PURE Media Blitz: Coverage on WJW-Fox 8, in the Plain Dealer and in Inside Business Magazine

In addressing the downturn in the housing market, and in being at the forefront of overall home sales in the city, Progressive Urban Real Estate continues to be an industry leader.

This is evident in the recent spate of media coverage that has focused on the firm. Vice President David Sharkey was quoted in a Plain Dealer article on Saturday, Oct. 25th entitled, "Homes Sales in Northeast Ohio Jumped in September". Jim Anderson, real estate agent, and Lee Chilcote, Marketing Director and New Construction Project Manager, were recently featured on Robin Swoboda's morning program on WJW-Fox 8, "That's Life," in a special program that examined shopping, dining and living options in Tremont. PURE real estate agent Jim Miner, who owns a bed and breakfast in Ohio City that's called Clifford House, was also featured on "That's Life" in a program focused on the Ohio City neighborhood.

Finally, former PURE marketing guru Genna Petrolla, who now manages the Greater Circle Living Initiative for University Circle Inc., was recently featured as "one to watch" in an article in Inside Business Magazine. In the article, she cited her experiences working at PURE as formative ones that helped to shape her desire to promote living options in greater University Circle.

Clarence Court Development Featured on WVIZ Applause Program

On Thursday, October 23rd, WVIZ’s “Applause” program featured the Clarence Court development as one of three examples of innovative architecture in Northeast Ohio.

“From the late 19th through the early 20th century, Cleveland built a reputation as an oasis for progressive planners and architects - people who displayed their civic vision through massive public buildings and common spaces,” moderator and WCPN Around Noon host Dee Perry says. “On this edition of Applause, we're here to show you that the city still attracts dreamers and visionaries who want to build something remarkable... it's just the scale and locations that have changed.”

Architect Dan Bickerstaff of Ubiquitous Design Ltd., who designed Clarence Court in collaboration with Keith Brown of Progressive Urban Real Estate, was credited as “thinking outside of the box” in his approach to urban residential design in Clarence Court. This project features angled walls, the use of corrugated metal, and a single-family home that is a truly unique example of creative, contemporary architecture in Cleveland.

Clarence Court is located at the intersection of West 9th Street and Brayton Avenue in Tremont, near a local landmark, Lucky's Coffeeshop on Starkweather Ave.

“I would consider this style of architecture to be post-Industrial,” Bickerstaff said during his interview, citing the influence of the surrounding Tremont neighborhood as well as the nearby Industrial Flats.

You can view the program by visiting the WVIZ website and clicking on the Applause link. Look for Season 11, Episode 4 that aired on Thursday, October 23rd.

Circle 118 Development Continues Despite Nation's Credit Concerns

It’s been many years since University Circle has witnessed new residential construction in its backyard, but the drought is almost over as WXZ Residential prepares to break ground on a collection of bold, contemporary townhouses. Situated at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 118th Street, Circle 118 will be a unique community of new residential properties conveniently located in the heart of the city where University Circle and Murray Hill connect.

Circle 118 will be the first thing travelers see as they enter University Circle from the east and will act as a gateway to Cleveland’s medical and cultural district.

“Located within a five minute walk of world class education, health care, arts and cultural institutions of University Circle, Circle 118 is a new signature address in this premier urban district,” commented Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc.

Circle 118 is a collection of 17 four-story townhomes offering fresh, urban design, sustainable materials and luxury standards. Pre-construction incentives, below-market financing opportunities and 15 year, 100% tax abatement are available for buyers at Circle 118.

In addition, Circle 118 is included in the Greater Circle Living program, a forgivable loan program that offers $5,000-$15,000 to full-time employees of nonprofit institutions in and around University Circle.

Detroit Shoreway Hosts "Green" Open House at Bridge Square III

On Wednesday, October 29th from 6:00-7:30 pm, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization and Progressive Urban Real Estate will host a "green" open house event at the Bridge Square Townhomes Phase III model unit, located at 5809 Bridge Ave.

Chris Kious from A Piece of Cleveland (APOC) will be on hand to speak about deconstruction and upcycling in Cleveland. He will also display the newest innovations in home decor from APOC.

Michele Anderson of Progressive Urban Real Estate will be available to answer questions about Bridge Square Phase III. The model townhome offers many green features, including beautiful bamboo floors in the living area, sustainable finishes such as ceramic tile flooring and granite countertops, lots of natural light, and high energy efficiency furnace and windows. Bridge Square Phase III was also built with high-efficiency insulation and thick, 2 x 6 wall construction. This model unit, which has an attached garage, two bedrooms and one and a half baths, is affordably priced at $159,900 and offers tax abatement through 2021.

