Here's the rent schedule for the proposed apartment building at Lee-Meadowbrook. The one where city council is basically giving the unappraised land away ($125,000), and the developer *still* needs nearly $4 MILLION in tax abatements over 11 years, or the project won't go forward:

• Studio (0 Bedrooms, 513 - 545 sq. ft.): $950 - $1,035 per month
• 1 Bedroom (657 sq. ft.): $1,183 - $1,233
• 1 Bedroom Plus (727 - 787 sq. ft.) $1,286 - $1,352
• 2 Bedroom (880 - 1,138 sq. ft.) $1,586 - $1,980

• That's in the neighborhood of $2 per square foot per month.
• The executive director of University Circle Inc. says his brand new properties along Euclid Avenue get between $1.00 - $1.40 per sq. ft.

From page 2 of the developers' revised Economic Impact Study, here's how the developer "explains" why Cedar-Lee rents will be 50% - 100% higher than University Circle rents:

"With respect to the rental rates, please note there are no directly comparable properties to which the developer can look to for history. Other buildings that somewhat approximate the conditions and type of this proposed development were analyzed and extrapolated to calculate the rental rates for this property. However, until Meadowbrook-Lee is built there is no way to know what we can actually get in terms of rental rates."

Lemme tell you, there's nothing anywhere in Cleveland Heights that gets anything like those rents. If there was, they would have mentioned it, right?

And what happens when they can't get those rents? Either empty units, or discounted units, or both! And that's when the project, already relying on the city's generous subsidies, would probably crash and burn. And it wouldn't take long.

Right there, prominently in the heart of the Cedar-Lee business district.

Count me out. Please, contact all 5 BOE members, and implore them to vote NO on the 80% for 11 year tax abatement request from the CH city council.