Hard hat tours: Demand for apartments in downtown Cleveland is high

CLEVELAND - Demand is so high for downtown Cleveland apartments, 30 people toured units, which under construction and won’t be available until late March, on Tuesday.

To underscore the nature of the demand, would-be tenants wore hard hats for safety in the construction areas.

Tammy Oliver of MRN LTD led the tours of the Lofts at Rosetta Center Tuesday evening. MRN LTD is the developer of East Fourth.

“We can’t even build the units fast enough,” she said. “You can’t find an apartment that doesn’t have a wait list right now.”

According to Oliver, downtown occupancy is 97 percent, a rate Oliver said is unheard of in major cities.

The Lofts at Rosetta Center at Euclid avenue at East Sixth will bring 97 units into the mix of the more than 4,000 apartments downtown.

“We’ve been pre-leasing for two weeks and we’re already through so many spaces that we’re thinking what’s going to be the next project.”

With 1,100 units expected in the next 18 months, Oliver said developers have learned what prospective tenants want.

“They want fitness facilities, they want laundry on site, they want covered parking available, they want the beautiful historic features maintained but that modern living space,” she said, adding this generation of apartment shoppers is looking for those amenities in a walkable urban environment.

In the old National City Bank Building, units range from 500 to 1,300 square feet with rents ranging from $715 to $1,635 per month.