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Business Development News

‘The Rhine’ examines what all the changes in OTR mean to long-standing residents

As Over-the-Rhine continues to be transformed, some have wondered if the changes taking place may have a negative impact on the low-income residents currently living in the neighborhood.

This was the fight Buddy Gray long fought for Over-the-Rhine until he passed in 1996. The door was then opened for a change to this dynamic in the early 2000s when the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) was able to purchase hundreds of properties throughout the downtrodden neighborhood.

Since that time hundreds of new housing units and dozens of new businesses have opened up shop. While some of those new businesses and residents match those that have long called the neighborhood home, others do not, and instead present a stressful new reality for those low-income residents who are seeing their world change around them.

The following video, entitled The Rhine, was produced by Kyle Pedersen in an effort to highlight these struggles. UrbanCincy in no way taking a position on the contents of this video, but instead thought it would be useful as a point to start a conversation about the changes taking place in historic Over-the-Rhine.

What do you think? Are the differences between the new and the old residents of Over-the-Rhine too great? What, if any, opportunity is there to bridge that divide? Have investors done enough to engage the existing community? Is the existing community, and their representative organizations, overreacting? We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

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Business Development News

Excess parking at Mercer Commons adding millions to project costs

Project officials broke ground on the long-anticipated Mercer Commons project nearly one month ago. Once complete, the $56 million development will include 154 housing units, 26,000 square feet of commercial space, and a staggering 359 parking spaces.

Leading up to the project’s ceremonious groundbreaking, local preservationists had been concerned about Mercer Commons’ impact on the neighborhood’s historic fabric. But while much attention was paid to material treatment and exterior facades, not much was critiqued of the amount of parking.

According to the city’s zoning code, the development is mandated to provide one parking spot per residential unit, and one parking spot per 400 square feet of commercial space. Had the project merely followed what is prescribed in the city’s zoning code, then it would have had 161 fewer parking spaces.

The financial impact Mercer Commons’ parking is significant. 140 fewer spaces inside the new Mercer Commons Garage would have resulted in approximately $3.5 million in savings.

What’s more is that the portions of the Mercer Commons development along Vine Street qualify for a 50 percent parking reduction for being within 600 feet of a streetcar stop, thanks to a new regulation approved by the City of Cincinnati in June 2010.

Of the development’s 154 housing units, 30 of them will be affordable apartments which are likely to have occupants that cannot afford a personal automobile. Should you factor those two elements into the parking equation, then you would see the cost savings increase by approximately $750,000, bringing the total project cost down approximately $4.25 million.

The City has also recently considered eliminating minimum parking requirements in neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine entirely.

“Although Over-the-Rhine is a walkable community, and the streetcar is coming, parking still needs to be addressed for residents, tenants and visitors,” explained Anastasia Mileham, Vice President of Communications with the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) explained.


The $56M Mercer Commons development will include 154 residential units, 26,000SF of commercial space and 359 parking spaces once finished. Rendering provided.

According to 3CDC officials, some of the additional parking is there to support existing commercial retail in nearby developments that lacked enough parking when they were originally built, and that the parking lot at Twelfth and Vine, Valet Parking, Washington Park Garage, Mercer Commons Garage and future small lots and parking spaces are all considered in future planning efforts.

Mileham also says that their development corporation is also working with city officials to designate specific parking meters as residential only.

“We have gotten some complaints about parking, but when we gathered community input about Mercer Commons, parking was expressed as a need,” Mileham clarified.

The new above-ground parking garage is part of the first of three phases of development at Mercer Commons, and is expected to open in March 2013.

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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 Development News

Second phase of construction looms for The Banks

With the phase 1A of The Banks development now at capacity, the development team is gearing up to start construction on the next wave of vertical construction.

Project officials now say that there is a 60-person waiting list for the 300 apartments and 92 percent of the 96,000 square feet of retail space at The Banks are occupied. At the same time, the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County have finished work on the public infrastructure that will lift future phases of The Banks out of the Ohio River’s 100-year flood plain.

Developers are optimistic that work can soon begin on phases 1B and 1C which include an office tower at Second Street and Walnut Street, and a hotel at Freedom Way and Main Street.


Phase 1A of The Banks development is already at capacity, and investors are gearing up for construction of the next wave of buildings. Photograph by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

“We are in active discussions with potential hotel developers, and we’ve been out there trying to sell that office pad site,” explained Libby Korosec, Public Relations Representative for The Banks development team. “The office market is tough in downtown Cincinnati right now with the Great American Tower coming online.”

Korosec says it will more than likely take a 60 to 70 percent pre-sale on the office building to make it a reality, but that they are moving forward with plans for phase two which will include another 300 apartments and ground level retail.

The second phase of work will take place along Vine Street in between Second Street and Freedom Way, and work is expected to break ground in December 2012. In addition to phase two work, passerbys will most likely see work begin on the second restaurant building pad in front of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in the near future.

“The Freedom Center pads are part of phase one work, and we are in active discussions for the other pad site to compliment Yard House,” Korosec told UrbanCincy.

While phase 1A retail is nearly fully leased, all of it is occupied by bars and restaurants. In early 2012, the project’s commercial leasing agent said that has been the target tenant thus far, but the development team is now saying there may be some flexibility to that leasing strategy.

“Phase two will be mixed with retail of some type, but we’re not sure if it will be the same mix as phase one, or more of a service retail mix to service The Banks and Downtown,” Korosec clarified. “We’re out there right now taking a look at what that mix is, and what kind of density we want to build.”

Once complete, The Banks will be the region’s largest mixed-use development and will house more than 3,000 new residents. The economic impact of phase 1A work is already estimated at more than $91 million annually – a number that will grow to $276 million once the office tower and hotel are complete.

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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.