Tag: brewery district

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Development News

Film Center Renovation to be First Project in Northern Liberties for Urban Sites

The back of the Film Center

Looking EastOver the seven year history of UrbanCincy, we have seen a tremendous amount of revitalization and new development in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Most has occurred in the southern half of the neighborhood, near the Central Business District. We’ve often wondered what it would take for development to jump across Liberty Street into the part of the neighborhood known as the Northern Liberties.

We may have recently hit that critical point. Findlay Market is thriving and growing, and will the addition of Eli’s BBQ, will soon offer a late-night dining option. The nearby tap room at Rhinegeist Brewery has quickly become a hot spot, bringing hundreds of visitors each weekend into a part of the neighborhood that was desolate just a short time ago. And Model Group has announced a $14 million office development along Race Street.

Most recently, the Business Courier reported that Urban Sites is moving forward with a plan to revitalize the 40,000 square foot Film Center building. It will be “the largest single site construction project that Urban Sites has performed to date,” according to Michael Chewning, Chief Operating Officer for Urban Sites. It is also the company’s first foray into the Northern Liberties.

The building was originally owned by Warner Bros. and contains dozens of large vaults that were used for storing films and protecting them against the elements. “The Film Center is unique in that it gives us a glimpse of the lesser known, but important role that Cincinnati played in the film industry,” said Seth Maney, Vice President of Development for Urban Sites.

Over the next 18 months, Urban Sites will put together a development plan for the property. The company is considering office space or residential as potential uses for the building.

EDITORIAL NOTE: All 13 photos were taken by Travis Estell for UrbanCincy on a recent exclusive building tour.

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News Transportation

PHOTOS: Streetcar Maintenance Facility, OTR Track Work Nearing Completion

OTR Track Switch

Construction of the Cincinnati Streetcar system has been moving quickly over the past several months. In the Central Business District, track work on Walnut Street has been completed between Central Parkway and Seventh Street, and two stations are under construction along this stretch.

Downtown drivers will soon get a break from track construction until next year, when crews will return to the CBD to finish the Walnut Street track after the holiday season.

In the mean time, crews have moved to the Northern Liberties to finish up the Over-the-Rhine portion of the system. The special track work in this area includes turnouts on Henry and Race streets, connecting to the Maintenance & Operations Facility, and turnouts to Findlay and Elder Streets, which will allow the Uptown Connector to be built in the future without disrupting service.

Crews recently finished resurfacing portions of Elm and Race streets along the route, which means that underground utility work has wrapped up. Many of the streetcar stops in Over-the-Rhine are also now complete and many of the new traffic signals have been activated.

While much has been accomplished, a significant amount of construction remains, including track work along Main and Second streets in the CBD. But anyone taking a walk down Race Street, in Over-the-Rhine, today should get a good impression of what the finished track and stations will look like.

EDITORIAL NOTE: All 14 photos were taken by Travis Estell for UrbanCincy between October 21 and November 1, 2014.

Categories
Arts & Entertainment News

Take a Look at These 20 Breathtaking Photos of Cincinnati’s Center City

Downtown and Ohio River Bridges

Many of you who read UrbanCincy get to see and experience the center city on a regular basis, but others of you cannot. But for those of you that do, rarely do you get to take a bird’s eye view of the city.

Brian Spitzig, an occasional contributor to UrbanCincy, recently took a flight around the inner city to take what turned out to be some incredible aerial photography. He took hundreds of photos, but we went through them and selected some of the best to share with you.

This is the first part of what will be a two-part series. The following 20 photographs are all of Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, while the next part of this series will focus on neighborhoods outside of the greater downtown area.

If you like what you see here, you can follow Brian Spitzig on Instagram.

Categories
News Transportation

PHOTOS: Cincy Red Bike Quickly Taking Shape Throughout City Center

Last week’s press conference on Fountain Square revealed a number of new details regarding Cincinnati’s new bike share system. In addition to unveiling the design of the bikes, stations and membership cards, officials also finally shared the system’s name – Cincy Red Bike.

Jason Barron, executive director of Cincy Red Bike, said that dozens of volunteers quickly assembled 260 of the bikes that will populate the initial 35-station system. Barron further clarified a point discussed in our analysis from just before the conference, and stated that each station will have between 13 and 19 docks, thus giving the system an initial docking capacity of 520 bikes. This would easily exceed the ideal 50% space contingency.

The press was also informed that the station at Union Terminal, which would have been a far off island from the rest of the initial system, has since been scratched for that very reason.

“Research indicated that having an island station like that is difficult for system balancing and that it typically does not get much use,” Barron told UrbanCincy. “An exception may be a park or someplace where people check out the bike ride it around the park and them check it back in.”

In terms of handling the balancing for such a large initial system, Cincy Red Bike will be utilizing a small van at first, but may add a trailer or a bike trailer to the balancing fleet at a later date depending on the system’s needs.

The process of getting a system like this operational so quickly comes with some challenges. While installing two to three new stations a day, officials are also still trying to work out the final membership and daily rates for users. Barron also says that the system map has changed some since initial releases, and that a new map will be released soon.

Those who want to stay up-to-date on the rapidly evolving system can do so now by following Cincy Red Bike on Facebook and on Twitter @CincyRedBike.

EDITORIAL NOTE: All 24 photos were taken by Breanna Tracy for UrbanCincy on August 16, 2014.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

PHOTOS: Mayor Mallory Energizes Supporters at Streetcar Social

Mayor Mallory Addresses the Crowd

Hosting their monthly Streetcar Social, Cincinnatians for Progress braved the summer heat wave at Rhinegeist Brewery as crowds gathered to listen to the featured speaker of July.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory (D) took to the stage, presenting an update on phase one of the Cincinnati Streetcar project, to a room filled with approximately 200 supporters. Several City Council members were also present, including Wendell Young (D), Laure Quinlivan (D), Chris Seelbach (D), and representatives for Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls (C) and City Council Candidate Mike Moroski (I).

The Mayor spent the beginning of the event mingling with the crowd, followed by delivering a 20-minute presentation that recapped the official signing of the streetcar construction contract with Messer, and the continued progress with utility relocation along the phase one route.

An updated CAF streetcar model was shown with interior finishes, and Mayor Mallory explained that Cincinnati’s five streetcars will have cutting-edge technology that will be the first of their kind to operate in North America.

Mayor Mallory also showed a rendering of the streetcar maintenance facility, which will be erected in the lot adjacent to Rhinegeist, and explained that the current cinder-block structure will be demolished so that the new facility can be built along Henry Street.

“We’ve decided to name the maintenance facility the Center of Advanced Streetcar Technology, or COAST for short,” Mallory quipped to a boisterous audience, as he commented about the anti-streetcar group with the same acronym.

The mayor continuously expressed his gratitude for supporters, both new and those who have been on for the long haul.

“Investing in the Cincinnati Streetcar will help stabilize the city’s tax base and repopulate the Queen City; the greatest challenge facing us today.”

All photographs were taken by Paige Malott and Travis Estell for UrbanCincy.