My roommate and I are searching for a new apartment (read 2 bedroom) in the Cleveland area.  We have been living in the University Heights area for the better part of 4 years and will be able to move this summer.

 

We have been actively searching for a good space, and have come up short. We have looked at Federal Knitting, Metro Lofts, Tower Press, and some one off apartments, and they are completely soulless and feel fake.  We are looking for some space that might not be advertised or someone may have some insight on where to look.  Please help.

 

We are looking for:

1.) 2 bedroom

2.) high ceilings

3.) unfinished/partially finished (exposed brick, ceilings, minimal carpet)

4.) enough room to set up 2 drafting tables comfortably (1100+ sqft)

5.) borderline safe to totally safe

6.) budget is around $1000 a month (has to be fantastic for $1200)

7.) trying to stay as close to downtown as possible while maintaining some parking options (w25th to e35th)

 

We are looking for character and not a "finished modern loft".

 

Any and all opinions and ideas are welcome

(1st post!!!)

 

-Josh

 

 

Welcome to UO jtrain!

 

My guess is that if you want 2 "bedrooms", you are going to get a finished loft-style apt.  If you want an actual unfinished loft, you're going to get raw space, which may or may not be legal for residential use.  It probably won't have separate bedrooms/kitchen/etc.  It will be one large chunk of space, and you'll have to separate out spaces on your own.

 

You aren't going to find that kind of space Downtown, except maybe in the old Superior Ave corridor from East 18th-Innerbelt.  Mostly you'll have to check out warehouses in surrounding neighborhoods, especially the area to the east of Downtown.  I would look around the area from Chester north to the lake, from the Innerbelt to East 55th.  It's relatively safe, there are lots of old warehouses, some of which allow residential uses, some of which don't.

 

I know there are a couple buildings in the Flats that are advertising space for "office/artists/residential" which sounds promising for what you want.  There's a building somewhere in the neighborhood of 1704 Columbus that had a sign out recently, and one across street at about 1672 Columbus.  Those aren't actual addresses, they are the "Google Streetview addresses" out front of the buildings.

What about Hyacinth Lofts? http://www.thehyacinthlofts.com/

I would recommend checking out the buildings along Superior Ave, roughly between E. 17 and E. 30.  Lots of great, mostly unfinished/partially finished buildings.  This area was recently dedicated as the Cleveland Arts Quarter with a goal of live/work zoning throughout.  You can likely glean more info from this site:

http://www.cityartistsatwork.org/

 

Welcome aboard Josh!

 

Here are three buildings that might be worth considering. Note that they are partially finished in that they give a refurbished space with new kitchens and baths, but the rest of it is open for the owner to decide what they want to do with it. The hitch is that these are for-sale units in all three buildings.....

 

Erie Building Lofts of Cleveland, Warehouse District, 1260  W. 4th St.

http://www.eriebuilding.com/

 

Payne Lofts, Asiatown District, 3608 Payne Ave.

http://www.progressiveurban.com/getagent/Pages.php?Page=0000630431

 

Painters Lofts, Detroit-Shoreway District, 8205 Franklin Blvd.

http://www.progressiveurban.com/getagent/Pages.php?Page=0000630049

 

If anything, they might give you more ideas on what's out there.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.

 

X/theguv - We are going to try to see some residential/workspace open floor plans.  I think that may be our best bet.  Definitely looking like the east side may be the closest to our price point.

 

rockandroller - I think the hyacinth lofts kind of fall into that Tower Press/FKMB type of space.  Maybe we will set up a showing.

 

KJP - Definitely some cool spots.  If one of those Payne lofts was for rent for around $1600 a month, I think I could go without eating.

 

We are going to keep looking, looks like we may start checking out live/work open floor plan studios. Feel free to make some more suggestions.  Specific listings, buildings, contacts are a plus too.

 

Cheers,

Josh