CIM Completes Generational Investment in Students through Purchase of 1609 Hazel Student Apartment and Practice Room Complex

Yesterday at 3pm, the Cleveland Institute of Music accomplished one of its top priorities of Blueprint:100, now officially owning 1609 Hazel. The high-tech student housing and practice-room complex had been on lease from Cleveland-based developer NewBrook Partners since its opening in July 2020.

CIM raised the necessary funds as a result of a tax-exempt bond financing strategy in partnership with the Ohio Higher Education Facility Commission and Huntington Capital Markets. The transaction preserves for CIM all future philanthropic naming rights for the new complex and includes a valued relationship with Case Western Reserve University.

“We have taken charge of our own destiny,” said CIM President and CEO Paul W. Hogle. “Now, in addition to a world-class musical education, CIM can guarantee students the finest housing and practice spaces in the nation. We are grateful to our Trustees and donors for encouraging us to build our own facility and enabling us to purchase it.”

The new building is indeed a significant asset. In 1609 Hazel, the school gains a highly secure facility spanning 103,000 square feet and containing 64 deluxe, fully furnished suites, housing 240 students. Each suite comes complete with two bathrooms, wireless internet, air conditioning, full kitchens and laundry machines.

And those are just the apartments. In addition to residences, 1609 Hazel also contains 19 individual and three chamber music state-of-the-art, Wenger modular practice rooms, all of which are available to students around the clock and can be used for self-recording. Students there also have access to lounges, an exercise studio and a classroom.

Although it’s only two years old, 1609 Hazel already has demonstrated its worth. Thanks in part to the building’s discrete apartments and practice rooms, CIM was able to safely reinstate in-person learning much earlier than our colleagues nationally during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All believe the facility will prove vital in many other ways in the future.

“The new residence hall is absolutely a cornerstone of our strategic plan,” said former Board Chair Richard Hipple at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for 1609 Hazel and an early advocate of the project. “This is a large part of our critical mission to create the best environment to nurture and grow the next leaders in the world of classical music.”