Port says the pilot will test scalable, cost-effective ways to rebuild local housing markets.
Each home will be about 1,303 square feet, with estimated sale prices of $169,900 to $201,400. Public and philanthropic money, plus savings from the Port's reduced-rate loan, will cover the gap between what the homes cost to build and what they sell for.
More detail came out at the Sept. 4 Cleveland City Planning Commission meeting, according to notes from Signal Cleveland's Documenters program. Gillian Hall, representing Knez Homes, said the first phase is five homes on five adjacent lots and called the design one of the company's most cost-effective plans. The homes have three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, laundry, a closet and a powder room downstairs, attached rear garages and backyards.
The houses are 16 feet wide on 40-foot lots. That fell short of the city's form-based code, which calls for buildings to cover 65% of the front lot line. The commission unanimously approved a reduction to 40%. City planner Adam Davenport said the broader effort includes 20 single-family homes across St. Clair and Hough, plus home repairs and a couple of storefront renovations.
Commission Vice Chair August Fluker welcomed the smaller footprint. "Thank you for building smaller houses," he said, adding that bringing this kind of housing to market at 1,700 to 2,500 square feet is "virtually impossible."
"These 10 market pilot homes are a starting point for changing that pattern," Mayor Justin M. Bibb said in the Port's release, referring to years of disinvestment in St. Clair-Superior.
The Port says the homes complement more than $365 million in nearby public and philanthropic investment, including its CHEERS project, which will turn dredged material into 100 acres of new parkland, trails and habitat along the Lake Erie shoreline in St. Clair-Superior.
Assisted living in Euclid
In Euclid, the board approved support for Silver Birch, an affordable assisted living community planned for a vacant site near the northwest corner of Euclid Avenue and Interstate 90. Vermilion Development is the developer, and Silver Birch Living is expected to run it long term. The roughly 100,000-square-foot building will have 120 apartments, with about one-third available to lower-income residents. It is designed for elderly and disabled residents. No general contractor has been named publicly.
The Port says both votes are part of a new strategy to use its balance sheet and bonding capacity to put more flexible capital toward the housing crisis.
Why it matters for Contractors
A port authority lending on single-family homes is a new source of construction money in Cleveland, and the Port says it plans to do more of it. The East 67th Street homes are narrow, repeatable plans on infill lots, the kind of work that suits framers, roofers, siding and window installers, plumbers, electricians, HVAC crews, drywall hangers and concrete crews who can work efficiently on tight city sites. If the market pilot proves the numbers work, more Housing Innovation District homes could follow. The 100,000-square-foot Silver Birch building in Euclid is a larger commercial-scale job, with work for site, structural, mechanical and interior trades once a builder is chosen. Subs should keep an eye out for bid opportunities.