$55 Million Ohio City Hotel Set to Rise on Surface Parking Lot on Lorain Ave.

A rendering of what the Ohio City Hotel will look like Credit: Courtesy Photo

Currently, if you’re looking to stay in Ohio City while visiting the West Side Market, Rock Hall, downtown Cleveland or any other of a host of attractions, your options are limited. You can crash at a nearby Airbnb, but you can’t book a room at a hotel in Ohio City – because there isn’t one. However, that could start to change this year with the construction of the 129-room, seven-story Ohio City Hotel on a surface parking lot at Lorain Ave. and W. 26th St.

The developer behind the project is Dan Whalen, who also developed the $150 million Intro project at W. 25th and Lorain. The parking lot where the project will rise is owned by the nonprofit Ohio City Incorporated, which put out a request for proposals for the site in 2022. The $55 million hotel would include a first-floor eatery, ground-level coffee shop, 4,500 square foot second-level event space, as well as a rooftop restaurant and bar overlooking downtown.

“It’s a much needed use for this area,” Whalen told the Cleveland Landmarks Commission at its May 8th meeting, where the project was granted schematic approval. “There’s a big glaring void for the near west side and west side in general. There’s not a single full service hotel between downtown and the airport, and on I-90 on the north side until you get to Crocker Park. This hotel will serve not only the near west side and downtown Cleveland but also the inner ring suburbs.”

“Our hotel stock in the city of Cleveland is kind of average, below average,” Whalen told Scene in a follow up interview. “We go to other peer markets, and there’s always really cool places to stay and stuff that’s really pushing the envelope … And when you travel, the first thing you start to identify a city with, if you’re a visitor, is the hotel where you’re staying. This is a really good opportunity to create something that’s unique and exciting and truly neighborhood-driven.”

Whalen said he plans to own and operate the first floor restaurant, and he hopes the rooftop bar will be a place Clevelanders will want to hang out. “If we do it right, it’ll be a neighborhood-type vibe,” he said. “It won’t be for special occasions only, it will be like, ‘No, this is a place we could see ourselves going to twice a week, whether it’s for a bite or a drink or a full meal.’”

To keep costs down, and avoid taking up a bunch of valuable first-floor space with parking spaces, Whalen said he’s inked deals with adjacent property owners to be able to use their lots in the evening hours when they’re currently underutilized and there’s not as much of a parking crunch. The Ohio City Hotel has just nine parking spots, and the first floor will be dedicated to more active retail. That’s a win for dense, transit-oriented development in the area, some say.

“I think we collectively let cars and our concern about cars and parking drive the shape that projects take,” commented Calley Mersmann, head of the Cleveland city planning commission. “There are a lot of downsides that come with that in terms of the space that’s created. The building would look and feel a lot different with a bunch of cars parked on the first and second level versus totally active street frontages, which is consistent with the other buildings on the street. I applaud you for being creative with parking. This is also an incredibly transit-rich area. This supports amenities like retail and shopping.”

In his presentation before the Landmarks Commission, Whalen painted a vivid picture of how the Market Avenue-facing hotel would create a viewshed towards the Great Lakes Brewing Company and the West Side Market, the latter of which is undergoing a $70+ million renovation. In terms of materials, the building would be all brick with granite at the base and dark bronze windows. The design also calls for Hunter Green glazed brick on the first level.

“We thought it would be a little tip of the cap to the glazed materials you see in the West Side Market and some of the patina materials you see in the neighborhood,” said Whalen. “We thought it would be fun to sort of incorporate our own twist on that and really make a statement, so our building over the course of time stands out, is visually interesting and is something people talk about.”

It wasn’t easy to pull together financing for the project, which Whalen is doing under his company, Places Development. “It’s hard to do stuff in Cleveland, because in the financial markets, there’s just not a lot of excitement,” he said. “They look at long-term economic trends and they see population loss, which is now hopefully troughed out and starting to turn the corner. These banks need a margin of safety, and that safety typically lives in markets where you can count on growth.”

There have been at least two other hotels proposed in Ohio City in recent years, both of which have died in the planning stages. One was the Hulett Hotel on W. 25th St., which was proposed by Ohio City Hostel owner Mark Raymond back in 2018, and the other was Bridgeview at W. 25th and Detroit Ave., which will now be residential units due to financing issues. Yet the Ohio City hotel appears to be much further along than these projects were, and Whalen said in the landmarks meeting he’s ready to break ground when he receives his approvals this year.

“I hope to be in the ground before Thanksgiving,” he told Scene. The construction process will take about 16 months, pushing the opening to early 2027. The price points of the rooms will be in the mid-$200s per night, which is at the mid to upper end of Cleveland hotel prices.

According to a report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), U.S. hotel occupancy has bounced back since the pandemic and is “projected to reach 63.38 percent in 2025, just 2.42 percentage points shy of the 2019 level of 65.80 percent and a significant recovery from 2020’s historic low of 43.89 percent.” Greater Cleveland hotel occupancy rates in 2023 averaged 60.5 percent, according to Costar, with average nightly rates topping $200. AHLA said travelers are increasingly seeking unique experiences at their hotel stays – something the Ohio City Hotel may be able to offer with its unique venues and proximity to hotspots.

The hotel will be a Marriott Tribute brand hotel, Whalen unveiled during the Landmarks Commission meeting. He said he’s been in conversation with neighborhood residents and stakeholders about parking, and they believe they’ve found a viable solution. It’s a truism among developers that adding parking to a project, especially structured parking, can be a deal-killer because it’s so expensive.

“Parking is always the thing that economically destroys the ability to get a deal done,” said Whalen. “We want to propose a building that we know we can get done.”

Whalen said the project will use adjacent lots behind the United Bank building and other surface lots, which are often vacant in the evening. He added that one of the reasons he’s been able to get deals done in Cleveland is because he develops good relationships with neighbors.

“Hotel traffic comes in the evening, stays overnight, and then you’re zipping out of there to do whatever you’re in Cleveland to do,” he told the planning commission. “The parking demand is the exact opposite hours of when the district has troubles. The parking problem is primarily a perception thing, where 80 percent of the time the lots are 20 percent full and 20 percent of the time they’re 80 percent full.”

“Why would we build a parking structure, when it’s $25,000 to $30,000 per space?” Whalen said in a followup interview with Scene. “Now I’m just lighting money on fire because someone feels like there’s not enough parking, right? Whereas our parking is overnight, and that’s when the neighborhood is basically dead.”

Ben Trimble, chief real estate officer with OCI, said they chose Whalen because of his vision for the hotel as well as his success with Intro. He added that the Ohio City Hotel will provide an alternative to the Airbnbs that are proliferating in the neighborhood, some of which have been the sites of dangerous parties. Cleveland City Council is currently considering legislation that would regulate Airbnbs, helping the city crack down on unruly properties, ensure proper licensure, and limit the number of rentals allowed on any given block, Scene previously reported.

“I am very excited about it,” Trimble told Scene. “This is something we identified 10 years ago. We think it’s a huge need. There’s a huge problem with Airbnbs in the neighborhood we hear about all the time. If we can have a legitimate operator meet that need, we will be better off.”

Whalen emphasized that unlike some of the out-of-town owners operating Airbnbs, he’s part of the neighborhood.

“This will be a long-term ownership project for us,” he stated. “We’re not just building it and going on our way, we’ll be stakeholders. We have been stakeholders for a long time.”

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