CLEVELAND, Ohio - A $270 million plan to revive a nearly vacant building at one of downtown's most visible intersections got a big boost Wednesday, with the announcement of a highly coveted, and competitive, tax-credit award.

The former Huntington Building snagged $25 million in state tax credits reserved for "catalytic" historic-preservation projects - redevelopments packing the greatest potential economic punch. Hudson Holdings of Florida bought the massive building in June and plans to fill it with hundreds of apartments, a hotel, traditional offices, creative live-work space, retailers, restaurants and event facilities.

On Wednesday morning, Hudson principal Andrew "Avi" Greenbaum said he was elated. "What I want everyone to understand is that we are shovel-ready," he said, adding that construction will start during the second quarter of 2016.

The property, called the 925 Building since Huntington Bank left for another downtown address, topped two competitors to win the catalytic credit. The former May Co. department store on Public Square, earmarked for apartments, missed out. So did the old Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. headquarters in Akron, where Industrial Realty Group is working on an office-heavy, mixed-use project called the East End.

Under state law, the next catalytic award won't be announced until late 2017.

That means the owner of the former Goodyear campus will have to find other ways to speed up construction and office leasing. And the developers behind the May Co. proposal - who have a long-running purchase contract but haven't actually bought the building - will have to wait, walk away or seek other solutions to fill financing gaps.

The developers behind a potential apartment conversion of the mostly vacant May Co. department store on downtown Cleveland's Public Square missed out, once again, on a "catalytic" state tax-credit award to round out their financing package.

Developers John Carney, Bob Rains and David Goldberg aren't giving up on the May Co. building - yet.

"Obviously we're not happy," Carney said Wednesday afternoon. "We think the most important project for downtown Cleveland was the May Company project because of where it's located, because it's been dilapidated for years. And the Huntington Building is still a good-looking building.

"By the same token," he added, "we want to congratulate the owners of the Huntington Building. It's $25 million coming to Cleveland."

Carney plans to talk to the state about finding money for both the May Co. apartments and the Goodyear project, possibly by tapping historic tax credits that have been awarded but not used. The state doesn't distribute the credits until a project is complete, and some property owners have lost their credit allocations after failing to perform.

Such a move would require a change in state law, Carney said. He's also talking to private investors about other potential funding sources.

"We supported both projects, and we felt strongly that they were both critically important to the city," Tracey Nichols, Cleveland's economic-development director, said after a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the 925 Building. "Now it's our job to figure out how we're going to get the May Co. done, because this one looks like it's on its way."

Representatives for Industrial Realty Group couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday about the Goodyear property. The developer was seeking a catalytic award of $18.9 million.

The Ohio Development Services Agency announced $37.8 million in historic tax credits Wednesday to help rehabilitate 55 buildings. The other local winners included the old Cleveland Athletic Club Building downtown and a handful of neighborhood projects.

Applicants had asked for nearly $155.3 million, illustrating that demand for the popular state program continues to exceed the limited supply of awards.

Developers typically pair the state credits with federal preservation tax credits to attract equity to their projects and cut the often-substantial costs of saving historic buildings. The state generally caps its awards at $5 million per project. But a change in state law - driven, somewhat ironically, by lobbying efforts by the May Co. developers - allowed for an occasional catalytic credit for mammoth projects.

The first catalytic winner, announced a year ago, was Cincinnati Music Hall, a cultural venue in need of substantial repairs.

The May Co., the Goodyear campus and the 925 Building were runners-up.

Since then, both the owner and the redevelopment plan for the 925 Building, at the northeast corner of East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue, have changed.

The former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. campus in Akron also sought a catalytic tax credit award, though developer Industrial Realty Group didn't ask for the full $25 million from the state.

"This project is going forward," Greenbaum said Wednesday. "We're beginning already. We got the lobby already renovated up to code so that we can have events there, which hasn't happened in years. And our development plan and our financing is in place. So we're ready to go."

The renovated 925 Building will include 580 full-sized apartments plus 93 micro-apartments - small living spaces available to companies and workers participating in a business incubator planned for the building's sixth floor.

"People who grow their companies here and live here are going to want to stay here," Greenbaum said during an October interview. "We think companies will grow out of the incubator and move into office space. In the long run, we think these companies will help bring Cleveland employment."

His plans also call for a 279-room hotel, several hundred thousand square feet of offices, a fitness club located in annex portion of the complex, along Chester Avenue, and retail. The building's ornate, L-shaped bank lobby - often described as the world's largest - will function as an events space and house lobbies for the apartments and the hotel.

On Wednesday, Greenbaum confirmed that the hotel will be a Curio, an independent flag that is part of the Hilton family of brands. "We have a signed letter of intent from Hilton to build a Curio here," he said.

The 925 Building spans just over 1.4 million square feet, including the immense lobby, lower-level retail corridors and scads of empty offices. It is at least 92 percent empty, after the departures of tenants including accounting firm EY, law firm Tucker Ellis and Huntington.

Terry Coyne of the NGKF real estate brokerage, who handled the building sale and is representing the property for Hudson, said interest in office space has picked up during the last 30 days. "We're excited that we won," Coyne said of the tax credits, "and our pre-leasing activity has been very strong."

With its current vacancy, the property is a weak link at an intersection where the former Ameritrust complex, to the south, has been refashioned as a mixed-use property called The 9; the Schofield Building, to the southwest, is slated to reopen next year as a hotel with apartments upstairs; and PNC Center, to the west, still functions as a traditional office tower.

But the 21-story 925 Building, also known as the Union Trust Building or Union Commerce Building, still is one of downtown's grandest structures. Opened in 1924, it cost $17 million to build - or upwards of $230 million, in today's dollars.

A copy of Hudson's state tax-credit application, obtained by The Plain Dealer, predicts that the redevelopment will create 1,500 construction jobs and more than 1,200 permanent jobs. Construction could start in May and finish two years later.

Documents prepared by Sandvick Architects of Cleveland show that Hudson expects to divide the building into vertical slices, with offices on the second through fifth floor; the incubator and affiliated micro-apartments on the sixth and seventh; the hotel on eight, nine and 10; and apartments starting on the 11th floor.