Rebuilding a neighborhood: Group works to revitalize Fairfax, one house at a time

by Susan Condon Love/Plain Dealer Homes Editor

Tuesday October 28, 2008, 7:42 AM

 

Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. This Craftsman-style home on East 87th Street is one of the two latest projects by the nonprofit Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. The home is being renovated for sale by the group whose goal is to revitalize the on-the-edge neighborhood.

 

That's a great article.

 

One thing that I love deeply about Cleveland is its old housing stock. Any preservation news regarding that is great!

Fairfax Renaissance holds a nationally significant design competition for 'grand family' housing

Posted by Steven Litt October 31, 2008 17:09PM

 

Steven Litt/The Plain Dealer

A vista along Central Avenue west of East 83rd Street in Cleveland shows the site of what could be the nation's first "grand-family'' housing complex.

 

A tattered block full of vacant lots on Cleveland's East side soon could be the site of a nationally significant experiment in urban housing aimed at making life easier for grand-families, in which grandparents are primary caregivers for their grandchildren....

 

Read more at http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2008/10/_a_tattered_block_full.html

 

 

That is a strong argument for building some ranch houses, which I've never liked.  But then again I don't have trouble with stairs.  That may change one day.  Still, multi-story housing has density advantages and has worked all over the world for a long time.  Is it more troublesome now because modern people have walked less throughout their lives?  Does that leave them in worse shape?  I sometimes wonder about the opposite problem, whether all this walking on concrete will catch up with my joints... maybe there's no way around it.  We're all going to get old.  Maybe we're all going to want ranches.       

I hope not.

Me neither.

i don't have any data, but it seems like the grandparents raising grandchildren aren't old enough to not be able to climb a flight of stairs.  the article mentioned that grandparents may be raising children conceived by minors.  so let's say that grandma had mom at 25 and mom had a kid at 15.  that puts grandma at 58 when the child turns 18.  not particularly old.

Fairfax Renaissance chooses winner in national 'grand-family' housing design competition

Posted by Steven Litt December 10, 2008 18:00PM

Categories: Architecture, Arts Impact, City Planning, Steven Litt

 

A 34-year-old designer from Maryland, inspired by intergenerational dwelling patterns in his native Ecuador, has won a national competition to design new housing in Cleveland for "grand-families," in which grandparents are raising grandchildren.

 

"I'm really excited about this and looking forward to going to Cleveland," Fernando Bonilla said Tuesday, speaking by cell phone from kilometer marker 209 on the Pan American Highway in the Andes mountains between Quito and the Colombian border, where he stopped to take the call....

 

Read more at http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2008/12/fairfax_renaissance_chooses_wi.html

 

 

i love it. a very modern & urban, yet affordable design for an underserved demographic.

 

no it's not groundbreaking, it doesnt have to be, yet it's not stuck in the past of detached homes and suburbanish landscaping either. not to mention the new blood and ideas are quite refreshing.

Those look great!

++ OK, this first project is mostly a road project -- the $39.4 million replacement and widening of the East 105th overpass of GCRTA/NS tracks for the Opportunity Corridor. However, All Aboard Ohio successfully advocated included an expansion of the existing Red Line heavy rail station below this bridge. The East 105th-Quincy Red Line station would be expanded with a longer platform and a second entrance, this one off East 105th to tap in planned station-area real estate developments south of the Cleveland Clinic. The station expansion is probably only about 10 percent of the overall bridge project cost, but its expansion is being sponsored by ODOT and its construction will occur simultaneously and integrally with the new bridge, so it's difficult to separate the rail/non-rail elements of this project.

 

Well timed: looks like we can look forward to some new passengers at this station:

 

On the heels of that success, the FRDC is unfolding its wings, so to speak, with an array of tentative projects.

 

The first is a large-scale mixed income community between East 101st and 105th Streets, which is currently inundated with vacancy.

 

"We don't know the exact number," says VanLeer, "but we're toying with 400-plus units."

 

http://freshwatercleveland.com/devnews/fairfax022415.aspx

Fairfax New Economy District is the stretch along East 105th Street south of the existing Cleveland Clinic to Quincy and the Red Line station (the start of the Opportunity Corridor boulevard). This is a good start and I hope to see some renderings soon.....

