Tag: downtown

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Up To Speed

Cincinnati submits bid to host NCAA men’s tournament

Cincinnati submits bid to host NCAA men’s tournament.

After successfully hosting the biggest event in its history, Cincinnati leaders are eyeing the next big event to keep the tourism boom going. While many were busy lobbying Major League Baseball to bring the 2015 All-Star Game to Cincinnati, other leaders were filing official bids to host preliminary rounds of the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament, and the 2014 NCAA Division I hockey regional. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The Greater Cincinnati Sports Corporation submitted four different bids: one for each of the second-/third-round games in 2014 and 2015, and for the regionals in each of those years. Only one of the four would be awarded. It’s not very often that a city has gotten back-to-back March Madnesses in the same two-year bid cycle, an NCAA official said…Even with having to accommodate a major media contingent, U.S. Bank Arena would have over 16,000 seats. That’s 4,500 seats more than McKale Center in Tucson in each of its five March Madnesses since Cincinnati went dark: 1994, 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2011.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Second URBANexchange takes place tomorrow at Moerlein Lager House

Last month the UrbanCincy team launched URBANexchange, a series of informal gatherings designed to engage urban professionals and others interested in cities throughout the Cincinnati region. The second edition of the monthly event will take place tomorrow evening at the Moerlein Lager House from 5:30 to 7:30pm.

“The first URBANexchange was informal in nature and generated some exciting discussion from a diverse collection of people from throughout Cincinnati,” explained John Yung, UrbanCincy’s public policy analyst and the event  coordinator.

The crowd engages with one another at the first URBANexchange held on July 3. Photograph by Travis Estell for UrbanCincy.

The first URBANexchange drew roughly 40 people, a number the team hopes to be repeated tomorrow. Like the first event, the UrbanCincy team will give out a prize to one of the people that sign in or leave their business card. This month’s giveaway will be $25 worth of Christian Moerlein Beer Tokens, which would be well used at the next URBANexchange on Thursday, September 6.

“I hope we continue to see an increasingly diverse group of people show up to URBANexchange as it matures,” Yung continued. “This is critical in ensuring a vibrant platform where different ideas for our city are shared.”

After UrbanCincy‘s start in 2007, the growing number of engaged urbanists in Cincinnati is particularly gratifying for the team.

“The ongoing progress and excitement in Cincinnati right now is truly inspiring,” stated UrbanCincy owner Randy Simes. “Everyday there seems to be new people and new energy that is emanating from the urban core, and it is that kind of environment that will lead to more gains in the future.”

URBANexchange is produced in coordination with The Urbanists, and takes place monthly inside the biergarten at the Moerlein Lager House (map).

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Moerlein, Paulaner bringing massive festival tent to Cincinnati’s central riverfront for Oktoberfest

Cincinnati has long been home of the world’s largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Munich, and it will soon be getting larger. At the 2012 Oktoberfest Zinzinnati festival, the Moerlein Lager House will partner with Germany’s Paulaner Brewery to create the ÜberDrome.

The ÜberDrome will be a massive Oktoberfest tent covering the entire event lawn at Smale Riverfront Park. It will connect with the biergarten at the Moerlein Lager House and will create a space for approximately 3,000 festival goers.

“This ‘über’ fest tent, filled with Munich-style tables and benches, will span the entire length and width of the Schmidlapp Event Lawn, adjacent to the Lager House in Smale Riverfront Park,” said Greg Hardman, Managing Partner of the Moerlein Lager House and CEO of the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company. “The Oktoberfest beer will be flowing, there’ll be endless platters of delicious German dishes and the celebration will go on and on!”

The Moerlein Lager House will add a new element to Cincinnati’s annual Oktoberfest celebration when it introduces the ÜberDrome in 2012. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

Paulaner is a famed German brewery that is well known for its enormous festival tent in the Theresienwiese during Munich’s Oktoberfest. Hardman says that the brewery was looking for a perfect location to present their Munich-style Oktoberfest celebration in Cincinnati, and determined that the central riverfront was just that.

