Construction On Lakewood Center North Starts Soon

LAKEWOOD, OH - Downtown Lakewood is changing rapidly and the city's skyline could be getting a face lift. Lakewood Center North, the centerpiece of the Detroit Avenue corridor, is transitioning into a mixed-use building from an office space and will be renamed Center North. The project is breaking ground this week.

The 15-floor tower will feature 153 high-end apartments, while the top two floors will remain commercial office space. The first floor will continue to be occupied by Forage, the city says.

The city says the project could add as many as 250 residents to the city. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. The project is being overseen by Kowit & Company Real Estate Group, which leases the property.

Detroit Avenue and Belle Avenue will undergo minor traffic changes during the construction. Those changes will be shared with residents via the city's social media pages. Notably, traffic will be maintained in both directions during construction.

“In Lakewood, our housing market largely drives the local economy, with more than 32,000 residential units of all sizes, types and price points available throughout the city,” said Bryce Sylvester, the city’s director of planning and development, in a statement on the city's website.

To see the architectural renderings of the building, click here.

The redevelopment of Lakewood Center North was announced early last year. As of April 2016, the building was 50 percent occupied, the city said at the time. However, Lakewood Center North's largest tenant was New York Life, which announced last year that it was moving from Lakewood to downtown Cleveland.

With all of that open office space, it likely made fiscal sense to convert the building into a residential offering.

"This is the kind of project that not only satisfies the housing needs of our community, but is part of a large transformational shift in our Downtown corridor," Sylvester said in a statement.

The redevelopment of Center North is the latest in a series of high-profile projects that are going to radically alter the landscape of the Detroit Road corridor. Most notably, Lakewood Hospital is no more and the Cleveland Clinic is building a Family Health Clinic in its place. The city is also taking bids on a 6-acre property that was left vacant by the hospital's departure.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch