Shorehaus Lofts is on the cover of the August 2026 issue of Properties, Northeast Ohio’s architecture, construction and real estate magazine, which has been covering the region since 1946. The feature — “Lofted Legacy,” written by Dan Holland with photography by Eighth House Sun — runs eight pages and traces the renovation of one of Cleveland’s earliest warehouse-to-residential conversions.
A building with two lives behind it
The Printz-Biederman Company building at 425 W. Lakeside Avenue went up in 1893 and spent decades as home to one of the country’s longest-running women’s apparel manufacturers. In the mid-1990s it became one of the first manufacturing buildings in the Warehouse District to be converted into apartments — early enough that it helped set the pattern the neighborhood followed.
Then it sat. By the time Grey Fox Capital toured it in September 2024, the building had gone roughly thirty years without meaningful investment: deferred maintenance, aging mechanicals, and apartments that had not been touched since the original conversion. It was also less than 80% occupied.
Grey Fox closed on the property in March 2025, about six months after the first conversations with the previous ownership. Dimit Architects came aboard in fall 2024 as the design team, with Driven 4 Group as general contractor, both working alongside the BTR Haus property management team. Hallways, common areas and residential units reached substantial completion in March 2026.
Renovating a building people were living in
The hardest constraint on this project wasn’t structural — it was that residents never moved out.
Rather than empty the building, the construction team worked in blocks of four units as they came available, turning each block on a targeted 39-day cycle. Adding an in-unit washer and dryer to every apartment meant running a new plumbing riser from the third floor to the sixth and boxing it in ahead of time, so that the moment a unit went vacant the team could connect the appliances and set new countertops. Countertop templating turned out to be the schedule’s tightest link: a two-week lead time inside a 39-day window leaves very little room, which pushed cabinet installation to the front of the sequence.
Coordination carried the rest — elevator access shared between construction deliveries and residents, material staging in an occupied building, and a standing commitment that any disruption affecting residents got addressed the same day.
Inside the apartments
Fifty-seven one-, two- and three-bedroom lofts occupy floors three through six of the 130,000-square-foot building. More than 60% of them look out at Lake Erie.
The renovation kept the things a 19th-century building does better than a new one — exposed wood posts, beams and ceiling joists, 14-foot ceilings, oversized windows — and replaced everything else. Units now include washer/dryer combos, quartz countertops, new cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, LVT flooring, subway tile backsplashes, new lighting and new baseboards. The goal was a clean contemporary finish that doesn’t argue with the historic fabric around it.
The amenity floor
The second floor holds the lobby entrance, community room, fitness center, business center and leasing offices, along with a commercial tenant space. Every corridor in the building was renovated, as was the main lobby.
Dimit’s interior team designed the community room around the original exposed posts, beams and joists, adding a fireplace, coffee bar, and a mix of seating with a view of the lake — material choices meant to read as inviting rather than trend-driven, and to work for a resident base that spans a wide age range. The amenity space had been dark before the renovation; warmth and light were the priorities, particularly for Cleveland winters. A wall collage assembled for the space draws on Cleveland memorabilia, Lake Erie and nautical themes, and four custom chandeliers were commissioned from Jason Wein at Cleveland Art for the main entry lobby.
Systems, envelope and technology
Exterior work included extensive tuck-pointing and repairs, with particular attention to the north, lake-facing wall — the elevation that now carries the building’s name in large letters, along with a new awning over the main entrance. Tuck-pointing and painting were also done in the sub-level garage.
On the mechanical side, each apartment has its own HVAC unit, with 60 on the roof; more than half of the rooftop heat pumps were replaced, along with repairs to long-standing leak issues.
The building’s access technology was rebuilt as well. Residents use FOB access from their phones for the building, the tenant lot and the parking garage, the front entry runs a security system with facial recognition, and the parking gate reads automated vehicle identification stickers.
Financing the work
Roughly $1.2 million in tax credits supported the project, drawn from the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit program, the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program and the Ohio Opportunity Zones Tax Credit program. A historic architectural consultant worked alongside Dimit through multiple rounds of National Park Service and State Historic Preservation Office review to keep the design within both federal and state standards.
A template, not a one-off
The through-line of the Properties feature is that Shorehaus is meant to demonstrate something. Plenty of downtown Cleveland buildings are in the same condition this one was — sound bones, neglected systems, and no capital behind them. Shorehaus is the argument that those buildings have a path forward when the financing, the design team and the operator line up.
Read the full feature: Properties, August 2026 — “Lofted Legacy”
Our thanks to Dan Holland and the Properties editorial team, and to Dimit Architects, Driven 4 Group, and every trade partner who worked on this building.
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