January 19, 200619 yr The city has been wanting something to be done with this block for quite some time and greeted the project pretty enthusiastically from all appearances. FutureHeights now claims that the project has been canceled, but the city is going to move forward with a parking garage at the rear of the site. The FutureHeights website has the following update today: Domain on Lee This $15 million dollar five-story development, due to begin construction in August, 2005, will have a retail space on the first floor, a structured parking deck, and 32 housing units starting at $300,000. Developed by the Coral Company. January 19, 2006. The Domain on Lee Development has been canceled. Because this development was tied to the configuration of the proposed City built parking garage at the corner of Meadowbrook and Tullamore, the garage will be re-designed to eliminate 68 underground parking spaces and move them to the surface. However, the total number of spaces for the parking garage project will be the same, approximately 400. The Planning & Development Committee of Cleveland Heights City Council (Dennis Wilcox, Chair; Nancy Dietrich, Phyllis Evans and Ken Montlack) will meet on 1/23/06. An agenda item will be the request by the Planning Department for a re-design of the parking garage. If this re-design is granted, the Planning Department is confident that construction of the garage could begin this summer. http://www.futureheights.org/site/futureheights/content.php?type=1&id=9591 Just speculating, but perhaps the original planning commission approval was conditioned on a particular start date that Coral failed to meet.
January 20, 200619 yr The cancellation of this project is really disappointing. This lot and abandoned bank building was always a hole in the middle of the Cedar Lee district separating the northern end of the strip (Cedar Lee theater, Lemongrass, Lopez, etc.) from the southern end (Marotta's, Stone Oven, Wine Room, etc.) This would have linked the two so it would have been one continuous run, and added more density to the mix. I'm also a little surprised they're going ahead with the parking lot anyway - you'd think you'd want to coordinate its design with the design of whatever ended up on the lot. One potential reason the project was shelved: I believe they had to do some environmental remediation at the site and got something like $400K from the EPA to do it (seem to remember reading that there used to be a gas station at that site). Maybe the cleanup was going to be harder than expected?
January 20, 200619 yr ^yeah, that's what most of us thought, but it still doesn't explain when only months ago coral literally slashed prices in half for most of the units
January 23, 200619 yr okay. So basically Coral didn't come close to meeting pre-sales. That is why prices were slashed about 6 months ago. CH patience wore out, took back the rights to the property. Project dead!
January 26, 200619 yr This week's east side Sun Press includes an article about the failure of the Domain on Lee project. Unfortunately, it isn't online. Here's the gist of it, from what I recall. Coral's agreement with the city included an August 31 "start construction" date. Coral asked for and received an extension to December 31. Coral was trying to get 8 presales before starting, but only got one. They felt that the market was pushing for lower prices, so they redesigned the units. When December rolled around, Coral asked the city for another extension so that they could try to sell more units at the lower prices, and they wanted to reduce the height of the building from five stories to three. City council basically decided that they were tired of waiting for this project and they weren't keen on reducing the height, so they said no to the extension. It is unclear whether the reduced price units were only in the reduced height design. The city is looking for someone else to take on the project, and Coral expressed a willingness to sell the original plans. The city is open to offers for the next 45 days, then they are going to open up the process to new proposals, including any new proposals that Coral wants to put forward. The city is rebidding the construction of the 4-story garage at the rear of the property in view of cost increases, but they plan to go forward. They have federal money in hand for the environmental cleanup and have already taken out a loan for construction of the garage, and they want to start construction in March. In my opinion, the city did the right thing. Maybe not the ideal thing, since they're building a four-story parking garage, but at least that's better than more open lots. It would not have been good to have a three story building in front of four story garage. And this project has been hanging around long enough -- it's time to take action and Coral didn't believe that they could build it and sell all the units. So let someone else give it a try. Hopefully someone comes up with a better idea.
May 17, 200619 yr UPDATE According to FutureHeights: April, 2006: The City of Cleveland Heights has decided to begin working with Al. Neyer Inc. based in Cincinnati. (www.neyer.com) for development of the Meadowbrook/Tullamore/Lee city-owned parcel in the Cedar-Lee commercial district. Neyer has an extensive portfolio of mixed-use projects. http://www.futureheights.org/site/futureheights/ Let's hope we hear more soon.