Euclid Corridor Opens: Now That It's Built, Will They Come?

The revamped Euclid Corridor opens this weekend, celebrating with a ribbon cutting at 2:30 pm on Friday at East Fourth and Euclid, and a day-long open house on Saturday with free rides on the HealthLine between Public Square and University Circle.

WCPN 90.3 Ideastream reporters were out test-riding the new Euclid Corridor on Thursday morning. WCPN reporter Rick Jackson, who hopped aboard the new bus rapid transit vehicles, found that it only took 22 minutes to get from Public Square to Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals on the new bus lanes.

Panelists interviewed on WCPN's Friday morning program included David Goldberg of Amtrust Bank, Chris Diehl of the Kent State Urban Design Center, and Steve Litt from the Plain Dealer. The panelists lauded the Euclid Corridor's design and the impact that this investment of public dollars will have on downtown, University Circle and Cleveland redevelopment. They also cautioned Clevelanders to take a long-term view on this project, and not to expect immediate transformation. Due to the credit crunch, many of the planned projects on Euclid Ave. are in a fragile state, while others may require additional time to reach fruition.

The Euclid Corridor project offers an entirely new streetscape for Euclid Avenue, including wider sidewalks, new infrastructure, bike lanes, planters, improved lighting, public art and pedestrian-friendly crossings.

John McGovern, a Detroit Shoreway neighborhood resident, rode the Euclid Corridor on his bike this morning. He stopped by to talk with WCPN's Dan Molthroup during Friday's program. "The Euclid Corridor is an investment for the people of Cleveland," said McGovern. "This is development for people - not only for cars."

For more information, visit the Greater Cleveland RTA website.

Transformed, an Historic Building on Public Square Nears Completion

The Park Building, located on Public Square, is a downtown Cleveland success story. This building, which is nearing completion, has flourished despite the challenges of today’s housing market. Nearly two-thirds of the twenty-seven planned condominiums are under contract.

This building, constructed by the Swetland family in 1904 and once considered “downtown’s most valuable acre,” is a piece of Cleveland history. Lovingly cared for by its owners for more than a century, the Park Building housed office tenants until several years ago, when it was purchased for adaptive re-use. The building contains historic details that would be difficult to replicate, including a restored marble lobby, oak molding and trim, and bay windows that look out over Public Square and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

Due to the plethora of windows in the building, which fills it with natural light, the Park Building is a natural fit for a condominium conversion. Stunning views are available from every floor. Offering one, two and three bedroom condominiums, the condo units feature original, refinished maple floors, luxurious standards, and many preserved historic details. Units are nearing completion, and the first residents to live on Public Square in many decades are expected to move into their new homes soon.

You are invited to help us celebrate the Grand Opening of the Euclid Corridor project and the Healthline – and the near-complete renovation of the Park Building – this weekend. A ribbon cutting for the Euclid Corridor will take place on Friday and a Scavenger Hunt on Saturday (the Park Building is one of the stops). We hope to see you there!

Bridge Mix: A Night Under the Stars and Over the Headlights

Fairfax and the Cleveland Clinic: A Community Partnership

Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation, a nonprofit that serves the Fairfax neighborhood in Cleveland, held the 13th Annual Louis Stokes Community Visionary Award Luncheon on Monday, October 13th. At the event, Executive Director Vicky Eaton Johnson presented the Stokes Community Vision Award to Dr. Delos M. (Toby) Cosgrove and the Cleveland Clinic.

Speaking to the audience, both Johnson and Cosgrove told the story of the unique community partnership that they have helped to form between Fairfax and the Clinic over the past four years. This partnership includes the Clinic offering free smoking cessation classes for Fairfax community members, Clinic volunteers helping to build Habitat for Humanity homes for families in the neighborhood, a community farmers market that is now being held on the Clinic campus, and a partnership between the Cleveland Clinic and the students and teachers of John Hay High School.

Johnson and Cosgrove also touted the Greater Circle Living Initiative, a partnership between University Circle institutions and the Cleveland Foundation. Through this initiative, employees of Greater University Circle institutions are eligible for up to $15,000 in grant funding should they choose to purchase a home in the surrounding community.

Cleveland Action to Support Housing Relocates to PURE Office in Ohio City

Cleveland Action to Support Housing (CASH) recently relocated to new, renovated office space at 4001 Detroit Ave., in the Ohio City office of Progressive Urban Real Estate.

