Properties Magazine, Published July 2004
Mark Watt

When property owners and developers Tim and Ned Perotti, along with Architect Mark Fremont, began conceptualizing the construction of new loft-style condominiums in Cleveland's Larchmere neighborhood, they envisioned units that would be spacious and luxurious. The development, to be located just north of Shaker Square in Cleveland's Larchmere Boulevard Arts and Antiques District, would offer wide hallways, open great rooms with tall ceilings, lots of natural light and broad, uninterrupted living areas. The principals felt they were onto a quality idea that would attract buyers hungry for single-level yet expansive condo units. The problem was the inherent constraints of traditional apartment construction.

“Typical construction of multi-story apartment buildings in the Cleveland area has included masonry sheer walls that go all the way up from the foundation through the entire building,” Fremont says. “And then between the sheer walls extends precast, concrete plank. In that type of construction, there are limitations. Your bays, for instance, are normally restricted to widths of 25 feet or less. You have to have a bearing wall on either side of that to pick up the plank. That often leads to narrow, elongated spaces that almost have a cave-like feel. With this project, we developed it from the beginning with these big open spaces therefore we couldn't have those sheer walls. We needed to approach it in another way.”

The solution was to set aside that typical construction approach in favor of one less restrictive: construct a loft building with a structure of steel-bar joist and poured concrete, three-and-a-half inch floor slab.

“If you go downtown and take a look at the old industrial loft buildings, you'll find big open spaces with a bunch of columns,” Fremont says. “That's what this is. We wanted to have these spacious areas with vistas of downtown, to have a design that wasn't so determined by the building's structure. And that's what we achieved.”

Dubbed Larchmere Lofts, the resulting $4.8 million, 16-unit, five-story development offers residents an urban residential lifestyle in one of Cleveland's premier neighborhoods with pricing per unit ranging from $249,900 to $334,900. Construction, led by Project Manager Al Sherrill, Fortney & Weygandt, Inc., was completed in June, although a few residents have already moved in; the rest are expected to arrive throughout early summer.

Fresh Look in a Friendly Neighborhood

Located on the northeast corner of Larchmere Boulevard and East 127th Street, the development is a welcome addition to the neighborhood, Perotti says.

“We are bullish on University Circle due to the point of growth in the area,” he explains. “This is an ideal location demographically for new construction, especially of this type. There are a number of new townhouse projects in the area (the east side of Cleveland/University Circle), but there's been no flats construction since the ‘80s. To me, that's a long time, so we felt there was a pent-up demand for this and that there was an opportunity for this type of housing in this market.”

Fremont points out that the Perotti brothers, with their Edgehill Townhomes development in the Little Italy neighborhood completed in 2000, were in fact two of the pioneers of high-end urban infill development in Cleveland, and that with Larchmere Lofts they are once again working ahead of the curve.

“This kind of construction is something different than we've seen in Cleveland for residential use,” he says, adding that the lifestyle of flats lofts appeals to both the empty-nester and younger, upwardly moving professional markets.

“With Edgehill Townhomes, we learned that a lot of empty-nesters were not so bullish on stairs,” Perotti says. “There are more town projects around now, and they aren't for everybody. A large number of home buyers are looking for flats. When you're coming from a large home, you don't want feel pinched in and that's why these flats with high roofs and big windows are a better transition. Aesthetically, they also appeal to the younger professional.”

“In general, people like a sense of neighborhood,” he continues. “They want a restaurant they can walk to, they want a dry cleaner, a little convenience store, a corner bar. They want to be near a transportation hub. That's what they want, just like what you commonly find in Chicago, New York or Boston.”

With plenty of such amenities in the neighborhood, including the newly opened Boulevard Blue restaurant and nightclub located across the street (see full story: Building Boulevard Blue), incoming residents to Larchmere Lofts will be provided just such an environment.

Making Smooth Transitions

Keeping the two demographic market targets as a central idea, Fremont designed Larchmere Lofts with both contemporary and traditional elements.

“It's a transitional architectural approach,” he says. “For instance, the base molding in the units is colonial-esque while floor-to-ceiling windows were incorporated as a more contemporary element.”

With a footprint of 7,500-square-feet, the building makes the most of a tight site, rising higher than most other buildings in the neighborhood, yet carefully designed to not impose unnecessarily. Covering the frame, an exterior façade of brick – with glass and Ariscraft detailing – was matched with those of nearby structures in the historic area. To soften the building's impression, Fremont worked additional features into the design.

