A former car dealership that straddled both sides of Detroit Avenue, just east of West Clifton Boulevard, has been smashed to rubble.
In its place, two Cleveland developers are preparing to build a $30.5 million mixed-use development that will have 124 apartments and about 1,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
The developers, NewBrook Partners and The Krueger Group, both Cleveland companies, hope to start construction this year. The project will consist of two four-story buildings on the site of the former Steve Barry Buick at 16000 and 15801 Detroit.
One building will stand off the north side of Detroit between Brockley and Cranford avenues. The second building is planned for the south side of Detroit across from Brockley.
The project also includes a new stand-alone bank branch at the southwest corner of Detroit and Orchard Grove Avenue, just west of the south building.
Angela Byington, Lakewood’s planning and development director, said city officials are excited about the development because it will include affordable housing, along with market-rate apartments, and because it will repurpose about 2 acres of abandoned property.
“These additional (apartment) units will provide new opportunity for existing and potential new residents, while increasing Lakewood’s population, which is important for continued federal funding,” Byington told The Land in an email.
Site work was continuing on the property the week of March 16.
NewBrook didn’t return emails, and Krueger couldn’t be reached, regarding exactly when construction of the buildings will begin, whether they have signed a retail tenant or tenants, and how much apartments will cost monthly.
Financing factors
In February, the Port of Cleveland approved $24.4 million in lease revenue bonds to help pay for the site redevelopment. Those who lend to the project by purchasing the bonds will be paid back from revenue it generates.
NewBrook and Krueger also received a $2 million Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program grant from the Ohio Department of Development.
“The property’s previous use as a car dealership, with an onsite storage tank used for gasoline, as well as asbestos identified within the structure, made the property eligible for funding through the program,” Mason Waldvogel, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Development, told The Land.
In addition, NewBrook and Krueger have applied to the city of Lakewood for a tax abatement, the terms of which Byington did not disclose.
Under the city’s tax abatement program, any new apartment complex with 100 or more units can receive an abatement if at least 20 percent of those units have affordable rents, as opposed to market rates.
The city of Lakewood uses U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines when determining who is qualified for affordable housing. A single person, for example, cannot earn more than $54,450 to qualify. For a family of four, the maximum household income is $77,750.
For those eligible for affordable-housing rates, the maximum rent is $910 a month for an efficiency suite, $1,030 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,250 for two bedrooms.
Mostly single bedrooms
NewBrook bought the 2-acre Barry Buick site through a limited liability company called Lakewood Detroit LLC. It paid $2.6 million for the property in July 2023, according to the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office website.
NewBrook’s past work, according to the company website, has included several student housing projects, including 1609 Hazel, a 64-unit development near the Cleveland Institute of Music; The Langston, which holds 318 apartments at Cleveland State University; and The Lex, a former tobacco warehouse that was redeveloped into a 266-unit apartment complex near the University of Kentucky.
Meanwhile, according to its website, The Krueger Group built TREO on West 25th, a seven-story apartment building on West 25th Street in Cleveland; Breakwater Lofts, a 26-unit apartment building in Gordon Square; and Cahoon Ledges, a 22-clustered-home development in Bay Village.
Lakewood’s Planning Commission and Architectural Board of Review approved NewBrook’s and Krueger’s Detroit Road site plan in July 2024.
In addition to demolishing the two Barry Buick buildings – one built in 1929, the other in 1948 – Cleveland Magazine and the NEOtrans blog reported in December that the former Bobby O’s bar and two houses were torn down to make room for the mixed-use development. However, Lakewood officials would not independently confirm that with The Land.
According to the site plan, the 69,000-square-foot L-shaped north building will contain 66 apartments, a fitness center and two indoor parking garages, along with a parking lot behind the building. Only a corner of the building facing Detroit will have retail space.
The 56,000-square-foot rectangular south building will contain 58 apartments and one parking garage but no retail space.
Only 24 of the total 124 apartments will have two bedrooms. The remainder will be one-bedroom, junior one-bedroom and one-bedroom-with-a-den units.
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