Vega Ave. Studio Lofts Bringing New Affordable Workforce Housing to Clark Fulton

The Vega Avenue Studio Lofts will begin to take shape later this year Credit: Courtesy Photo

Cleveland developer Ben Beckman knows what it’s like to be the first. He brought development to the emerging Barber-Vega-Queen (BVQ) District back when no one else was. His first project, a 69-unit building called BVQ Lofts, faced headwinds during the pandemic but now regularly rents out during peak season.

Now, after delays caused by Covid, the developer is coming out with his next project, the 45-unit Vega Avenue Studio Lofts, on a parcel of land leftover from the BVQ Lofts project. The building, which will be located at 2700 Vega overlooking the freeway, will be the first new residential building to rise in the BVQ District, which is a pocket-sized triangle of land bordered by W. 25th St., the RTA Red Line tracks and I-90. Beckman hopes to begin construction on the $5.75 million project later this year and start leasing out units sometime next year. The project received final approval at the April 25th Cleveland City Planning Commission meeting.

Beckman deliberately priced the units in the BVQ Lofts project, an adaptive reuse of the historic J. Spang Bakery building at 2801 Barber Ave., several hundred bucks below similar market-rate units in the trendier Tremont and Ohio City neighborhoods. This move proved prescient, as it unleashed demand for these less pricey units.

Now, with his new project, he’s taking a cue from BVQ Lofts, where the smallest, most efficient units rented out more quickly than larger, more expensive ones. “If you think about the smallest half dozen or so apartments, they’re in really high demand,” he said. “They don’t turn over a lot, and when they do, the phone lights up, people are very interested in seeing them, and they rent quickly. That led us to think that there’s demand for a smaller, affordable product in this neighborhood.”

Vega Ave. Lofts will feature two unit types – A units featuring 400 square feet of living space and B units containing 685 square feet. Both will be open loft studios with high ceilings and oversized windows with plenty of natural light. Beckman expects rents to start at about $1,000-1,100 per month, with the idea that the units are affordable to people making $2,500-3,000 per month.

“They’re true efficiency lofts,” said Beckman. “We’ve kept the 10 foot ceilings. Both A and B units are open plan concepts. That allows us to keep the price points down.”

The Vega Ave. building will share parking with the BVQ Lofts, and there will be additional parking on the street. BVQ Lofts also feature bike parking and the city of Cleveland and RTA are planning to build a $50 million new bus rapid transit line on W. 25th St. In addition to large windows, the exterior of the four-story building will feature shiplap wood siding and a natural landscaping plan with wildflowers. There will be 23 A units and 22 B units in the building.

The whole idea behind the project, Beckman said, is to create workforce housing that’s affordable to people who might be getting priced out of other Cleveland neighborhoods. “There are lots of people in that situation who want to live on the near west side in a building that’s good quality, well managed etc.,” he said. “That’s the thesis, now the proof is in the pudding.”

Beckman is also trying to create a LEED-certified green building with geothermal heating and solar panels on the rooftop. He aims to use these features to command higher rents while also passing savings onto tenants in the form of lower utility costs. “Utilities matter,” Beckman said. “The swing in utilities from summer to winter is tough for some folks. We’re hoping to do geothermal and keep utility costs down. That’s the most efficient system we can deploy.”

The developer admits that it may be a challenge to explain to tenants that they’re getting lower utility costs, especially when “the headline rent may be a little bit higher.” “There is a real market challenge to explaining that to a tenant, especially in this digital era when you set the filter in apartments.com or whatever to show me apartments under $1,000,” he said. “Well, that apartment that costs $995 has utility costs that don’t show up in the sticker price, so is that really better than my $1,035 per month apartment that has $35 per month in utility costs?”

To deal with this, the developer plans to market the overall lower cost of living in the Vega Lofts. Beckman can’t predict utility costs before he starts leasing, but once he’s got the building up and running he plans to measure them and promote the lower cost of living. “A year in, it becomes much easier, and we intend to, on an anonymous basis, publish utility data,” he said. “Imagine having a graph on the website (where people can see what their utility costs will be).”

The building will be wood construction and have typical amenities for a new build. “It doesn’t have concierge dry cleaning and you can’t step down to the lobby to get a massage, but there’s in suite laundry, dishwasher, a package room etc.,” Beckman said. “It’s a much lower price point and you can still walk to [Ohio City] in 10 minutes and the Guardians game in 15 minutes.”

The project will be financed with conventional construction, with Beckman and a group of investors providing 30 percent or more of their own equity in the deal. Beckman said that most of the investors from his original project, the BVQ Lofts, have hung in with him and he predicts many will invest in the new project. Although it’s a difficult time with interest rates still high and tariffs coming into effect, he’s hopeful about seeing this new project come to fruition.

“It’s changing day to day and week to week,” he said. “If we were doing it today, it would be tough. Hopefully things will settle down a bit.”

As far as the neighborhood goes, Beckman said the effects of gentrification are beginning to be felt with additional investment, but it’s still economically diverse. Several developers, including Metro West CDC, are planning affordable housing projects here. “I would not say it’s a luxury neighborhood,” he said. “There’s a core of folks who have been in the neighborhood a long, long time who have a lot of pride in the neighborhood, and that’s great. We’re starting to see more properties being renovated. We’re seeing existing homeowners investing in improvements. We’re starting to see new owners coming into the neighborhood. All of that, to me, is very positive.”

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