Tag: walnut hills

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Up To Speed

Port Authority to focus new land banking powers on demolition

Port Authority to focus new land banking powers on demolition.

The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority is moving forward with its new land bank program. Instead of focusing on existing undeveloped land, however, the Port Authority has decided to partner with Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine (R) to launch a $11.1 million demolition and redevelopment program which will focus those efforts in 14 communities throughout Cincinnati. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The Port Authority-managed land bank, officially known as the Hamilton County Land Reutilization Corp., is overseeing distribution and use of the funds. The Port Authority is finalizing its demolition contract this week, and had hoped to start demolition in July, but needed more time to work with city, county and neighborhood councils and development groups to develop a strategy.

The selected neighborhoods were based on the number foreclosures, abandoned and blighted properties – there are 2,394 vacated residential properties in the city alone – and whether an individual community pledged funds to be matched through the state’s demolition grant program.

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Business Development News

City leaders partner with Walnut Hills to advance two-way street conversions

Peebles Corner was once the scene of Cincinnati’s original uptown; however, the Walnut Hills neighborhood began to decline as people moved further away from the center city. The quality of the neighborhood’s historic fabric still echoes that grandeur.

Neighborhood leaders have now become accustomed to people driving past many of these buildings along McMillian Avenue, past Interstate 71 (I-71), at a speed much faster than the posted speed limit of 30mph. The one-way street allows drivers to move through Walnut Hills at a speed that threatens pedestrians and makes the business district an unpleasant place for someone to linger.

The negative impacts of one-way streets through urban neighborhoods have been long documented, and cities across the country are beginning to convert these stretches of roadway back to two-way traffic. Thus far there have been encouraging results.


Two-way street cross section for Walnut Hills. Rendering provided.

“The street design should help make the Walnut Hills business district a destination again, instead of serving as a raceway through the neighborhood,” said Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls (C) in 2010 after introducing a motion to move forward with additional study work.

Qualls also believes that while streets should serve local traffic, they also need to create an atmosphere where people can live, work, shop, walk and bike safely.

In June 2012, Cincinnati City Council’s Livable Communities Committee met to discuss the proposed conversion of McMillian Avenue and William H. Taft in Walnut Hills. The conversion, which has been approved and will start this fall, will be in place on both streets east of I-71. Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) officials and consultants from URS Corporation briefed the committee on the reconfiguration of both streets.

Kevin Wright, Executive Director of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation sees the change as part of a broader strategy to revitalize the Peeble’s Corner Business District.

“We think the two-way conversion is going to be a huge help in terms of both physical and economic development, but it’s important that we don’t view it as a panacea,” Wright told UrbanCincy. “Transportation improvements like this are essential to redevelopment efforts like ours, but in order to create real change we will also need to focus on safety, cleanliness, design, business development, and physical development; all of which we are working on now.”

The recommendation to transform the two streets in Walnut Hills came from the Uptown Access Study which examined the idea. Since that time, the City of Cincinnati has conducted eight public meetings on the issue, and looked at possible alternatives, like adding bicycle lanes to both streets.

The final choice made by the City was focused around maintaining traffic flow from the western portions of both streets across I-71, and eliminates parking on one side of the street.

“The design isn’t perfect, but is still a big step in the right direction,” explained Wright. “It is our hope that the corridor will look completely different two to three years from now, and that the city will look to make some modifications to the design of the street at that time.”

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Business News

Walnut Hills tries new approach to keep its neighborhood grocery store afloat

One-by-one, Cincinnati’s urban neighborhoods are revitalizing themselves with new residents and businesses. Some of these neighborhoods, however, continue to struggle with sustaining or attracting urban grocery stores that can bring much-needed healthy food choices to their community. Walnut Hills is no different.

Walnut Hills is one of just seven, out of 52, neighborhoods in the City of Cincinnati that boast a full-scale grocery store. The Walnut Hills Kroger, located at 954 E. McMillan Street, has been in discussions with city leaders over recent years about whether it will continue operating that location. But with revitalization work sweeping through the Walnut Hills, neighborhood leaders think this serves as an opportunity.

“We understand that as a business they need to make money, and once we have done our part, and they are a profitable store, then we hope they will begin to make some of the improvements that the neighborhood would like to see,” said Kevin Wright, director of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation (WHRF) and graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s Masters of Community Planning program.


Organizers say the first Buy 25 Tuesdays event generated $2,700 in new revenue and communicated over 100 food suggestions to store management. Walnut Hills Kroger photograph provided.

Wright says that after speaking with neighborhood residents and stakeholders he found that most had a negative perception of the store. He said that the perceptions are that store has a bad food selection, and that it is unsafe to visit. The goal, he says, is to solve both of those issues through a new bi-weekly event called Buy 25.

The first Buy 25 took place on June 26, and the second was scheduled to take place on July 10, but due to the power outage organizers have postponed the next event until July 24. Those who join the Buy 25 group are encouraged to spend $25 at the store at least the two times a month that the event takes place.

Wright says that through discussions with Kroger, a neighborhood committee found out that $10,000 in additional revenue per month can put the urban grocer into the black. That breaks down to approximately 200 new customers spending $50 a month at the Walnut Hills store.

Neighborhood leaders are hoping to create a social atmosphere outside of the Kroger on Buy 25 Tuesdays by providing music, food samples, coupons, and a chance to give feedback to store management.

“This is about improving the Kroger, but it’s also about coming together as a community for a common cause,” explained Wright. “Walnut Hills is on the verge of some major redevelopment and if our residents feel like they have an ownership in that, the overall redevelopment efforts will be more sustainable.”