PURE and CASH share in their missions a commitment to revitalizing the city of Cleveland and urban neighborhoods, making their co-tenancy ideal. Both organizations are looking forward to potential collaborations in the future.

Cleveland Action to Support Housing is a non-profit founded in the late 1970s that works with banks to offer low-interest rate loans for the rehab of properties in the city of Cleveland. Investors and owner-occupants are encouraged to apply. CASH's current interest rate is 3.4%, well below the market rate of 6%+. This discounted rate encourages investment in the city, and allows owners to save thousands of dollar in interest payments and build equity more quickly.

Progressive Urban Garners Media Coverage on Foreclosure Rehab Initiative

Two recent articles in Green City Blue Lake and the Plain Dealer covered Progressive Urban Real Estate's efforts to battle the foreclosure crisis through rehabbing homes.

"Investors can play a key role in getting us out of the foreclosure mess that we're in," Progressive Urban owner Keith Brown told Shaheen Samavati, real estate reporter with the Plain Dealer. "For responsible investors, it's rock-bottom real estate prices combined with the fact that homebuyers are still looking for high-quality, rehabilitated homes in strong-market neighborhoods."

To date, Civic Investments LLC, the new rehab company that Brown and others have formed, has purchased three foreclosed homes in Tremont, Ohio City, and Detroit Shoreway. Civic Investments has hired Civic Builders, a contractor, to rehab the homes. Progressive Urban Real Estate will market the properties.

Gold Coast Makeover: Carlyle Slated for $5 Million Restoration

The Carlyle, a 546-suite condo building located on the shores of Lake Erie in Lakewood, is getting a facelift. Throughout the remainder of 2008 and 2009, it will undergo a $5 million restoration program to spruce up the building.

The redevelopment, funded by the owners through a special assessment, will include the restoration and waterproofing of the building's parking deck, a complete overhaul/replacement of the heating system (ancticipated to lower utility costs), replacement of the electrical distribution system, restoration of the outdoor pool and re-landscaping of the pool area and lawns, refurbishing of the exercise room, and the redecoration of the lobby and corridors.

"Our goal is to make the best use of our very special location on the lake," suite owner and Marketing Committee Chairman Steve Casselman told "Lakewood Alive". "We're capitalizing on our shoreline location, getting rid of asphalt, and adding green space to create more of a park-like feel."

With 546 suites, the Carlyle is "almost a city unto itself," Casselman points out. Services available within the building include a dry cleaner, restaurant, deli, beauty salon, exercise room and racquetball court. (We ask: why would you *ever* leave? Especially in the winter!)

The Carlyle also offers an excellent location in proximity to downtown Lakewood, the Rocky River metroparks, Lakewood Park, Edgewater Park and downtown Cleveland. The grounds include a private beach area, picnic grounds, volleyball courts, and an outdoor pool overlooking Lake Erie.

Condominiums at the Carlyle are surprisingly affordable, with some units priced below or slightly above $100,000.

Cassellman recognizes the importance of buildings such as the Carlyle to the city of Lakewood. "We recognize that our ongoing success is inextricably linked with Lakewood's success," he says.

If Lakewood's story is one of reinventing itself through projects that breathe new life and vibrancy into the city, then the Carlyle's restoration shows that it is a critical chapter in that story.

The Carlyle is just one of the many condominium buildings on the Gold Coast. To search for condominiums in Lakewood, visit the PURE website, go to the search function, check "Gold Coast" in the neighborhood section, then click search. To contact an agent at PURE's Lakewood office, call 216/228-6440.

A Piece of Cleveland: What Do Furniture Sales Have to Do With Neighborhood Redevelopment? (Hint: A Lot!)

One of the panelists in last week's forum "Beyond Foreclosure: Small Scale Solutions That Work" at the Levin College of Urban Affairs was Chris Kious, one of the founding partners of A Piece of Cleveland. Chris gave a rousing presentation that began with the admittedly dubious claim that, in his own words, "selling furniture can help to solve the problem of foreclosures in our neighborhoods."

Here's how it works. A Piece of Cleveland is a start-up company whose mission is to "rescue and upcycle good wood." In other words, the APOC team takes apart old buildings slated for demolition, salvages the wood and other materials that are inside, and hand-crafts furniture from the forgotten remnants. In doing so, APOC is preventing these materials from clogging our landfills, preserving pieces of our history (the furniture items include 'rebirth certificates' chronicling the materials' history), and creating jobs and economic benefit from deconstruction, a new industry.