The ÜberDrome will feature German-style pretzels, specially made Hudepohl Beer Wurst and other sausages, wiener schnitzel and strudel plus a wide selection of Paulaner and Moerlein beers including the Paulaner Oktoberfest Weisn, which was the original beer sold at Munich’s Oktoberfest.

The festival tent will also include a performance stage in the center of the space that will feature a variety skits, comedy, games, and music by Bavarian-style bands like Alpen Echos, Pros’t, and Heuboden Musikanten who will fly in from Germany for the event.

“This has been a life’s dream of mine to bring something like this to Cincinnati and, like the Moerlein Lager House itself, we are shooting for the ‘WOW’ factor,” explained Hardman.

Cincinnati’s 2012 Oktoberfest celebrations will take place from Friday, September 21 through Sunday, September 23. The ÜberDrome (map) will be open on these days from 4pm to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and 12pm to 9pm on Sunday.

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Business Development News

$27.3M investment to transform historic Enquirer Building into 238-room hotel

The historic Enquirer Building in downtown Cincinnati is finally set to get its long anticipated makeover. However, this time it will be as a hotel instead of the residences originally envisioned for the 86-year-old tower.

Plans call for a 238-room hotel with 12,000 square feet of street-level retail space. The renovation work would be completed over the next two years, with the first guests arriving at the end of 2014.

SREE Hotels, which typically operates Marriott hotel brands, will be the eventual operator of the new hotel one block from Fountain Square. This will also be SREE Hotels first project in the Midwest.

The planned hotel would become downtown’s fifth largest and would bring its total to more than 3,000 rooms.

“It is always great when we can preserve and restore one of our historic buildings,” Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory stated in a prepared release. “The deal also illustrates the increasing demand for more hotel rooms in Cincinnati. We have been focused on creating providing a great visitor experience for all of our guests, and that is paying off with increased tourism and convention business.”

The $27.3 million hotel project follows a failed effort by Middle Earth Developers to renovate the historic building into 152 apartments, 53,400 square feet of office space, and 170 parking spaces.

The new hotel would be the third recent hotel to join the greater downtown area over the past three years. According to the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau, downtown hotels had a 63 percent occupancy rate in 2011, and are experiencing record numbers thus far in 2012.

Developers of The Banks have also been in negotiations with hotel operators for a planned hotel at Freedom Way at Main Street directly across the street from Great American Ball Park.

“This deal, coupled with the renovations at the Hyatt, help to build our capacity for bigger and bigger convention and meeting business that in turn help our economy,” Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney noted.

According to City officials, the project is contingent upon a 75 percent exemption on the increased tax value of the $27.3 million investment, which would equate to approximately $7.3 million over the course of 12 years. The deal was passed out of Cincinnati’s Budget & Finance Committee yesterday in their first day back from summer recess, and will go before the full City Council on Wednesday, August 1 at 2pm.

Enquirer Building exterior photograph by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

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Up To Speed

Bunbury Music Festival impresses in year one

Bunbury Festival: 2012 Wrap Up | Each Note Secure.

Cincinnati has been left without a noteworthy summer rock festival since Desdemona ended and never returned in 2006. That was until Bunbury entered the scene July 13-15. The music festival went up against an impressive array of local events and two well-established rock festivals nearby in Louisville and Chicago. More from Each Note Secure:

Regardless of Bunbury’s minor hiccups, I was blown away by the size, organization, and turnout of the festival. The festival pulled in 55,000 people in its first year, which is mighty impressive considering it shared dates with two other musical festivals that have been around since 2002 and 2005 respectively…Bunbury haters will continue to balk over the lineup (there’s always Midpoint!), but I was impressed that the festival was able to draw a wide range of folks, from older fans of GBV and Jane’s Addiction to the younger fans who came out for Neon Trees.