The House is a-Rockin'

Accordion players welcome

Although Frankie Yankovic, America's Polka King, rose to fame in this blue-collar community on the shores of Lake Erie, North Collinwood is better known these days for rock and roll. In fact, since the Beachland Ballroom opened on Waterloo Road ten years ago, the area has become a hotspot for musicians and artists of all kinds.

Now community leaders have a message for visitors: If you like it, why not call it home? North Collinwood, they say, is affordable, close to everything, and friendly to artists.

“We’re marketing it as a living, breathing community and not just a nighttime destination,” says Brian Friedman, head of Northeast Shores Development Corporation, a nonprofit community development organization in North Collinwood.

It’s more than just a slogan, Friedman says – he’s ready to sell you a house. Along with its marketing push, Northeast Shores has launched an effort to rehab vacant, foreclosed properties. After thoroughly rehabbing the homes, the group offers them for sale.

Friedman says that the target markets are musicians and artists who are seeking an affordable place to live. The community supports artists by providing them with a sense of community and a place to create their work, he adds.

The target area, called the “Waterloo Arts District,” is located on the residential streets off of Waterloo Road. To rehab the houses, Friedman’s group has secured federal stimulus dollars from the city of Cleveland. They’ve also borrowed rehab funds at below-market interest rates with the help of Cleveland Action to Support Housing (CASH).

“We’re excited to partner with Northeast Shores,” says Marcia Nolan, Director of CASH, a nonprofit group that provides low interest loans to fix up properties in Cleveland. “In addition to a very low interest rate of about 3%, we provide technical assistance.”

Here’s how it works. Northeast Shores offers the rehabbed homes for sale for $80,000 – $100,000. Construction costs, including the cost of acquiring the property, are usually much higher, and yet grant funding from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), a federal program administered by Cleveland, helps to fill the gap between rehab costs and sales price. Once a buyer purchases the home, Northeast Shores completes the rehab to their specifications, and then sells the house to the new owner. Since the program started, Northeast Shores has sold more than 30 homes.

To qualify, buyers must meet income guidelines that are equal to 120% of Average Median Income, or about $32,000 for a single individual. Friedman says that he does not have difficulty with interested buyers being over-qualified, because the income guidelines are generous enough to qualify a broad market.

What kind of home do artists want? One with extra space, Friedman says. In fact, one of the program’s challenges has been ensuring the homes have enough storage.

“If you’re a real musician, then you have lots of guitars,” he says.

Selling homes in today’s market isn’t easy, and Friedman cites a long list of challenges, including a shortage of actual buyers. Yet Northeast Shores has gotten some help from the artsy businesses that have sprung up along Waterloo Road, and from Arts Collinwood, a non-profit group that promotes arts in the community. The Beachland Ballroom, Blue Arrow Records and Music Saves are among those businesses that have helped to market the Waterloo Arts District to their patrons.

“Our businesses are strong advocates for the community, and that has helped us to create a market,” Friedman says.

John and Bonnie Polomsky [pictured], who work at the Beachland Ballroom, bought a rehabbed home on Muskoka Avenue in North Collinwood in November of last year. They first heard about the Waterloo Arts District from Beachland owner Cindy Barber.

“The house was in rough shape when we first saw it, but it had good bones,” John Polomsky says. “Northeast Shores let us make some choices during the rehab, like opening up the dining room to create a more modern feel, and this made it feel like ours.”

Polomsky, who has played drums in various bands around Cleveland, grew up in nearby Euclid. He’s glad that he found an affordable opportunity to buy close to home.

“When we started looking, most of the homes that we could afford were not in good shape,” he says. “This program allowed us to buy a home that was pretty much new.”

This Fri 9/17, check out this neighborhood at the Walk All Over Waterloo event starting at 6PM in over a dozen locations in the Waterloo area. ArtsCollinwood.org.

Cool Cleveland contributor Lee Chilcote works for Progressive Urban Real Estate and the Shaker Square Area Development Corporation. He is a non-fiction writer and poet. He lives in the in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood with his wife and daughter.