A mid-rise, mixed-use plan for the hospital site in downtown Lakewood is gaining favor in talks between the city of Lakewood and Westlake-based Carnegie Management and Development Corp., according to an update posted Thursday, Oct. 19, on the city's website.

Bryce Sylvester, Lakewood director of planning and development, said in an email on Thursday that Carnegie remains open to a plan with taller buildings if additional market studies support a larger project.

"At this point, the mid-rise is more closely aligned with what is envisioned for the project," Sylvester wrote.

Carnegie had outlined both plans as a Lakewood committee selected Oct. 1 it for additional negotiations with Lakewood City Council over terms for a pact to redevelop the site of the closed hospital at Belle and Detroit avenues in the suburb's downtown.

The mid-rise plan calls for a six-story building and two others of four or five stories. Carnegie's high-rise concept called for an 18-story building and two others of four or five stories. The larger plan called for 400 apartment units, while the smaller one called for 200. Both envisioned retail and office space for the complex.

The update follows a committee of the whole meeting by Lakewood City Council on Monday, Oct. 16.

Redevelopment of the site of the first hospital in Cuyahoga County developed outside of Cleveland follows the Cleveland Clinic closing operations there last year. The city controls the hospital site because the hospital was municipally owned before the city leased it to the Clinic as it got out of the hospital business in 1996. The Clinic is constructing a family health center to serve the suburb on a site across the street from the closed hospital.

Lakewood officials have pursued redeveloping the 6-acre hospital grounds as a means of bolstering the city's resurgent downtown and Detroit Avenue commercial district.