August 10, 200618 yr Domain part II Council envisions Cedar Lee condos Thursday, August 10, 2006 By Michael Marcellino The Sun Press CLEVELAND HEIGHTS Within two years, urban professionals and empty nesters may be watching the sunset from the terrace of their condo at Cedar Lee, one of the nation's premier urban neighborhoods. That's the shared vision of city officials, merchants, residents and developer of The Terraces, a $21 million retail, residential and parking complex on the east side of Lee Road between Tullamore and Meadowbrook roads. http://www.cleveland.com/sun/sunpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1155228508101070.xml&coll=3
August 10, 200618 yr Domain part II While Neyer has its own architects, the full-service firm is partnering with local companies that know the territory, including Cleveland Heights' based architects Lowenstein Durante. Neyer, a 112-year-old firm, plans to reproduce its Cincinnati multi-use urban developments in Cleveland and where it is entering that market for the first time. does that last sentence read that they will just use the same plans they have already used elsewhere? i would hope not. even so, coming in at $6M more than domain on lee, it should look impressive. Construction of the garage may begin as early as this fall and be completed in 12-15 months. Temporary parking will be available for merchants during construction. Construction of the retail/residential complex could start as early as next year, Acker said. hey that timeline sounds good. next up let's get the renderings. also, it's worth a look at anything this developer has done in cinci or elsewhere.
August 10, 200618 yr This project is a go. I have done some work for it and know for a fact it is moving forward quickly. The garage will be phase 2.
August 10, 200618 yr I know, I thought that was funny considering engineering hasn't been done on it yet.
August 10, 200618 yr maybe they are just preping the garage site? yes, sounds like this project is revived, but maybe we should start a new thread instead of posting here? i say lets let the late great 'domain on lee' plans remain here in the dead letter office for posterity.
August 11, 200618 yr Be careful, guys. Neyer builds a lot of crap. Here is their website: http://www.neyer.com/
October 7, 200618 yr I passed by the site yesterday and noticed some new and significant activity. To my untrained eye it looked as if they were performing environmental clean up on the portion of the site where the old service station was located. Hopefully this is a sign that more is to come in the near future. Perhaps a proposed design by the end of the year and maybe construction in the spring (at least on the garage).
October 16, 200618 yr Anyone else worried how this math is going to work out better? Prior one was 32 units for $11 million. New one is 49 units for $21 million. If they couldn't sell the old one b/c it was too pricey how are they going to spend more $/unit and make it work?
October 16, 200618 yr I've got an article I've been meaning to post on this... they're doing the parking structure first and will use the Lee Road site for temporary parking until the structure is complete. Once the parking garage is operational, they'll be starting on the mixed-use building.
January 19, 200718 yr Looks like the plan will be unveiled next week........ http://www.cleveland.com/sun/sunpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1169142542183210.xml&coll=3
January 23, 200718 yr Event Informational Meeting re: The Terraces Date January 23, 2007 Time 7:00 pm Location Council Chambers, City Hall, 40 Severance Circle The public is invited to an informational meeting regarding the Meadowbrook and Lee mixed-use project "The Terraces," including construction of the parking deck. David Neyer, President and CEO of Al Neyer, Inc. the developer of the project, and some of his staff, will discuss the timeline for development and unveil a three-dimensional model of the design. Also present will be Mayor Kelley, members of Council and city staff involved in the project. For more information call Community Relations at 291-2323. From: http://www.futureheights.org/site/futureheights/content.php?type=2&id=8250
January 23, 200718 yr so what the hail is it gonna look like? for that money they have to top domain on lee. or no. i guess we'll see.
January 24, 200718 yr It looks pretty good. Prices range from 199k to mid 600s. The parking deck is expected to start construction next month and be complete by Thanksgiving. They hope to start building the condos/retail this fall and be complete by early 2009.
January 25, 200718 yr I don't have any available to me. I just went to the meeting the other night and saw the plan.
April 5, 200718 yr The parking garage will be separate from the loft building. I think it is going to have resident parking on the first level and shopping for Cedar-Lee on the other levels. I'm assuming that it wouldn't be an enclosed parking garage and I'm still trying to figure out where it is going to go. Maybe behind the movie theatre area...?
