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A rendering shows a proposed student-housing project at East 18th Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland. The apartments and a parking garage would replace two buildings and surface parking owned by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

(Clayco, Forum)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Housing for 500-plus students could replace parking lots and a pair of empty buildings at the edge of Cleveland State University, under a plan being floated by an out-of-state developer.

An affiliate of Clayco Realty Group of Chicago has a contract to buy 1.7 acres along East 18th Street from the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. The federation moved to Beachwood in 2010, emptying out its downtown buildings at 1720 and 1750 Euclid Ave. Officials never formally listed the buildings and parking lots for sale, but they've been quietly fielding --- and largely rebuffing -- unsolicited offers.

Now Clayco hopes to clear the site, to make way for a 217-unit apartment building housing 509 beds. The eight-story building would wrap around a four-story Prospect Avenue parking deck topped by a heated swimming pool and grilling area.

"This is another good sign of the development in downtown Cleveland in the residential sector," said Steve Hoffman, the federation's president. "I think this bodes well for PlayhouseSquare. I think it bodes well for Cleveland State. And it looks like it's a high-quality development, as student housing goes."

Neither Hoffman nor Rob Lochner, a vice president of development in Clayco's St. Louis office, would disclose the purchase price for the property. The Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office places the market value of the buildings and parking lots at nearly $3 million.

The eight story apartment building would include a four-story parking garage, tucked under its southern end at Prospect Avenue and East 18th Street. A fitness center would look out over a heated pool and grilling area on the roof of the parking structure. Renderings show vines growing on a steel mesh wall surrounding the parking deck.

Lochner is scheduled to present plans for the project at a city design review committee meeting Thursday and a Cleveland City Planning Commission meeting Friday. If the public bodies sign off, Clayco could start construction in the spring, with hopes of finishing the apartments for the fall 2015 semester.

Cleveland State's transition from commuter school to full-out urban campus has created a new market for developers near the edge of downtown. The university has 1,200 beds on campus and has tabled other housing plans to give the Langston, a new private apartment project on CSU land, time to fill up.

Early this year, a group of graduate students identified a market for 1,200 additional student beds in the area. Now a local investor group is turning an old Superior Avenue building into apartments aimed at students. There's room for another phase at the Langston, north of Chester Avenue. And Clayco's project would fill a gap along Euclid between the campus and Cleveland's theater district.

"It seems like there's almost a race by student-housing developers to fill the demand that currently exists," said Bobbi Reichtell, executive director of the Campus District Inc. neighborhood development group. "Eventually, we want to have a variety of housing types, of housing populations. But in some ways, the students are the pioneers of the neighborhood. ... They're vibrant, they're energetic, they're more open to the urban experience."

The federation tried to find a public use, such as a school, for its former headquarters and the neighboring Playhouse Square Building, also known as the Rogers Building. But several potential options fell through before Clayco came along with a private proposal. Cleveland State is not involved with the project, and Lochner said Clayco will not seek public incentives for the deal. The building would qualify for residential tax abatement.

The former headquarters of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland sits empty at Euclid Avenue and East 18th Street. The building could be demolished for a student-housing development.

"Going for only 509 beds, that's a very small capture rate," Lochner said during an interview Monday. "So we feel that that's an appropriately sized project for that campus. Cleveland State has done a lot of great things, not just with their housing but also with a lot of the new buildings that they've added to the university. We hope to present an additional amenity for the university, to help attract more students."

The furnished apartments would range from one to four bedrooms, with one bathroom per bedroom. Each bedroom would be on a separate lease, with a single occupant. All of the units will include a shared living space and a washer and dryer.

Renderings show that Clayco hopes to wrap the 234-space parking garage in greenery, using a system of vines growing on steel mesh. Lochner would not discuss potential rental rates or the overall cost of the development.

"That's a big investment for someone out of town to make into Cleveland," Farley Helms of the Ostendorf-Morris Co. brokerage, which worked with Clayco, said of the project. "And that's not been the case in recent developments. The (Flats) East Bank and the county projects, they seem to be local developers reinvesting in the city because they love the city. But here's someone from out of town, out of state, coming in and investing a lot of money."