Category: Development

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Development News Transportation

300′ geothermal wells being drilled at new Cincinnati Riverfront Park

Several components of the first phase of the 45-acre Cincinnati Riverfront Park are nearing completion, or are reaching significant milestones.  The foundation for the Moerlein Lager House and Jacob G. Schmidlapp Stage & Event Lawn are complete, the foundations to the Roebling Suspension Bridge are being reset to accommodate a realigned Mehring Way, and the first section of the Hamilton County-controlled parking garage is now open.

Also underway is the drilling of 300-foot geothermal wells that will provide the air conditioning for the Bike, Mobility & Visitors’ Center.  The geothermal wells will provide a natural cooling mechanism that leverages the 56-degree temperatures found in the ground year-round.

The first phase of the Cincinnati Riverfront Park will also include the Black Brigade Monument, a labyrinth, tree groves, Main Street Garden, first section of an expanded riverfront bike trail, the Women’s Garden, and more.  According to project officials, the first phase of construction is currently within budget and on-schedule for a spring 2011 completion.  Later phases of construction will proceed as funding is available for the total $120 million project.

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Development News

Ground broken on $1.2M sustainable learning facility in Avondale

Construction work has begun on the Civic Garden Center’s $1.2 million Green Learning Station at 2175 Reading Road in Avondale. The facility is the first of its kind in the Cincinnati region, and is described as an interactive, state-of-the-art learning laboratory for applying sustainable practices into gardens and the systems that support them.

“The Green Learning Station will be a field trip destination for people of all ages, open to the public for tours, workshops and classes related to green living in the city,” said Ryan Mooney-Bullock, Program Manager.

“Classes who visit the Green Learning Station will be challenged to conduct experiments and solve problems as they learn about urban environmental problems. Back in their schools, students will assess some aspect of their school’s environmental impact and develop a plan to make it more sustainable, whether by starting a compost system, a vegetable garden or capturing rainwater.”

Situated on a former SOHIO gas station, the project will include a variety of green features like pervious paving, rainwater harvesting units, bioswales, green roof systems, energy efficient utilities, and showcase sustainable gardens.

“The Board of the Civic Garden Center identified the need for the Green Learning Station more than two years ago,” explained Betsy Townsend, a volunteer and chair of the Green Learning Station committee for the Civic Garden Center. “Since then we have been diligently working to bring the project to fruition. The start of construction has been made possible by countless volunteer hours and generous gifts from local foundations, individuals and corporations.”

The Green Learning Station was designed by SFA Architects and Martin Koepke Design, and is expected to achieve LEED-Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Cincinnati-based HGC Construction is expected to complete work on the Green Learning Station in spring 2011.

Once complete, home builders, developers, and public officials will be able to use the Green Learning Station as a demonstration site on how to incorporate green technology into residences, businesses, and public spaces.

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Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati terminal projects left out of new Marine Highway Program

Cincinnati was on the outside looking in when U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced eight projects and six initiatives nationwide selected to be a part of the new Marine Highway Program. The projects and initiatives selected to be a part of the program will be eligible for federal assistance, including an initial $7 million in funding, to help move more cargo on the nation’s waterways rather than on crowded highways.

The Department’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) stated that the eight projects and six initiatives were chosen out of 35 applications submitted by ports and local transportation agencies. Nationwide, MARAD has selected eleven marine corridors for which to focus. Locally, the designated M-70 Corridor includes the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers.

According to MARAD, the M-70 Corridor contains major freight truck bottlenecks at numerous points that could be alleviated by marine highway cargo transportation.  The administration also states that the region is expected to experience a growth in long-haul truck volumes through 2035 that will exacerbate already congested highways and rail networks.

“Making better use of our rivers and coastal routes offers an intelligent way to relieve some of the biggest challenges we face in transportation – congestion on our roads, climate change, fossil fuel energy use and soaring road maintenance costs,” Secretary LaHood said in a prepared release. “There is no better time for us to improve the use of our rivers and coasts for transportation.”

The majority of projects and initiatives selected were those along coastal marine highway corridors. Officials at the Office of Marine Highways and Passenger Services declined to share the full list of applicants with UrbanCincy, but a local river port facility located just west of downtown Cincinnati may have been one of those left off the list.

