Tag: economic

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Market at the Park Brings Pop-Up Shops to Washington Park Every Monday

We’ve all been there. The one day that Findlay Market is closed, we run out of fresh produce, honey, or another edible essential.

Although business hours have expanded to 6pm in recent years, some vendors remain reluctant to stay open later than that. As a result, a group of Findlay Market shoppers have started Findlay After Four – a weekly event that encourages people to shop at Findlay Market on Thursday between 4pm and 6pm.

Until those hours are further expanded at Findlay Market, be sure to get your fix at Market in the Park.

Market at the Park

Every Monday night through September, local vendors will set up pop-up shops featuring a variety of vegetables, tea, baked goods, and ready-to-eat meals in Washington Park From 4pm to 8pm, patrons can do their shopping or grab a hot sandwich, just like they would at Findlay Market.

While some of the vendors operate out of the market house during the rest of the week, others are new to the scene like condiment queens Sheila and Kathy. They will bring their special Kentucky Sauce, Hot Pepper Jelly, and zesty blends of salsa at their Chipotle Chicks booth. Hailing from Falmouth, Kentucky, the pair is excited to bring their southern flare to share with the Over-The-Rhine crowd.

Need to cool off? Try a decadent sea salt caramel gelato from Madison’s or snag an all-natural sno-cone from Chill Shaved Ice Bar, featuring syrups made from real fruit juice.

Food truck notables C’est Cheese and Red Sesame Korean BBQ will fill you up with dinner: a gooey Bee Sting grilled cheese stuffed with pepperoni, mozzarella, honey, and basil, or a kimchi beef burrito with rich Oriental seasoning. Providing that much-needed caffeinated pick me up at the end of the work day, Coffee Emporium will also be on site with iced drinks, lattes, smoothies, and hot coffee.

So whether you’re hungry for a unique happy hour or need a few pantry essentials, grab your grocery list and tell your friends, “Meet me at the Market!”

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Business News

Shoppers Organize New Event to Support Evening Hours at Findlay Market

In 2009, Findlay Market decided to expand its hours of operation and add Sunday hours for the first time. While the addition of the Sunday business has been extremely successful, it has been more challenging for vendors and management to get customers familiar with the idea that the public market is open until 6pm every night.

In order to help grow awareness of this, a group of passionate Findlay Market shoppers have decided to organize what they are calling Findlay After Four.

Shoppers at Findlay Market

The event, which will take place today for the first time, will occur every Thursday from 4pm to 6pm.

“Successful retail today is about having the right in-store activities and promotions to drive loyalty and sales,” explained Karen Kahle, Resource Development Director, Findlay Market. “To support the Findlay After Four shopper campaign, each Thursday we will be offering a variety of activities.”

Kahle says this Thursday’s event will include a cooking demonstration by Julie Francis of Nectar, craft beer at the OTR Biergarten from Christian Moerlein and MadTree, a wine tasting at Market Wines, and free raffle giveaways.

The group of shoppers that have organized the weekly event are encouraging those who attend to bring their friends, family and anyone who wants to join in and support evening hours of operation at Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market.

“Our goal is to chip away at the perception that the market is not always open until 6:00 and to attract OTR, downtown and uptown workers and residents to the market on weekdays,” Kahle concluded. “We hope you’ll check it out and help spread the word!

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Up To Speed

Does Place Matter if Taxes Are Low?

Does Place Matter if Taxes Are Low?

In Meredith Whitney’s new book, the Fate of the States, she predicts a resurgence of economic growth in the Midwest. This growth she explains would be due to these state’s low tax burden, limited government restrictions and other incentives. To prove her case she highlights the percentage of growth in states such as Texas, Florida and North Carolina. Next City’s Brady Dale provides a more pragmatic view towards the author’s claims in his review of the book. Read more at Next City:

For example, in one chapter Whitney attempts to argue that growth is robust in her favored states while it has been hobbled by shortsighted policy in economic deadweights such as New York and California. The growth rates she gives are for Louisiana (16 percent), North Dakota (27 percent) and Iowa and Nebraska (11 percent for both).

It sounds attractive. A young person might like a shot at a piece of a 10-plus percent growth rate, right?

Hold on. Does a worker want a part of a percentage or a part of actual money? Because these numbers look a bit different. Let’s turn those rates-of-growth into real dollar values, using data from the U.S. Commerce’ Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. California’s growth was very bad in that time, no question. North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska each made some nice money, ranging from $8 billion to $12 billion. Louisiana did better, at about $23 billion in growth. None made as good a showing as New York, however, which clocked in at $89 billion in growth, from the height of the recession to deep into the recovery.

 

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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.