 

Cleveland headquarters plan in works for IBM-owned data analytics unit

August 05, 2016 UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

By STAN BULLARD

 

Explorys, the IBM-owned health data analytics firm based in Cleveland, may not stay perched atop the 1111 Superior Building for long, at least if a plan to install it in a new building on a Cleveland Clinic-owned site at East 105th Street and Cedar Avenue comes to fruition.

 

The disclosure comes as legislation to provide a $4.9 million federal loan and a 15-year abatement of 60% of property taxes for a building that Hemingway Development Co. wants to construct is pending before Cleveland City Council. Tracey Nichols, Cleveland economic development director, said in a phone interview on Thursday, Aug. 4, that the project is designed to house the growing biomedical firm and help launch redevelopment along the Opportunity Corridor on the city’s East Side.

 

“We’re bullish on this. It’s exciting,” Nichols said, “This company has 170 jobs. It’s fast-growing and expects to add 125 new jobs by the end of 2018.”

 

MORE:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20160805/NEWS/160809886/cleveland-headquarters-plan-in-works-for-ibm-owned-data-analytics

Fairfax CDC's masterplan for the New Economy district...

 

 

 

^Ugh! what's with that suburban campus?!?  And are they renaming 105 st. as "Opportunity Corridor" here? Sounds soooo stupid. Its a north-south roadway here that intersects with avenues, thus it should be ______ STREET---and in this case, it should be E. 105 St.

Nice to hear for this area, as long as things don't turn out anywhere near as exurban as the masterplan...

 

Kinda bummed out that they won't be staying downtown though. IBM would sure be a nice name to see on a skyscraper

^^I wouldn't read much into those sketches, beyond the rough hope of redevelopment in that area, including some CC spin-off offices. Just some aspirational stuff in a master plan.  Suggests the city is likely to support the IBM plan, though, any future proposals in keeping with the vision.

I mean to be honest E.105th street is filled with offices that have suburban style setbacks thanks to the clinic. Im more worried about how the homes would turn out.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

 

I truly hope E. 105 remains "E. 105".  But regarding the new street---connecting E. 55 and E. 105---which is conceptually "Opportunity Corridor" is there an official name yet as to what that street will be called? Hopefully nothing corny like "Opportunity Avenue."

I wish you could vote positive and negative on this forum or like a post. Off topic, I apologize.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

 

I truly hope E. 105 remains "E. 105".  But regarding the new street---connecting E. 55 and E. 105---which is conceptually "Opportunity Corridor" is there an official name yet as to what that street will be called? Hopefully nothing corny like "Opportunity Avenue."

"Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

Don't at all like the suburban look east of E. 105. And why are there no mixed use and/or multi-unit buildings near what's supposed to be an expanded Rapid station at 105-Quincy? Someone needs to inform local planners of a novel concept: Transit Oriented Development, aka TOD.  Yet planners remain hell bent on recreating Strongsville inside the City of Cleveland.

They put the mixed use buildings closer to the Clinic, which is probably a bigger activity generator than the East 105th St. rapid station.

^But wasn't part of the OC mandate to develop TOD and increase rail usage?

I'm not sure that it was, but I would say this would do that anyway.  They're still proposing housing, mixed use, and office within a walking distance of the East 105th St. Station.  Just because the mixed use portion isn't as close as possible to the station doesn't mean it isn't walkable.  TOD principles have to be applied flexibly to the particulars of the situation at hand.  I think it is wise to put the retail closer to the Clinic, where the density of people and dollars is greatest, than to the station. Most of the people using that station will be going to the Clinic, or will be neighborhood residents, anyway, and will have good access to it.

great to plan, but this is not the place for 90% of the structures to have a grass median or yard between the buildings and the streets. they need to rework it with an urban planner.

I too would prefer buildings up to the sidewalks in this area being referred to as the New Economy District, but considering this location vs a location more in the heart of the Midtown Corridor, anywhere from E. 55th to E. 105th St, and Chester Ave south to Carnegie or Cedar Ave; would this not be the best location to accommodate companies that want a more campus type atmosphere with some grass/landscaping, but yet want to be as close as possible to the Cleveland Clinic, or RTA, or the Opportunity Corridor? Companies that want to be up to the sidewalk and do not care if there is grass/landscaping can locate in the Midtown District.

 

By having two choices, urban style, or suburban, I think this would be a win, win for Cleveland.