“There are many places in our country where expanded use of marine transportation just makes sense,” said David Matsuda, Acting Administrator of the Maritime Administration. “It has so much potential to help our nation in many ways: reduced gridlock and greenhouse gases and more jobs for skilled mariners and shipbuilders.”

The proposed Queensgate Terminals rail-barge transfer facility has long been the subject of controversy, public debate, and opportunity. While legal and political battles took place, over the last five years, Ohio officials pledged $9.5 million to the proposed South Point barge terminal further upriver in Lawrence County. At the same time, the OKI Regional Council of Governments has been studying ways in which to reduce freight congestion on the region’s highways and freight rail yards.

The proposed Ohio River facilities are becoming increasingly important as the Panama Canal nears completion on a $5 billion expansion that is expected to dramatically global freight traffic in the eastern United States. According to David Martin, developer of Queensgate Terminals, the Panama Canal expansion will make “back-haul” operations to China even more attractive as shippers look to move goods on otherwise empty cargo containers heading back to east Asia.

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News

American Sign Museum hopes to make Cincinnati national center for research and information

The American Sign Museum in Walnut Hills opened in 2005 and has since steadily gained in popularity while attracting visitors from across the country. When director and founder Tod Swormstedt first conceived the idea for the museum, he had no collection and was going through a self-proclaimed mid-life crisis. Years later, however, the museum’s success has allowed him to think much bigger and his ambitions have grown exponentially.

In January, 2012, Swormstedt is hoping to move his popular museum into a new 43,000 square-foot historic building in Camp Washington (map) called Machine Flats. So far $1.6 million has been put towards the new museum with an additional $800,000 needed before they can officially move into the entire building. To date, approximately 98 percent of those funds have been donated by the sign industry.

Swormstedt’s goal for the new space is to make Cincinnati the National Center for Sign Research & Information. He says that the museum will move beyond merely displaying the unique collection of historic signs and memorabilia, and move towards a more comprehensive approach to sign information and education.

“The history of signs is a micro-history of design trends and technology in the U.S., and I want to capitalize on that right here in Cincinnati,” says Swormstedt, who sees the new museum as fitting in perfectly with Agenda 360’s Regional Action Plan and the recent designation of Cincinnati as a Hub of Innovation & Opportunity in the area of Consumer Marketing.

The new building will eventually be split into two main sections: a museum that will feature the history of signs, and a training facility that will focus on the usage and future development of signage. The museum section of the new space will feature three-dimensional artificial storefronts that will allow the historic signs to be displayed in their original form, both on the buildings and in storefront windows.

However, it is in the new training facility where Swormstedt sees the most potential for community growth. His hopes are to eventually work with the University of Cincinnati’s College of Business and College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning to create a space where students can learn about the value, design, structure and history of signs. Ultimately Swormstedt views the new museum as a way to blend some of Cincinnati’s most valuable assets – history, art, design and commerce.

The American Sign Museum is currently located at 2515 Essex Place in Walnut Hills and is open to the public on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.  All other times must be scheduled by appointment at (513) 258-4020 or tod@signmuseum.org.

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

Oudin and Boserup play tennis match atop 630′ Cincinnati skyscraper

WTA players Melanie Oudin and Julia Boserup are in town this week for the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open being held in Mason. Before the tournament got underway, the two engaged in a friendly tennis match atop Cincinnati’s newest skyscraper 630 feet above the street.

The Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open has grown in prestige recently and was upgraded to a “Premier 5” Women’s Tennis Association event joining tournaments in Dubai, Rome, Toronto/Montreal, and Tokyo. In 2011, the women’s tournament will merge with the long-standing Western & Southern Financial Group Masters men’s draw in an eight-day event. The combined tournaments will make the new Western & Southern Financial Group Masters & Women’s Open one of the top ten tournaments in the world, and the largest summer tennis tournament in the United States outside of the U.S. Open grand slam event.

The back-to-back 2010 tournaments currently taking place in Cincinnati are the first to take advantage of a new $10 million facility upgrade that includes an additional 890 stadium seats, six new luxury suites, major media facility upgrades, and player amenity improvements within the new 52,000 square-foot West Building. With the upgrades, the stadium’s 11,500 seat capacity makes it the 22nd largest tennis stadium in the world, and the seventh largest in the United States.

The Great American Insurance Tower at Queen City Square is expected to be complete in spring 2011 and will become Cincinnati’s tallest building eclipsing the historic Carew Tower located blocks away.