A $27.9 million housing project is planned for a 1.6-acre site at East 66th Street and Linwood Avenue in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood, where developers plan two four-story elevator buildings with 80 apartments just across the street from historic League Park. The project, known as Gateway66, marks the second mixed-income housing deal in Hough for its local development team, following years of disinvestment that have hollowed out homeownership across the city's East Side.
According to Crain's Cleveland Business, the project is being developed locally as it heads toward construction. Gateway66's lead developer and majority owner is Frontline Development Group, a Black- and women-owned real estate firm whose co-owners are Sheila Wright and Angela Thi Bennett, working in partnership with Columbus-based Woda Cooper Companies, as detailed by Signal Cleveland. The two buildings will total more than 82,000 square feet, with 56 one-bedroom and 24 two-bedroom units; 76 of the 80 apartments are reserved for households earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income, while four will be offered at market rate, per records reviewed by Cleveland City Council.
A Financing Puzzle Years in the Making
Getting Gateway66 to this point required stitching together an unusual mix of public and private capital. Cleveland City Council approved a $2 million loan for the project in September 2025, adding to a broader $5 million city financial commitment.
University Hospitals also stepped in with a $3 million mission-related investment from its endowment fund, structured as a 15-year soft-debt mortgage, framing affordable housing as a factor in neighborhood health outcomes, per a statement from University Hospitals. On July 9, 2026, the Port of Cleveland Board approved a capital lease and up to $25 million in taxable lease revenue bonds for the project, a structure the Port projects will generate $541,000 in sales tax savings on construction materials, according to the Port of Cleveland.
Part of a Larger Hough Rebuild
Gateway66 is not a standalone venture. The project is part of Allen Estates, a five-acre development, Signal Cleveland reports. The site also sits directly across from League Park, the 1891 sports landmark where Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians and the Negro League Cleveland Buckeyes once played before it was converted into a community park housing the Baseball Heritage Museum, as noted by NEOtrans.
Frontline Development Group and Woda Cooper Companies have worked together in Hough before. The pair previously delivered Gordon Crossing, a 54-unit mixed-income development on East 101st Street that welcomed its first residents earlier this year — and drew more than 1,300 applications for those 54 units, according to Signal Cleveland's reporting on the development team's track record. That level of demand underscores just how tight the affordable housing market has become on Cleveland's East Side.
Infrastructure and Market Pressures Converge
Gateway66's arrival also intersects with a $9.5 million East 66th Street Complete Street initiative, a separate infrastructure overhaul adding bike lanes, crosswalk improvements, lighting, and public art along a one-mile stretch connecting Euclid and Superior avenues, per Cleveland Magazine. The corridor project links major anchors including the Cleveland Foundation and Hough Library, tying new housing construction to broader neighborhood investment.
The need for projects like Gateway66 is underscored by stark market data. A 2026 analysis from the Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research found that owner-occupancy on Cleveland's East Side has fallen 36.8% since 2000, with 2025 median home sales on the East Side at $74,900 compared to $298,300 in outer suburbs, according to prior Hoodline reporting on cash investors buying up East Side property.
