Construction workers on the tower crane being used to build the Great American Tower at Queen City Square. Thanks to UrbanCincy friend Casey Coston for the photos taken from the 29th floor of the Atrium Building across the street.
Last Friday Cincinnati Business Courier publisher Douglas Bolton wrote an interesting editorial piece that discussed the recent news about tenants at the Great American Tower at Queen City Square.
In the past I have said that the new office space is a plus for the downtown office market even if it filled up by shuffling existing office tenants around. The thought process was that some local companies would be able to upgrade their office space for a comparable price due to the additional supply in the market. The space left behind by those companies would then potentially be filled by a company looking to locate in the center city market, but previously could not afford to do so, or find enough contiguous space to fit their needs.
What makes Bolton’s editorial piece interesting is that he used it as an opportunity to throw down a challenge for Eagle Realty and other businesses who might be considering filling up the remaining 20 percent of office space inside the tower.
“I have a challenge to Western & Southern Financial Group CEO John Barrett, who marvelously brought to fruition at the end of last year a 20-year vision for the block at Sycamore and Third streets. The challenge extends to any other company located downtown considering moving to the remaining seven floors and 175,000 square feet of space available in what will be the city’s tallest building: Don’t do it.”
Bolton goes on to discuss the importance and opportunity of landing an out-of-market company for the remaining space, or bring a “marque” suburban company into the downtown market.
I was left thinking about something else during a recent conversation on the topic. Is the Queen City Square development a project meant to boost Cincinnati’s good ol’ boy network? Consider the following.
The Western & Southern-controlled Eagle Realty, who is developing Queen City Square, has had some recent troubles with other development projects – most notably the prominent Fifth & Race lot which has since had development rights taken from Eagle and transferred to Towne Properties.
Queen City Square is a marque project that will add instant starpower to Eagle Realty in future deals. The two-phase mega project needed to be successful though, so insert the rest of the good ol’ boy network in Cincinnati. In rolls IFS Financial Services and Fort Washington Investment Advisors (both entities of W&S), Great American Insurance, and Frost Brown Todd.
So far everyone involved in this development project has come out smelling like roses. The architect, developer, financiers and tenants all included. But what is being done in and of itself is not immediately productive for the downtown office market. That success will come when those vacated spaces left behind by these already existing downtown companies are filled; and that work will be done by the owners of those other buildings.
What will probably happen is that these vacated spaces will fill up with a plethora of small tenants looking to take advantage of the low price points, therefore creating less fanfare than a large single entity moving into Cincinnati and downtown. It is unfortunate, but true, and the Cincinnati business community needs to step up their game and take Bolton’s challenge.
Queen City Square presented Cincinnati’s best opportunity in many years to land a new corporate tenant or headquarters for downtown with its high-quality finishes, large contiguous space and prominent location on the city’s skyline. This will be virtually impossible to do with the older spaces that are now available – opportunity lost.
Thanks to 5chw4r7z for the photo.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has been criticized for not injecting the necessary amounts of money into the economy quickly enough. The stimulus package is meant to do exactly that, stimulate the economy, and thus far even the proponents of said stimulus package have been frustrated by the slow activity so far.
Luckily things may be starting to change as it appears that the money is starting to flow into the Cincinnati region. Yesterday at Mayor Mallory’s press conference regarding rail transit in Cincinnati and the budget, he announced that the City received $13.5 million from the ARRA for the Cincinnati Police Department – something Mayor Mallory says could save around 50 police officers from being cut. Another $3.4 million will be going to Hamilton County to rehire 15 road patrol deputies that were laid off earlier this year.
Then today Steve Driehaus (D, OH-1) announced that the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) which runs the Metro bus system will be receiving an $823,000 grant that will be used to purchase 3 forty-foot replacement biodiesel buses.
Driehaus then sent out a later press release that announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded just over $2 million to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center through the Recovery Act. The $2+ million will go towards biomedical research and research training at the Uptown hospital.
All three seem to be good uses for the stimulus money as they are directly creating or preserving jobs. So what’s next for the Cincinnati region? The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is currently going through some issues as the state threatens funding cuts. The streetcar would not only create engineering and construction jobs in the Cincinnati area, but it would also help spur additional economic development that would come as a result of the streetcar. The announcement of a new rail transit system in the Midwest might even spur the creation of a new manufacturing facility to produce the rolling stock needed for such rail projects. What’s on your list?
A day late on this week’s TWIS post, but you can read about a new “green” restaurant in historic Columbia Tusculum, the $35 million renovation of Hughes High School uptown, Nky’s Riverfront Commons plans and progress, nonprofits getting a $2.1 million boost from the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation, new discussions surrounding The Banks development, and the newly signed tenant for what will become Cincinnati’s tallest skyscraper.
If you’re interested in staying in touch with some of the latest development news in Cincinnati please check out this week’s stories and sign up for the weekly E-Zine sent out by Soapbox Cincinnati. Also be sure to become a fan of Soapbox on Facebook!
TWIS 7/28: