Category: Development

Categories
Business Development News

Cincinnati Breaks Ground on $16M Net Zero Energy, LEED Platinum Police HQ

City officials and neighborhood leaders celebrated the ground breaking for Cincinnati’s new $16 million Police District 3 Headquarters on Monday.

Located in Westwood, the 39,000 square-foot facility will replace what city and police officials consider an antiquated 105-year-old facility in East Price Hill.

While the City of Cincinnati has built or begun construction on several new fire stations, including one nearby in Westwood, this is the first new police station built in the city since in more than four decades.

“It used to be that when cities built civic buildings like this, they were places the community could come together,” Mayor Mark Mallory (D) said. “With District 3, we’re doing that again. We want people to come here and feel comfortable coming here with their neighbors.”

According to city officials, the new police headquarters will serve 14 neighborhoods from a central location on the west side. A site that was specifically chosen due to the input provided during Plan Cincinnati.

To help further strengthen the concept of the police headquarters also serving as a community gathering place, city officials have ensured that the new facility will include community gathering space and public art. It is an approach to community building similar to what was done, with rave reviews, by Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) when rebuilding its entire building portfolio.

The location is just a block away from Dater High School and Western Hills High School and sits in what was a vacant outlot of a suburban-style strip mall. Site plans show that the new facility will be built at the street and oriented toward the sidewalk.

While Cincinnati has been seen as a leader in green building when it comes to the rebuilding of CPS, its tax abatements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rehabilitation and new construction, and public building in general, this will be one of the Queen City’s greenest buildings.

The development team of Messer Construction, Triversity Construction and Emersion Design are aiming to achieve a LEED Platinum certification – the highest possible rating under the LEED system.

The development team also says that it has designed the structure to achieve Net Zero Energy Consumption through its geothermal mechanical systems, high performance building envelope and solar panels. The new Police District 3 Headquarters will also reduce potable water consumption by 30% thanks to on-site bio-retention cells and strategic use of site design materials.

City leadership also expects the project will reach 36.2% Small Business Enterprise (SBE) inclusion. If such a number is achieved, it would make it the highest percentage of SBE participation on any city project to-date.

According to project officials, construction is expected to take about a year-and-a-half and could start welcoming members of the community as early as July 2015.

Categories
Development News Transportation

Color Scheme, Final Design Unveiled for North America’s Most Advanced Light Rail Vehicle

The City of Cincinnati unveiled the official design of the streetcar to supporters in a gathering in Over-the-Rhine. With standing room only, crowds filled the Christian Moerlein Brewery with anticipation of the mystery to be revealed by Mayor Mark Mallory (D). The UrbanCincy team was there to film the event:

Daffodil Yellow, which actually looks closer to light orange, was selected as the primary exterior color based on a recommendation from a panel of 20 community members, which was then presented to the mayor for the final say.

Fade resistance and easy maintenance were deciding factors, city officials say, in addition to the overall design aesthetic. Inside the vehicle, Capri Blue seats provide a burst of modern color to the soft grey and stainless steel accents. Interior side panels highlight the walls with a matching shade of light orange.

Each of the streetcar vehicles will be capable of carrying 154 passengers at a time and will include a total of 32 seats, six of which fold up to make room for wheelchairs, strollers and bicycles.

One of the most noteworthy elements of Cincinnati’s rolling stock is that they will be the first light rail vehicles in North America to have 100% curb-level boarding at every stop. The manufactures say that curb-level boarding allows for easy, independent access for seniors and people with disabilities.

In contrast to a bus, which has a maximum capacity of 38-50 people, a person with mobility issues can enter and ride the streetcar without needing assistance from the driver to lower a platform and secure their wheelchair with straps. This feature is also beneficial for people with walkers, strollers, luggage and small children.

Attending the presentation were representatives from CAF USA, who was the winning bidder to manufacture five vehicles for Cincinnati’s streetcar system, and now five more vehicles for Kansas City as it piggybacks on Cincinnati’s order.

“We are so proud to be building your streetcar, which for us, is going to be a showcase,” said Virginia Verdeja, Vice President of Sales, CAF USA. “So many cities are looking at what’s happening here in Cincinnati. Our business is grateful to be part of a city that is the leading model for new streetcar systems around the nation.”

Meanwhile streetcar construction along the route continues to progress. Utility relocation is moving forward at various locations along the route and demolition is complete at Race and Henry which will allow crews to begin construction of the Maintenance and Operations Facility.  Finally, city officials have disclosed that streetcar track is expected to begin tomorrow with the first section being installed along Elm Street in front of Music Hall.

Categories
Business Development News Politics

Vishaan Chakrabarti: ‘Hyper Dense’ Cities Should Be America’s Future

The great American story is one of free wills and free markets. We believe that the physical world we live in is the result of individual choices made by free people.

In the case of cities this has led many to believe, perhaps falsely, that what Americans really want is dispersed communities where people use cars to get to virtually all of their destinations. Transit, if an option at all, is left for the poor or those choosing to use it solely to get to and from work.

A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America from Architectural League of New York on Vimeo.

What makes this narrative odd, however, is that America is quite unique in this position. Virtually every other country on Earth, both developed and not, organizes its communities differently. In fact, even the America we know did things quite differently up until the mid-19th century.

Vishaan Chakrabarti (@VishaanNYC), a professional architect and Columbia University professor, believes that dense cities with lots of transit options are the recipe for success.

Chakrabarti has written extensively about this subject matter, and recently published a book on the topic entitled A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America. In it, he also outlines how infrastructure is approached too narrowly and should instead look at opportunities that include public health, safety, education and amenities. He calls this “infrastructure of opportunity.”

He discusses how government policy has specifically influenced the low-density, sprawl that often defines contemporary Americana. Chakrabarti goes on to detail how these policies have been a failure and outlines which strategies should be pursued in order to right the proverbial ship.

“The suburbs are largely a creation of “big government,” an explicitly, policy-driven, subsidized scheme that has guided how we live, work, and play,” Chakrabarti explains. “One of the fundamental premises of the book is not whether people should live in the suburbs or not; I believe in free choice. The question is whether they should be paid to do it.”

The self-proclaimed urbanist gave a lecture, hosted by the Architectural League of New York, on this matter back in June. The 15-minute video of this lecture provides a high-level synopsis of what is discussed in his book and other works.

Categories
Business Development News

$1.6 Million Home For Cats Opens in Madisonville

The Ohio Alleycat Resource & Spay/Neuter Clinic (OAR) expanded into its new adoption center in Madisonville last month thanks to a generous $1.6 million donation from the Joanie Bernard Foundation.

The facility, the Joanie Bernard Home for Cats, was named in honor of the life-long cat lover. OAR’s adoption center is located adjacent to the current spay/neuter clinic which still houses 75 of the rescue’s cats. The new building offers 4,800 square feet of feline housing, which is double the amount of the original spay/neuter clinic.

Joanie Bernard Home for Cats
The new $1.6M OAR Home for Cats in Madisonville opened last month. Photograph by Paige Malott for UrbanCincy.

Inviting glass windows, wood framed doors, and custom play equipment makes life comfortable for OAR’s cats that are in between homes. In addition, there are special rooms for kittens, elderly cats, and those with a medical condition. Each room features a screened porch, which allows cats to access a protected outdoor area on their own through the use of a pet-sized door.

Over 400 people stopped by the Joanie Bernard Home for Cats for its grand opening, with many families taking home a new feline friend. To help guests learn more about their cats, OAR includes the animal’s back story on each room. Experiences tug at the heartstrings from tales of lost kittens to an 11-year-old cat that was displaced when his elderly owner passed away.

Other details include the cat’s age, breed, name, and picture so that visitors may identify a cat that shares a communal room.

With a modern, clean atmosphere, the Joanie Bernard Home for Cats hopes to appeal to those considering pet adoption and make the meet-and-greet experience more interactive for both human and feline.

Currently, OAR finds homes for 300 cats annually. Charlotte E. White-Hull, Director of Development and Outreach for OAR, estimates that the updated facility will increase the number of cat adoptions by 25%. By expanding into the new facility, OAR’s spay/neuter clinic also looks to double its service to treat over 16,000 cats a year.

Categories
Development News Politics Transportation

Mayor Mallory, Agenda 360 Hosting Transit Oriented Development Workshops This Week

Cincinnati has moved forward with modifications to its city regulations to allow greater flexibility with regard to the provision of parking, incentivized dense development near streetcar stops, and has pursued an agenda under Mayor Mark Mallory (D) that has been focused on making the city more livable and attractive.

“Transit Oriented Development is a powerful strategy that can help communities throughout the Cincinnati region encourage new development projects,” Mayor Mallory stated in a prepared release. “It has become clear that there is increasing demand to live near community assets. By making smart transportation decisions, communities provide an incentive to private investment.”

U Square at the Loop
Calhoun Street in Clifton Heights has been transformed from drive-thru fast food restaurants to a dense collection of shops, residences and offices. Photograph by Randy Simes for UrbanCincy.

One of the principle elements of this agenda has been to make the city more attractive to those who do not own personal automobiles, and by making the city’s neighborhoods more walkable and better connected to one another through transit.

Encouraging real estate development that works with these goals, however, is one that is still in its infancy stages and is still in need of work with local developers.

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is a catch phrase that has been embraced by Smart Growth America, a national organization advocating for smart growth strategies, and is part of a series of meetings to be held in Cincinnati on September 26 and 27.

Cincinnati is one of 22 communities nation-wide selected to participate in the free technical assistance program funded by a Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Communities.

Organizers say that the workshops will be led by experts from Smart Growth America and aim to inform residents and community leaders about the benefits of transit and development surrounding transit.

“This workshop will provide the community with an opportunity to learn more about transit options and transit-oriented development in the context of Cincinnati,” said Roger Millar, Smart Growth America Vice President. “Since the city recently passed its comprehensive plan, now is a great time to assess how Cincinnati can most effectively align its development with transit investments.”

The meetings are being jointly hosted by Mayor Mallory and Agenda 360, a regional action plan for Cincinnati, and are free and open to the public.

An introductory presentation will occur at 6pm on September 26 at the Cincinnati Area Chapter of the American Red Cross in Evanston (map). The presentation, organizers say, will focus on a collection of strategies for implementing TOD in Cincinnati neighborhoods and surrounding communities.