County committee backs funding and brownfield extension to advance Warner & Swayze affordable-housing project

The Cuyahoga County Community Development and Housing Committee voted to move to full council for second-reading suspension two measures intended to keep the Warner & Swayze historic adaptive-reuse project on track: a funding package that includes county emergency rental assistance and federal HOME funds, and an extension of the county's brownfield match deadline.

Sarah Parks Jackson of the Department of Housing and Community Development said the project, at 57th and Carnegie in Cleveland's Midtown, would convert the former Warner & Swayze manufacturing plant into 140 units overall and 112 affordable units — 56 general multifamily units and 56 designated for seniors. "We are proposing that we put in $2,900,000 of our emergency rental assistance funds," Jackson said, adding the department would also provide $450,000 in federal HOME funds and noting the city of Cleveland is contributing $6,800,000. She said Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority vouchers, low-income housing tax credits and a brownfield match are part of the capital stack.

Penrose Development's Jeff Mills answered committee questions on schedule and local hiring, saying construction would take "24 months from start to finish" and that the firm is "absolutely committed to working with the city of Cleveland to build out our community benefits agreement," which is in draft with the city's Office of Equal Employment. Mills also gave the total project cost as $52,600,000.

Jackson described the county loan terms and income targeting for the funding. The county's affordable housing loans are "0 interest, deferred, forgivable," with forgiveness tied to units remaining affordable for at least 20 years. She said ERA funds require affordability for households at or below 50% of area median income, while HOME funds require 80% AMI or below, meaning the project will serve very low- and moderate-income households.

On a related item, Anthony Stella of the Department of Development asked the committee to amend an earlier county resolution to extend the sunset date for Cuyahoga County match funding under the state's brownfield remediation match program for the Warner & Swayze award to Nov. 30, 2025. "Broadly speaking a brownfield in general is any site that had...a previous use that may have caused any sort of contamination," Stella said, describing brownfield remediation work such as addressing asbestos, lead paint, or soil contamination. He told the committee no remediation work had been completed to date and that rising interest rates and higher construction costs had created gaps the developer was working to close; the amendment request was only to extend the deadline, not to add county funds.

Committee members moved both items to the full council for second-reading suspension; votes on the motions were recorded in the meeting and the chair declared the ayes had it. The meeting included no public comment and the committee adjourned after the votes.

The measures will next appear before the full Cuyahoga County Council for consideration under second-reading suspension; the committee did not adopt the loans or the extension as final county law at this meeting.