Tag: Cincinnati Development Fund

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Development News

New Market Tax Credits Key to City’s Revival

Cincinnati’s development coffers got a little fatter last week, as $125 million in federal tax subsidies flooded into the city. These subsidies, called New Market Tax Credits (NMTCs), incentivize local investors to funnel capital into low-income communities and have essentially bankrolled Over-the-Rhine’s entire revitalization.

For example, Washington Park — perhaps the most emblematic example of OTR’s rebirth — received nearly $14 million in New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) from the Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC) to help support its reconstruction. Several ongoing developments have also received some or all of their funding through NMTCs, including the Market Square and Ziegler Park projects.

Ziegler Park Aerial
New Market Tax Credits helped transform parts of Over-the-Rhine like the reconstruction of Ziegler Park (Photo by Travis Estell)

Developers often balk at the prospect of developing low-income communities because they fear their investment will be wasted. NMTC are the federal government’s attempts to allay these concerns. Congress first authorized the subsidies through the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000. Over the past fifteen years, the bill’s success has earned it bipartisan support. According to the program’s 2016 report, the tax credits have created 750,000 jobs and invested over $75 billion to businesses and revitalization projects in communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment.

Less than 25 percent of the applications submitted each year are awarded, but three major Cincinnati developers beat the odds this year: Cincinnati Development Fund ($65 million), Uptown Consortium (45 million), and the Kroger Community Development Entity ($15 million).

To win an NMTC grant, a corporation — in federal parlance, Community Development Entities (CDE) — must lobby the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund on behalf of private investors like the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC). If the CDFI approves the application, then the investors who pledged money to the CDE will receive a seven-year tax abatement to support development.

3CDC, in particular, has secured a eye-popping $238 million since the program’s inception. Without this capital, it’s unlikely that OTR would have changed as drastically as it has. The community was a no-brainer for NMTC-driven development due to its extreme poverty. The neighborhood’s median household income during the 2010 census was a paltry $14,517. Six years and billions of dollars have certainly improved its lot, but its average income still pales in comparison to the city’s 2015 median income, $56,826.

While OTR will likely continue to receive the majority of NMTC-driven development, other distressed neighborhoods are receiving attention. According to Director of Development Thea Munchel, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation expects approximately $6.5 million in NMTC Equity for its expected revitalization of Paramount Square. “It is too early to know who all will participate in the deal,” she said. “But Cincinnati Development Fund received a huge award and has indicated that they will contribute some into the project.”

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Development News

State Historic Tax Credit Expected to Boost $3.1M Renovation of Goetz Tower

The seven-story Middletown Building & Deposit Association tower in Butler County was one of 12 projects in southwest Ohio to receive historic tax credits last month from the State of Ohio. As part of the deal, the $3.1 million project will receive $600,000.

The redevelopment of the 85-year-old structure will result in expanded and renovated street-level retail space, with 24 market-rate apartments on the six floors above that.

The hope is that other similar, but smaller-scale, projects come online, as is expected, after the next round of historic tax credits are awarded this spring.

As earlier reported by UrbanCincy, this award was part of a larger $42 million distribution of historic tax credits state-wide by the Ohio Development Services Agency. The goal of the tax credits, public officials say, is to spark economic development while also preserving historic structures. It is anticipated that this round of awards will spur an estimated $600 million in private investment.

This award comes after nearly $150,000 in grants for assessments and site preparation awarded by the Duke Energy Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, and Cincinnati Development Fund. The moment that really gave the project its initial boost, however, came in 2012 when the building was donated to Grassroots Ohio by Fifth Third Bank.

In conjunction with the $10 million rehabilitation of the Sorg Opera House, city officials and private developers are expecting to leverage this initial project to spur additional development nearby. They are also hoping to leverage its location across from Cincinnati State’s Middletown campus as a walkable alternative to students who are primarily commuting from outside the city.

Built in 1930, the seven-story, Art Deco building has survived decades of changes in the heart of Middletown. Upon completion of renovations, project officials say that the building will be renamed Goetz Tower in honor of its original architect.

Construction is anticipated to start in March and last approximately 18 months.

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

‘Pints for Paint’ Event to Offer First Look Inside OTR’s Restored Woodward Theater

The Woodward Theater [Jake Mecklenborg]

Get a first look at The Woodward Theater this Friday at Pints for Paint, a launch party and fundraiser for Cincinnati’s newest live music venue and event space.

The idea is simple: Invite the community to drink beer and use the funds to buy paint. Proceeds from beer sales, sponsored by Christian Moerlein Brewing Co., will help the owners pay for cans of paint and other finishing touches in the 101-year-old theater.

The newly renovated Woodward Theater, located at 1404 Main Street, will officially open for its first rock show on November 10 with a performance from Grand Rapids indie band The Soil & The Sun.

In an interview with UrbanCincy, co-owner Dan McCabe explained that Pints for Paint is “how Main Street does things. It’s a bootstraps, grassroots effort.” McCabe, along with co-owners Chris Schadler and Chris Varias, also own MOTR Pub across the street at 1345 Main Street.