 

Its not like Cleveland doesn't already have suburban style office/warehouse/developments as has been noted in previous post.

 

And considering this area being looked at for possible suburban style office development is only approximately 1500 feet E<->W at its widest, and 1500 feet N<->S at its widest; is bordered on the South/East by railroad tracks, and I think a hill with forestry to the East, imv I am ok with giving up this area to suburban style development. One thing I would hope is that the street grid would not be altered, and any development must adhere to the current street grid.

 

Is it not best to accommodate companies that want a presence in Cleveland, which would generate taxes, retail sales, etc, and yet want a suburban style development, rather then to lose these same companies to the suburbs, or even not locate anywhere in the CLE.

 

For the most part, the days are long gone that all new development must be built up to the sidewalk in the CLE. Cleveland has too much vacant land to require all development to meet urban style development. And this location again to me is ok to allow for suburban style development. Maybe the buildings built along E. 105th, and Cedar Ave. could be required to be built up to the sidewalk, and all buildings in the interior could be given more leeway.

 

Cleveland just has to allow these types of developments to be scarce, and definitely not allow other developments like Applied Industrial Technologies in the heart of the downtown/midtown area. But than again, if Cleveland would not have allowed AIT to build their HQ the way they did, would AIE have left the CLE for the burbs. Its a jobs vs no jobs scenario.

I mean to be honest E.105th street is filled with offices that have suburban style setbacks thanks to the clinic. Im more worried about how the homes would turn out.

 

Ryan Homes hahaha

Incentives for IBM-Explorys office project near Cleveland Clinic get Cleveland City Council's OK

By Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer

on August 11, 2016 at 5:14 PM, updated August 11, 2016 at 6:41 PM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Plans for a new office building to house a division of IBM Corp. jumped a huge hurdle Wednesday, when Cleveland City Council approved a financial package to aid the $11.1 million project.

 

Council members signed off on legislation allowing the city to provide a low-interest loan and partial property-tax abatement for the building, slated for a Cleveland Clinic-owned parking lot at Cedar Avenue and East 105th Street. The offices will accommodate Explorys, a Clinic spinoff that IBM bought last year as an anchor for the tech giant's Watson Health division. Construction could start in the spring.

 

MORE:

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2016/08/incentives_for_ibm-explorys_of.html#incart_river_home

State tax credit authority approves incentives for three Northeast Ohio business expansions

August 29, 2016

By STAN BULLARD

 

Three major investments in new offices and buildings in Northeast Ohio were approved for job creation tax credits by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority on Monday, Aug. 29, according to a news release issued by Gov. John Kasich.

 

• RelateCare LLC expects to create 50 full-time positions, generating $2 million in new annual payroll and retaining $520,000 in existing payroll as a result of the company’s new location project in Cleveland.

 

RelateCare provides patient access and patient engagement solutions for hospital call centers. The TCA approved a five-year, 1.3% Job Creation Tax Credit for this project.

 

RelateCare was created by a joint venture of The Cleveland Clinic and Irish-based RigneyDolphin Group. According to its website, RelateCare provides health care contact center consulting, clinical and wellness program implementation, business process outsourcing and other services to health care organizations.

 

The location of RelateCare’s expansion was not disclosed. The company is at 10000 Cedar Ave, Cleveland.

 

MORE:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20160829/NEWS/160829843/state-tax-credit-authority-approves-incentives-for-three-northeast

Is this new temporary parking lot replacing the parking lot that phase 2 of Innova will be built on?

From what I remember, wasn't phase 2 approved a few months ago?

Sorry, I posted that parking development in the wrong thread. It belongs in the Upper Chester thread. Fixed:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,13381.msg819898.html#msg819898

Progress...

 

East Design Review District

Agenda

(8:30a.m., Tuesday, March 28th, 2017)

Cornucopia Place, 7201 Kinsman Avenue

 

8:30a.m. 1. East 2017-001 – IBM - Cleveland ©

Location: 10500 Cedar Road, Ward 6

Proposed new construction for a new IBM Office Building on the edge of

Opportunity Corridor, at E. 105th and Cedar Road.

Project Representative: Brandon Kline, GLSD Architects LLC

This development's name makes me think of pets.com, Lycos, Hotmail and Geocities

So the IBM building steel has started to go up on the corner of 105 and Cedar. I will try to get a picture soon; it is right up to the sidewalk, the setback is minimal.

