CSU will spend $153 million to buy the Edge, Langston student-housing properties

Cleveland State University plans to spend $153 million to acquire two student-housing projects on the outskirts of its campus.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority will issue up to $155 million in bonds to finance the purchases. The agency’s board of directors approved the bond transactions on Thursday, June 9.

Documents presented to the board show that a Cleveland State affiliate, the nonprofit Euclid Avenue Development Corp., is forging ahead on deals to buy the Edge on Euclid, a 564-bed building at 1750 Euclid Ave., and the Langston, a 603-bed complex along Chester Avenue.

The purchase price for the Edge is $64.5 million. For the Langston, which sits on land the university already owns, the sale price is $88.75 million, public records show.

In March 2021, when Cleveland State released a strategic road map for recovering from the pandemic, the university outlined plans to expand its residential footprint. The Edge and Langston purchases weren’t mentioned in the document, but they dovetail with that vision.

“Over the next five years, we will work to double the percentage of students living on campus from 10% to 20%, creating a residential student community of 3,000 students,” the report says. “As an urban institution, CSU will always welcome commuting students, but we also know that living on campus correlates with a heightened probability of successful completion, and we want to make this opportunity as widely available as possible.”

A CSU spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an interview request Thursday.

No one from the university or the Euclid Avenue Development Corp. spoke during the port board’s meeting.

The port will serve as a conduit in the deals, enabling the university to obtain financing on more attractive terms. The bulk of the bonds will be tax-exempt, though the transaction will include $6.6 million in taxable bonds associated with the ground-floor retail portions of both apartment properties, said Rhonda Winslow, the port’s finance director.

“The goal is to get this into the market here in the next several weeks,” she said of the public offerings.

The Edge opened in 2017 on a corner where the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s offices once stood. Developed by Clayco and the Koman Group, the complex includes 240 one- to four-bedroom apartments and a 170-space parking garage. Rents start at $699 per bedroom.

The seller of the property is an affiliate of Goldenrod Cos., a real estate investment group based in Omaha, Nebraska. Goldenrod took control of the Edge in 2019, at an undisclosed price, and assumed a $48 million mortgage, according to public records.

Cleveland State is seeking the Ohio Controlling Board’s approval for the Edge deal at the body’s Monday, June 13, meeting. The seven-member board oversees certain spending by state agencies, including public universities.

The first units at the Langston, on the north side of Chester between East 21st and East 24th streets, opened in 2012. Local developer Guy Totino and the Buckingham Cos., an Indianapolis-based real estate company, partnered with Cleveland State on the project, through a ground-lease deal spanning 6.8 acres.

The Langston includes 318 one- to four-bedroom apartments, with rents starting at $712 per room, according to the property’s website. The project, with 444 parking spaces and retail tenants including Pizza Hut, Arby’s and Chapati Indian Grill, is open to students and non-students.

Once Cleveland State steps in, the property will be exclusively student housing, Winslow said.