Work starts on luxury apartment, retail complex near Toledo Hospital
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on November 27, 2022. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A project to build a luxury apartment and retail complex in Toledo’s former Colony area, near ProMedica Toledo Hospital, is finally moving forward.
Work on the $45 million project, on a nearly 11-acre lot off Central and Upton avenues, started earlier this month and is so far limited to moving dirt before a city sewer line can be moved and foundation construction begins, said Columbus-based developer Frank Kass, who founded Continental Real Estate Companies.
“We’ll probably start going vertical with it in March and it will then take 11 to 18 months to finish,” Mr. Kass said. “I’m glad. I’ve been working hard on it for five years. I think it will be the nicest apartment in the city.”
The complex is expected to include more than 260 apartments, as well as a restaurant, a flower shop, and a clubhouse. It is south of Central Avenue between ProMedica Parkway and Upton Avenue.
The restaurant is going to be an Old Bag of Nails Pub, like the one currently on Riverside Drive, Mr. Kass said.
Mr. Kass said he expects about $20 million to go toward local labor. He emphasized that he is happy with the city and Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority participation in the project.
In June, Toledo City Council approved granting $700,000 to support the development. The money went toward moving the existing storm sewer off the property to allow the construction to begin.
Brandon Sehlhorst, Toledo’s economic development director, said the city has granted tax abatement on the project’s improvement value for the next 15 years, meaning that it will pay taxes for the land but not on the value of the buildings to be constructed. He said he expects the project to fill with tenants rapidly.
“This is a very high-quality residential project right next to one of our largest employment centers and so we see this as a needed amenity,” Mr. Sehlhorst said. “It also resurrects the Colony commercial area, and we’re pretty excited of what that could do to the surrounding area as well.”
John Szuch, chairman of the finance and development committee for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors, said the authority acts as a pass-through for $35 million of the project’s financing, holding the deed and leasing the property to the developer, Continental Real Estate, until the bonds are repaid.
In March of 2021, the Port Authority’s board also voted to loan $7 million for construction of the apartment and retail complex.
“We’re just very, very pleased that the project is moving forward,” Mr. Szuch said. “[In the 1970s and 1980s], the Colony was a very vibrant commercial area. It has been somewhat in decline, and to have a wonderful new development there revitalizes the entire area.”
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