Who We Are - Harbor Bay

Venture
differently.

DRIVING TRANSFORMATION.

Our mission is to build
superior communities by way of well-developed, well-positioned, well-managed real estate.

“Transformative” may sound a bit dramatic or cliche in the world of development. But for us, it’s a real part of our mission. It happens through deep and meaningful dialogue with every one of our partnering communities: we want to truly understand the unique needs, character, energy, momentum and challenges where we build. It means raising the bar through innovative design, materiality and construction techniques. It’s about creating something spectacular, engaging, sustainable and built to last.

We don’t think of ourselves as developers. We are place-makers. We create innovative, transformative, lifestyle-driven projects in hip, up-and-coming, transit-oriented urban areas. Our goal is to help fuel the next generation of America’s most vibrant, livable and in-demand neighborhoods, with our projects serving as anchors for those thriving communities.

“With their vision, Harbor Bay has created a mixed-use building that fits well into the neighborhood while raising the bar for future developments.”

"Harbor Bay has expressed tremendous innovation and ingenuity in its INTRO project. The $150M investment in our community hits on notable Cleveland-community objectives including sustainability, jobs, opportunity zone investment, TOD, mixed use, Cleveland Climate Action Plan, amongst others."

"I have been impressed with Harbor Bay’s approach to the formulation of development projects, their preparation and communication with City departments, and their commitment to designing a quality development project."

"People said I don’t think it could happen…but everything that was promised with regard to this project was produced by the Developer [Harbor Bay]."

HOW

WE DO.

How it started

For generations, real estate has been the foundation of the Bell family business, spanning numerous states and asset types. With an ethos that holding and shepherding real estate is sounder than building and flipping it, the portfolio has grown quietly yet substantially over the past 50 years, setting the stage for what would eventually become Harbor Bay in 2012. Since then, the company has developed, self-funded, and self-managed catalytic projects in secondary and tertiary markets across the upper midwest.

How it’s going

After gaining control of Cleveland’s most dynamic and exciting development site, the trajectory of Harbor Bay changed forever. Innovation, sustainability, and differentiation became the focal point of the INTRO Cleveland project. Mass Timber as a construction type became the means.

With a very hands-on approach to research, development and testing, Harbor Bay went on exploratory expeditions from the northern reaches of Canada to the Austrian Alps to find the right partner for its first, and America’s largest, Mass Timber development project. After successfully completing INTRO in early 2022, along with the launch of four unique Harbor Bay Hospitality concepts within INTRO, the company has rebranded itself and established its position on the leading edge of the Mass Timber movement in North America.

Environmental

The highest quality, most innovative and renewable materials.

The most
sustainable
way to build

Pushing
cities
forward

Our environmental ethos

Buildings are the top cause of global emissions, yet construction methodology has traditionally been very slow to adapt over time. Harbor Bay is an industry pioneer and thought leader in the use of mass timber construction for dense, urban, multifamily projects in the U.S. INTRO Cleveland is the first residential mixed-use project in Ohio to achieve a LEED Gold standard – and that doesn’t even take into account benefits from using a renewable resource or the emissions reduction over the project’s lifecycle. We believe that it will take large-scale projects like INTRO to move the needle on environmental benefits in urban areas throughout the country. And we want to lead this charge.

Our legacy

Leave it better than you found it. That’s the calling card. We seek out places that already have great qualities, but if you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse. We’re constantly trying to get better at everything from the physical bricks and sticks of our real estate projects to the way we engage with communities and neighborhoods, to building upon the teamwork, personal development and goals of our employees and partners. Not only do we hope that our projects are beautiful, great to live in, dine at and talk about for years to come, but they need to be sustainable and set a new precedent for what great development can be. So often we go to new places where people are ‘afraid of the precedent’ a new project can set. Well, we want to plant a flag that instead says, ‘this is exactly the type of precedent we should be aiming to create.’ And we want to be known as people who are passionate and demanding while also being honest and enjoyable to work with.