April 6, 200718 yr From the look of this site map on the Cleveland Heights city website, the new parking deck will cover part of the existing lot behind the movie theather (from about the Pub on Lee or so) southward across Tullamore (which will no longer go through to Lee) and onto part of the future site of the Terraces. I remember the city saying the plan was to block off Tullamore even when it was Domain on Lee. http://www.clevelandheights.com/PDFS/CedarLeeParking.pdf
April 6, 200718 yr Yes, Tullamore is going to be blocked off. Coincidentally, I just closed today on my first house at the very end of Tullamore. The construction office trailers are like 10 feet away from my driveway. As soon as I get in, I'm totally setting up some little cameras to timelapse construction! :-D
April 8, 200718 yr I drove by the Cedar Lee the other day and saw signs up about this project, so I figured you guys would have the inside scoop here. By the way, I think the parking garage in and of itself is a great idea. I'm a big fan of the Rapid and traveling by foot, but the Cedar Lee is really a regional attraction. Going to high school out in the suburbs, all us artsy and nerdy kids used to head up there to see art films and independent movies. But we made the drive up to Coventry even more often, in part because we knew we could just park in the garage and not drive around looking for spots. Also because Soul Veg used to be there, and 50% of all artsy kids turn vegan around 11th grade. I saw the same thing in Columbus around OSU and High Street - students I knew would drive around forever on the side streets looking for a spot, but suburbanites and people from out of town would just park at one of the garages. The important thing is to put the majority of the garage behind the storefronts and not break up the pedestrian-friendly areas. And definitely not demolish good buildings. I think Coventry is a good model for this, other old-school pedestrian-friendly downtowns like Bedford should really pay attention.
June 14, 200718 yr Construction on the parking garage seems to have stalled. Any news? I drove down Lee Today, and all I could think is that I wanted a beer and pizza from dewey's, sorry.
June 17, 200717 yr Construction on the parking garage seems to have stalled. Any news? Actually, it looks like they're making real progress. They've started on the second deck of the garage and there has been a constant back up of concrete trucks in the morning at the end of my driveway this week. I think there's a mid-November deadline for completing the deck and it looks like they should be done in plenty of time (barring disaster, of course). I'll get some pictures up shortly. I moved in June 1st, but every free minute not spent at work has been spent gutting and replacing the bathroom and kitchen.
July 13, 200717 yr Last night at the Lee Road street festival I stopped into the sales office -- they say they're breaking ground on the loft building this month. The garage behind the theatres is going up, working toward the third floor now. Sounds like the garage behind the lofts will come later.
July 13, 200717 yr ^great news. I think Lee Road easily has the potential to capture a few other of these type developments and start growing vertically.
July 13, 200717 yr Last night at the Lee Road street festival I stopped into the sales office -- they say they're breaking ground on the loft building this month. The garage behind the theatres is going up, working toward the third floor now. Sounds like the garage behind the lofts will come later. I was at the festival as well and was impressed with the progress of the garage (as well as how many people were out and about on Lee). Is there a separate garage going behind the lofts? I was under the impression the garage they are building will sit diagonally behind the lofts and be the only garage.
July 13, 200717 yr ^The public spaces and the spaces for the residents of the lofts will be in the same garage, but will be seperated. Condo residents will enter off of Meadowbrook and the public will enter off of Cedar (I believe).
July 20, 200717 yr Surprised to hear they're breaking ground. A friend put a deposit down on a unit in May and at the time he said he was the 4th person and that they told him they needed 12 to break ground. He also said they'd need to come back fto him or a non-refundable deposit at that point. As of last week they hadn't done that. Could be close I guess since I think they had only been open about a month when he put his refundable deposit down, which, at 4/mo would mean they'd be getting close now.
August 29, 200717 yr Friend called them to check in on progress - apparently they're only up to 6 at this point, which is halfway to what they need to start construction.
August 29, 200717 yr Hmmm...I'd love to see this project actually happen, but that's awfully discouraging, especially considering the lower price point this time around.
October 23, 200717 yr Anyone have an update here? The garage is coming along, hopefully the presales are as well.
October 24, 200717 yr Garage is a completely separate effort. The city is building that. After the 1st developer bailed, the city decided to go ahead w/the garage anyway to provide more parking for the businesses along Lee. I'll see if my friend w/the deposit has heard anything lately.
November 17, 200717 yr The garage behind the Cedar Lee Theater is finally finished and open. This is what it looked like in April... ...and now today Enclosed first level ready for residents of the Terraces once it is completed. Little pocket park behind the deck still being worked on... Cleveland Heights High School Back of the Cedar Lee Theater Park free while you can Last night. The red accent lights shift from red to blue to purple to green...
November 17, 200717 yr Obviously you need to recoup parking deck costs, but how much do cities get from those stupid meters on the street, such as in Cleveland Heights and Lakewood?
November 17, 200717 yr ^I'm sure they make some real $, especially when you factor in parking tickets. But beyond money, meters on streets are important to cause turnover, improving the chance spaces will be available for customers (as opposed to residents or employees).
November 19, 200717 yr Damn! That parking garage went up fast!! "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
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