Category: News

Original stories from the UrbanCincy team.

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Business Development News

$10.7M Parvis Lofts development leasing quickly in Over-the-Rhine

The Parvis Lofts development has been open for less than one month and already developers say that they have leased nearly 50 percent of the 32 rental units available. The residential units also include 15,000 square feet of commercial space to fill out the $10.7 million development in the heart of historic Over-the-Rhine.

“The renaissance of Over-the-Rhine continues. By building apartments, we are giving new choices for people who are interested in being a part of the revitalization of this neighborhood,” Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory stated in a prepared release.

The development is located in the 1400 block of Vine Street which previously consisted of deteriorating buildings. NorthPointe Group developers say they renovated the 10 buildings into rental units to fill a need that had yet to be satisfied by other recently completed projects in the Gateway Quarter of Over-the-Rhine.

The finished units include laundry facilities in each unit, Rookwood Tile fireplaces, a courtyard, secure parking, lobby, Cincinnati Bell fiber-optic service, and range in size from 475 square feet to 2,025 square feet. NorthPointe Group officials say that rents average $850 per month, but start as low as $575 and go as high as $1,850.

“Up until now there has only been for-sale product developed in the Q, and we have received numerous requests for rental options,” explained Parvis Lofts leasing agent J.T. Barse. “Like the Gateway Quarter as a whole, the project is aimed at attracting people that want to live in and embrace Cincinnati’s urban core.”

The project was funded through a variety of sources that include State and Federal historic tax credits, New Market tax credits and a load from Cincinnati Equity Fund.

To date, NorthPointe Group has developed two other projects with HGC Construction in Over-the-Rhine including Duncanson Lofts and Mottainai – both of which have sold out. The development team is now working on Saengerhalle Lofts on Race Street just a block away.

The Q, and OTR in general, has been attracting a lot of attention, and with a burgeoning social scene we are seeing more people that want to live here even if they don’t work downtown,” said Barse. “While that may be what is bringing them down to look, the high quality finishes and exterior common area is what makes them want to rent.”

Barse also notes that many of the renters come down without knowing there is a Kroger grocery store directly across the street, or about how close the units are located to Findlay Market.

Those interested in touring the remaining units can do so by contacting J.T. Barse at jbarse@northpointegroup.com or by calling (513) 835-2110. You can also stay up-to-date by following NorthPointe Group on Twitter @NPGRealEstate.

Parvis Lofts photography by UrbanCincy contributor Jake Mecklenborg.

Categories
Arts & Entertainment News

Walnut Street Poetry Society to kick-off 2011 season at Mercantile Library

Like literature? Like poetry?

The Mercantile Library is hosting a one-hour poetry event this Wednesday, January 12 from 12pm to 1pm.  A Profusion of Poets is a kick-off for the 2011 season of the Walnut Street Poetry Society (WSPS), a local poetry group founded in 2004.

Participating poets include Bea Ostergart, a writer and UC English professor, and Richard Hague, a writer, editor and teacher at Purcell Marian High School, and several other local poets. The event will be moderated by Dr. Norman Finkelstein, poet and professor of English at Xavier University and Robert Murphy, poet and editor of Dos Madres Press.

The WSPS says that this year’s poetry series at the Mercantile Library focuses on poetry and inner life.

“Poems, as it were, are places made out of language where our inner life and the outer world meet.  In the coming months, we will read a wide variety of poets who invite us to participate in this inspiriting process.”

This event will take place at the 175-year-old institution at 414 Walnut Street in downtown Cincinnati, and is free and open to the public.  Mercantile Library members interested in joining the Walnut Street Poetry Society can do so for $30 annually.  All others interested can join for a $40 annual membership fee.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Newly formed Creative Society seen as a forum for new ideas

Debbie Dent, owner and creative director of marketing firm Aim Straight Up and event space Venue 222, has a vision for creatives in Cincinnati. After her own company, Willow Group, folded in 2009, Dent bounced back a year later and opened Aim Straight Up after working with her husband Wade to convert their building on 14th Street in Over-the-Rhine into an event and meeting space.

As a sidearm of Aim Straight Up, Debbie decided to help establish a forum for the rapidly growing number of people in the Cincinnati area who are passionate about new ideas and want to contribute, even and especially those who are underutilized in the job market. Thus the Creative Society was born.

