Developer changes plans for United Bank Building
by Doretha Clark and Lauren Turner

(Plain Press, February 2010) Ari Maron, a developer from MRN LTD., has his mind set on revamping the United Bank Building, 2012 W. 25th. MRN LTD owns the United Building and the entire block that surrounds it from W. 25th and Lorain Avenue, South to Chatham Avenue and West to W. 26th Street. The property was nominated in a City Hall meeting on May 10, 2007 to be a Historic Cleveland Landmark.

Maron is the mastermind behind the development of East Fourth Street’s entertainment district. In an interview early in 2009, Maron said housing is in demand in Ohio City. He planned to convert the top four floors of the United Building to upscale apartments and use the remaining floors for office and retail. Plans have now changed.

The upper floors will now remain office space. Floors 6 through 9 are currently being updated for new office tenants. The Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board will be renting the bulk of that space. They have reportedly signed a 10-year lease for floors six through eight. They are scheduled to move into the refurbished space during the month of February.

The United Building’s new tenant, the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board (ADAMHS), was formed in July of 2009 through the merger of the Alcohol and Drug Addiction Service Board of Cuyahoga County and the Cuyahoga County Mental Health Board. According to their website, the merged agency “is responsible for the planning, funding and monitoring of public mental health and alcohol and other drug addiction services delivered to the residents of Cuyahoga County.”

The ADAMHS offices will be moving from the 3rd floor of 1400 W. 25th Street, another former bank building, The Forest City Savings and Trust Co. building, which features the Massimo da Milano Restaurant on the first floor. Joining ADAMHS in the move will be the offices of the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI) of Greater Cleveland. (The Forest City Savings and Trust Co. building, which sits at the corner of W. 25th and Detroit Avenue, recently lost another major tenant when the Social Security office moved to W. 73rd and Lorain Avenue.)

Maron’s original plans for the United Building have taken a setback due to the recession. In addition to the scuttled plans for apartments on the upper floors, Maron had hoped to work with a chef from the Green Tavern and some businesses from the West Side Market to develop a food processing business that would offer cheese and meats for sale in a first floor store in the United Building. Due to the recession, those plans are now on hold.

The United Building, which sits diagonally across from the West Side Market, is an important West Side landmark. The 40,000 square feet, nine-story building, towers over the Ohio City neighborhood and is known as the largest monumental structure on the West Side.

The limestone building dates back to 1926. The United Building was designed by the Cleveland architectural firm Walker and Weeks. It represents a pure vision of the Roman Empire’s style of architecture, with cherubs and torches embossed in the claylike surface. It was originally built as the home to the United Banking and Trust Company of Cleveland.

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