The historic Union Trust building in Downtown Cleveland could be reimagined as workforce housing under a redevelopment plan that’s been securing public financing in the past few months.
The mostly vacant, 1.3 million-square-foot building, renamed The Centennial, at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Ninth Street would be home to more than 860 apartments. Plans also include some retail and office space.
“This is the missing tooth in the center of the mouth of the smile on Euclid Avenue,” said Tom Mignogna, a senior development officer for Millennia Companies, which is leading the redevelopment.
It’s one of several projects on the block that will fill in underused space between Public Square and Playhouse Square. Next door is the Euclid Grand project, and across the street, the Cleveland Athletic Club building is now a luxury apartment building called The Athlon.
Proposal calls for more affordable rent
Apartments in The Centennial would rent for rates aimed at tenants making between 50 percent and 80 percent of the local median income, or an annual salary of $38,000 to $60,800 for a family of four, according to the developer.
“It will offer the amenities of a nice market-rate property but at the same time have rent levels that are going to make it affordable for so many people who live and work – and want to live and work – downtown,” Mignogna said. “Hospital workers, hospitality workers, bus drivers, entry-level folks working at the county, at the Clinic.”
Part of the former bank’s grand, column-lined lobby would become a high-end dinner club, he said, while another section would host displays from the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum.
Millennia is still putting together financing for the project, which could have a final cost as high as $460 million, Mignogna said. The developers are drawing on private funding sources as well as public ones, including state historic tax credits won by a previous owner of the building.
A Cuyahoga County Council committee on Monday discussed a $5 million economic development loan for the project. Late last year, the city of Cleveland approved a tax-increment financing deal valued at $15 million and a $15 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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