Innovation Square project to break ground, offers glimpse of Opportunity Corridor growth potential

Updated on July 24, 2017 at 4:44 PM

By Robert Higgs, cleveland.com bhiggsCleveland[/member].com

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ground will be broken in the next 45 days on a project that ultimately will include nearly 500 new residences on the city's East Side, along the route of the Opportunity Corridor project.

 

The project, along East 105th Street in what is being dubbed Innovation Square, offers an early look at the development potential of Opportunity Corridor, which still is under construction.

 

Already under construction in the area is a an $11.1-million office building that IBM will use to house about 300 employees in its growing Explorys division, a healthcare data analytics company. 

 

MORE:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/07/innovation_square_project_to_b.html#incart_river_home

I thought that title was a little misleading. Nothing really is breaking ground. IBM is already underway and is more associated with the Clinic than this. Sure work on "green space" is going to be starting soon, but there's already tons of green space and this still remains but a master plan for the neighborhood.

Nothing misleading about it at all.  The greenspace is part of the plan, and not nothing.

At the south end of the district -- the Quincy-East 105th Red Line station, awaiting a doubling of its platform length through the underside of the new East 105th overpass to a second station stairwell/elevator tower. And in the background we see the new East 105th overpass project. Both elements are mostly funded by ODOT....

 

 

 

Interesting purchase by Cleveland Clinic. This is south of Cedar Avenue...

 

2179 E 103 ST

CLEVELAND

 

Sales Date 8/10/2017

Amount $1,200,000

Buyer THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION

Seller CALVARY HILL MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHU

Deed type WARRANTY D

Land value $3,400

Building value $7,300

Total value $10,700

Parcel 121-18-055

I've been watching the property transfers in the area along East 105th between the heart of University Circle and the East 105th/Quincy RTA station where the Opportunity Corridor's new boulevard will start. This the area of the New Economy District which could be a mix of new commercial developments and a combination of multi-family complexes and single-family infill. In checking the transfers, it always surprised me how much of the land in this area is publicly owned. I thought it would be interesting to map the extent of these publicly owned properties. So I finally spent a few hours yesterday and ID'd them. This is the result of that effort (which hopefully will spur some interest in developing them, especially with some mid-rise housing over basic services/retail at/near the RTA station)....

 

East 105th-Quincy TOD-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

^ This definitely looks like a targeted land banking strategy by the city.  Nice work on the mapping.  I'm fairly certain this same map, with more detail about the privately owned parcels exists on some desks in city hall. 

Damn, a new page has been created after my posting of that map. So at the risk of taking some flak from the mods, I'm going to post the map again. ;)

 

East 105th-Quincy TOD-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

Fairfax CDC proposes apartment blocks north of the expanded Rapid station, and west of East 105th. I don't know how big they would be, but I'm hopeful they offer some decent density like this 8-story, modular, pre-fab apartment building being constructed in a factory by Tober Building Co. in Akron for a development west of Highland Square. If this can be built affordably, I think a couple of these on either side of East 105th, north of Quebec Avenue and on Quincy Avenue just west of the RTA station would make a difference in increasing our region's accessibility to transit. If a ground-floor use includes a community facility like a recreation center, workforce development center, medical offices, library, etc., you can can use federal TIFIA loans/credits/guarantees to prep the land and build at least the first floor use in a transit-oriented development. If transitional housing and other affordable housing is built above the first-floor community use, that can tap lots of local, state and federal incentives to build something at least mid-rise that would be transit supportive. And the publicly owned lands are in abundant supply to build this game-changing setting.

 

Akron-OneTwenty-ToVee-Tober-modular-apartment-building-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Akron-OneTwenty-ToVee-Tober-modular-apartment-building by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

This area needs lunch options badly.  The juvenile court across the street draws thousands every day and can barely manage to serve coffee.

A valuable insight. A ground-floor Starbucks, Panera Bread, even a fast-food joint, would probably do well here. But the types of uses I noted as a ground-floor use for a mixed-use development can be funded only by US Department of Transportation Transit-Oriented Development funds made available through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). NOACA is the local conduit for these credit assistance programs, just in case any CDCs or developers are reading this and wanting to know how to apply for TIFIA assistance. ;)

I don't know why, but this makes me sad. Sure, a lot of demolitions make me sad. But this one especially so. This solid little church has been one of the constants of this tumultuous street and a source of strength for this neighborhood left for dead, just out of sight from the prosperity of University Circle. Then along comes this road project to make the area better and now the church won't survive it. I hope the congregation finds a new home and a brighter future....

