The Port of Cleveland Board of Directors has signed off on financing for two very different but equally overdue housing projects: 10 new owner-occupied homes rising on long-vacant land bank lots in Cleveland's St. Clair-Superior neighborhood, and a 120-unit affordable senior living community planned for a 6.7-acre site in Euclid that has sat empty for a quarter century. The board approved both projects on October 8.
A Low-Interest Loan Fills the Construction Gap
According to Cleveland.com, the Port approved a low-interest loan to help build the 10 homes, which are planned on vacant land bank lots along East 67th Street. Developer Knez Homes was selected through a competitive city process, and the homes are expected to run about 1,300 square feet with estimated sale prices ranging from $169,900 to $201,400, per the outlet's report. Public and philanthropic funding paired with the Port's reduced-interest loan is meant to close the gap between what it costs to build the houses and what they can realistically sell for.
Knez Homes is to build an 11th home on the same street to serve as a marketing model for the development, according to NEOtrans. The St. Clair-Superior project is intended to create more homeownership opportunities, return vacant lots to active use, and encourage further neighborhood investment, the same Cleveland.com report notes.
Bibb Calls the Pilot a Turning Point
Mayor Justin M. Bibb framed the ten houses as more than just new construction. “The 10 market pilot homes are a starting point for changing the pattern of disinvestment,” he said, per the Cleveland.com report, referencing the disinvestment St. Clair-Superior residents have long experienced. The project falls under Cleveland's Housing Innovation District, a city initiative aimed at boosting for-sale housing supply in neighborhoods with histories of vacant and deteriorating properties.
Mayor Bibb unveiled the Housing Innovation District in May, targeting 1,500 acres across St. Clair-Superior, Hough, and Central — a stretch of the East Side where only two new homes had been privately built in the last decade, according to WKYC. At its Sept. 4 meeting, the Cleveland City Planning Commission approved a code variance for Knez Homes allowing a 40 percent street build-out requirement instead of the city's standard 65 percent, per Signal Cleveland. The St. Clair-Superior project is the pilot for that broader push, and the Port says it adds to more than $365 million in public and philanthropic investment planned or already underway in the surrounding area — an area also in line for the Cleveland Cheers project, expected to turn dredged material into about 100 acres of parkland, trails and habitat along the Lake Erie shoreline.
Euclid's Silver Birch Rises on a 25-Year Vacant Lot
In Euclid, the Port approved support for Silver Birch, a planned assisted-living community on vacant land near Euclid Avenue and Interstate 90, just east of the highway and near the border with Wickliffe. The 6.7-acre site at 27981 Euclid Avenue had sat vacant for 25 years after previously housing the Euclid Inn hotel, NEOtrans reports.
Silver Birch is planned as a three-story, elevator-served building with 120 apartments for residents age 62 and older, offering studio and one-bedroom units. Per the project's application with the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, amenities would include a library, a beauty and barber shop, wellness and therapy areas, walking paths, and laundry facilities. Vermilion Development is the project's developer. NEOtrans notes that the company is constructing similarly sized $30 million to $38 million affordable assisted-living communities across Ohio, including in Parma Heights, Painesville, Cuyahoga Falls, and Mansfield.
The project is part of a broader state effort to expand affordable assisted-living options, and it aligns with goals under House Bill 33, passed by the Ohio General Assembly in 2023 to incentivize Medicaid-covered assisted living as a lower-cost alternative to traditional nursing home care, according to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. Supporters say these options can offer lower-cost alternatives to nursing home care for both older adults and people with disabilities.
A Port With a Growing Appetite for Housing
Rhonda Winslow of the Port of Cleveland said the agency is using its financing tools to support partners' innovative efforts addressing community needs and creating lasting economic and neighborhood benefits. Since 1993, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority has issued more than $5.4 billion in development financing across nearly 200 projects countywide, using tools like conduit bonds and capital leases, according to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.
Just months before approving the St. Clair-Superior and Euclid projects, the Port's board had already approved up to $285 million in bond financing in July for three Cleveland projects, Multi-Housing News reported. That activity comes as Cleveland had roughly 3,342 apartment units under construction as of early 2026, with fully affordable developments making up about 20 percent of that pipeline, per Yardi Matrix data cited in the same report.
The two projects also land amid a string of related development moves across the region. Hoodline previously covered the 209-unit Union at Cleveland Harbor nearby in St. Clair-Superior, and reported on the Port's bond approvals tied to Richmond Heights' Belle Oaks Towers and on how Cleveland accounts for the bulk of Cuyahoga County's qualifying transit-oriented development value. Euclid, meanwhile, recently landed a separate $900,000 state allocation for improvements to Sims Park, the Heritage Trail, and Memorial Pool.
