WataTees

I have a couple friends that live around there.. and I used to deliver pizzas in the neighborhood for a few years. Its a cool part of Cleveland. Any of the side streets off Mayfield in little Italy are a good choice, Check out Murry Hill in our search. All older buildings.. but cool living. Defiantly a younger crowd, a lot of CWRU kids and cleveland heights locals.

Yeah, I imagine it would take a lot of time and money to renovate a tool shop for other purposes. I like the rustic look though.. and can do a lot with a little. I figure if I can find a building with no structure issues, decent roof, still has electrical / piping / plumbing etc, and doesn't have any environmental issues I can do most of the rest myself. If I can find all that, 3,000+ SF, for under $50K I'd be happy. Maybe that's a tall order, I don't know. I've done some rehab work on the last two places i've lived in and have been able to do wonders for next to no money. I can do floors, dry wall and all that kind of stuff. As long as I had a good solid building I'd have that place singing in no time. I'm still in the info gathering stage and realize this is going to be a lot to take on. Before signing any papers I'll defiantly be doing my research. That's why I really appreciate all the help on here.

The one at 3026 scranton looks great! Right around where i'd like to be. I checked and looked like it was a school at one point than a piano wholesaler. I wonder what it looks like inside.. if its a big area or broken up into smaller rooms. It looks like it just foreclosed and is behind almost $300k in taxes. How would a situation like that work? Would whoever bought it then owe all that? Or is there any way to waive past taxes for new developments?

Thanks for all the info! The building at 1623 east 43rd is over 100 years old and still looking good... they really don't build them like they used to. I bet the architecture inside is awesome. The neighborhood was a bit of a concern. The surrounding area is most likely not my customer demographic, and Ideally I'd like a good amount of foot traffic with a retail presence in the neighborhood. If I did end up getting a place with no retail possibilities it would change the scope of my business and shift my attention to online sales. Which could be good or bad. If this building was in tremount, ohio city, downtown, detroit shore way, maybe lorain to about 65th... or kamms corner it would be perfect!! Just found out about kamms corner.. don't know much about the neighborhood but seems pretty nice and up and coming.

Man... haha, I posted the wrong address twice!!! Yesterday must have been an off day for me. The building I saw on google maps was at 1623 east 43rd!!! Looks like it hasn't been used for some time, but still looks to be in pretty decent shape. As I mentioned for taxing purposes its valued at less than 50,000. Looks to be about 6,000 square feet or so (just a guess), two floors and I'm guessing since it was a manufacturing facility it has a pretty open floor plan. Not too familiar with the neighborhood, but its pretty close to downtown. Would this address be suitable for a work / living, purposes? If you guys had to guess... how much do you think a building like this would go for? Assuming the sellers were willing to part with it?

Woops... I was wrong it's actually 1623 east 143rd... I was way off on the address lol. Its an old mold and die factory it looks like.

I found a property that looks like it has some potential. Saw an address of 1624 east 40th. Classified as manufacturing and assembly light. Not sure what that really qualifies it for. Looks like a pretty cool space and i'd imagine it has many of the attributes i'm looking for. Just not sure I can use it for my living / light manufacturing / possible bar or comedy club, purposes. Lol... the more I look into it, i'm not sure there's any property that will allow me to do all that. I would forgo the possible bar / comedy club as long as I can conduct my current business and live out of it as well. Also... a building of that size net taxable of 41,000.. that's so cheap for such a large space. Does that tell you the building is in horrible condition? If say I got a place similar and fixed it up half way nice, would the net taxable go up or would it always be 41?

I just googled your buddies place at: 168 East 40th... too bad its not still available. The building across the street, I think its: 1659 East 40th is pretty much the exact building i'm looking for!! Even says loft works on the front. Also the red building on payne looks like it has the same potential. I haven't been around that area much but that big of a building with such low taxes would be worth it. I could spend all day on google maps looking for places lol.

Man.. that place ray's looks sweet!! I can't believe that's in cleveland. I google mapped that location and the building is HUGE!! Looks like its about 4-5 city blocks big. I wonder if they bought the whole thing... even abandoned I'd imagine it would be around a million dollars or so. Looks sweet though... I want to check it out. I used to bmx but now i'd probably break a hip. Wonder if they have a watching section lol. The place at: 2817 Detroit Rd, Cleveland, OH looks like a perfect building for my needs. The building looks in perfect shape in a prime location.. I imagine it would go for top dollar if they ever sold. The building on the same block... even though its just a one story, looks more in my range lol. I've always seen the building on: 3219 Detroit Avenue when driving past on the freeway. That building looks in great shape and always wondered what it looked like inside and how much it would sell for. If it went for $275K; that's out of my range but still pretty encouraging. Its such a nice building it makes me think I can get something a bit more run down in my range.

With my luck I'd be investigated the first week. I'd like to go into it with all zones cleared and good to go. I'd like to find a property in a mixed use sort of area like tremount, ohio city etc so a zone overlay would probably be an option if the zone wasn't already correct. When I close my eyes and think of the perfect scenario... the building would be an old warehouse of some sort with big 16 foot tall ceilings, open floor plan and about three floors around 2,000 square feet on each floor. I'd like to conduct my business out of the first or second floor and convert the top to loft living space. In my dream world I'd turn the bottom floor into a sweet bar or comedy club.. then the second floor would be my current business, and live on the top. Haha... having the money to do all these things is another thing... but a guy can dream right? Again in my dream world, the building would be in a heavy foot traffic area (not many of those in cleveland) or right off the beaten path of one.

Hi, Thanks for the community development links KJP. At first I misread the Brownfield website... I thought they were a restoration company that fixed up old buildings to make them green. I'll defiantly be staying away from them, thanks for the warnings everyone. I'm looking for a building that can serve multiple purposes. Somewhere I could live and work out of... What about zoning for that? When I was on the mycuyahoga site the page that tells you what zones were used for what, came up as an error page. That could narrow my search down to only areas where that's possible. Or if say I found the perfect building for my purposes but it wasn't zoned for living and working would I be able to convince the city to change the zoning?

Hi everyone, Thanks for all the help and great links, just what I was looking for! Seems like I have some homework to do. Thanks Oldmanladyluck for breaking it down like that. I found the MyCuyahoga interactive map on that site and its pretty useful, however it won't let me past the link here. Still trying to make sense of it all but that tool is a great starting point. I was defiantly looking at Lorain. I'd like to find one just west of downtown like ohio city, tremount, Gordan district etc. Somewhere I could live and work out of. Was thinking around 3,000-5,000 square feet to give me enough room to grow. I'd also like some extra land if possible. I love old building with character and i'm very good at restoring things cosmetically, but worried about costly structural damage etc. I don't have much of a budget and I'm starting to realize this whole thing could end up being quite costly. I will defiantly do my research and figure out exactly what i'm getting into before I start making any offers. It will probably take longer than expected but I'd like to find something within a year or so from now. I like the idea of Bownfield but not sure what that all entails. I always keep the environmental impact in mind and work towards sustainability. Its a big concern of mine and I have some really cool ideas and would like to see them come to life with this project.

Hi, There's a lot of unused, neglected commercial buildings around the city of cleveland. Some are better than others but still obvious they haven't been in use for some time. I'd like to find out more info on these sorts of properties... if they're for sale, cost, problems, liens etc. I'm new to the real estate world but at some point in the near future I'd like to buy one. Is there a sort of database I could see what's available? I've been doing a lot of online research without much luck. I found the cuyahoga sheriff foreclosure list but it only had residential properties. And any sort of real estate broker site I search only has a few commercial building all with pretty high price tags. Any help would be appreciated.