CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A consultant who helped Case Western Reserve University shepherd the Uptown project in University Circle has purchased a neighboring building and plans to remake it as student apartments.

Property records show that an affiliate of Berusch Development Partners LLC paid $1.28 million this week for Circle Vistas, a nondescript brick building at East 115th Street and Euclid Avenue. The building was a logical target for acquisition and redevelopment because of its location -- just east of new apartments and retail at Uptown and north of the Cleveland Institute of Art's growing campus.

Berusch Development Partners is a real estate development and consulting business led by Russell Berusch, who was CWRU's vice president of commercial development from early 2005 through 2010. During his tenure at the university, he played a role in Uptown with partners including neighborhood nonprofit University Circle Inc., the Cleveland Foundation and developer MRN Ltd.

Now he's working on Uptown's flank to turn a building that housed apartments for disabled tenants into rentals for upperclassmen at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

"The prospect of one, single tenant is very convenient and attractive to a landlord," said Berusch, who has lined up the art institute as his master tenant. "I also think that the art students and CIA affiliation generally will provide not just good energy but also cachet to the building."

The first group of apartments will open by September. At completion, the $3.5 million project will include 34 apartments for 71 students, a student lounge and two retailers, including a French bakery. Berusch would not name the retailers.

Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc., called the project a victory for the neighborhood. "We added more residents and displaced no one," he said.

A rendering shows the renovated exterior of the former Circle Vistas building at East 115h Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood.

Until May, Circle Vistas was home to Maximum Accessible Housing of Ohio, an organization that serves physically disabled residents. As plans for Uptown solidified, the nonprofit group struck a property-swap deal with CWRU. Maximum Accessible Housing acquired university land just north of Circle Vistas and built a new community, called Cotman Vistas, there.

Last month, the group moved its offices and 35 families into the new property, said Beth Glas, the assistant executive director. That move allowed CWRU to orchestrate a sale of Circle Vistas to Berusch, whose proposal for the building beat offers from other small developers.

As part of the transaction, the university secured an option to buy the building from Berusch in five years.

"Any property adjoining the university, we try to preserve an interest in it," said John Wheeler, CWRU's senior vice president for administration. "I don't know that we necessarily want to own a lot of property off-campus, but we want to make sure it's well taken care of."

The art institute will use the building to satisfy its students' growing demand to live close to their classrooms and studios. With CWRU's enrollment growing, the university has taken back student housing it leased to the art institute, and the CIA is looking for replacements.

Uptown's second phase, which is under construction, includes dorm rooms for 130 first-year art students. But CIA President Grafton Nunes wants to provide nearby apartments for older students, too. He sees Berusch's project, dubbed Euclid 115, as part of the solution -- even if it's available for only five years.

"We are going to be looking at other options for developing housing for upperclassmen," said Nunes, who hopes to see the institute grow from 550 students to between 600 and 650. "I will be talking with the board over the summer. It is a core value."

The art institute expects to break ground this month for its new George Gund building, the last stage of an eight-year push to create a unified campus on Euclid Avenue. That project is scheduled for completion in September 2015.

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