CLEVELAND — The former Statler Arms Hotel in Cleveland is wooing new generations of residents to its historic walls, which have gone through so much renovation. The old downtown hotel would not be recognizable to anyone who has not entered it in the last few years.
Property manager Shannon Kleinmann has nothing but praise for the Statler, which was built in 1912. She labeled it as a building with "great bones," as she pointed out the sound structure of the 12-story edifice at the northwest corner of Euclid Ave. and East 12th St.
The Millenia Companies paid $40 million for the property and is funneling in another $14 million for its refitting. Already there are tenants in the former hotel, with more on the waiting list once renovations are complete. The Statler Apartments building is in the heart of Cleveland's Playhouse Square.
"We're within walking distance to every great restaurant you would ever want," boasted Kleinmann as she stood in the lobby, which is still undergoing renovation.
Rent prices in the building, which has about 700 units, run for $1,000 a month for a studio apartment to about $3,200 for a penthouse suite. Kleinmann said there were about 67 different floor plans in the building, which for decades stood as a major hotel.
In her office is a photograph of Charles Otis, founder of the Otis Elevator Company, who was the first hotel guest to register in the Statler in 1912. From that point for several more decades, many stars of entertainment and politics stayed there. In 1926, vaudeville and Hollywood movie stars George Burns and Gracie Allen—who were married in Cleveland—honeymooned in the Statler.
In one of the historic Marx Brothers movies of the 1930s, Groucho Marx makes a reference to Cleveland's Statler. Certainly, because of its location in within a few steps of the city's theater district, many stars who graced the live stages of the equally-historic Playhouse Square theaters stayed there.
However, there were other personalities not so warmly accepted by society who stayed there as well. In Kleinmann's office is a large photograph of nine reputed godfathers of mafia families from around the country. In 1928, they had assembled at the Statler for strategy meetings, which ended abruptly when police executed a raid. However, the photograph of the godfathers who posed—most with their hat brims pulled low on their foreheads—was taken beforehand.
In the basement of the Statler and some of the lower-level former restaurant areas which have not yet been renovated are pieces of the past from the building's history. Among them is the bar which was the center of a speakeasy, which flourished for 13 years beginning in 1920 Prohibition, outlawed liquor sales in the U.S. Those who wanted the illegal booze could find it on the other side of a door from Euclid Ave. which led downstairs to the bar. Only those who knew the password or who had inside information were granted access to the bar, the liquor, and whatever else the speakeasy offered.
When Prohibition ended in 1933, the bar remained and customers sat at it and ordered their drinks without fear of a raid by federal agents. Today, the bar—now covered with dust in a dark basement—awaits whatever happens to it next.
"I believe we're going to restore this old bar and move it to one of our new projects down the road," Jerry Kleinmann, engineer on the Statler renovations, said.
The Statler is just one of many downtown projects taking old buildings and rehabilitating them for apartment living. Those who live in the Statler join a long list of many others who had good times during the more than 100 years the building has been a key place in downtown Cleveland.