“The idea of bringing something to Cleveland that hasn’t been done before is compelling.”
James Kassouf
James Kassouf, a long time resident of Cleveland, is a Property Investor and Manager in the area who has been in the real estate business for over 50 years, starting at just 19 years old. James has owned and operated office buildings, retail centers, parking faculties, residential buildings, gas stations, and even government faculties.
A native to the Cleveland area, James Kassouf has grown up watching the development of the city. Throughout the course of his career, James Kassouf and his family have run their local business with the community in mind. With personal ties to various areas in the city, James Kassouf has made it his mission to restore the city and forgotten buildings into their former glory.
Apart from restoring the city, James Kassouf looks for opportunities to bring something new to the Cleveland scene. As a real estate developer, Kassouf is often inspired by various cities across the nation and feels compelled to do things in Cleveland that have never been done before. Together, James and his family work together to deliver projects that the people of Cleveland can be proud of.
The Kassouf family has nearly 40-year history operating parking lots in downtown Cleveland. For many years, James Kassouf and his family have run Metro Parking Systems, which operates a large parking lot overlooking the lakefront between West Third and West Sixth streets, and others. More recently, James Kassouf and the family have been working on a Class A office tower that has residential, fitness, retail, dining, entertainment and parking components all in one project. The property also includes a 421-space parking garage underneath the complex.
In 2018, with James Kassouf’s investor group, they joined the Erieview urban renewal project have revitalized the Erieview Urban renewal plans with planning on redevelopment for 12 floors of the first Branded apartments in Cleveland, along with 7 floors of branded full service hotel space. The restaurant located on the 38th floor was the former “top-of-the-town” restaurant which has been in operation for many years, and the 40th-floor outdoor bar is the highest bar in this part of the country.
James and his team are now redeveloping the one million square foot 40-story tower and Galleria, which is the 4th tallest building in Cleveland and the 9th tallest in the state of Ohio. With this project, they hope to be the first branded residential project in Cleveland with a national hotel chain, along with condos and redeveloping the Galleria into a festive shopping & restaurant & entertainment facility, along with office space.