“With the economy in the crapper, people losing their jobs, closing or downsizing their businesses and getting paid less for the work we all do, we can become discouraged and stop thinking and acting creatively,” Dent explained. “We lose track of people we enjoyed being with, drop the groups we belonged to and activities that we participated in. And often we lose track of our creative selves.”

Dent noted that in the Cincinnati community there is a flux of passionate people with lots of new ideas to share. “The creative spirit is alive and growing rapidly in Cincinnati,” Debbie shared. “There is an infectious new energy all around. We are lucky, for a community of our size, that have all types of creative people and talent represented. We have a Creative Society.”

Debbie’s motive behind the Creative Society was a way to informally gather people who enjoy being creative and wish to be around and connect with others who value creativity. Currently the club has over 200 members on its Facebook page, with 110 of them scheduled to attend a lunch catered by nearby MOTR this coming Wednesday to make connections and share ideas about what the group can accomplish as a vibrant and passionate collective. The lunch will take place at Venue222 (map).

The goals will be determined by the group as a whole, but the assumption is that members of the group can meet anytime online and physically every other month at a different location to get to know each other, swap ideas, help make connections for each other and create. “Collectively we become a creative think tank that can help be an agent of positive change for Cincinnati,” said Dent.

This month’s lunch will include a creative exercise to “Express your vision for a Creative Cincinnati in 2011,” with plenty of art materials and canvass space for attendees to get out their ideas in an innovative manner.

It’s not just visual artists of graphic designers that have exclusive access to the Creative Society, though. According to Dent, anyone with passion and an idea is as good as a card carrying member.

“Everyone is creative. It’s through our creativity that we make a difference in our lives, the lives of others and our city. It’s in times like these that creative thinking and action is needed even more. “

Categories
Development News

Learning from the urban design of Paul Brown Stadium

[This story was originally published in Greater Greater Washington as part a two-part series on urban football stadiums. Visit the original story for more comments, thoughts and opinions about case studies of other recently built urban football stadiums in America – Randy.]


Through its history, Cincinnati has seen a typical evolution of urban sports venues for American cities. The intersection of Findlay and Western, in Cincinnati’s West End neighborhood housed the Cincinnati Reds from 1864 through 1970 in three iterations of ballparks — League Park, Palace of the Fans, and Crosley Field — until the team moved with the Cincinnati Bengals football team to Riverfront Stadium.

The Bengals also spent their first two years playing at Nippert Stadium on the University of Cincinnati’s campus uptown. But when the two teams moved to Riverfront Stadium, they followed a national trend of cookie cutter stadiums in urban environments meant to serve as economic development generators. The problem was that the promise never came to fruition in the cities that went after the golden egg.

Most of those same cities have rebuilt their professional sports venues, many in the urban core. But the question still remains whether the return on investment is worth the valuable land for these lightly-used behemoths.

In Cincinnati, the Reds host more than 81 games every year drawing tens of thousands of fans to each event. Additional events are held at the ballpark, and its related attractions, throughout the year that also create a draw. Four blocks away, Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Bengals, hosts 10 games each year in addition to the smattering of high school events and concerts held there annually.

The result is a larger football stadium with far fewer events and a ballpark with more events but smaller crowds. The winner in this case is the ballpark, and the new generation of urban ballparks appears to be as successful as the original wave of urban ballparks in the late 19th century.

The problem with urban football stadiums can be both a structural issue and a programmatic issue. In the case of Paul Brown Stadium it is more about the program. The large, tailgating-bound crowds demand available parking for their pre- and post-game festivities.

In Cincinnati, developers are currently constructing The Banks, a mixed-use urban entertainment node wedged between Great American Ball Park and Paul Brown Stadium and will eventually house thousands of new residents. Before each phase of development begins, it must first have two-floors of underground parking built before it even begins to satisfy the parking demands for the new residents and workers to be housed above.

Once complete, The Banks may set the stage for a truly unique urban sports and entertainment area, one that would have no surface parking and force tens of thousands of sports fans, visiting the area, out onto the streets for live music, food, drink, and festivities. This may end up being Paul Brown Stadium’s saving grace.

The beautiful thing about professional sports venues is that they can turn what is otherwise worthless land into something economically productive and thus improve land values in nearby areas. But most often franchise owners often want their venues to be located in prime real estate so that they can maximize their visibility. In Cincinnati that meant handing over prime waterfront property to two large concrete masses that only stay active a fraction of the year.

