PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Saturday, January 18, 2025; the former Voss Aerospace site, 2138 W. 25^th Street: The South of Lorain Block Club received an update on plans for the four-acre site at their January meeting.

     (Plain Press February 2025) Members of the South of Lorain Block Club received an update on plans for the future of the former Voss Aerospace complex at their January 7^th meeting. The site has been unoccupied since Voss Aerospace moved to Berea in 2020.

     The former Voss Aerospace site at 2168 W. 25^th Street consists of 18 buildings on a four-acre site that fronts on W. 25^th Street and sits on the area between Chatham and Monroe and W. 25^th and W. 26th streets. The complex is owned by MRN.

     MRN Chief Operating Officer Joe Del Re, who says he has been working on plans for the site for the past three years, shared MRN’s vision for future of the site with the block club members.

     Del Re said the new name for the complex will be the Carriage Company. This, he said, is in homage to the first use of the site by the Rauch and Lang Carriage Company which made buggies to be drawn by horses when the company opened at the site in 1884.

     According to the South of Lorain Block Club minutes, “The vison for Carriage Co. is to unite the 18 different buildings on the property that have been built between 1884 – 2010 into a mixed-use space of apartments, restaurants, retail, and office space.”

     The South of Lorain Block Club minutes say that Del Re shared the following details about plans for the Carriage Company. “The Carriage Co., paying homage to its start by name will become ~139 apartments with indoor parking for residents (~140 parking spaces + ~40 additional for visitors). There are adjacent parking lots on Chatham that they plan to turn into the gateway into the project. The main residential engagement leasing office, resident lobby, fitness center, and community room will be accessible via W. 26^th St. and the alley that runs between 26^th and 25^th. There will also be a bike room for public and private use. Due to the nature of the clustering of all the different buildings there will be different parking access points, off Monroe, on W. 26^th, and off Chatham.”

     Two articles by Ken Prendergast in the blog NEOtrans offer additional details about MRN’s plans for the site.

     In a May 27, 2024, article, titled “Voss factory conversion comes into focus”, Prendergast reports that MRN bought the property in March of 2021 for $7.5 million dollars and that its total investment in the project is expected to exceed $62 million. As part of the financing MRN was asking the City of Cleveland to grant non-school Tax Increment Financing for the project.

     The second article by Prendergast titled “Carriage Co. rebirth gets partial OK, start date” appeared on the NEOtrans blog on January 9, 2025.

     In the January 9^th article, Prendergast reports that the Cleveland Landmarks Commission “offered to approve everything in the final design presentation except for the new windows and exterior doors.” The article indicates the project has received approval by the City of Cleveland for the Tax Increment Financing as well as being approved for State of Ohio and Federal government historic tax credits. In the article, Del Re said the project will begin as early as March of 2025 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Prendergast reports that MRN plans to move its corporate offices to the second floor of the Carriage Company once the project is completed.

Editor’s Note: The NEOtrans blog can be found at: https://neo-trans.blog