Commercial Preservation Award: West 25 th Street Lofts As Ohio City continues to grow and change, there are some who are working to preserve a bit of its past. West 25th Street Lofts, developed by Rick Foran and Christopher Smythe, located at W. 25th Street & Church Ave, began as a project to meet the growing housing demands of the neighborhood, but became a labor of love for both men. Rick Foran is no stranger to Ohio City. Growing up, Rick spent time in Ohio City while his father worked at the West Side Market. It was the diversity of the neighborhood and the communal feeling he felt that drew him back in. Seeing that the experience in Ohio City was much different than the isolation one can feel in the suburbs, Foran and Smythe decided to create something new in Ohio City, while sticking to the original charm that attracted them to the neighborhood in the first place. The project consists of the redevelopment of three buildings, all with a rich history and intruiging past. One portion started as a brewery in 1873 and went through several iterations before becoming a sheet metal fabricator until the 1970s. The other portion of the building was the original home to the International Order of Oddfellows before becoming home to the Masons before they moved to Franklin Ave in 1935. What had been a building owned by CMHA was originally the Phoenix Ice Machine Company built in 1906. “What we’ve tried to do is retain as much of the original structure and try to celebrate the beams and columns and structural steel of the building.” says Foran. Construction began in 2015. The finished project now has 83 apartments, 9500 square feet of commercial
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space, a 54 car parking garage, and 70 outdoor parking spaces.