Tag: downtown

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News Transportation

VIDEO: Biking from Cincinnati’s Fountain Square to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus

In September 2009, UrbanCincy’s Jake Mecklenborg biked from Cincinnati’s Fountain Square to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

The ride documents the state of bike paths, or stretches of roadway, between the two cities. The approximate 125-mile journey relies heavily on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. But as Jake experienced, the usage of the trail drops off significantly once you get out of the city.

Another issue experienced during the ride was the lack of trail or dedicated bike facilities heading into Columbus.

One of the other trails that Jake partially uses on the trip is the Ohio River Trail, which is still under development. Officials with the City of Cincinnati continue to make progress on new segments of that trail, but it is still a ways off from its completion of connecting the Little Miami Scenic Trail with Smale Riverfront Park in downtown Cincinnati. Future extensions of the trail would bring it even further west along Cincinnati’s waterfront.

The City of Cincinnati is also studying a new dedicated bike lane along Delta Avenue that would lead to the Ohio River Trail. Those that are interested in weighing in on that project can do so by voting for your preferred design option online.

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Business News Transportation

Industry Experts Believe a ‘Parking Revolution’ is Sweeping America

In April of this year, members of the International Parking Institute, the world’s largest association representing the parking industry, surveyed parking professionals to determine trends and gain input on parking and related topics.

The survey results found that a “parking revolution” is taking place in the United States, and that the industry is beginning to embrace a variety of new parking solutions.

“The industry is embracing a variety of new technologies that make it easier for people to find and pay for parking, and for parking authorities to better manage it,” the report stated.

Cities identified as leaders in the movement included San Francisco, Portland, New York City, Seattle, Miami, Houston, Boston, Denver, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and Tampa.

Emerging Parking Trends

Cincinnati’s recently approved Parking Modernization & Lease Program appears to apply these top trends by moving toward technologies that improve access control, payment automation, and real-time communication of pricing and availability to user’s mobile devices.

These kinds of features are the new standard being implemented around the country, and are provided by Cincinnati’s lease agreement.

Parking professionals were also asked to identify the ten most progressive municipal parking programs in the United States, with San Francisco’s SFpark named most innovative.

“The SFpark pilot project provides real-time information on parking availability and cost; reduces double parking, circling, and congestion; and improves parking ease and convenience,” the report stated. “A high-caliber data management tool allows the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to make rate-change recommendations, supply real-time data, maintain optimum operational and contractual control, and rigorously evaluate the pilot’s various components.”

Respondents also said that SFpark was particularly bold in requiring city and government employees to pay for parking in order to bolster the program’s credibility before asking voters to consider sweeping changes in parking management.

Of particular interest is SFpark’s on-street rate adjustment policy.

Prior to the changes, rate adjustments were made during the budget-planning process. The goal with the pilot program is to take a demand-based approach in order to achieve parking availability targets in a consistent, simple and transparent manner.

Prior to the program, rates in downtown were $3.50/hour, $3.00/hour in the downtown periphery and $2.00/hour in neighborhood commercial districts, and were operational mostly from 7am to 6pm or 9am to 6pm Monday through Saturday. As part of the pilot program, demand responsive time-of-day pricing is split into three distinct rate periods: 9am to 12pm, 12pm to 3pm, and 3pm to 6pm for 9am to 6pm spaces.

These demand-responsive rate changes are made gradually, no more than once per month, and periodically near the first of the month based on occupancy in the previous month.

In order to maintain at least one parking space per block, 80% space occupancy is desired with rates increased when occupancy is greater than 80%, held constant at 60% to 80% and decreased with less than 60% occupancy on a per-block basis to more effectively redistribute parking demand.

In order to help users from having to cut trips short or risk parking tickets, time limits in the pilot areas were lengthened from 30 minutes/two hours to four hours/no limit.

Cincinnati’s program, meanwhile, will provide for public rate control and expanded hours of operation from 8am to 9pm in the Central Business District and 7am to 9pm in neighborhoods. The plan will also allow for limited $0.25 incremental rate increases, but there does not appear to be provisions for demand responsive time of day pricing, a target on-street block occupancy amount, or lengthened or eliminated time limits.

In addition to new technologies, the report indicates that parking is becoming more than just a place to store cars, and is instead moving towards more integrated forms of transportation planning – something that has also taken place locally through new bicycle parking provisions and parking requirement restructuring.

“Today, parking is about so much more than storing cars,” concluded Shawn Conrad, executive director for the International Parking Institute. “It’s central to the creation of livable, walkable communities. It’s about cars, bikes, mass transit, mobility, and connecting people to places.”

