Tag: corryville

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Business Development News

Great Traditions breaks ground on phase two of Stetson Square

Nearly seven years after phase one of the $84 million Village at Stetson Square development opened, developers stood with city and neighborhood leaders in Corryville this morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of the project’s next phase.

Once fully complete, phase two will include a total of 18 condominiums in four different buildings, with prices ranging from $200,000 to $275,000.

In order to help compliment the development, the City of Cincinnati will be contributing $340,000 towards infrastructure improvements in the immediate area. The development team expects the first residents to begin moving in by August 2013.

The Stetson Square development got off to a fast start with its large first phase. Until phase two designs were revealed in May 2012, the second and third remaining phases of work had been left undeveloped and up in the air with regards to when they would get started.


The second phase of work at Stetson Square kicked off today – nearly 13 years after the original plan was developed for the project in 2000. Image provided.

“We are very proud of Stetson Square and what it has contributed to the Corryville neighborhood and Uptown area,” explained Jamie Humes, Vice President, Great Traditions Land & Development. “It is an exciting, transformative time for people to live within the City of Cincinnati.”

In addition to adding new owner-occupied housing units to the Corryville neighborhood near the booming medical research block, the developers are also pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

In December 2012, Cincinnati City Council passed new measures overseeing the tax incentives distributed for LEED-certified project.

But while phase two is finally getting started, the prominently located phase three has yet to have its future defined. When asked about the future of phase three, Humes stated that there is no definitive plan or use for it yet.

“Our perspective is that the marketplace will ultimately determine what the best land use and timing for development will be,” Humes clarified. “Corryville Community Development Corporation (CCDC) will then make the decision on how to proceed.”


Phase two of Stetson Square is considerably smaller than phase one, and will welcome its first residents by fall 2013. Rendering provided.

In 2006, Great Traditions informed UrbanCincy that phase three would eventually result in either apartments or condominiums, with a preference for additional owner-occupied units if the market would allow. The undeveloped lot sits at the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Eden Avenue, and the CCDC currently retains ownership of the property.

Great Traditions touts that Stetson Square has 100% of its 79,000 square feet of office space and 92% of its 15,000 square feet of retail space occupied, more than 400 people living within the first phase’s 53 condominiums and 205 apartments.

The extended period it has taken to build out the development may be attributable to a sluggish economy, or even the fact that Stetson Square was Great Tradition’s first major foray into the urban real estate market.

“When Stetson Square was originally conceived, it was designed not only to be a great project, but also to serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of Corryville,” Humes told UrbanCincy. “To have the opportunity to translate this concept into an urban context with Stetson Square has been a natural and exciting progression for our company.”

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Business News Transportation

Following Zipcar’s Cincinnati expansion, car-sharing company acquired by Avis

Zipcar in Over-the-Rhine [Randy Simes]

Just 49 days after Zipcar announced that it would expand its services in Cincinnati, the car-sharing company announced that it had struck a deal to be purchased for $491.2 million by Avis.

The move by Avis, into the car-sharing sector, follows those of Enterprise and Hertz, and is seen as a critical evolutionary step for the traditional car rental company.

As the nation’s largest car-sharing company with more than 760,000 members, Zipcar offers its customers a way to move about urban environments without needing to own a car. Their slogan – “Wheels when you need them” – has increasingly hit home with young people that have been migrating back towards urban centers and ditching their cars.


A Zipcar on 12th Street in between Vine and Race Streets. Photograph by Randy Simes for UrbanCincy.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), overall vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) have reached their lowest levels since 2003, and that per capita VMT to levels not seen since 1998.

Furthermore, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has found that teenagers are delaying the pursuit of getting their driver’s license with just 31 percent of 16-year-olds getting their driver’s license in 2008.

“By combining with Zipcar, we will significantly increase our growth potential, both in the United States and internationally, and will position our company to better serve a greater variety of consumer and commercial transportation needs,” said Ronald L. Nelson, Avis Budget Group chairman and chief executive officer. “We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company.”

While car-sharing continues to see explosive growth locally and nationally, now estimated to be a $400 million industry, it is yet to be seen what the merger will mean to car-sharing customers wary of getting behind the wheel of a “traditional” car rental company.

