CLEVELAND — On East 89th Street in Cleveland, it’s impossible to miss six new Victorian homes.
They brighten up the block with pops of blue, red and soft green between Cedar and Quincy avenues, just south of the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. With their porches and turrets, the large buildings nod to the neighborhood’s history – and hint at its future.
“This is about restoring what we once had,” said Tim Tramble, the developer.
Tramble and his wife have lived on East 89th Street, in the city’s Fairfax neighborhood, for almost 30 years. They watched the foreclosure crisis ravage the East Side. On their block, grand houses disappeared, leaving behind more than two dozen empty lots.
Now, Tramble is getting ready to unveil an unusual revitalization project – multifamily homes designed to evoke those old painted ladies. The buildings look like oversized single-family houses, but each one of them contains eight apartments.
“This is how 89th Street used to be. This is what 89th Street used to be known for,” Tramble said. “It used to be known for really great architecture … and people who chose to live on this street.”
Tramble grew up in nearby Hough and settled in Fairfax in the mid-1990s. He worked in community development, helping to rebuild other city neighborhoods, before becoming the president and CEO of the Cleveland-based Saint Luke’s Foundation in 2020.
He’s dabbling in real estate development on the side, through a company called We Rise Development LLC. His 48-unit rental project, called 89th Rising, won support from the city and a slew of civic-minded lenders.
The development builds on a concept drawn up years ago by City Architecture and Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp., a nonprofit group that serves the neighborhood.
“This street was full of old, beautiful Victorians. And over the years, people cut them up, and then really couldn’t afford to maintain them. As a result, a lot of them got knocked down,” said Denise VanLeer, the executive director of Fairfax Renaissance.
In 2013, the nonprofit came up with an idea for filling the gaps with a different type of living space. But it took a decade for a developer to come along, to execute the vision.
“So fast forward, Tim Tramble took the bull by the horns,” VanLeer said, with a laugh. “And, you know, here’s what we have. I’m really excited about this. It’s a long time coming. And it’s much needed. It really is.”
Tenants are already living in the first building. Workers are finishing construction on the other five properties, which are set to open in September and October.
The apartments, a mix of one-bedroom flats and two-bedroom townhouse-style units, rent for roughly $1,200 to $1,900 a month.
“They’re not affordable housing – but they’re more affordable than the other ones,” VanLeer said, referring to new apartment buildings in and around University Circle.
“The 11- and 12-story buildings, I think we’ve got enough of those,” she added. “We need buildings that kind of help weave together the neighborhood.”
Tramble’s interest in the project started with a personal dilemma. He and his wife, Latrice, were empty nesters, contemplating where and how they wanted to live after their daughter moved out of the house.
They resolved to stay put in Fairfax, where they want to build a new house designed for aging. But first, Tramble decided to rebuild the block, creating homes for other people.
“I didn’t just see our home,” he said. “I saw the street totally transformed.”
The project ended up costing about $11 million. There’s no traditional bank involved.
The lenders include Cleveland Development Advisors, the real estate-financing arm of the Greater Cleveland Partnership; Village Capital Corporation, which focuses on needy neighborhoods; the Cuyahoga Land Bank; and a national group called Urban Strategies Inc.
Cleveland provided a $2 million loan using federal pandemic-recovery money.
“We’re gonna have families and young professionals and maybe even some seniors that want to move back to the neighborhood, that don’t want to try to manage a big house,” said City Council President Blaine Griffin, who represents the area.
“Not gentrification,” he added. “But how we actually can bring people back.”
Griffin described the project as a “bridge between the past and the future.”
He said the city recently repaved East 89th and plans to install speed tables there to slow traffic on a street filled with longtime homeowners and plenty of history.
At the south end of the block, there’s Karamu House, the nation’s oldest producing African-American theater. To the north, there’s a longstanding Black-owned funeral home, E.F. Boyd & Son. Bookending the street, there are two venerable Baptist churches.
Tramble named the apartment building designs after them – Antioch and Olivet.
A groundbreaking for the 89th Rising project is set for Thursday afternoon.
Tramble owns other vacant lots in the neighborhood, and he has plenty of ideas for other creative housing projects – both rental and for-sale.
“I don’t know exactly when they’re going to be developed, and even if I’m the person to develop them,” he said. “But they’re going to be developed.”
He’s already hearing from other people – on East 89th and in other neighborhoods – who are inspired. People who want to invest in rebuilding their own communities.
“A lot of us grew up in Cleveland, grew up in low-income Cleveland neighborhoods,” he said. “And as we ascend the economic ladder, we just remember. Even though we were poor, even though the situations weren’t great, we had wonderful childhoods. And we have fond memories of our streets. We just want to bring back what we used to have.”
