South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo cut the ribbon Tuesday on a model triplex townhome unit at St. John Woods, a 41-unit development rising on a six-acre site tucked behind St. John's Cemetery off Mayfield Road. The gathering marked the official launch of sales for a project that, together with a sister development next door, will bring 69 new townhome units to a corner of the inner-ring suburb that has sat largely untouched for decades.
City officials, representatives from Sommers Development Group, and other interested parties gathered at the site for the ribbon cutting, according to Cleveland.com. St. John's Cemetery itself sits behind St. John Lutheran Church at 4386 Mayfield Road, and the new townhome site is accessible from Sheffield Road south of Mayfield, situated between Sheffield and South Green roads. The model unit now open to prospective buyers will serve double duty, representing both St. John Woods and its planned companion project, St. John Meadow, whose 28 townhomes have not yet broken ground.
The ribbon cutting is the latest sign of a housing boom transforming South Euclid, where planning officials expect roughly 200 new housing units to arrive across multiple projects by early 2028 — what FreshWater Cleveland describes as the suburb's largest residential construction boom since the 1970s. That momentum traces back to 2022, when Sommers Development Group acquired the former Lowden Elementary School site, a property the school district had tried to market for nearly 15 years after the school closed in 2007. When 17 single-family homes built there with Ryan Homes hit the market in early 2024, they sold out within two weeks, the outlet reports.
Building on Stalled Land Across Mayfield Road
Just across Mayfield Road, the St. John Meadow site sits on land that has remained unfinished since the 2008 housing crash, near the historical location of the Prasse Road Basket Factory, which operated from 1860 until it burned down in 1966, per the same FreshWater Cleveland report. Sommers Development Group is also building Francis Court off Sheffield Road north of Mayfield Road, part of the broader footprint the Chardon, Ohio-based firm is carving into South Euclid's inner-ring lots.
Under the arrangement between the two companies, Sommers builds the private streets and installs underground infrastructure before handing prepared lots over to Ryan Homes for construction, the report notes. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency records show that stormwater general permit coverage for the St. John Woods construction off Sheffield Road was approved to NVR Inc., which does business as Ryan Homes, in April.
Pricing Well Above the City's Historical Median
Townhomes at St. John Woods and St. John Meadow will sell to owner occupants and are priced from approximately $250,000 to nearly $400,000 depending on features buyers select, according to Cleveland.com. That range sits well above South Euclid's citywide median home value of roughly $165,000, a gap the Northeast Ohio First Suburbs Consortium says reflects how new infill construction is lifting overall property valuations across the suburb. To make projects like these pencil out for developers, South Euclid offers homebuilders a five-year, 75 percent property tax abatement on new construction alongside land bank property sales, the consortium notes.
St. John Woods will include a centralized common green space maintained by a homeowners association, along with the other common grounds and landscaping across the development. The community is part of a broader cluster of higher-density projects in the city, including Trebisky Grove, a 32-unit townhome development that City Council approved in March with pricing starting near $400,000, according to the same FreshWater Cleveland account. Sommers Development Group, led by developer Greg Sommers, has more than 40 years of experience as a family real estate firm, per its own company materials.
Those interested in purchasing at St. John Woods or St. John Meadow can reach Sommers Development Group at 440-478-6034, while Ryan Homes can be reached at 440-584-4311, Cleveland.com reports.
