Millennia Companies has less than a month to come up with tens of millions of dollars in debt payments or the fate of the Centennial Building will be in someone else’s hands.
That’s what a federal judge decided last week, when they okayed an extension of time to allow Millennia and founder Frank Sinito to pay back roughly $41 million in interest, legal fees, sales costs and receivership advances tied to the gargantuan, vacant building at 925 Euclid Avenue.
Sinito and Millennia now have until August 30 to come up with the money.
If not, the Centennial will head to an auction that will wrap up in November. About a dozen potential buyers have had early talks with the building’s receiver, John Lane, though none are wholly serious or have made actual offers.
“Really, I hope Frank is successful,” Terry Coyne, the head of Newmark who brokered the sale to Sinito in 2018, told Scene in a phone call on Tuesday.
“He’s dedicated to Cleveland; he’d be the right person to do it,” Coyne said, referring to Sinito’s decade-long attempt to rehab the property. As for the auction otherwise: “If [the bank’s] lucky, they’ll get one dollar.”
Since updated renderings of the massive project debuted in 2023, the Centennial marked itself in Cleveland developer circles as the white whale of office conversions. Millennia wanted to put 413 workforce apartments and a full-service hotel in a century-year-old bank building, turn its vault into a speakeasy, and its lobby into a Marble Room-styled restaurant and a museum for vintage cars.
But beauty bore its costs. Though Millennia soon secured $75 million in state tax credits, the company would’ve had to cover about a half a billion dollars in sum to pull off what would be its largest development project in Cleveland.
One that hasn’t gotten easier with time. In 2024, the feds cut Millennia off from receiving money from the Dept. of Housing & Urban Development after reports of “deplorable conditions” in some of the properties it managed.
Water leakages have caused ceiling damage, a report in January found. The building has no dependable heat source or a suitable fire suppression system. All of its elevators are out of service (save for one freight elevator). About $400,000 had been spent this summer alone on maintenance, insurance and cleanup, a recent receiver’s report found.
Including added security. A string of urban explorers and vandals had broken into the Centennial, police records show, in the winter and spring, leading to smashed windows, broken doors and fire extinguisher exhaust damage. New lights and cameras were installed and another security guard was hired.
All costs soon to weigh on whomever takes ownership.
And all sides seem to be banking on Sinito’s ninth-inning comearound to put the Centennial project back on track. If Sinito doesn’t secure the property, there’s no guarantee a new buyer could plan apartments, lease it to offices or retail or open up the ground floor at all.
Millennia did not respond to Scene’s request for comment via email.
In a statement to Scene, Lane said he was committed to his role as court-appointed receiver but, like Coyne, said he hoped the Centennial ownership landed in the hands of someone who could develop it to its full potential.
“If Millennia takes on that developer role either through its right of redemption or as a subsequent bidder,” Lane said, “I certainly would see that as a win for all stakeholders.”
A Friday court filing from Sinito’s lawyers said that Millennia has “made significant progress towards obtaining funding” to scoring back the Centennial from the bank and receiver Lane.
The developer was “only weeks away from obtaining a loan or funding committment sufficient to redeem the property,” that filing read. A redemption that would “constitute a ‘win-win’ for all parties involved.”
HH Cleveland Huntington, a subsidiary of Millennia that bought the building, told Scene that they’re making “substantial progress” in paying back the debts and has plans in place “to obtain financing.”
“We appreciate the court’s decision to grant an additional 30 days to complete the payoff and redemption process and thanks the receiver for working constructively with the company,” a spokesperson wrote Scene, and that they remain focused “on completing the transaction and advancing plans to revitalize this iconic landmark in support of downtown Cleveland and the broader region.”
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