Historic Buildings in Cleveland Heights Are the Catalyst for A Potential $100 Million Project

Michelle Jarboe, Crain's

When the city of Cleveland Heights solicited redevelopment proposals last year for a trio of Tudor Revival buildings on South Taylor Road, officials were looking for preservation plans.

What they got, instead, was a potential $100 million vision.

A team led by WXZ Development not only aspires to restore the historic Taylor Tudors but also aims to erect new buildings across the street, while reimagining the eastern gateway into Cain Park. Plans drawn up by RDL Architects show new apartments, for-sale homes, dining and parking in the tired business district, a short stroll north of Superior Road near the University Heights border.

WXZ, based in Fairview Park, plans to apply for competitive state historic preservation tax credits this month to help revive the near-vacant Taylor Tudors as 44 apartments over first-floor storefronts and live-work spaces. If the company wins an award, construction could begin in early spring.

The broader development might take five years to realize, said Matthew Wymer, the company's vice president.

"Obviously, the massive asset that you can't ignore is Cain Park," said Wymer, who lives in Cleveland Heights and oversees WXZ's projects in Cleveland and its close-lying suburbs. "It's right there. And it's huge. … We thought maybe there was a way to reorient it in the eyes of the greater community."

That stretch of South Taylor holds promise for Cleveland Heights, a city that's seeing a wave of development proposals after years of scant activity. But it's also a prime example of the challenges that built-out communities face in assembling sites to attract fresh investment.

The city acquired the Taylor Tudors after a lengthy tax-foreclosure process.

An adjacent property, the Taylor Road Synagogue at 1970 Taylor Road, has been embroiled in litigation since 2016 and is the subject of a tax-foreclosure claim. With more than $5 million in unpaid taxes, interest and fees, the synagogue carries the second-largest delinquency in Cuyahoga County, public records show.

"It's a problem," said Mayor Kahlil Seren. "It's a historic problem. It's something that is longstanding and not something that, in my view, we should be proud of continuing for so long in the city and the region. … It also presents an opportunity, in this case. The positive side of it is what I'm choosing to focus on."

WXZ's plans center on the Taylor Tudors, a matching set of three-story buildings constructed in the late 1920s as commercial anchors for a growing neighborhood. But the project team, which includes real estate agent Bob Zimmer, marketing consultant Little Jacket and Cleveland-based Historic Preservation Group LLC, also is eying the synagogue and other nearby properties.

Documents submitted to the city depict two new buildings, with 208 apartments over commercial space, in place of Taylor Commons, a retail strip on the other side of South Taylor. The buildings would conceal a roughly 380-space parking garage intended to serve the district. Wymer said WXZ has a deal with the shopping center's current owner, an affiliate of Cleveland-based Paran Management Co.

Preliminary floor plans for the synagogue show apartments in the classroom and office portions of the building, with the sanctuary preserved as a performance space, an indoor counterpart to the amphitheater nestled in Cain Park.

RDL's drawings also show two-dozen for-sale townhomes on nearby land, a pedestrian plaza and a new, stepped-down entrance to the park, overlooking a popular sledding hill.

That approach, including a hybrid stair-and-ramp feature called a stramp, would make the park much more accessible and liven up an area that, in the 1920s, was earmarked for a stadium that never materialized, said Greg Soltis, a senior designer at Shaker Heights-based RDL.

"When we were looking at the neighborhood, we were trying to figure out not so much what we can make this — but how to enhance it," Soltis said.

The images are detailed, but they aren't final. They're starting points for conversations with neighbors and ongoing negotiations with the city.

Residents already have said they'd like to see the project include fitness facilities, coworking, a bookseller or hardware store and an ice cream shop — perhaps a kosher one, since the socially and economically diverse area is home to a sizable Orthodox Jewish community.

"Let's be honest: This corridor is overlooked," said Roger Frank, managing partner at Little Jacket, a Cleveland-based firm handling community engagement efforts. "It's a major corridor. It's another gateway to our city. And we have major historical assets here that can be protected and revitalized."

Zimmer, who is working with WXZ to pursue additional real estate, is particularly enthusiastic about the for-sale housing part of the project. "Owner-occupancy is important to strengthen and grow neighborhoods. It can't be all rental," said Zimmer, who also is involved with redevelopment efforts in Cleveland, where he serves as president of the Baseball Heritage Museum in Hough.

Cleveland Heights officials received four responses to their request for proposals on the Taylor Tudor buildings, Seren said. He described the others as "solid" historic-preservation plans.

"But once we saw what could be possible there, as a result of this response from WXZ, we knew we couldn't turn our backs on that," the mayor said.

In July, Cleveland Heights City Council approved legislation allowing the city to enter a long-term lease agreement with WXZ for the Taylor Tudors. That vote came more than 4 years after the city acquired the first of the three buildings — and just over two years after the district, a nearly 7-acre area once called Stadium Square, was added to the National Register of Historic Places at the city's behest.

Cleveland Heights gained control of the remaining Taylor Tudor buildings in November. After failing to sell at a sheriff's auction, the once-grand properties ended up in state forfeiture. The Cuyahoga Land Bank requested them and passed them along to the city, records show.

"I grew up in that neighborhood," said Gus Frangos, president of the land bank, which is formally known as the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp. "And to me, that's going to be such an impressive project if they can move it forward."