CLEVELAND—During its heyday,
the East Ohio Gas building was home to some of the most well-respected
companies in the state, from the utility company that bears its name to
national accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.
But now the downtown
21-story tower, which has been vacant for five years, is set for a summer
reopening as a luxury apartment building.
The property, named
Residences at 1717, will include 223 apartments with sweeping views of Lake
Erie and a private fitness center. For the privilege, the landlord plans to
charge as much as $2,575 a month for a two-bedroom unit—or more than $17 a
square foot annually. That's about 20% higher than what businesses were paying
for space in the building when it still operated as an office tower.
The Residences are in the
vanguard of a major realignment taking place in cities across the U.S. as
landlords repurpose their buildings from spaces where people work to spaces
where they sleep. In the process, the traditional economic relationship between
residential and commercial real estate is turning upside down.
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for the full article in the Wall Street Journal.