Harbor Verandas August 2017

A rendering shows the planned three-story, mixed-use building that will rise on a former skateboarding park site on downtown Cleveland's lakefront, near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

(Dimit Architects)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cumberland Development is ready to tackle its second project on downtown Cleveland's lakefront, where construction will start this week on a long-discussed apartment building near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

The $12 million project, on a half-acre site once used as a skateboarding park, will blend high-end apartments with retail and offices in a three-story building. Designs show 16 residences atop half a dozen storefronts, with parking tucked inside.

A groundbreaking event will take place at noon Tuesday, according to an advisory distributed by the city on Monday. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley and Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents much of downtown, are scheduled to attend.

Dick Pace, chief executive officer for Cleveland-based Cumberland, deferred to the city on details of the event.

A rendering shows another view of the planned Harbor Verandas building, which will include 16 apartments over ground-floor retail space and offices. The building could open in July or August of 2018.

The project, called Harbor Verandas, could open in late July or early August next year. The building is the second of three that Cleveland-based Cumberland expects to develop along or near the East Ninth Street Pier.

The first, a two-level restaurant and event space called Nuevo Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar, opened just before the Republican National Convention last summer.

Construction on the third building, a single-story retail connector between the Rock Hall and the Great Lakes Science Center, might start next year. All three sites are city-owned, and Cumberland controls them through long-term land leases.

Cumberland also is working with the Trammell Crow Co., a major real estate outfit based in Dallas, on much bigger plans for city-owned lakefront land north and east of FirstEnergy Stadium. The developers' scheme for that property hinges on landing a major office tenant, or multiple companies, to anchor a district that also will include apartments, retail and parking.

A rendering shows another view of the planned Harbor Verandas building, which will include 16 apartments over ground-floor retail space and offices. The building could open in July or August of 2018.

But that's an ambitious undertaking, with significant infrastructure requirements and considerable costs. Between funding challenges and construction complications, even small buildings on the lakefront, like Nuevo and Harbor Verandas, are difficult to pull off. As with Nuevo, Cumberland is fronting the money to get construction started, in hopes of firming up a bank loan and other financing within a few months.

"While we haven't gotten everything finalized, we're very close," Pace said, adding that he aims to have all of the pieces in place by the end of October.

Harbor Verandas will include 10 two-bedroom apartments and six three-bedroom units, ranging from roughly 1,700 to 2,000 square feet. Projected rents fall between $2.20 and $2.25 per square foot. Based on those figures, a two-bedroom apartment might rent for $3,740 a month - near the top of the market in the city.

The apartments each will include large, covered outdoor spaces and water views.

Cumberland plans to move its offices into one of the downstairs retail spaces from the Fifth Street Arcades downtown. The street-level lineup also will include Cleveland Bike Tours and, possibly, a Cleveland Pickle sandwich shop.

Funding for the project could include a loan from Chemical Bank, bond financing through the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and financing through a program called Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, tied to energy efficiency.

The apartments will be eligible for property-tax abatement, which the city routinely grants for new and renovated homes that meet certain green-building standards. And the city is providing a $425,000 grant for sewer work around the site.