CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A suburban developer is planting a high-profile stake in Ohio City, where a project at West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue could form a new link between downtown Cleveland and the city's West Side.

The Snavely Group of Chagrin Falls has lined up deals to buy two key corners of that intersection for a mixed-use, mixed-income development. On the southwest corner, a pair of historic buildings could be renovated for 35 low-income apartments and ground-floor businesses. To the north, on a site that's largely a parking lot today, Snavely envisions 205 full-priced apartments and commercial space.

The $60 million investment would remake a prominent stretch of road, where more than 30,000 cars and countless buses pass by each day but there's little incentive to pause, to walk or to hop off a bicycle. Snavely's vision also might set the tone for other projects along Detroit, a corridor seeing a surge of interest from apartment developers and other real estate investors.

"This is something that we consider a transformational project not just for Ohio City, but a project that has the ability to redefine the gateway between downtown and the near-West Side of Cleveland," said Tom McNair, executive director of the Ohio City Inc. neighborhood group.

"It's a unique location and a unique project," he added, "and I think we have the right team in place."

Ohio City pioneer agrees to sell

Most of the real estate belongs to the DiIorio family, whose patriarch opened a restaurant and event space called Massimo da Milano in the old Forest City Bank Building in 1989. Now 77, Tony DiIorio is ready to stop being a landlord. But he's not getting out of the restaurant business. Massimo will stay on as a tenant.

The roof of the Forest City Bank Building at West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue offers views east toward the Cuyahoga River and downtown Cleveland.

"I've got weddings booked for three years," DiIorio said, joking that he needs the day job to get out of the house and get a break from his wife.

DiIorio's sons, John and Anthony, run the family's sheet-metal fabricating plant on Clark Avenue. The three men collectively own the Ohio City real estate and have entered sale agreements with Snavely for an undisclosed price.

"In the last four or five months, a lot of people come asking me if I want to sell," DiIorio said. "And I tell them no. But then Pete [Snavely Jr.], he bought out my son. He talked him into it. The boys are really busy at the shop, and I don't think they've got time to take care of the buildings. So that's why we made this decision."

The DiIorio properties include the Forest City Bank Building, which dates to the early 1900s, and the neighboring Seymour Block building, perhaps best known as the longtime home of Kiefer's, a popular restaurant that closed in 1991. The family also owns a large parking lot on the north side of Detroit. Snavely is buying several smaller parcels, just west of that parking lot, from other owners.

The Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office places the combined value of that real estate at roughly $2 million, but those appraisals don't necessarily reflect what Snavely is paying for a prime development site in a hot city neighborhood.

Snavely, who oversees projects in Denver and Cleveland for the family-owned Snavely Group, hopes to close on the Ohio City purchases next year. The new construction project, a five-story building with parking tucked beneath the apartments, could start in late 2015. That complex also might include offices, restaurants, retailers and a school or other educational tenant.

The entire project, spanning both sides of Detroit, could involve 50,000 square feet of commercial space and 335 parking spots.

A cyclist and pedestrians cross West 25th Street at Detroit Avenue, with the Forest City Bank Building in the background.

Renovations of the historic buildings might start in 2016. Snavely plans to seek federal and state historic-preservation tax credits for that project, along with tax credits for low-income housing. The developer envisions the lower-cost apartments as homes for teachers, police officers, artists and restaurant workers.

"Sustainable, integrated communities need a mix of rents," Snavely said. "We think it's a smart and intelligent way to build communities that have a mix of different people."

In an unusual cross-neighborhood collaboration, the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization will act as a co-developer on the low-income apartments.

Snavely wouldn't discuss other potential financing options. Residential projects in Cleveland generally qualify for property-tax abatement. And it's not unusual to see developers chase public financing for infrastructure work or other costs, though some recent, smaller projects in Ohio City have bucked that trend.

"We don't have anything pinned down, but we've had conversations," Snavely said, when asked about incentives. "This project qualifies for pretty much every tool that you can use in public finance. We're exploring all of our alternatives to structure this deal financially."

Detroit Avenue sees more action

Interest in Detroit Avenue real estate prompted Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman and Ohio City Inc. to push ahead earlier this year with a rezoning designed to encourage mixed-use developments, pedestrian-friendly projects and more ground-floor stores and restaurants.

South of the Snavely site, developer Rick Foran is edging closer to starting work on the long-delayed West 25th Street Lofts project, a revamp of a rambling cluster of historic buildings. Head west on Detroit, and small businesses have populated a district now known as Hingetown, along West 29th Street. Nearby, construction is wrapping up at the new Mariner's Watch apartments. A similar residential building is slated to replace a former bathhouse nearby.

A 1964 photo shows a crowd inside Kiefer's, a longstanding and popular restaurant in the Seymour Block building on Detroit Avenue. The restaurant, which started out as a beer and bratwurst stand in 1936 and opened on Detroit soon after, closed in 1991.

Cimperman described Snavely's plan as one that will fill a key gap on Detroit, smoothing the transition between downtown and Ohio City and forging a mixed-income link between largely higher-end residential projects cropping up south of the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway and subsidized housing to the north.

"Let's be honest about it," Cimperman said. "There are no accidents. The Shoreway was built, in a sense, to keep people apart. Even the connections are crazy, in terms of how people get from the north to the south. ... One of the things I appreciate about Pete is that he recognizes that there's a big missing piece."

Snavely said it's too early to talk about rents. He's working through project details with two architecture firms, Vocon and RDL Architects. He's talking to the city about broader potential for green space, on city-owned land that abuts the development site and at the southeast corner of West 25th and Detroit, where Ohio City Inc. has raised the prospect of turning a shaky hillside into a park.

And he's still navigating challenges, including discussions with the city and the Ohio Department of Transportation about a planned walking and biking trail that would cut through the northern portion of his property. That trail, and ODOT's overall plan to revamp and slow traffic on the Shoreway, could be sweeteners for the Snavely project. But the transit agency's current designs don't account for significant new construction north of Detroit.

That conflict isn't necessarily surprising, considering how fast the neighborhood is changing. A corridor lined with overlooked buildings, parking lots and industrial companies is suddenly a magnet for developers seeking Lake Erie views and a slice of the urban apartment boom. Now everyone, from residents to business owners and bureaucrats, is trying to keep up.

"This is really what we're talking about with the city right now," Snavely said. "How do we do this?"

Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story.