Why We Stepped In
Fourteen apartment buildings around Shaker Square, built in 1928 and holding 308 apartment homes, were allowed to deteriorate. They went through a Fannie Mae foreclosure. A court-appointed receiver secured them so that they would survive the winter.
What happens next to buildings like these is not a small question for a neighborhood. Empty buildings pull a block down around them. Restored ones hold it up. Two blocks of 1928 brick, a block from the Rapid and minutes from the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, are worth far more to Shaker Square standing and occupied than they are as a problem waiting to be someone else's.
Milton PM is a local property management company. We take our name from Milton Rd in University Heights, the street where the company started. We manage more than 80 properties across nine Greater Cleveland communities, and we drive past most of them on the way home. We are not an out-of-state holding company, and we did not come to Shaker Square to flip anything.
We took this on because we believe these buildings can be brought back, and because we would rather they be brought back by someone who has to live with the result.
What We Are Committing To
Five commitments we are willing to be measured against.
Stabilize before anything else
Every vacant unit has been cleaned out, and the buildings have been boarded, secured, and winterized under the court-appointed receiver. Keeping them that way — dry, sealed, and safe — comes before any other work we do.
Restore, rather than erase
These buildings were designed in 1928 and their character is not replaceable. An earlier owner thoughtfully renovated well over 70% of the units, and much of that work remains sound. Where it can be preserved, we will preserve it. Where it cannot, we will repair in keeping with what is already there.
Re-tenant responsibly
These are over-sized suites within walking distance of transit and minutes from the region’s largest employers. We intend to bring them back as quality housing that medical workers, graduate students, and people who work nearby can actually afford — not as a luxury repositioning.
Be reachable, and answer
A neighborhood should not have to read the news to learn what is happening on its own block. We publish a contact channel for press, for neighbors, and for the City, and we answer what comes through it.
Be straight about where we are
This is phased work across fourteen buildings, and it will take time. We will describe what is complete as complete, what is underway as underway, and what is planned as planned. We will not claim finished work we have not finished.
To the Neighborhood
Some of these buildings still have residents in them. They did not choose any of this, and they are not an obstacle to the work — they are the reason for it. We are sequencing renovations building by building specifically so that people who live here are disturbed as little as the work allows.
To everyone else on these blocks: you will see crews, equipment, and scaffolding for some time. If something we are doing is causing a problem, tell us directly — you can reach us anytime at office@miltonpm.com. We would rather hear it from you first.
— Milton PM
Questions About This Project?
We would rather answer them than have them go unanswered.