Cleveland Heights Weighs Top of the Hill Proposals

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — City council members met on Monday to get an update on the Top of the Hill development project and consider proposals from Fairmount Properties and Flaherty & Collins. Tax incremental financing has been ruled out for the projects, reports cleveland.com.

The city is currently in its due diligence process and considering both firm’s proposals. Mayor Cheryl Stephens told cleveland.com that the process could continue through the end of the year, but she would like to begin construction on the project next spring.

The Top of the Hill development will be located at the top of Cedar Hill, on the corner of Cedar Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard.

Both firms are now considering hotels on the site. Fairmount Properties is considering either a boutique-style hotel with 55-80 rooms, or a full-sized, 120 room, nationally branded hotel. Flaherty & Collins say they’re warming to the idea of a hotel at the site, according to cleveland.com.

Cleveland-based Fairmount Properties in a July proposal to council suggested the Top of the Hill site could be be best utilized as a commercial-residential mixture, with apartment complexes attracting empty nesters and Millennials, and “one-of-a-kind” shops. The firm also said it would focus $25,000 annually on Cedar Fairmount district marketing and programming.

Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins said in their July proposal that they believe the Top of the Hill site has the potential to draw $40 million in annual revenue, with a mixture of commercial and residential facilities. The goal would be to attract Millennials to the apartment complex, with the firm suggesting up to 66 percent of residents could fall into that demographic. The target for completion of construction once the project commenced would be 18 months.

» For more on this, go to Cleveland.com.

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