NASA buildings transition from ‘space race’ to luxury space in Fairview Park

FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio (WOIO) - The two buildings across the street from the NASA Glenn Research Center, built in 1964 for the space race, played an important role in the United States space program.

“Many years ago, these two buildings actually were home to about a thousand engineers that were in charge of the Centaur Rocket that launched 119 unmanned rockets into space and beyond,” said Eric Purcell, director of CitiRoc Enterprises, the developer. “These guys were responsible for creating the technology that them capable to lift a rocket into outer space.”

The buildings sat vacant for nearly 20 years, until now.

“It’s a great building, inside and out, and the history here is just something that needed to be preserved,” said David Crisafi, of Ceres Enterprises.

Developers need to preserve the buildings thanks to a historic credit, right down to the near-soundproof windows. The buildings will house a luxury hotel, The Orbit, and an 84-room luxury apartment complex, The Centaur, paying homage to the NASA Centaur rocket program based on the site originally.

“It was very important to the country when you look back at it and for us to be able to convert this into a building that will have a set of amenities that will hopefully inspire others to live as great as they do. We’re really excited about it,” said Purcell.

The $46 million dollar Centaur will open in December.

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