Month: July 2011

Categories
Business Development News

$22M American Can Factory redevelopment to welcome first residents this September

On Monday the public was invited to tour the long-delayed American Can Lofts as part of Northside’s Fourth of July festivities. The $22 million redevelopment of the 180,000 square-foot 1920s-era American Can Factory resumed in 2010 with the help of a $1.6 million federal grant. The prominent Northside structure (map) is now poised to welcome its first residents in September.

Monday’s visitors toured six units on the building’s second floor, all of which featured high ceilings, loft designs, and the factory’s huge windows. The odd layout of the building required creative adaptations and so units of all shapes and sizes will be available to the project’s first renters.

Most of the factory’s features that survived its 30-year vacancy were retained, including pillars, original staircase railings, and a spectacular covered assembly area that will be used for indoor parking.

Organizers promise that the grand opening of the American Can Lofts in September will be marked by another public event, and future tours of the building are not to be missed. What has long stood as one of Cincinnati’s most notorious eyesores has been remade into one of its greatest assets, and portends the future redevelopment of the region’s other abandoned industrial properties.

The Cincinnati-based developers of this project are familiar with working with large warehouse structures. In 2003, Bloomfield/Schon + Partners completed the transformation of the former Ford Model T Factory in Walnut Hills into 115,000 square feet of office space.

Once complete, American Can Lofts will include 110 apartments ranging from $600 to $1,300 per month, 75 parking spaces, and 12,000 square feet of office and retail space. Developers state that future retailers may include a brew pub, restaurant and health center. Other amenities will include a bocce ball court, conference rooms, music rehearsal room, artist space and an exercise room.

The project was also assisted financially by an $8.7 million loan from the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), and additional grants from local and state sources. Those interested in leasing information can email Info@AmericanCanLofts.com or call (513) 827-5638.

Photographs by Emily Schneider for UrbanCincy.

Categories
Business News

Farmers markets growing in popularity throughout Cincinnati region

Over the past decade, America has seen the gradual blossoming of a broad natural food movement. This movement is due, in part, to books from writers like Michael Pollen and documentary films such as Super Size Me. These works have shown the unhealthiness of processed foods, which (driven by booming urban populations and the decline of traditional rural life) had grown in popularity since the end of World War II.

Americans today, particularly in cities, have demonstrated an interest in getting back to their roots – literally. The surge of attention to what we eat has led to an unprecedented interest in cooking and eating locally-produced food. Many people have left corporate jobs to become farmers or chefs. Beyond the ever-widening availability of organic foods, we have seen “farm-to-table” dining and a rise in gardening, even in urban areas like Over-the-Rhine.

Luckily, all the demand for natural food means an increase in the availability of healthy, freshly-prepared meals, even when we may be too stressed or time constrained to cook them ourselves. Another benefit, from a larger societal standpoint, is a recent flattening of the adult obesity rate in the United States.

Locally, one of the best aspects of this movement is a wider array of seasonal farmer’s markets. Now it’s easy to get fresh, local food throughout the Queen City with dozens of seasonal and year-round farmers markets.

Findlay Market is the crown jewel of Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Operating since 1855, it offers Cincinnatians everything they could want in a market and more, year-round. It houses restaurants, numerous delis and produce shops, fishmongers, spice sellers, florists, bakers, textile vendors, Asian grocers and even a biergarten.

New shops include a bakery-café, pet supply store and a Vietnamese restaurant. Recent efforts to “Green the Market” have included the installation of solar panels on the market roof, plus waste reduction and new energy-efficient lighting. And as efforts stir to expand Findlay Market and improve its surroundings, it appears that Ohio’s oldest market is poised for a bright future.

We have put together a comprehensive listing of Cincinnati-area farmers markets. We have certainly missed a few, so please feel free to provide some added content to us by commenting on this story. Share the map with your friends and family so that they may take advantage of a farmers market near them. And if there isn’t one, check to see how to get one started in your neighborhood.

Categories
Business Development News Opinion

Oakley gets development fit for the suburbs with new Millworks plan

The abandoned Millworks site in Oakley has inspired urban enthusiasts for almost a decade. The thoughts of injecting new life into an former industrial space in the heart of some of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods was truly something to get excited about.

The vision first laid out in the early part of the new millenium included hundreds of residential units, a movie theater, hotel, offices and what was to become the second location Jungle Jim’s. The best part about all of it is that the Millworks redevelopment would have done so while also maintaining the gritty industrial past of the site. As details finally emerge today of a new Millworks redevelopment, the reality is looking much different.

Today the plan calls for a $120 million development (less than half of the originally proposed $300 million plan in 2005) that will include 350,000 square feet of retail, 250,000 square feet of offices, 300 apartments and a 55,000 square-foot movie theater. While much of the development’s original components are still there, the plan has taken a decidedly suburban turn not unlike what happened at the Center of Cincinnati just around the corner.


Proposed Millworks redevelopment in 2005 [LEFT] compared to current Oakley Station site plan [RIGHT].

Gone is the idea of preserving the site’s industrial aesthetic. Gone is the idea of creating a unique urban infill project. Gone is Jungle Jim’s. And most importantly, gone is the true long-lasting investment in Oakley.

With the signing of Cinemark NextGen, the development seems to now be more real than ever. Work has already begun on removing asbestos from buildings on the 74-acre site so that demolition can follow for more than one million square feet of former industrial buildings that used to house Cincinnati Milacron, Ceco Environmental, Factory Power Company and Unova Industrial Automation. Worse yet, the city of Cincinnati is working to get project developers $3 million in Clean Ohio Revitalization funds and an additional $9.9 million in tax increment financing to pay for infrastructure work surrounding the project.

The controversial Center of Cincinnati development turned on a dime from an exciting urban infill project meant to inject new office, retail and residential space into the area just north of the Millworks site, into a cookie-cutter suburban big-box development.

At the time Vandercar, the same developers behind the Millworks redevelopment, said that market forces would no longer allow them to do such a project and charged Mayor Luken’s administration to rid the city of its Planning Department that had made an issue of the development’s dramatic, last-minute change. Vandercar won that battle and then city manager Valerie Lemmie decided to move forward and infamously shutter Cincinnati’s Planning Department.

The victory was only short-lived for Vandercar, however. The developer was part of a team that was promptly eliminated from contention to build The Banks, and Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney have since restored Cincinnati’s planning dignity. So while much has changed, it appears as though the outcome may be the same for Oakley.

Oakley is the geographic population center for the 2.1 million person Cincinnati region, and is located along I-71, near the Norwood Lateral, and potential future light rail corridors. Each metropolitan region tends to have several dense commercial centers. Cincinnati currently has Downtown, Uptown and Kenwood, and the greater Oakely area should be the fourth.

Instead of championing “pro-growth” policies at all costs, Cincinnati’s leaders should act with long-term interests in mind and get the best end product for its people. Unfortunately, the status quo appears to be more in line with appeasing developers, like Vandercar, that go after low-hanging fruit, rather than demanding that investments in Cincinnati get the best return.