Stalled development on Fenwick leaves residents in limbo
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, September 2008) Just South of I-90 on the 4700 block of Fenwick, a six-unit townhouse remains unfinished with no siding-- a glaring reminder of promising plans to convert the former Joseph & Feiss clothing factory and surrounding area into a new 150 unit housing development called Ashbury Homes. Another six-unit townhouse, fronting on Fenwick, is completed; but only three of the six units are occupied. Developer Ameri-Con Homes abandoned the project several years ago and has since gone out of business.

Dan Reichelderfer, who moved into one of the townhouses in December of 2005, has not received any information as to what the future holds. Recently, rumors circulated that the project had been sold and a new developer had come forward. Those rumors have proved to be false.

Huntington Bank, which holds the mortgage taken out by Ameri-Con homes, split the property into the site of the townhouses between Fenwick and Walworth, and the site of the former factory on W. 53 and Walworth. Al Brazynetz, Executive Director of the Stockyard Redevelopment Organization says, “There were no bidders at the July 14th Sheriff’s Sale. The bank is still holding the project. The City, ourselves and the bank are still looking at ways to try to get parties to be interested in it.”

Brazynetz cited the downturn in the housing market as making it difficult to find a developer to complete the project. “We are going to continue to hope that someone with deep enough pockets and interest might show up,” said Brazynetz.

Ward 17 Councilman Matt Zone called the failure of the development, “a huge disappointment for people who purchased units and residents who live in the area around the development.” Zone recalled there had been “so much hope and promise” when the project was first announced. “It is one of my highest priorities to get a responsible developer to take over the project, “ Zone said.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ashbury development on June 9, 2004, there was indeed much excitement and Mayor Jane Campbell joined resident Julie Wilson of the Fenwick Junction neighborhood shoveling the first scoop of dirt for the development in a front page photo in the July 2004 Plain Press. At the time, the Plain Press reported (Redevelopment of Joseph & Feiss site moves forward, July 2004) that developers planned to build “96 new townhouses and 54 units of townhomes and lofts in restored buildings on the site. The $20 million project, named Ashbury Towers after the water tower being preserved at the site, is to be phased in over a five year period.”

The article notes that the project was initially proposed by Ameri-Con Homes in June 1999, but delayed because of concerns Ward 15 Councilwoman Merle Gordon had about a project in her ward, which she said the company did not properly complete.

A March 26, 2007 article in Crain’s Cleveland Business (Parties work to devise new plan for troubled Ashbury Towers by Stan Bullard) outlines the loans and investments made in the project before Ameri-Con Homes walked away from it. The Crain’s Cleveland Business article notes that Huntington Bank had provided Ameri-Con Homes with “$2.75 million of a $3.6 million construction it had approved for the project.” The article also notes that Village Capital (a development arm of Neighborhood Progress Inc) had invested $425,000 in the project and the City of Cleveland had given the developers $688,000 of a $831,000 loan it had approved for the development. The article notes that contractors are still owned money for work on the site to the tune of over $600,000.

Councilman Zone told the Plain Press he has instructed the Cleveland Law Department to pursue recouping the City of Cleveland’s investment in the project from the principles involved in the now dissolved Ameri-Con homes partnership. According to Crain’s Cleveland Business, the president of the company was developer Sandy Krulak. According to July 1999 Plain Press article, another official of the former Beachwood based company is Vice President Jeffrey C. Simler.

Residents of the Fenwick Junction neighborhood still want some answers as to what will be done to the vacant structures. The only suggestion so far as to what can be done with the unfinished and unoccupied came from court-appointed receiver David Douglass who in the Crain’s Cleveland Business article suggested that a developer who ends up with the project could offer a lease purchase option for the townhouses estimated at the time (March 2007) to cost “upwards of $128,000.”

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