Wrote Adam Richardson in the Harvard Business Review, “Any time an incumbent acquires a disruptor there are challenges, and in this case, they stem from the very core of Zipcar’s existence: how it has created a sense of community with its customers and how it has used technology to create a scalable user experience that its customers love.”

Naturally, Zipcar leadership expects bright days ahead with more cars at more locations, new service offerings, and similar levels of service.

“This is a major win for Zipsters around the world,” Zipcar management wrote in an e-mail distributed to its customers. “With the global footprint, backing, and talented leadership of Avis, we’re going to step on the gas.”

Car-sharing has been available in Cincinnati since 2011. Rates start at $8.50 per hour, and 11 cars are available at five different locations in the Central Business District, Over-the-Rhine, Clifton Heights and Corryville.

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Arts & Entertainment Opinion

Afghan Whigs return to Cincinnati to ring in 2013, possibly end career

Cincinnati’s Afghan Whigs reunited in 2012 for a world tour that began with a dozen dates in Europe, Israel, Australia, and Canada, appearances at various summer festivals including Lollapalooza 2012 in Chicago, and ended with a fall tour of the United States. The band did not appear in Cincinnati until late in the tour, and by all accounts the band’s October 25 performance at Bogart’s was a dominating one, centered around material from 1993’s Gentlemen and 1996’s Black Love.

The New Year’s Eve show differed dramatically from their October appearance, with a 9-piece stage band and almost no overlap in the set list. A horn section and backing singers enabled faithful performances of songs from 1965, the Whigs’ final and most technically ambitious studio album. Although the band performed much material from 1965 elsewhere in 2012, the band largely skipped over these songs at the October 25 performance in anticipation of the special New Year’s Eve show.

The Afghan Whigs play at Bogart’s on New Year’s Eve. Photograph by Travis Estell for UrbanCincy.

The full instrumentation of the 1965 tracks and the three closing songs from Black Love, played in sequence during the encore, were the show’s highlights. Conspicuously absent were “Milez is Dead”, “Honkey’s Ladder”, “Debonair”, and a number of other well-known songs that in place of ballads and other scattered material could have avoided the lull that marred the midpoint of Monday night’s show. Further, the PA mix was completely different – the searing sizzle of the guitars heard in October was pulled back and at times obscured by muddiness coming up from the bass guitar or some other source.

Hanging like a cloud over Monday night’s show was the knowledge that it was probably the final live performance by the Afghan Whigs, ever. Singer Greg Dulli announced that possibility late in the evening, soon after asking for a show of hands from people who traveled to the show from outside of Cincinnati. With hundreds hands raised, Dulli paused for a moment as if he might start a natives vs. visitors shouting match resembling the Ohio vs. Kentucky shouting heard each year at the Riverfest fireworks.

Instead, he never called on Cincinnatians and let the uncomfortable silence speak for itself – a slap at the local radio stations, other media outlets, and local music fans who never supported the band in their heyday or during the 2012 reunion. Aside from CityBeat, no local media source made anything more than a casual mention of the 2012 tour, and with the demise of WOXY, The Afghan Whigs are heard today only on low-wattage WAIF and WNKU.

Anecdotally, I have not heard the Afghan Whigs even once in public – either at a bar or at a party – since moving back to Cincinnati in 2007. The band’s failure to become the Next Big Thing in the 1990s is discussed ad nauseam on seemingly every Internet discussion board and YouTube comment section, but the failure of Cincinnati to embrace them then or now is another. Neighboring cities like Cleveland and especially Detroit have always celebrated their native sons, but Cincinnati seems determined to ignore The Afghan Whigs as much as they do James Brown and the legacy of King Records.

Categories
Business Development Transportation

Cincinnati City Leaders to Move Forward with Ohio’s First Bike Sharing System

A new study, prepared by Alta Planning + Design, has determined how and where a bicycle sharing system could be implemented in Cincinnati in a way that will compliment its expanding Bicycle Transportation Program.

The recently released report was called for by city leaders in May 2012, and identifies a 35-station, 350-bike system that would be built over two phases in Downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Pendleton, Clifton Heights, Corryville, Clifton, Avondale and the West End.

“We went into this study wanting the public to be a big part of the process. They contributed more than 300 suggestions for stations and cast nearly 2,000 votes,” said Michael Moore, Director of the Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE). “Thanks to all their input, this study helps ensure bike share is relevant and useful to the residents and commuters in the downtown neighborhoods.”


