Residences at 700 in Former United Church of Christ Building Downtown Set to Begin Construction After Receiving State Tax Credit

Prospect Avenue downtown is about to seem a little less quiet.

On Wednesday, K&D Development, the owners of the property once home to the United Church of Christ, announced that they received a $4 million Ohio State Historic Preservation Tax Credit. That money will cap off K&D’s fundraising push for what’s a $46 million conversion from offices into apartments. It was one of 11 Northeast Ohio projects that received awards this week.

The reactivation of the Electric Building will bring some 120 apartments into the eight-story building, previously home to a collection of office spaces. Construction is slated to begin in October.

That $4 million, K&D spokesperson Aaron Price told Scene, should allow the Residences to keep its rents at so-called market-rate. Namely, one-beds and studios starting at $1,200 and “focused on downtown workers.”

Such a tax credit “allows us to get the price down a lot,” Price said Wednesday. “We’re not really doing anything that’s like ultra luxury, so that’s cool.”

The Residences’ greenlight, as Price framed it, will help to activate a street in Cleveland’s Gateway District that’s had its highs and lows over the past half decade.

In October of 2021, the Winking Lizard’s Gateway spot shuttered, citing pandemic-era staffing issues and unsuitable rents; in late 2023, the Fitworks gym across the way went. And the May Co. Building down the block has struggled to fill its ground-floor retail since its rehab wrapped up in 2020.

Last summer, Geraci’s Restaurant opened up a throwback Slice Shop across the street, with great fanfare and nighttime hours, though hours have turned sporadic this year.

The 124-year-old Electric Building, recognizable for its fiery-red brick facade and tall dark windows overlooking the sidewalk, will also be host to, Price confirmed, an “elevated sports bar concept” that K&D and broker CBRE will wrap up with a deal in mid-July. Price hinted the restaurant is a “national chain” that “will make downtowners happy.” (And “not another BW3,” he joked.)

Despite relatively rough economic headwinds, Downtown Cleveland has seen its share of developmental triumphs in the past two, three years.

The Residences at 700 will join surrounding complexes turning vacant or unused century-old buildings into white-walled towers touting city living—from the City Club Apartments off Euclid Avenue, to the Ten60 Bolivar near Progressive Field, The Bell in the idled Cleveland One Center and hundreds of new units (mostly for theater workers) at the Bulkley Building in Playhouse Square.

And just on Tuesday, the idling Rose Building, once home to Medical Mutual, was put on the conversion train as well. Developers Spark GHC announced their intentions to rehab one of Downtown’s first office buildings into a mixed-use complex of apartments, hotel rooms and a long-awaited retail space.

The Residences at 700, Price said, will see its first tenants move in next spring.

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