Category: Development

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Business Development News

CPA event to highlight Bellevue’s preservation success story

Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA) and the City of Bellevue, KY will host a tour of the small Bellevue community along the Ohio River on Friday, July 9 from 9:30am to 12:30pm.

Bellevue has been recognized for its successful preservation techniques that have worked to revitalize the city’s neighborhoods and historic commercial district along Fairfield Avenue. Those attending the tour will have the opportunity to learn about the city’s innovative programs that have gotten it where it is today. Such programs include Bellevue’s local historic district and ongoing form-based code initiative.

The event will take place at the Callahan Community Center (map) and is free and open to the public. CPA is asking that those interested RSVP by calling (513) 721-4506 or emailing info@cincinnatipreservation.org.

UPDATE: Due to timing issues, the tour of Bellevue originally scheduled for Friday, July 9th has been canceled.  CPA officials say that the event will be rescheduled for a later date.

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News

Traffic revisited ten years later in Cincinnati

The last major motion picture to be filmed in Cincinnati was the 2000 box office hit Traffic which highlighted America’s relationship with drugs.  In the movie, a conservative politician from Cincinnati was appointed as U.S. Drug Czar all while his young daughter deals with a drug addiction of her own.  The wealthy politician, and his family, lived in the extraordinarily affluent Indian Hill neighborhood, and his daughter would travel into Cincinnati’s inner city to support her drug habits.

The movie focuses on the wide reach of drugs in contemporary American society and illustrates the role both wealthy and poor individuals play in the drug trade.  The movie portrayed the inner city as a place of decay where the dirty elements of the drug trade take place.

Filmmakers chose Over-the-Rhine because of its urban form and its state of decay that helped tell the story at the time the movie was filmed.  Since that time a dramatic revitalization has occurred throughout Cincinnati’s inner city that has included the renaissance taking place in Over-the-Rhine that has netted hundreds of new residents, dozens of new businesses, and plummeting crime rates.

Soapbox takes a look the locations used in Traffic ten years after the movie first entertained audiences.  The video, produced by 7/79 ltd, shows that most all of the locations have been rejuvenated over that time, and those involved with the film say that Over-the-Rhine continues to be a draw for filmmakers as it provides an affordable alternative to filming in New York while providing a similar urban form to use.

“A big part of their decision to come to Cincinnati was Over-the-Rhine.  They just fell in love with that whole area, and felt that it had a wealth of opportunities and architectural detail to offer the film,” said Deidre Costa, Location Manager for Traffic.  “I would say hands down that the biggest selling point of Cincinnati has been Over-the-Rhine.”

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Development News Politics Transportation

Matthews: Right the economic ship by building rapid rail

As dismal economic reports continue to be made, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews shares his idea for how to get America out of this economic rut – build rapid rail.

On last night’s Hardball with Chris Matthews show Matthews shared, on more than one occasion, his disgust about the state of rapid rail in America.  Asking at one point, “Why are we the slowest moving rapid rail nation in the world?” and further contemplating whether or not America would even build a subway system in a big American city today.

Much of Europe has already developed an advanced high-speed rail network that links those countries together, and China is in the midst of the most aggressive high-speed rail building campaign the world has ever seen.  Other countries around the world are getting up-to-speed as well, and there is the possibility that northern Africa may even soon be connected to Europe’s extensive system.

“We need to build rapid rail…and it’s time we catch the movement,” exclaimed Matthews in the final show segment.  “It will create jobs, it will catch us up to the rest of the world, it will cut our reliance on foreign oil, and it will give us something to believe in.  President Obama…just do it!”

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Business Development News

Park+Vine relocating to larger space, adding full vegan grocery store

One of Over-the-Rhine’s most popular stores, Park+Vine, will be relocating to a new larger space this fall. Dan Korman announced today that the green general store will move from its original location at 1109 Vine Street to a larger space at 1202 Main Street (two blocks east) in late September 2010.

The move will finally give Park+Vine room to expand and begin offering more food products than their current space would allow. The new 2,881 square-foot space at The Belmain gives the store an additional 1,100 square feet of space to work with.

The additional space will reportedly be used to create a full vegan grocery store that will offer bulk grains, local produce, bulk cleaning supplies, and a food bar with Fab Ferments Kombucha, fresh pressed juices and single-cup drip coffee and espresso from La Terza. The new store will also include a book wall, indoor and outdoor seating areas, bicycle parking, and a separate room for Park+Vine’s popular classes.

Park+Vine celebrated its third anniversary earlier this month and has long eyed expansion either at its current location, or somewhere else in the historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

The new location also fits with Park+Vine’s environmentally sustainable ethos in addition to offering up extra square footage. The Belmain, developed by Cincinnati-based Urban Sites, was awarded LEED Silver certification for its sustainable building features and construction practices.

Greg Olson of Urban Sites said, “Park + Vine is exactly the type of retail business meant for the LEED Certified Silver Belmain Building,” exclaimed Greg Olsen, COO of Urban Sites. “It will help us turn the corner and bring sustained economic vitality to one of Cincinnati’s finest commercial streets.”

Korman is also excited about being a part of the resurgence taking place along Main Street in Over-the-Rhine which has brought new commercial tenants like Neon’s Unplugged, JackPotts Tavern, forkheartknife, Atomic Number 10, Original Thought Required, and You Do Yoga to the area recently.

“This is a beautiful and culturally alive area–full of people who see potential in every corner of the neighborhood and are doing something about it,” Korman stated in a media release. “It’s an ideal place for budding entrepreneurs.”

The new Park+Vine location (map) is expected to celebrate a grand opening during the Midpoint Music Festival which takes place between September 23-25, 2010.

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Business Development News

Broadway Tower at St. Xavier Park reduced to nothing more than parking

In 2003, the City of Cincinnati opened the $9 million, 400-space 7th & Broadway Parking Garage.  The above-ground parking garage was designed to eventually accommodate a 12-story condo tower addition on top that would create approximately 166 condo units.  The condos have yet to materialize, but more parking space has.

Early on the project was once seen as a potential site for a new downtown grocery in an area surging with new residents at the nearby loft conversion projects including Sycamore Place and the Renaissance Apartments.  But while condo projects flooded the downtown Cincinnati market, the developers of the proposed Broadway Tower at St. Xavier Place were unable to get in on the action.

As part of the initial agreement, the City paid $2 million for structural supports that would support the residential tower envisioned atop the parking garage – a figure City officials expected to recover upon completion of the residential tower.  To guarantee such a return officials gave developers, a partnership between Al Neyer Inc. and North American Properties, until June 2010 to apply for a building permit for the residential tower, and while the residential tower is no where in sight, an expanded parking garage is nearing completion.

Procter & Gamble announced last year that it would relocated 650 employees from its Governor’s Hill location to its world headquarters in downtown Cincinnati.  As part of that move P&G needed additional parking for its expanded downtown workforce, and the City was eager to provide that by expanding the 7th & Broadway Parking Garage.  The additional employees will add approximately $630,000 annually in payroll tax revenues, but also seems to be the proverbial nail in the coffin for a bold project that would have put an exclamation point on northeastern downtown’s residential resurgence.

The inability to get the residential project done during relatively good market conditions eventually led developers to the housing crisis of 2008 which has basically paralyzed the housing market ever since.  The net result might be good for city coffers, but for downtown Cincinnati it means 650 more part-time occupants, hundreds of new parking spaces and more than 300 fewer residents.  If people come first, then you would have to view this as a net loss for downtown.