Dexter Place Casto Ohio City

A rendering shows an early vision for a five-story apartment building that Casto, a Columbus-based developer, hopes to build in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood. The building would occupy just over an acre on the northern rim of Franklin Circle.

(Dimit Architects)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A Columbus developer hopes to build 119 apartments in Cleveland's Ohio City, on a site that could help shape the future of Franklin Circle, a centerpiece of the west side neighborhood.

Casto, a privately held real estate firm pitching its first Northeast Ohio project, is floating plans for a five-story building that would touch West 28th Street, Franklin Boulevard and Dexter Place. The $20 million-plus proposal requires a rezoning and zoning variances - exemptions - at a time when residents in Ohio City and other hot pockets of Cleveland are uneasy with density, swift change and an influx of often high-end rental housing.

Neighborhood block club members gave Casto's plans mixed reviews during a meeting in late April.

Some property owners encouraged the potential return of apartments to the northern rim of Franklin Circle, where the Beckwith apartments once stood on a site that's now a parking lot and vacant land. A handful of neighbors asked the developer to consider changes, such as making the building smaller or incorporating affordable housing.

And a few nearby homeowners were outright opposed, describing the proposal - based on its size, closeness to the street and partial siting on land currently zoned for two-family homes - as an "abomination" that "would destroy the soul of this neighborhood."

Gary Ogrocki, a principal with Dimit Architects of Cleveland, cautioned that the plans are far from complete. "This is very, very much a work in progress," he told neighbors.

A site plan shows the proposed footprint for the 119-unit apartment building, which would include 135 parking spaces.

The building would occupy just over an acre, a site currently owned by a company tied to local real estate investor Michael Chesler. Neither Chesler nor Kolby Turnock, vice president of Casto's residential development division, would discuss the terms of their arrangement.

"We're talking to Casto to try to figure out the best way to structure a deal to make a great building there," said Chesler, who has controlled the northern half of the site for years and picked up the land along Franklin Circle from Lutheran Hospital in May 2017.

Casto owns and manages more than 4,000 apartments across Ohio. Turnock said the company is particularly interested in older, established neighborhoods, such as Columbus' German Village and Cincinnati's Walnut Hills.

The company has been scouting the Cleveland area for a while. Last year, Casto was part of a team that competed to remake the Lakewood Hospital site. Another developer, Westlake-based Carnegie Management & Development Corp., ultimately won that project.

In Ohio City, Casto would build a brick-clad building, with 135 parking spaces largely tucked inside and 5,000 to 7,000-square feet of retail, such as a cafe, along Franklin Circle.

Turnock said the apartments would be one- and two-bedroom units. Based on rates at other new buildings in the area, rents would start above $2 per square foot ($1,400 a month for a 700-square-foot apartment, for example).

When neighbors expressed concern about overbuilding, Turnock said Casto is confident there's still unmet demand for apartments in the area. "We do a lot of research," he said.

It's unclear when Casto will seek formal approvals for the proposal, which will require vetting by the Cleveland Landmarks Commission, the Cleveland City Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals. Turnock said he viewed the block club meeting as "a first step" and is willing to sit down with neighbors to discuss their concerns and fine-tune plans.

"We're a long way from any sort of finality. There's a process this needs to go through, and we're working very hard to make sure that all the people that surround Franklin Circle are being heard," said Tom McNair, executive director of neighborhood nonprofit Ohio City, Inc.

Across the circle from the Casto site, Montlack Realty is renovating the historic Heyse Building as apartments, filling a gap between Franklin Circle Christian Church and Lutheran Hospital. To the west, there are plans afoot to convert a former Masonic temple into a rock-climbing gym. And as activity in the neighborhood swells, the Lutheran parking lot north and east of the circle is a logical site for new construction.

But one key, unanswered question is what the actual circle, now an angled, four-way intersection instead of a roundabout, should look like. Councilman Kerry McCormack said the city has talked about restoring traffic to Franklin Circle as part of a broader street-repaving plan. He's trying to get clarity on the scope and timing of the process, which will involve public meetings.

"There is a very special relationship between the circle and any development that may come," McNair said, "and those are going to have to be coordinated efforts."