A proposal to add over 700 apartments to Cleveland's University Circle was floated last week. This rapidly growing neighborhood has seen an influx of new housing and retail, over the past five years. It's part of a growing demand for new housing across the city.
As home to Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic, the Circle area is Cleveland's second largest employment hub. It's a local example of a national development phenomenon where the close proximity of universities and medical facilities provide an economic punch.
"They call it Eds and Meds," says Robert Simons, professor of Urban Planning and Design at Cleveland State University. He says there's a pent-up demand for nearby housing that was dampened by the recession of 2008.
"And up until the past couple years, people haven't been able to afford that much. But, the unemployment rate's low, and people want to bust a move --- they've been antsy to bust a move for a while --- they just haven't had the place to go or the money to do it. And that's all changed."
This new proposal, plus a recent plan to build a high-rise apartment building on the site of the old Children's Museum, would add more than a thousand dwellings to University Circle. Simons estimates there's a demand for about ten thousand new units across the city of Cleveland.