Categories
Development Opinion

IMAGE: Cincinnati To Grow Taller in the Coming Years

In just a few years time the Cincinnati’s center city could reach new heights with thousands of new residential units, several new hotel and office towers.

Last year, UrbanCincy analyzed the rate of tower construction in Cincinnati by decade and found that the 1960s through the 1980s saw the most tower construction of any decades in the history of the city. At that time, UrbanCincy counted six proposed towers into the tally for this decade, but our new list includes six more that we had not considered at that time.

Center City Cincinnati in 2015

In an effort to track the visual transformation of downtown Cincinnati,  we at UrbanCincy have used GoogleEarth to help track the dramatic new additions to the city’s downtown. Below is a compiled listing and description of these redevelopment projects:

  • dunnhumby Centre: A nine story office building located at Fifth Street and Race Street that will serve as the North American headquarters for dunnhumbyUSA.
  • Fountain Place Apartments: Late last year the Business Courier reported that Towne Properties was looking to construct an apartment tower over the building currently housing Macy’s department store. The tower could contain up to 225 apartment units.
  • Fourth and Race: Indianapolis developer Flaherty & Collins recently won approval from the city to move forward in constructing a 30-story residential tower with a grocery retailer on the first floor. The existing garage and attached skywalks will be demolished.
  • The Banks Phases 1B and 1C: Developers of The Banks are actively looking for an anchor office tenant to begin construction of a 13-story office tower at the corner of Second Street and Walnut Street. They are also looking for a hotel chain to construct a mid-rise along Joe Nuxhall Way and Freedom Way.
  • The Banks Phase 2: Development should begin by the end of the year on a 10-story apartment building housing 300 apartment units. This development will also include a future office building on the Vine Street side. The Carter-Dawson development team revealed their phase two designs to UrbanCincy last October.
  • Apartments at Seventh Street and Broadway Street: Announced in March, this apartment development will be constructed above an existing parking garage that was recently expanded by the city a couple of years ago. The development will have 110 apartment units.
  • Holiday Inn and Sycamore Street Garage: Part of the city’s Parking Modernization & Lease agreement includes the demolition of an aging city parking deck that will clear part of the site for construction of a 11-story Holiday Inn hotel. A 7-story garage with street-level retail will replace part of the old garage and the former American Red Cross building.
  • One River Place: The former condo project at the foot of the Purple People Bridge has extended its development approval with the city late last year and expressed an interest in developing as an apartment project. No number of units has been identified at this time.
  • Western & Southern Tower: With the resolution of litigation regarding the Ann Louise Inn, Western & Southern Financial Group will be able to move forward with plans to build a long planned tower at the site of the parking garage with the spinning clock. There are no renderings available as of this date so the model in the picture is a placeholder designed by the UrbanCincy team.

Of the nine towers on this list, six are recent additions to the tower listing compiled last year. Cincinnati is now poised to add 15 towers to its collection this decade, putting it dead even with how many the city added in the 1970s. Since many of these will be completed within the first half of this decade, it may be safe to assume that the city will add even more by decade’s end and approach the 1980s rate of tower construction.

While these new buildings may soon be added to downtown Cincinnati’s cityscape, other buildings are undergoing transformations including these following projects:

  • AT580: The renovation of an existing office building on Sixth Street, between Walnut and Main Street, into 176 apartment units, office and ground level retail. A steakhouse has already committed to the crucial corner spot of Sixth Street and Walnut Street.
  • Bartlett Building: This historic building, constructed and designed by Daniel Burnham has sat vacant as the bank foreclosed on the property owner during the recent financial crisis. The building’s new owners have recently received historic tax credits and city assistance in converting the building into a Renaissance Hotel.
  • Old Enquirer Building: Once slated to become condo’s prior to the recession, developers have recently begun construction of a dual brand hotel concept.
  • Terrace Plaza Hotel: The historic modernist building, which closed its doors in 2010, was recently sold. No word yet on whether their are plans for redevelopment of the building.

Half of the projects listed here are slated to start construction this year, adding an infusion of new residents and visitors to the Central Business District. The addition of these towers will not only accelerate the projected rate of tower construction in Cincinnati this decade, but it will also add fuel to the fire of the city’s ongoing renaissance.

And of course, none of this includes any of the any of the investment that is adding thousands of more residences, office and retail space, and hotel rooms throughout the city’s other neighborhoods. They just happen to not be taller than 100 feet in height.

Categories
Business Development News Transportation

Design Options for $2.7B Brent Spence Bridge Project Narrowed

Planned Brent Spence Bridge Approach

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) for the $2.7 billion Brent Spence Bridge Replacement & Rehabilitation project last August.

