Panzica-Veysey Venture Could be Leader for Key Site Owned by Cuyahoga County
By Crain's Cleveland Business Senior Reporter, Stan Bullard.
Bridgeworks LLC, a joint venture led by Michael Panzica, a principal of Hemingway Development of Cleveland, and Graham Veysey, a progenitor of Ohio City's Hingetown area, is the leading prospect to snare a site that Cuyahoga County is shedding.
That's the word according to three sources familiar with the situation, including one who said the project may bring "multiple hundreds" of additional apartments to the site at the northeast corner of West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue.
The same source said it's likely to be a more than 10-story building. The sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss it by the county or the project's principals.
The Panzica-Veysey joint venture has emerged as the leading prospect to buy what's called the "Cuyahoga County Bridge Garage." The county began seeking bids for the 1.5-acre site, which contains two old county office buildings, in December 2018, as the third and last phase of its 2011 operations consolidation plan. The county consolidated its public works operations at 2501 Harvard Ave.
Speculation about which real estate developer will land the site for the potential project has swirled on the West Side since the March deadline for proposals to be filed with the county's agent on the deal, Allegro Realty Advisors.
A resolution authorizing Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish to sell Bridgeworks LLC the site for $4.15 million is scheduled to be considered by Cuyahoga County Council's public works committee on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
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State incorporation records identify Veysey as the incorporator of Bridgeworks LLC. Veysey owns the former Ohio City Firehouse, which he and his wife, Marika Shiori-Clark, converted to a coffee shop and video studio that became a linchpin of Hingetown, the area on West 29th Street south of Detroit that is home to multiple retail shops, Saucy Brew Works and the Transformer Station art space.
Panzica and Veysey are among the partners in Church + State, an 11-story apartment building going up in what's becoming apartment row in Ohio City. The proposed Bridgeworks site is immediately east of The Quarter, a $70 million mixed-use project on the other side of West 25th.
Rick Foran, a partner in West 25th Street Lofts a block south of the Bridgeworks site, was not aware of the winning bidders' identities but said he's intrigued by the potential development in the neighborhood.
He said it's striking that with plans for the park at Irishtown Bend on the southeast corner of West 25th and Detroit, the Quarter on the northwest and southeast side, the additional project could finish off the fourth corner of the intersection with new developments.
"It will be a gateway to Ohio City and to downtown," Foran said of the potential project.
Panzica, reached by phone last Thursday, Sept. 12, said Bridgeworks had no comment on the county site and refused to discuss the scale of his group's potential project."
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