 

 

2198 E 105TH STREET DEMOLITION

 

Back Return to Case List | Start Over | Print Report (PDF format)

 

Project Information

 

East Case #  EAST 2018-048

 

Address: 2198 E 105th Street

Company: Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation

Architect: A&D Demolition

Description:

Notes:

Committee Actions/Submissions

 

Date: September 18, 2018

Committee: Staff

Action Type: Initial Plan Submission

Conditions/Notes:

 

Date: September 25, 2018

Committee: Local Design Review Committee

Action Type: Approved

Wait, the above church demolition is listed in the same presentation about the first phase of Innovation Square, yet it looks like the first phase is going to be down south by the RTA station rather than up north near Cedar and the current extent of Cleveland Clinic-area development. So are these unrelated at this time? If so, why are they in the same presentation??

 

BTW, I love the fact that they are starting Innovation Square with some high-density housing near the RTA station, although I would have preferred that each of these two buildings be 10+ stories. But four stories is OK. You can't always get what you want....

 

 

 

And while those documents were of low-resolution, the following was unreadable so I tried to enhance it to make it lease somewhat readable.....

I've reconfigured the Opportunity Corridor Development thread into the East 79th TOD thread because there are some good planning happening with some more developments occurring there. So I've split off these images from 2017 to show what the planning for this section of the East 105th portion of the Thrive 105/93 Corridor looks like. And those plans are starting to bear fruit with some city funding behind it....

 

City unveils Opportunity Corridor development plans

Updated June 30, 2017

Posted June 28, 2017

 

http://photos.cleveland.com/4501/gallery/city_unveils_opportunity_corri/index.html

 

Here's a few of the 24 renderings....

 

A rendering by AECOM depicts the future appearance of the New Economy Neighborhood along East 105th Street in Cleveland, where the first-miled of the Opportunity Corridor boulevard has been completed. The city's planning department will share visions of the area's future on Friday July 7 at a meeting of the city's planning commission.

 

A birdseye view from a draft version of a report prepared for the Cleveland City Planning Commission shows how offices could be clustered east of East 105th Street and south of Cedar Avenue in the New Economy Neighborhood planned by the nonprofit Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. The city's planning department worked with designers from the Cleveland office of AECOM to prepare the image, part of an analysis prepared under a $400,000 federal TIGER grant for a planning study to examine the future of East 105th and East 93rd Streets. The city's goal is to point out how the completion of Opportunity Corridor could generate dense, job-rich development sites near the project, now under construction. East 105th Street from Chester AVenue south to Quincy Avenue is the first segment of Opportunity Corridor to be completed. Cleveland City Planning Commission, AECOM

 

A City Architecture rendering depicts a birdseye view of Innovation Square, a residential redevelopment of a portion of the Fairfax neighborhood west of East 105th Street and south of Cedar Avenue. The image is part of an emerging set of plans describing how city neighborhoods could benefit from the $331 million Opportunity Corridor, now under construction on the city's East Side.

 

City Architecture renderings depict birdseye views of Innovation Square, a residential redevelopment of a portion of the Fairfax neighborhood west of East 105th Street and south of Cedar Avenue. The image is part of an emerging set of plans describing how city neighborhoods could benefit from the $331 million Opportunity Corridor, now under construction on the city's East Side.

 

An image provided to the City of Cleveland courtesy of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority shows how the East 105th Street/Quincy Avenue Red Line Rapid Station could be improved in conjunction with the upcoming Opportunity Corridor boulevard.

I cropped out the unnecessary stuff on the margins from the earlier images to improve. But what would really improve them is to make the apartment buildings near the RTA station about 10 stories tall. Four stories is nice, but TOD design guidelines say buildings should be larger and more densely developed with more mixed use nearer to rail stations and get smaller and more car-oriented the farther you get from the rail station. And since we have a roughly 20 percent increase in homelessness (according to the St. Malachi Center), many of whom are working homelessness, the need is definitely there for taller residential buildings of affordable housing....