The finding means that the project can move forward to its next phase of work with the current proposed alignment, which is not expected to change much from this point. The alignment included in the FONSI includes a number of interesting features different from what exists on the site today.

Consolidated Footprint:
One of the most notable pieces of the plan is a consolidated footprint. While it still includes a web of ramps at the southwestern edge of the central business district, the project does eliminate a flyover ramp currently not in use, and consolidates the existing footprint of ramps leading to the new and existing bridge, and Fort Washington Way.

The approved alignment also preserves the existing dunnhumbyUSA building that was thought to be in the way for the rebuilt interstate network.

A final, and perhaps the most significant, result of the consolidated footprint is additional land along Central Avenue in between Fourth Street and Sixth Street.

This land could be used for one of a number of things, but there is currently the Cincinnati Fire Fighters Memorial at the corner of Fifth Street and Central Avenue, which could be moved south one block across the street from the Company 14 and Fire Headquarters building, and allow for the long-desired expansion of the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Leadership at the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau declined to comment on any plans to expand the convention center until plans are finalized for the Brent Spence Bridge project, and the agency has time to review them.

The alternatives moving forward also call for a portion of historic Longworth Hall to be demolished to make room for the new bridge. Additionally, the existing Duke Energy Substation will need to be relocated, which project officials say has already been discussed with the energy provider.

Brent Spence Bridge Design Alternative 1 Brent Spence Bridge Design Alternative 2
Design Alternative 1 [LEFT] would appear similar to the ‘Big Mac’ Bridge upriver, while Design Alternative 2 [RIGHT] would introduce a two-tower, cable-stayed bridge to the Cincinnati waterfront. Renderings provided.

Architectural Design:
While separate from the issued FONSI, project officials have also narrowed down the design options for the bridge itself. Perhaps the most eye-catching of the options, the single-tower cable-stayed bridge ($646 million), has been eliminated due to its higher safety and engineering risks.

What is left is the arch bridge design ($571 million), similar to the Daniel Carter Beard ‘Big Mac’ Bridge, and the double-tower cable-stayed bridge ($669 million). Both, officials say, would have fewer risks involved and would allow the project to move forward on a more predictable schedule.

Next Stages:
Project officials are currently finalizing action plans based on the Began Value for Money (VfM) study, and hope to begin the necessary right-of-way acquisition process this year.

Should the States of Ohio and Kentucky choose to pursue a public-private partnership (P3) financing model; officials say that they will issue an RFP for that sometime next year. Construction could begin as early as 2015 if the current schedule continues to be met.

Categories
Development News Politics Transportation

City Council Approves $17.4M in Additional Funding for the Cincinnati Streetcar

City Council’s Budget & Finance Committee, which is made up of the full nine-member council, approved two Cincinnati Streetcar-related measures this afternoon at City Hall.

The first was a motion put forth by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls (C) that directed Mayor Mark Mallory’s (D) administration to provide City Council with an updated timeline and schedule, performance measures, operating plan, assessment of project staffing and personnel, progress reports, and develop a “sustainable funding” plan for the Uptown Connector and Uptown Circulator projects planned to follow.

Cincinnati Streetcar

This measure passed 5-3 with P.G. Sittenfeld (D), Christopher Smitherman (I), and Charlie Winburn (R) voting in opposition. The recently appointed Pamela Thomas (D) abstained from voting on the measure.

“Recent funding challenges have highlighted the need for accountability and greater transparency in this major public infrastructure investment,” the motion read. “City Council must take a greater oversight role to instill public confidence in the management of the project.”

The second item voted upon was to allocate an additional $17.4 million to the first phase of the streetcar project, following an additional $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation through its TIGER program last week.

The additional funding will come from City Manager Milton Dohoney’s recommended plan issued in April. This plan includes the reprogramming of $6.5 million from casino area infrastructure, delaying the contribution of $5.4 million to Music Hall capital funds, reprogramming $400,000 from traffic signal replacement and $500,000 from water main relocation/replacement funds, and issuing $4.6 million in new capital debt.

This measure passed 5-4 with Sittenfeld, Smitherman and Winburn once again voting in opposition, but with Thomas then joining them.

Thomas was considered a swing vote on these issues due to her husband’s pro-streetcar position, who previously filled her seat on council. She spoke to her original support for the streetcar project when it included the Uptown Connector in its first phase, but that her support went away from Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) pulled $52 million from the project.

The vote will not become official until City Council votes on the ordinance this Wednesday at its full session, but it is expected that the same nine-member body will vote as they did today.