Read the article on Crain’s Cleveland Business
A Cleveland nonprofit has secured its place in University Circle after purchasing a 12,231-square-foot building.
Transplant House of Cleveland bought a rowhouse building at 11514 Mayfield Road after being a tenant there for nearly 11 years. The organization purchased the building for $1.2 million — $1 million of which came from an anonymous donor— on April 18 from University Circle Inc.
Ownership of the building allows the nonprofit to maintain a foothold in the area and design what it calls a “long-term vision” for the property. Although the purchase is not an expansion itself, it comes as the Transplant House of Cleveland works to grow and increase its reach within University Circle.
“This is very significant to own real estate. … I’m excited to have achieved it. It gives us a reason to celebrate. And then, after that, I’m excited to start planning to improve the building,” Elaine Turley, Transplant House’s executive director, told Crain’s.
Transplant House provides affordable, temporary housing and support— including free programming, support groups and two shared community meals a week— to organ transplant patients and their families. Throughout the organization’s history, guests have come from 80 of Ohio’s 88 counties, 43 of the 50 U.S. states and 10 countries, according to a news release.
Rooms through Transplant House are $50 a night for a studio, $60 a night for a one-bedroom and a few two bedrooms at $75 a night. Additionally, the organization has a fund to further subsidize very long-term stays that guests may not be able to afford, Turley said.
The organization’s total revenue was $1.36 million in 2024, Turley said.
The purchase of the rowhouse is significant to the organization, which has been striving to secure its place and expand. Owning the building was made possible by “a private family foundation established by a well-meaning member of the greater Cleveland community who wishes to remain anonymous,” the news release stated.
“This purchase is a milestone for the organization and the families it serves, because it secures our physical placement in University Circle for the long-term,” Joanmarie Button, board president of Transplant House, said in the release.
The rowhouse building was the pilot residential location for Transplant House.
The organization found the building in 2014, when it had a few empty apartments and was owned by University Hospitals.
Turley said the organization was drawn to the location because of both University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic’s location within a mile radius and decided to lease space in the building. Within the first two years, Transplant House occupied the whole building, which consists of 16 units, each about 550 square feet in size, Turley said.
Most recently, the rowhouse was owned by University Circle Inc., a development, service and advocacy nonprofit for the area. Currently, University Circle Inc. owns 19 properties, including our UCI Headquarters on Magnolia and UCPD Headquarters and Operations Center on Euclid Avenue, Elise Yablonsky, chief place management officer of University Circle Inc., told Crain’s in an emailed statement.
“Nearly 70 years ago, UCI was created in part to hold land for the future needs of our critical nonprofit partners. Selling this property to Transplant House not only supports their immediate needs but also secures their long-term place in our community, fulfilling the very mission we were founded on,” Kate Borders, president of University Circle Inc., said in an emailed reply to Crain’s.
Reaching for real estate
Currently, Transplant House has two other rental properties neighboring newly purchased buildings.
One property, at 2032 East 115th St., is a three-story apartment with nine apartments. The other property is a two-family home, at 2029 East 115th St, that works as a community and office space for the nonprofit.
The organization hopes to expand its real estate presence to better serve the community. In 2024, Transplant House had “93% occupancy, accommodated 258 stays and had to turn away 387 more due to no vacancy,” according to the news release.
“I feel like we’re not fulfilling our mission when we’re turning away as many people as we have been,” Turley said.
The nonprofit is negotiating a master lease for space at University East Apartments, at 11328 Euclid Ave., with First Interstate Properties, a Lyndhurst-headquartered real estate developer. First Interstate Properties acquired the building from University Circle Inc. by ground in October 2024, Yablonsky said.
University East Apartments has retail on the ground level, then four floors of residential space above. Transplant House hopes to occupy one floor, equating to 12 apartments, of the property, Turley said.
The Mayfield Road rowhouse and the East 115th Street residential properties do not have an elevator, which makes the property less accessible for guests, a “pain point of our current campuses,” Turley said. The University East Apartment is currently fixing the elevator, which would expand opportunities for people to stay with Transplant House.
The Transplant House board is voting on the Euclid Avenue plan on May 27. The organization hopes to reach an agreement with First Interstate by mid-June, Turley said.
“It’s exciting to us to be part of University Circle, because a lively, diverse place with all its offerings, as far as our mission goes, there’s just nothing like it,” Turley said. “We could just subsidize hotel rooms and help people that way, but we chose not to go that route with our nonprofit. Because 75% of what happens here is the relationship: building peer support and just the comfort that the family gets that places them, and the patient, in a better situation for the health outcomes.”