When other cities examine plans for an urban sports venue of their own, they should keep more in mind than the wishes of the franchise ownership and the promise of skyline shots on national television once or twice a year. Less is more. You want the venue to blend in so that it does not detract from its surroundings when it is inevitably non-active. You want the venue to be versatile so that it can serve other functions beyond that of playing baseball or football. And most importantly, get rid of the parking so that venue’s support facilities do not kill what you want the venue to create — economic development.

Paul Brown Stadium aerial photograph provided by UrbanCincy contributer Thadd Fiala.

Categories
Business Development News

Popular mixologist to settle in with establishment of her own in Over-the-Rhine

Molly Wellmann has finally settled down. After several years of flitting from bar to bar, private party to private party, dazzling the public and educating Cincinnati about the art of cocktails, Wellmann has committed to a serious relationship with one the most successful bars in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

The ownership at the Neon’s Unplugged has acquired Japp’s, located at 12th and Main streets in Over-the-Rhine.  Once a former 19th century wig store, then turned restaurant in the mid-90’s, the storefront has sat vacant for many years. Together with Michael Redmond, John Back, and the other partners at Neon’s, Wellmann hopes to restore the space into a new venue where patrons will be able to enjoy affordable, authentic craft cocktails.

The 1,700 square-foot bar and lounge area has “solid bones,” according to owner and head designer John Back. “The space is going to stay formal yet accessible,” he explained. “The basement has a ton of memorabilia, both from the original hair store and stuff from Main Street’s heyday in the 90’s.”

According to ownership, the space needs much work, especially replacing or refinishing the floor, but the end result will be something resembling a classic 19th century cafe, evoking the pre-Prohibition old saloon spaces without attempting to be a period place (no handlebar moustaches here). Like the old time saloons, Japp’s will also sell speciality locally made desserts as well as tobacco products, though the space will not have an in-house kitchen.

“We have a lot of classic things from the turn of the century, but we’re still in the modern era,” Wellmann explained to UrbanCincy. “We want to pay homage to both. It will be the same with the cocktails – acknowledging the past, but with a new twist.”

According to Wellmann, the cocktails will stick to classics ranging from the 1700s to 1950s. She also plans on staying away from infused liquor. The hope is to make as many house-made cocktail mixers as possible – for example, in-house grenadine and fresh squeezed juices.

When it came to the location and the idea of restoring another neighborhood icon, it just seemed to make sense to Wellmann, Redmond and Back.

“Think about what is happening here in Over-the-Rhine, right now. This revitalization is the result of well thought out change, and it’s amazing to be included. Look out the front door [of Japp’s], and there’s 12th Street, like a grand avenue ahead of you,” said Redmond. “You look out over 12th Street and end at Japp’s. It’s a pretty awesome location!”

The ownership group hopes that having two bars in close proximity will open up more opportunities to improve other parts of the neighborhood – including parking, wayfinding, and lighting. They say this will make them become even bigger advocates for the community and 12th Street district.

Goetz Alley in the back of the new bar provides a potential for outdoor space, and a visual connection to Neon’s, the sister bar. Many of the guiding principles that makes Neon’s a popular neighborhood spot will carry over to Japp’s.

“When we first opened Neon’s, early on we decided that we were always going to offer value proposition,” said Back. “The price of a Jack & Coke at Japp’s will be the same price as a Jack & Coke at Neon’s.”

Wellmann was quick and emphatic to point out that the main cocktail list will all be priced under $10.  She says that patrons will have the option to buy a $10 to $12 drink, but that it will be the exception, not the norm.  The group is also excited to expand the community’s palate without emptying their wallet’s by bringing in a wider variety of little-known beers and alcohols.

Hours of operation have yet to be set, but the ownership team is offering an optimistic timely for a soft opening in early summer 2011.  They also said that the establishment’s operations will run in conjunction with Neon’s.

“Ultimately, the Japp’s experience will be understated, accessible elegance,” says Molly. “There will be the same neighborhood feel that everyone loves at Neon’s, but it won’t be a place where you get hammered drunk. You bring your out of town friends to show off the neighborhood, to display one of Cincinnati’s best sides.”

Stay up-to-date by following Japp’s on Twitter @Japps1879.