Residences at 55 Public Square

Industry > Multi-Family Construction

Historic 55 Public Square Building successfully converted into multi-family housing units in 20 months

Cleveland Construction, Inc. is the Construction Manager for the historic renovation and adaptive reuse of 55 Public Square Building, a 24-story, 500,291 square-foot historic building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, formerly known as the Illuminating Building and previously used as office space for a northeast Ohio electric company. 

The project includes converting floors 2-15 into 202 apartment units with 18 unique layouts. The 14th and 15th floors will feature larger 2- and 3-bedroom units with stunning views of Lake Erie and Cleveland skyline. Commercial tenants are being reorganized within the building to occupy floors 16-22, while mechanical systems will be located on floors 23 and 24. The first floor will have new leasing offices for the K&D group and the second floor will feature new amenities such as a resident lounge and fitness room.

The building's existing curtainwall facade will be cleaned and resealed, the plaza's entrance will be renovated, and a restaurant will occupy the ground floor. The contract also includes refurbishing the cooling tower and installing new air conditioning, gas, and fire systems to serve the residential units, restaurant and commercial spaces.

The project was executed in multiple phases to facilitate a phased turnover schedule, starting with building life safety upgrades and elevators before proceeding to build-out each floor, working from bottom to top. This approach enabled entire floors to be turned over to the owner and occupied as soon as they were completed, typically every 2-3 weeks. The entire adaptive reuse construction project duration is 20 months.