About 100 community members and officials gathered on Tuesday, March 19 for the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Aura at Innovation Square—an 82-unit mixed income apartment building, at 2260 E 105th St. that has been a decade in the making.

“Cleveland Mayor [Justin Bibb], City Council president [Blaine Griffin], PNC Bank, and [representative from] Cleveland Clinic, were cutting the ribbon” says Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation (FRDC) executive director Denise VanLeer. “And [FRDC] board chair Stefan J. Holmes.”

VanLeer says Fairfax residents were invited, especially those who live on East 105th Street, to attend the ceremony. “The tent was full,” she says, “it was standing room, and it was great.”

Ribbon Cutting Aura at Innovation SquareAura at Innovation Square is a green, accessible urban apartment development. The $26 million project aims to offer a contemporary living experience through 82 studio, one- and two-bedroom units, with 30% of the units deemed affordable to residents earning 70%, 80%, or 95% of area median income. Additionally, there are six accessible units in the building.

The apartments offer amenities such as vinyl floors, cultured stone countertops, stainless steel appliances, and washers and dryers. The building has an exercise room, rooftop deck, shaded patio with grills, fourth floor lounge, business center, and a community room. Amenities include a rooftop deck, fitness center, and resident lounge.

“The building is gorgeous,” says VanLeer. “Everybody was commenting on how nice the building was, and they were surprised with the finishes.”

Although Aura at Innovation Square just opened, VanLeer says there are already five tenants living in the building. “There are another ten in the process,” she adds, “so we won't have any problem filling it up.”

Officials broke ground on the project in November 2022, after years of planning, fundraising, and collaboration. The project’s building contractor was John G. Johnson Construction and it will be managed by McCormack Baron Management.

Aura Living RoomAura is the latest project to come out of FRDC’s 2014 master plan and the resulting $52.8 million 2017 Innovation Square Neighborhood Plan—a collaborative effort between FRDC,  Cleveland Clinic, the City of Cleveland, Fairmount Properties, and Meijer, Inc. that includes mixed-use buildings with office and commercial space, various housing options, and green spaces.

Innovation Square is bounded by Cedar Avenue to the north, Quincy Avenue to the south, East 105th Street to the east, and includes both sides of East 97th Street. The plan is designed to provide full-spectrum housing options including mixed-income multifamily units, single-family for sale homes and rental townhomes, an accessible grocery store, and a more accessible community overall.

Seeing the vision of the neighborhood plan through to reality has been a lengthy process, says VanLeer.

FRDC has been collaborating with community development consultant McCormack, Baron Salazar since 2012 on creating a realistic housing development that could revitalize the neighborhood. “They do mixed income housing all over the country and low income tax credit projects,” she says.

Funding for the project was a collaborative effort between PNC Bank, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, Port Authority of Cleveland, the Enterprise Community Partners, the City of Cleveland, and Urban Strategies, Inc.

VanLeer says FRDC worked with City Architecture to develop and design a plan for the Innovation Square footprint. “So that took them about a year to pull all of that together,” she recalls. “And then from there we said, ‘okay, this [Aura at Innovation Square] will be the first building.’”  

But what took the most time, VanLeer says, was the land acquisition because the involved partners, including Cleveland Clinic, which assisted in the process,  needed to ensure the process was discreet.

Aura Kitchen“One of the most difficult pieces is the land acquisition, and I could write a book about that,” she says. “We've always been very quiet as we acquire land because we don't want to alert those that prey on low income neighborhoods to find out what's happening so they can buy the land and charge ridiculous prices. So that takes years. It really does.”

Completed projects in the plan include the January opening of Meijer Fairfax Market—rife with plenty of goods from local entrepreneurs—and capped by the 88-unit Medley market rate apartments.

With the completion of Aura and Innovation Square, VanLeer says she is seeing the entire plan coming together. The project is catalytic in that it's mixed income—we call it workforce housing,” she says of Aura at Innovation Square’s completion. “So you'll have market rate, mixed, and affordable housing between Cedar and Quincy Avenue. And that's what we wanted when we did the Innovation Square plan to create a mixed income, walkable urban neighborhood with amenities with a grocery store.”

Other, smaller, projects contributed to the Innovation Square vision. Even before the Aura was selected as a component of the plan, Playwright Park between East 101st and East 103rd streets near Quebec Avenue was unveiled in 2019 as greenspace and an area for public art.

FRDC then successfully lobbied then-Mayor Frank Jackson’s office for the creation of two new streets as extensions of Hudson and Frank Avenues.

Aura at Innovation Square“In the neighborhood, the streets are very long,” explains VanLeer. “There are pathways all over the neighborhood to get from one street to the other. The reason for the new streets was so people and cars could get in and out more easily.”

Looking ahead, VanLeer says plans are now underway on a 67-unit, affordable apartment building just to the south of Aura, and Knez Homes is currently constructing up to 62 single family homes on East 95th, East 97th, and East 100th Streets.

“We want it not only to attract new residents, but provide opportunities for existing residents,” she says. “That's very important.”

Although Innovation Square has taken almost a decade to execute, VanLeer says it is the vision, and perseverance that is most important to the success of the neighborhood.

“When you have an idea,” she says. “It always takes longer than you thought it was going to take. You have to jump over and through a lot of hoops and barriers, but at the end of the day, it's worth it.

“When you see something that you envision, and it comes out of the ground, that's a great feeling.”