A Lofty Idea

Kevin Malone Sr. worked as a construction contractor all of his life.  Working with his hands, he raised his family and sent them to college.  Kevin’s two sons, Kevin and Colin both graduated from college and entered the work force; one as a mechanical engineer and the other a sound engineer specialist.
As dad began to wind-down his career, his boys came to him and said, “Dad, we are getting tired of sitting in a cubical behind a computer trading time for money.  We want to get into the business with you!”  And so began a new partnership involving dad and his two sons who just completed their first “Loft Home” renovation in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.  “The house is simply beautiful. It is artful, it is quality and it is just plain cool,” said Cuyahoga Land Bank President Gus Frangos.
The single-family home was in the Cuyahoga Land Bank’s inventory slated for demolition.  Instead, the home will become a “quality rental product in the emerging St. Clair-Superior neighborhood” according to Real Estate Specialist Andrea Bruno of the St. Clair-Superior Neighborhood Development Corporation who helped recruit the Malones to the neighborhood.
The Cuyahoga Land Bank initiated “Loft Homes” as a pilot project to see if it could work.  While getting off to a rocky start with a prior contractor, the Malone Brothers have figured out how to turn these homes into quality lofted homes at an inexpensive price using recycled and existing quality materials from these older homes.  “Our business model is to create quality loft homes in a targeted area, rent to eligible tenants and create a market for future resales,” said Kevin Malone.  “I was about to ease up on my work schedule, but instead, I now have the joy of working eighty hours a week with my sons,” said Kevin Malone, Sr., the proud father.  “We are having a lot of fun doing this,” he added.
There are two other homes the Malone family will be completing in April or May.  The Cuyahoga Land Bank and the “Malone Maestros” have expanded the Loft Home pilot to include up to three more homes that were originally slated for the wrecking ball.