Several neighborhoods throughout the city were determined as potential areas to be included in a future Cincinnati bike share system. Map provided by Alta Planning + Design.

City officials also say that locations throughout northern Kentucky’s river cities were also popular, and would make for a logical expansion in the future should system arrangements be achieved.

According to the report, the 35 station locations were identified through public input and through a variety of suitability factors that include population density, percentage of residents between the ages of 20 and 40, employment density, mixture of uses and entertainment destinations, connectivity with existing and planned transit networks, and the terrain in the immediate area.

“In general, there are enough positive indicators to suggest that bike sharing is feasible in Cincinnati,” Alta Planning + Design wrote in the 49-page report. “There are no fatal flaws, although a smaller dependency on visitors and ordinances restricting advertising would need to be overcome to make the system financially viable.”

The financial viability of the project is particularly important in Cincinnati’s case as city officials have determined that a privately owned and operated system would be the best business model for Cincinnati.

Alta Planning + Design estimates that the potential 35-station system, spread throughout Downtown and Uptown, would cost approximately $2 million to construct and nearly $200,000 to operate annually. While user fees are expected to sustain a portion of the annual operating costs, system operators will most likely need a variance to city law to allow for advertising on the stations, as is commonplace for bike sharing systems throughout the world.

     
More than 2,000 responses helped determine public support for potential station locations [LEFT]. The initial system would be built out over two phases in Downtown and Uptown [RIGHT]. Maps provided by Alta Planning + Design.

“As of now we do not intend to invest any public funds in the system, other than in-kind assistance with marketing and station siting,” explained DOTE Senior City Planner Melissa McVay, who recently sat down to discuss Cincinnati’s bike culture on Episode #8 of The UrbanCincy Podcast.

Annual membership fees and hourly rates would be determined by the eventual company selected to operate the system, and would be contingent upon how much money could be raised through advertising and local sponsorships.

In addition to drilling into local details and demographics pertinent to a potential Cincinnati bike sharing system, the feasibility study also compared Cincinnati to other cities throughout North America that have operational bike sharing systems.

Through that analysis it was found that Cincinnati’s system would be smaller than those in Miami, Boston, Washington D.C., Montreal and Toronto, but that it would be larger than systems in San Antonio, Des Moines and Chattanooga. Cincinnati’s system is also anticipated to have a more favorable trip comparison, for the first year of operation, than both Minneapolis and Denver.

The report also estimates that Cincinnati’s system would attract 105,000 trips in its first year of operations, with that growing to 305,000 in year five once both Downtown and Uptown regions are operating, with approximately 25 percent of trips replacing a vehicle trip.

“We want Cincinnatians to be able to incorporate cycling into their daily routine, and a bike share program will help with that,” Moore explained. “Bike share helps introduce citizens to active transportation, it reduces the number of short auto trips in the urban core, and it promotes sustainable transportation options.”

The City of Cincinnati is expected to issue a request for proposals, within the next month, that will call for bids from an operator of the planned system. If all goes according to plan the Midwest’s sixth, and Ohio’s first, bike share system could become functional as early as the operator’s ability to acquire funding.

Categories
Business Development News

Latest phase of Stetson Square takes on new urban form

Developers will break ground on more housing uptown in Corryville in the near future. The project will be the second phase of the $80 million Village of Stetson Square development located immediately south of University Hospital, and will include 18 residential units.

The four new buildings will be built at Eden Avenue and E. Rochelle Street – one of two vacant pieces of land owned by developer Great Traditions Land & Development.


Village of Stetson Square phase two renderings provided by e3 design collective.

While the Village of Stetson Square has achieved great success with its existing 205 apartments, 53 townhomes, and 95,000 square feet of commercial space, the last two pieces of land have sat undeveloped since 2006.

At the time, the development team said the two sites would be developed at a later date based on market demand. With the housing market starting to settle, and the uptown housing market booming, it appears like it may finally be time to finish what was started almost a decade ago.

New renderings, provided exclusively to UrbanCincy, show that the new phase of construction about to being will take on a decidedly different urban form from the rest of the development which includes four- to five-story buildings alongside tightly built townhomes.

While apartments are at capacity throughout uptown, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the new residential offerings will be for-sale units priced in the $200,000s due to a desire by the Corryville community to boost home ownership rates in the historic neighborhood.