According to the WHRF, the first Buy 25 event brought in an additional $2,700 in revenue for the Walnut Hills Kroger. Neighborhood leaders feel like the new event is off to a good start, but are aware of the potential risks should they not be able to meet the $10,000 target over the course of each month.

“Becoming a food desert would have a profound effect on our senior and low-income population,” Wright answered in response to the possibility of the store closing. “It would also have a negative effect on our redevelopment momentum as the Kroger sits almost directly in the center of the neighborhood and its business district.”

Wright says that he fears that while the neighborhood can support grocery store, that if the Kroger were to close it would take at least three to five years to attract a new urban grocer. And having a large vacant structure at the heart of the Walnut Hills neighborhood business district for several years would create additional hurdles to ongoing redevelopment efforts taking place there.

Neighborhood leaders have not yet been told, or warned, that the Kroger may shut down, but Wright emphasized that they are trying to support the store and give it every reason to stay in the community.

Buy 25 Tuesdays take place on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month from 4pm to 8pm. Those who come are encouraged to bring a shopping list so that they can inform store management of items they were not able to purchase there.

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Business Development News

CPA honors Cincinnati’s best preservation projects in 2011

Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA) held their 47th annual awards ceremony this past weekend at Hughes High School. More than 70 people attended the ceremony that honored the best preservation projects throughout the Cincinnati region.

Eight awards were given out, in total, in the categories of rehabilitation and sustainability. According to CPA, two of the awards focused specifically on the restoration of public buildings and spaces.

“Cincinnati’s historic public schools represent civic architecture at its best,” said Paul Muller, Executive Director, Cincinnati Preservation Association. “We are proud to honor Cincinnati Public Schools’ brilliant renovation of Hughes High School and the City’s ongoing stewardship of City Hall, as expressed by the restoration of the beautiful Council Chambers ceiling.”


Ten historic structures along Vine Street were renovated as part of the Parvis Lofts development in Over-the-Rhine.

Projects receiving the remaining awards were distributed across the city. A 1926 home in Hyde Park and an 1896 home in North Avondale won awards for their stately renovations. Meanwhile the renovation of an 1870s structure in Northside won CPA’s sustainability award for achieving LEED Gold certification.

The United Way of Greater Cincinnati also won an award for the renovation of its 77,000-square-foot headquarters in Walnut Hills. CPA officials say that United Way’s structure dates back to 1933 and serves as a monument for the neighborhood.

In Cincinnati’s largest historic district, Over-the-Rhine, two projects won awards for their preservation of 13 total structures. Saengerhalle renovated three deteriorating structures built in the late 1800s into 32,000 square feet of office and commercial space.

A block east of Saengerhalle, the Parvis Lofts project renovated ten vacant buildings into 32 apartments which are fully leased. The $10.7 million development also received awards from the Ohio Historical Society and the Associated Builders & Contractors.

“We were fortunate to have a great team that developed Parvis Lofts,” Rick Kimbler, NorthPointe Group partner, told UrbanCincy. “Collectively, we took ten buildings and melded them into one great complex that the community immediately embraced.”

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News Opinion

Is East Walnut Hills the next big thing in Cincinnati neighborhoods?

Over the past several decades Cincinnati has seen its core neighborhoods change. Some of these changes have been negative while others have been very positive. The positives started with neighborhoods like Clifton and Mt. Adams, continued on to Northside and Oakley, and then onto Downtown and Over-the-Rhine (twice).

While progress continues to be made in Over-the-Rhine and Downtown, the question remains: Which inner-city neighborhood might be next on the revival block? Some business and property owners in East Walnut Hills believe their beloved neighborhood is indeed the next one in line. This could be true for several reasons. The first being, location, location, location.


DeSales Corner in East Walnut Hills

East Walnut Hill’s DeSales Corner was historically Cincinnati’s second most prominent business district outside of the Central Business District downtown. The neighborhood’s central and nearby location to downtown made that true historically. In addition to these still relevant truths, the addition of I-71, one of the city’s most prominent east/west bike routes, and the prospect of a modern streetcar line running through its heart make the neighborhood’s location even better today as people and business return to cities.

One such business owner is Chef Josh Campbell who knows World Food Bar in Over-the-Rhine, Mayberry and Mayberry Foodstuffs in Downtown, and the recently opened Skinny Pig restaurant in East Walnut Hills.

“In this area you have Blue Cross Blue Shield, St. Ursula Academy with students who can go off campus for lunch, and several doctor’s offices filled with people looking for healthy, flavorful food options,” Campbell explained to UrbanCincy in April 2011.

In addition to businesses and students, East Walnut Hills also is situated between investment expanding east from Uptown and west from Hyde Park and Oakley.

Campbell’s not the only one thinking East Walnut Hills is the next big thing when it comes to Cincinnati neighborhoods though. In April 2011 Cincy Coworks tripled its size and relocated to 2400 Gilbert Avenue nearby in Walnut Hills based on its location and affordability.

There are also hundreds of new residents living at The Residences at DeSales Plaza and the recently completed DeSales Flats development. Within the past year the City of Cincinnati has also invested in new streetscaping to clean up the business district and hopefully spur additional investment in the area.

While East Walnut Hills appears to be sitting pretty, it certainly is not the only neighborhood poised and ready for a renaissance. Other contenders include Mt. Auburn, Clifton Heights, North Avondale, East End, Pendleton, Corryville and West Price Hill. Which of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods do you think will become the next big thing?