Week in Review: 7 key stories from May 9-13, 2022

Read all about it: A local developer bought the former Plain Dealer office building in the Superior Arts District, ending years of uncertainty about the future of a prominent piece of real estate at the eastern edge of downtown Cleveland. Industrial Commercial Properties LLC of Solon bought the property Wednesday, May 11. The sale does not appear yet in public records, and the buyer and a representative for the seller declined to disclose the price. Built as the headquarters of The Plain Dealer newspaper, the 235,000-square-foot office building opened in 2001. It transitioned into a multi-tenant property as the media organization trimmed its staff, pared print delivery and retooled its business model to focus on the web. Now the building, at 1801 Superior Ave., is 80% vacant after the departures of tenants including Advance Ohio, the company that oversees Cleveland.com, and the newsroom that feeds the website and newspaper.

Downshifting: Carvana Co. plans to lay off 2,500 employees, or about 12% of its work force, according to a document it filed Tuesday, May 10, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those employees are primarily in Carvana’s operations groups, the company said. In connection with those cuts, the online used-vehicle retailer said it will “transition operations away” from a few of its logistics hubs and from its inspection and reconditioning center in Euclid. Carvana said its executive team will forgo their salaries for the rest of 2022 “to help contribute to the severance pay for departing team members.”

New look: The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority plans to issue up to $20 million in bonds to support an extensive makeover of the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. On Thursday, May 12, the agency’s board approved a deal in which the port will serve as a conduit between a Canadian hospitality company and a private lender. That structure will save the developer, Toronto-based Skyline Investments Inc., an estimated $2.1 million in sales taxes on construction materials. Skyline is partway into a nearly $70 million overhaul of the 491-room hotel, the second-largest lodging property in downtown Cleveland. The publicly traded company, which owns the Renaissance through a 50-50 joint venture with a silent partner, already has spent about $14 million on a roof replacement, facade repairs, and heating, cooling and ventilation upgrades.

$16M deal: Stark Enterprises of Cleveland shed its Brooklor Plaza shopping center in North Olmsted to an affiliate of Rubin Realty of Valley Stream, New York, in a $16 million transaction, according to Cuyahoga County property records. Anchored by Golf Galaxy, T.J. Maxx and OfficeMax, the center dates from 1962 and has almost 107,000 square feet of selling space, according to CoStar, the online realty data provider. It sits on 7 acres on the opposite side of Brookpark Road from Great Northern Mall and Great Northern Plazas. The county assigns the site a market value of $7 million for property tax purposes.

Start it up: Lordstown Motors Corp. closed on the sale of its Lordstown plant to affiliates of Hon Hai Technology Group, better known as Foxconn. The two have also signed contract manufacturing and joint venture agreements, the electric truck maker said. Lordstown Motors and Foxconn first entered into the asset purchase agreement for the massive former GM plant in November. Earlier this week, Lordstown Motors shared that the deadline for the purchase had been pushed back to May 18, sinking stock prices. The deal instead closed Wednesday, May 11. The original sale agreement was for $230 million “plus the reimbursement of certain operating and expansion costs from September 1, 2021 to the closing date,” the companies said. Proceeds to Lordstown Motors upon the completion of the sale were ultimately that $230 million, “plus the reimbursement of approximately $27 million in operating and expansion costs.”

Get ready: The NRP Group, a Cleveland-based developer, officially broke ground on the $14.8 million Davis Apartments, a mixed-income apartment building it’s developing in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood in collaboration with University Hospitals. Located at East 105th Street and Churchill Road, the four-story, 52-unit apartment building will include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as four built-in three-bedroom townhomes. Early lease-up of the community is expected for 2023, with a completion date of 2024. The project is the third “health and housing” project NRP has spearheaded, in partnership with hospitals and nonprofits, to target and improve social determinants of health in underserved neighborhoods.

In the rotation: Plastics processor Myers Industries Inc. is growing via acquisition again, this time buying a rotational molding plant in Decatur, Georgia, from Step2 Co. Terms were not disclosed. Streetsboro-based toymaker Step2 had announced plans to close the plant in December. Akron-based Myers announced the deal Thursday, May 12. President and CEO Mike McGaugh called it his company’s “third meaningful investment in rotational molding in under two years.” Myers’ most recent deal was the August purchase of Alliance, Ohio-based Trilogy Plastics Inc. Myers said it is continuing to expand its U.S. rotomolding capabilities to serve the outdoor recreation, construction, vehicle and industrial end markets.