Silver Hills Development oats 200-unit apartment complex in city of Lorain

BY STAN BULLARD

Continuing a penchant for property projects with water views, Silver Hills Development of Beachwood wants to build a 200-unit apartment complex on the west side of Lorain.

e complex would include a 169unit, four- oor apartment building and six smaller two-story buildings with a total of 36 suites. e 4-acre site on the northwest side of the intersection of Kolbe Road and U.S. 6 is separated from the lakefront by Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

e buildings would incorporate parking below the structures so they would be tall enough to o er lake views. e city of Lorain gave the project approval for a preliminary plan.

e other Silver Hills water-view project is in the Cleveland Flats. In a partnership with Edwards Communities of Columbus, Silver Hills is starting to build a 300-suite apartment complex overlooking the Cuyahoga River on Carter Road. at project is on Scranton Peninsula.

Lorain City Councilman Joshua ornsberry, who represents Ward 8 (which includes the site), said the proposal has received criticism from a single resident, so he expects little opposition so far.

“If it were going to be contested, we would have already seen dozens of residents at meetings,” ornsberry said. He said the proposed complex, with a pool, lobby-area workfrom-home rooms and other features, appears to be designed to serve young professionals in the city. e councilman said it’s too early for him to voice his position on the proposed development. Besides nal approval, he said, the developer needs several variances. e most signi cant of those is a height variance. e most recent market-rate apartment complex in Lorain County dates from 2016, according to CoStar, the online real estate data provider. CoStar reports six apartment communities in the county that it classes as four out of a possible ve stars (reecting both quality and age) with rents above $1,000 monthly.

“I’m not sure how that will work in Lorain,” ornsberry added. However, he noted elevators in the larger building could attract older people, because recently completed senior citizen apartments in Lorain have been leasing well.

Vacancy in those properties is less than 1% in each of them. Overall, the county has a vacancy of 4.4%, CoStar estimates.

Lorain County land records show the current owner of the site is a trust based in Bellevue, Washington. e proposed project is 3 miles west of downtown Lorain and 28 miles west of Public Square in downtown Cleveland.

Seth Mendelsohn, a principal at Silver Hills, did not return a phone call, an email message and a message through the LinkedIn website by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 28.