Tag: urban design

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Business Development News

Yard House to open first Ohio restaurant along Cincinnati’s central riverfront

The Banks development team announced today that Yard House, an upscale American fusion restaurant with 100-250 taps, will open its first location in Ohio on Cincinnati’s central riverfront.

The 10,000-square-foot restaurant will be the first stand-alone commercial tenant at The Banks, and will be located immediately in front of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center at the corner of Walnut Street and Freedom Way. Project officials say that the new structure will have an urban, industrial design featuring an open floor plan, exposed pipes, warm moods and stainless steel accents.


The Banks development has exceeded expectations in its first phase of development, and may soon break ground on phase two. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

“Yard House will be a great addition to The Banks,” stated Scott Stringer, executive vice president at Carter, in a prepared release. “We are committed to making sure The Banks becomes a destination with unique entertainment and eating options. Yard House helps us recognize that vision.”

The restaurant was originally started along Los Angeles’ famed Long Beach waterfront nearly 16 years ago and has since spread across the United States to 38 select cities. In addition to this being Yard House’s first location in Ohio, it will become only their second Midwestern location with the other being located in Chicago.

The location is one of two buildable sites in front of the NURFC intended for restaurants, and will be located across from Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse which is currently under construction.

With phase one of development almost entirely occupied, speculation will now turn to when the second phase of construction will get underway. Cincinnati Mayor Mallory has already hinted that groundbreaking could take place this summer.

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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.

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Up To Speed

60-unit apartment building planned for Madison Road in Oakley

60-unit apartment building planned for Madison Road in Oakely

A new development being called Oakley Lofts would bring 60 one- and two-bedroom apartments to Madison Road at Appleton Street. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The five-story building will have a commercial component on the first floor. The upper floors will be residential. Chris Bortz, a director of special projects for Towne Properties and a former Cincinnati City Council member, said the apartment complex is a good fit for the neighborhood.

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Up To Speed

More new housing to be built uptown in Corryville

More new housing to be built uptown in Corryville

The housing construction boom continues uptown as developers announce their intentions to build a second phase to the popular Village of Stetson Square development in Corryville. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Four newly constructed buildings are planned to house 16 one-bedroom units with studies and two two-bedroom townhomes. Prices will range between $190,000 and the mid-$200,000s. It’s the first construction planned for the site at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Eden Avenue since the final rowhouse building was completed in summer 2009.

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News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati moves forward with city-wide ‘complete streets’ initiative

Some streets just do not feel safe to walk along. Perhaps it is the lack of space between the cars driving by or even the lack of a sidewalk in some instances. It’s even more precarious for bicyclists who sometimes have the benefit of designated bicycle lanes but most of the times compete with cars to share space on the roads.

It was not always like this. When the automobiles first came around at the dawn of the twentieth century, they had to compete with a lively street scene that included horse drawn buggies, pedestrians and bicyclists. Tensions came to a boiling point in Cincinnati and in 1923 when citizens attempted to pass a ballot initiative limiting the speed of automobiles to 25 miles per hour. The auto industry banded together to defeat the proposition and our streets were never quite the same.


Pedestrians, bicyclists and automobile drivers peacefully coexist on Diversey Street on Chicago’s north side. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

Fast forward to today where Cincinnati City Council’s Livable Communities Committee will listen to an update on the city’s on-going Complete Streets initiative. The movement, which got its start through a motion sponsored by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls (C) in August 2009, is now an integral part of the on-going, five-day charrette for the city’s Plan Build Live initiative.

Complete Streets are regulations that allow streets to be redesigned to focus on shared use with bicycles and mass transit as well as better conditions for pedestrians. The problem in Cincinnati, and throughout much of the United States, is that people drive past what used to be viable places. The initiative, in theory, would improve conditions for many of the city’s struggling neighborhoods by reorienting them towards the users for which they were originally designed.

“We need to ensure that our neighborhood business districts are destinations and not just raceways through town for commuters,” Vice Mayor Qualls explained in a recent press release.

The standards aim to improve walkability and slow traffic in business districts. This can be done by adding on-street parking, converting one-way roads to two-way traffic, and providing connections through smaller block sizes.

Jocelyn Gibson, an Over-the-Rhine resident who attended yesterday’s brown bag lunch session on Complete Streets thinks it’s a great idea. “It’s not just about adding bike lanes; it’s about creating a more economically viable community by restoring walkable livable streets.”

Some of the focus areas mentioned by consultants Hall Planning & Engineering included the conversion of McMillan Street and William Howard Taft Road into two-way streets and making improvements to the Reading Road corridor. The standards, officials say, are part of the city’s form-based code efforts and planned to be finalized by this summer.

Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting today which will be held at 11am inside City Hall (map).