CLEVELAND, Ohio - “First thing is, a lot of abandonment,” said Cleveland Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones of Ward 7 as she walks up on the old apartment building. “But now, with this investment, you know that it’s hope.”
The former Community Circle building on Hough Avenue and East 93rd Street -- with its broken windows, boarded up doors, and no trespassing signs -- is in disarray. “This was a former affordable product funded through HUD,” said Howse-Jones, “It unfortunately went offline in the early two thousands for just over a generation now.”
But now, Dr. Gina Merritt of Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures has secured $47 million dollars to turn this forgotten structure into Ninety-Four Ten Hough, 116 units of new, affordable housing. The project stands on the outskirts of University Circle and is just a few blocks southeast from another new Hough housing project, the 54-unit Gordon Crossing at East 101st and Woodward Avenue, a $16 million dollar development put together by Frontline Development Group in Cleveland.“You’ll actually see people here, right and it won’t be this blighted monstrosity that we have right here,” said Howse-Jones. ‘It will actually be something people will be really proud of.