Given that some of the foreclosed homes in our communities will eventually be torn down due to decrepit condition, APOC has created a viable alternative to demolition, as well as the budding of a new industry in Cleveland.

APOC has recently received media coverage in Northern Ohio Live, Crain's, the Plain Dealer and Inside Business. Their clients include Fahrenheit Restaurant in Tremont(APOC created all of Fahrenheit's new tables) and Starbucks at Cedar-Fairmount. APOC creates everything from cutting boards to lamps to tables from recycled wood.

Within the last 12 months, Progressive Urban Real Estate has partnered with APOC to recycle a portion of several houses slated for demolition. We are looking forward to partnering with this exciting new organization in the future.

Civic Investments Launches Foreclosure Rehab Initiative

One way to tackle the trend of foreclosures in recent years is to get foreclosed homes back into the hands of responsible homeowners. That’s the message being conveyed by Civic Investments LLC, a group of investors that are marketing a foreclosure rehab initiative in Cleveland through Progressive Urban Real Estate.

Civic Investments LLC has invested in foreclosures in city of Cleveland neighborhoods with historically strong housing markets. Specifically, Civic Investments has purchased three homes in the Tremont, Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway neighborhoods of Cleveland.

“Investors can play a key role in getting us out of the foreclosure mess that we’re in,” said Keith Brown, President of Progressive Urban Real Estate and one of the four founding partners of Civic Investments, LLC. “If we isolate foreclosures from the market, then it’s evident that ordinary home sales are still taking place every day in our neighborhoods – albeit at a slower pace and at lower prices.”

“This shows that there is opportunity,” added Brown. “For responsible investors, it’s the combination of rock-bottom real estate prices combined with the fact that homebuyers are still looking for high-quality, rehabilitated homes in strong-market neighborhoods. Rehabbing a home brings it back to life. We want to sell these homes to new owners.”

Progressive Urban Real Estate is currently marketing three homes as a part of its foreclosure rehab initiative:

• 3804 Whitman Avenue, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on an historic street in Ohio City, under rehab and priced at $159,900
• 1302 Mentor Avenue, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Tremont, under rehab and priced at $139,900
• 7212 West Clinton Avenue, a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in Detroit Shoreway, under rehab and priced at $149,900

Tremont, Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway are neighborhoods that have shown significant long-term growth in housing values – in part due to redevelopment initiatives undertaken during the past several decades. Despite the downturn in the regional housing market since 2005, housing values in these particular communities have not dropped as significantly as Cleveland neighborhoods overall. For instance, while sales prices in many Cleveland neighborhoods have dropped by 25-50%, sales prices of non-foreclosure homes in Tremont have only dropped 5-10% since peaking in 2005. This shows the resilience of these neighborhoods – and the potential for investment.

Civic Investments LLC, the developer that is spearheading this effort, has hired Civic Builders LLC, a Tremont-based contractor with 25+ years of experience, to manage the rehab of these homes. Civic Investments has obtained financing for this initiative through a partnership between Shorebank Cleveland and Cleveland Action to Support Housing, two organizations with a history of mission-based lending in the city of Cleveland.

For more information about the foreclosure rehab initiative, please contact Lee Chilcote, Marketing Director at 216/619-9696 x 15 or lchilcote@progressiveurban.com.

Home Prices: Desperately Seeking Stability

Last week, we participated in a forum, “Beyond Foreclosure: Small-Scale Solutions That Work,” at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

Among the panelists was Brian Mikelbank, Director of the Center for Housing Research and Policy at Levin College. In his presentation, Mikelbank cited data showing that the number of foreclosures in Cuyahoga County was beginning to level off. This is good news, and a sign that home prices are beginning to stabilize in Northeast Ohio.

Cleveland has always been known for its stable, affordable home prices. According to recent research by Forbes Magazine, Cleveland is one of the most affordable cities in which to own a home; the average cost of owning a home here is $978 per month, including taxes, insurance, utilities and condominium/association fees.

Amidst the blitz of news about financial markets this week, it was announced on Wednesday that home prices in Cleveland dropped only .3 percent from June to July. This followed a gain of .7 percent from May to June. These numbers contrast with Sun Belt states, which dropped more significantly and, most experts agree, have further to fall before reaching stability.

Finally, despite the tightening of credit, it’s still possible to obtain a good loan in Northeast Ohio and across the U.S., particularly with rates on 30-year fixed mortgages remaining at historic lows. FHA, in particular, has stepped up and enabled many people to obtain mortgages on owner-occupied properties.