Tremont project may break new ground near Towpath

By Stan Bullard | Crain’s Cleveland Business | May 26, 2019

At a site on Literary Road in Tremont near West Third Street at the edge of the industrial valley, J-Roc Developers of Cleveland is pursuing a proposal to develop a 130-unit apartment project dubbed Electric Gardens.

The site is also notable because it adjoins the almost-completed leg of the Towpath Trail to Literary, the hike-and-bike trail following 80 acres of the old Ohio & Erie Canal path as far south as Zoar. The next link will formally begin next month to connect the trail, two decades in the making, with the Canal Basin area of Cleveland’s Flats near the Cuyahoga River.

The proposal received conceptual approval from the Near West Design Review Committee and, on May 5, the Cleveland City Planning Commission, but still has far to go. That’s because the developers are pursuing design approvals while still needing to win a rezoning for the site from industrial to mixed-use.

Aaron Taylor, J-Roc development director, said in a Thursday, May 24, phone interview that the site offers an opportunity to benefit from the popular Towpath and still be near the heart of Tremont’s commercial district.