At its November 18 meeting, the Cleveland Planning Commission approved schematic plans for the 127-unit Chester 82 apartment project located along Chester Avenue between East 81st and East 82nd Streets. The project was touted as being “affordable market-rate,” which generally means that units are priced slightly below what luxury apartments in the area go for. Commission members raised concerns about not having an active use like a fitness center or coffee shop on the first floor, and the developer promised to look at this in the final design.
The project isn’t exactly new: More than 15 years ago, Marous Development Group took title to a city-owned land bank parcel at 1898 E. 82nd St. with plans to develop it into for-sale townhomes. The 2008 recession scuttled that idea, however. More recently, Marous acquired an adjacent parcel to expand the project’s footprint and took steps to build apartments there.
A lot’s changed since 2006, when the project was first conceived: Rental rates have spiked (a report by Freddie Mac shows between 2019 and October 2021, rent prices increased by 10% in the Cleveland area), and that, along with previous low interest rates, the city’s tax abatement policy, and increased public and private investment in the area, have spurred development of new units. Nearby, the Foundry Lofts on Euclid Avenue, the Lumos apartments on E. 93rd St., and Addis View apartments on E. 90th St. are just a few of the developments underway or now leasing, in addition to projects like the Cleveland Foundation and MAGNET’s new headquarters.
Arne Goldman, director of business development at Marous Brothers Construction, said the Chester 82 has been a long time coming. Marous has “waited for years for a time to do a market rate apartment development,” he told the commission. “This project is designed so it’s hitting the low end of market rate, under what the city has deemed an affordable rental structure.”
What will the apartments cost?
By this time next year, Cleveland developers will need to offer some lower-priced units in order to obtain tax abatement (according to the new policy, by the end of 2023 developers who want to obtain 100% tax abatement on multifamily buildings will have to include some affordable units, defined as 100% of area median income or AMI which is about $1,000 a month for a one bedroom).
Marous president Chip Marous declined to comment for this story, so it’s not clear what Goldman, who said he was not authorized to speak to the media, meant by “low end of market rate.” However, the nearby Foundry Apartments offer studio units for $1,299 per month, which is several hundred dollars less than what is available at Innova, which is closer to University Circle. A spokesperson for The Foundry said units there are cheaper because they don’t have luxury amenities like elevator access, granite countertops, covered parking, or rooftop terraces.
Towards community-focused development
Ward 7 councilmember Stephanie Howse said in an interview after the meeting that the developers have done a good job engaging the community, but she’s planning another meeting to get feedback from residents before the design goes for final approval. “They have gone through a process and actually engaged with community members,” she said, noting that some residents were initially upset about the size of the building. “It’s a work in progress.”
The meeting also did not address how the project would fit into Midtown Cleveland’s plans to redo Chester Avenue, which is currently a six-lane commuter thoroughfare, into a more inviting, pedestrian-friendly street. Chester has long walled off residents of the surrounding predominantly Black neighborhoods, which have suffered from decades of disinvestment due to systemic racism. Midtown’s plan calls for reducing Chester from six to four lanes with a center turning lane; adding wider tree lawns; and building a 16-foot wide shared use path for bikes and pedestrians.
Ashley Shaw, executive director of Midtown Cleveland, said it’s a priority for her agency and the community to re-do Chester but there are no concrete plans to do so right now. It’s important to make sure that development activity in Midtown spills over into neighboring Hough, she said. “We know it’s a divider,” she said of Chester Avenue. “We need to figure out how to break down that barrier to connect what’s happening in Midtown with what’s happening in Hough.”
Howse said it needs to be more of a priority for the state and federal governments to invest in Chester and other car-dominated roadways to help redevelop urban communities. “A significant number of people don’t have cars, and we need to create opportunities for people to get places in different ways,” she said.
The proposal and commission feedback
Here are the basics of the proposal: Chester 82 would be five stories tall with the first level as parking, and it would step back to four stories on E. 81st and E. 82nd Streets as it gets closer to neighboring homes. It would contain a mix of studio, one bedroom (some with dens), and two bedroom apartments, and a total of 146 indoor and outdoor parking spaces. There would be some landscaping, benches, and seating along Chester that the public could use, Goldman said, yet the first floor would be screened-in parking.
The need for a more active first-floor use was one of four conditions that commission members wanted to see addressed, along with a lack of on-site amenities, the landscape materials in the parking lot, and the rear fence heights. Planning commission chair Lillian Kuri asked if Marous would consider adding an active use such as a fitness center (currently located on the second floor), and Goldman said they would consider it.
The city’s chief zoning administrator Shannan Leonard cited the need to balance multifamily development along Chester with the needs of homeowners to the south, who bought their newly constructed homes during the 1990s and 2000s. “There are places where large scale density is appropriate, but we should have a step down effect in some areas,” said Leonard. “Even though the city would like to move away from these suburban style homes, we should still respect the fact that these homeowners have chosen Hough and Cleveland as a place to live.”
Neighborhood planner Kim Scott had concerns about approving Chester 82 before the city had a chance to adopt its new form-based code for the area. Form-based code is a means of regulating urban development to achieve a specific urban form, such as higher density or first-floor retail.
Yet commission member Marika Shioiri-Clark said she believed the project’s density works at this location.
“What kind of development do we want?” she said. “The reality is Chester is a major commercial thoroughfare. There are also major commercial buildings to the south, so I don’t think the urban context is the same as if this was a two lane road.” She suggested planners might consider allowing on-street parking on Chester in the future in order to alleviate parking congestion.
Commission member August Fluker, who lives just south of the project site, touted its relative affordability, at least compared to other new construction apartments in the area. “There are very few opportunities for affordable market rate,” he said. “Every tower going up is high-end market rate, not for the people who work at the Clinic or live in the neighborhood.”
Howse agreed, citing the fact that Hough, a community of about 10,000 people, has a median household income of about $19,000. “There needs to be a range of housing products made available to the broad lived realities of Clevelanders,” she said.
Khalid Hawthorne, senior acquisition and development manager with the nonprofit Famicos Foundation, said he also supported the project – while cautioning that any development built here needs to address Chester’s relationship with the Black community that surrounds it. With ongoing investment in the area, as well as a number of vacant parcels along Chester Avenue, some of which are owned by the city and some of which are in private hands, that development activity – and the need to balance growth with community priorities – are sure to continue.
“Chester has been a challenge for this community from day one when it was built – and there are things we’re trying to hopefully reduce those challenges over time,” he said. “We support an apartment building on this site. We feel having that density along Chester would improve the urban context there.”
Cleveland City Planning meetings are live streamed and archived on YouTube. Individuals who wish to join meetings and comment may contact the CPC at cityplanning@clevelandohio.gov or 216.664.3802. Questions? Contact Michael Bosak at mbosak@clevelandohio.gov.
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