The restored theater will serve as a multi-use event space that can accommodate up to 600 people. MOTR is also developing a new catering menu for The Woodward with plans to make MOTR the exclusive caterer for events held there.

Though it will be primarily used as a rock venue, McCabe emphasized that the space will be available to the community for private events, parties and speaking engagements. The Woodward also plans to offer a “steady diet of film programming” — a nod to the theater’s 1913 film house origins.

Complementing MOTR’s 150-person capacity venue, The Woodward’s music lineup will showcase local and nationally touring independent bands that are better suited for a larger stage. The hope is to help bands that have used MOTR as their entry point into Cincinnati eventually graduate to larger crowds at The Woodward. Visitors will eventually be able to purchase tickets for Woodward shows at MOTR, or get them online at CincyTicket.com.

Ticketed shows at the Woodward will cost anywhere from $5 to $15 and will typically end around 11pm.

The venue’s biggest asset, McCabe says, isn’t its size, the number of taps, or even the unique beaux arts-style space — it’s Over-the-Rhine. Being uniquely integrated into the neighborhood, he believes that this makes the venue perfectly poised to become the region’s entry point into the historic neighborhood. As the Woodward books larger acts that attract visitors from outside the region, McCabe points out that those visitors are going to arrive in town ready to explore, shop, and eat in OTR.

McCabe also sees The Woodward as a catalyst for new businesses on Main Street. “Main Street really is an accessible corridor in Over-the-Rhine. Anybody with new ideas, new concepts, there are probably like-minded folks who want to join in and make things happen.”

Main Street’s openness to possibility and infusion of new visitors is what will, in theory, help drive the opening of new storefronts.

The process to get to this point has not come easily. Owners first began researching the purchase of the building in 2011, just one year after opening MOTR Pub across the street. The group then began pursuing financing in 2012, but it wasn’t until the Cincinnati Development Fund stepped in that the theater was able to secure their SBA loan and purchase the building in 2013. They finally began renovation work in May 2014.

While Pints for Paint will help fund the final finishing touches before the opening, McCabe makes it clear that renovations won’t stop at a few coats of paint.

“It’s not ‘Boom! We’re done.’ We’re going to continue to invest in that building. We’re going to continue to build once we get this thing up and running,” McCabe says. In addition to continuing improvements to the acoustics, an upstairs bar is in the works. They are also interested in bringing back the theater’s marquee, although a new one will need to be fabricated.

Still, when asked what Dan McCabe is most excited about, he responds, “People spilling beer.” He and co-owner Chris Schadler have been working side by side to painstakingly replace the hardwood floorboards. “As I’m on my hands and knees working on that stuff, my vision of beer getting dripped on it…that’s success.”

Pints for Paint will take place at 6pm this Friday, November 7. Early attendees will receive an exclusive Pints for Paint commemorative pint glass, and MOTR Pub will cater appetizers until 7pm.

Serving as event partners, The Enquirer will also have archived photos detailing The Woodward’s history. MOTR will host the after-party for a free show by The Yugos and Lux Deluxe.

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Development News

New High-End Townhomes Add to Pendleton’s Ongoing Revitalization

A relatively small development called Pendleton Street Townhomes will bring 10 new single-family residences to the center city in two phases over the next two years.

One of the interesting components about the project is that it is blending in mostly new infill on vacant lots with a renovation of an existing historic structure that dates back to the 1870s. The work also comes at the same time as a flurry of other investments nearby that are poised to transform the historic neighborhood.

Often considered a sub-neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, Pendleton is actually one of the smallest of the city’s 52 official neighborhoods. Its building stock and urban form are essentially identical to that of its more well-known neighbor to the west.

The neighborhood has long had a slightly unique sub-culture of its own, perhaps driven by the Pendleton Arts Center, which boasts the world’s largest collection of artists under one roof. While this claim may be more hyperbole than reality, the Pendleton Arts Center is located in an impressively large warehouse building that has more than 500 studios and 200 resident artists.

Over the past two decades the Pendleton Arts Center has served as an anchor for the neighborhood, and the new townhomes being developed are fittingly located in its proud shadow.

Developers broke ground in late August on what will be four newly constructed townhomes, and one renovated property. Each home, developers say, is approximately 3,100 square feet and ranges in price from $390,000 to $449,000.

The second phase will include five more newly constructed townhomes and is anticipated to break ground next fall. While it is still preliminary, developers expect those homes to be slightly smaller and to go for around $400,000.

Evidence of the area’s hot real estate market is the fact that developers sold five of the units before even breaking ground just over a month ago.

One of the key marketing points, and a policy point of pride for those promoting sustainable development practices, is that each of the properties will be LEED certified and thus qualify for the City of Cincinnati’s tax abatement program for such properties.

The townhomes within the first phase of work under construction are expected to be complete in spring 2015.