“Visually, we attempted to reduce the scale of the building in relation to the surroundings,” he says. “This was done by incorporating frequent horizontal lines. The volume of the building is broken up by balconies, windows and suspended steel balconies that extend from units on the top three floors.”

“The balconies are kind of throwbacks that tie into local architecture of the past, continuing the theme of ‘contemporary with timeless elements,'” he says.

Cladding of the upper balcony overhangs and the entry canopy was completed by Cleveland's Geist Roofing.

“The composite panel-clad canopies have an unusual shape which required careful layout and complex fabrication,” Thom Geist says . “The design necessitated routing and folding a flat panel into a multi-angle assembly while maintaining symmetrical panel segments and beams.”

Fremont says that, on the first floor, he attempted to extend the streetscape with windows at grade level; they will eventually be turned into lightboxes.

“We also plan to add awnings to help continue that idea of blending in with the storefronts along Larchmere Boulevard,” he says . “We wanted to be good neighbors in a good neighborhood.”

Residents will enter into a lobby featuring a digital intercom entry system, security cameras (with a digital video recorder and remote internet-based viewing capabilities) and a spacious stainless steel elevator.

Each of the 16 units, four to each floor, generally follows one of four layout styles designed by Fremont with input from the Perotti brothers.

“There are some variations, because early buyers had more options,” Perotti says. “However, with essentially no bearing walls to worry about, any of the units could be dramatically reconfigured by an owner if desired.”

Ranging from 1,432- to 1,747-square-feet per unit with either a two-bedroom or three-bedroom configuration, each features prefinished hardwood flooring in the great/dining room, kitchen and hallways, carpet in all bedrooms, dropped ceilings with recessed lights in an entry foyer, gas burning ventless fireplaces, solid core wood doors, granite kitchen and bathroom countertops, a 52-gallon electric hot water tank and an dedicated heating and air conditioning unit.

Four outdoor parking spaces and 24 spaces available in the development's garage on the first floor were created with future needs kept under consideration.

“Because we were concerned that we would run out or lose sales as a result of not having enough parking, we designed the ceiling height in the garage with a lift parking system in mind,” Perotti says. “If it becomes needed, two-deck car lifts can be installed to allow small to mid-size cars to be stacked vertically. In an urban environment such as this where land pricing is at a premium, (planning for this) makes sense.”

Controlled by a photocell, the lighting in the garage is generous, says electrical foreman Tyrone Howard of Clock Electric, Inc.

“Typically, we'll place photocells on the exterior of a building, but on this project it was installed inside so lighting will stay on later into the morning and kick on earlier in the evening.”

With common space kept at a minimum, maintenance costs should be kept down, which is a major selling point, Perotti says, as are the 15-year, 100% tax abatement made available by the City of Cleveland Department of Community Development and special financing through KeyBank, which provided construction and mortgage financing for the project.

Building Green

Fremont completed drawings in November of 2002 and construction began in June of the following year with Fortney & Weygandt serving as general contractor and Larchmere Lofts LLC self-performing some items.

“It was a fast-track process which demanded an extreme level of cooperation between us, the subs, the owners and architect,” Sherrill says. “In one particular instance, the overall coordination involving steel beam penetrations for mechanical systems was a challenge. There were more than 100 locations where ductwork was required to penetrate through beams which required a lot of engineering and coordination to ensure that everything fit and performed as it was intended.”

Another challenge involved early work on the site. The corner lot was home to a gas station from the ‘20s and through the ‘80s, which was converted by the previous property owner to a bar, which operated for several years afterward before lying vacant through the turn of the millennium, Perotti notes.

“The gas tanks were removed from the site in the mid-80s by the previous property owners, but the voids created by the tank removal were filled with all kinds of debris, including concrete pump islands and old tires,” Ned Perotti says. “These had to be removed and then compacted properly.”

“This is actually kind of a green building,” Tim Perotti adds. “We took a seriously underutilized gas station site that was contaminated and turned it into a beautiful, useful building in a great location.”

With a master's degree in urban planning and past experience as a state certified building commissioner, Tim Perotti prides himself on such efforts to improve urban neighborhoods – as he, his brother and all others involved have accomplished with the Larchmere Lofts development.

“We like to look at sites that have not been viewed in that way before,” he says. “This site has been sitting vacant for years and people just didn't think to do what we've done here.”

Although there are certain to be some complications, Ned Perotti says, construction at Larchmere Lofts was a relatively smooth process, thanks to the competency of those involved.

“We're very pleased,” he says. “As a whole, we are satisfied with the work of everyone involved and we've had entirely positive reactions from nearly everyone we've talked with throughout the neighborhood. We're glad to have played a part in contributing to the future of the area.”