seangray

A company called 2414 MORGAN DEVELOPMENT has been buying up property in the vicinity of Walnut and Liberty. Go search on the auditor's website for more detail. I hope they can do something with these rather than just be another company that sits and waits things out forever. They have a website (http://2414morgandevelopment.com/) and active projects in other cities so here's to hoping they're the real deal. 100 MCMICKEN AVE E 201 CLIFTON AVE 1624 PLEASANT ST 1635 RACE ST 120 FINDLAY ST 118 FINDLAY ST 22 FINDLAY ST 20 FINDLAY ST 1613 WALNUT ST 1614 WALNUT ST 1618 WALNUT ST 112 CORWINE ST

Scott Sloane was making fun of the caps project today on WLW at about 11:55 AM. He basically was questioning why it's needed since there are already sidewalks.... something tells me this will be the new COAST/WLW target once the streetcar is on it's way.

Notice that loading dock for a large semi-trailer truck? I wonder if this is the long awaited downtown Kroger.

I took this photo Thursday night of the closed Blue Ash Airport. You can see the yellow Xs that got painted on indicating the airport is closed. As a general aviation pilot I am always sad to see an airport close, because new ones don't get built anymore. But it is hard to argue with the logic of what both cities are trying to accomplish. To me, this really does not have anything to do with the streetcar, and connecting the airport closure to the streetcar to me just seems like a way to stir the pot. The City of Cincinnati owns an asset worth in excess of $30M which provides basically no benefit to the city itself (maybe a bit to the region). This capital can be unlocked and used elsewhere and the streetcar is one of a few priorities identified for the money. If the streetcar project did not exist I would bet that the city would still have its eyes on the $. Blue Ash, on the other hand, sees the best use being a park, and is not interesting in operating it. I'm sure if all the "economic benefits" some of the preservation groups like to argue were real, Blue Ash would want to keep it open. So from Cincinnati's perspective you have an asset worth millions being completely underused and which brings no benefit. From Blue Ash's perspective you have a big waste of space that they see better used as a park. I wonder if COAST would care so much about this airport if Cincinnati was instead donating the proceeds to the Brent Spence bridge?

Looks like a restaurant has signed on for 1400 Race (the office building on the NE corner). Permit application for interior build out of new restaurant. The name on the permit is Tsvika Silberberg. edit: Sorry about the week old news it's already here http://www.blogotr.com/otr/zula-restaurant-and-wine-bar-sets-early-november-opening-date/

The start of major work got underway today with the demolition of the rear portion (an addition) of a building on Mercer to make way for the garage. I believe this was a ~1930's ea addition.

That appears to be 12th, there's no bus service on 14th That is a picture from 12th, but poles just like it are on all sides of the park.

The new double head streetlamps are up and running on the side of the street (park side) to where the poles are and these are much taller, so I don't think they are lighting. The positioning on 14th is away from Race and Elm, about abeam the garage head houses. I did hear from someone at CDOTE that the city was working to get the footings for catenary wires in with the park construction but don't know for sure where it landed. Maybe they are catenary wire and camera poles :-)

Anybody know what these poles are? At first I was excited thinking they might be for catenary wires but they are on 14th as well. They are pretty tall and sturdy looking poles but maybe they are just for banners?

The plasma place has been closed for at least a year, if not longer. There is a US Bank on Sycamore next to Nicola's as well as the one on Court St. Is this bank an added branch or is another going to be lost?

Maybe Kroger should figure out that it doesn't need to send a 52' trailer to stock an urban store. Has anyone seen the huge Walgreens on state in Chicago, that would be sweet here. Or, one of the new City Target's. Target can show Kroger how to do urban areas.

They are leaving some of the windows open upstairs. I'm sure if the ZBA turns them down the next strategy will be to neglect it until its declared a public nuisance.

I bought a Volt a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. I did my research and this car makes a lot of sense and is a pleasure to drive. I can do all my charging at home and work for my daily driving but I would love to see some charging stations come up around Cincinnati. It would also be nice to see some chargers at CVG.

Buillding permit application for a new Panera in the former Arby's space has been applied for.

Picture from auditor's website.

An application to demo 625 Main Street, the building on Main with the "Bay Horse Cafe" sign, was submitted last month. Looking in EZ-Trak, the permit was denied pending a COA application. I think it would be a shame to lose this building. This block of main is really intact and this would leave a hole that likely will forever be a surface parking lot.

Elm Street Acquisition has a mailing address of 1410 Race so I am pretty sure it is a 3CDC subsidiary. They have also bought property N. of Liberty.

Took a walk around today and I was impressed with the activity on the 1400 block of Race. Westfalen II, Bakery Lofts, and the Park Haus are in full swing. On a side note, anybody know what the PVC pipes sticking out of the sidewalk in front of Saengerhalle are? Electrical rough-ins for new lighting? They are pretty weird. As far as 2-way conversions, I think they are important to make areas off Vine navigable. 14th needs to be a 2-way and the conversion of 13th was the right thing to do as well. I really don't think it has to do with the garage being done at all. I'm surprised to hear parking spaces were lost on 13th as it only had parking on the north side before, and remains. Two lane in the same direction were replaced with two opposing lanes.

13th St is going to be the main connector of the park to Vine St, it's too bad it is not getting streetscape enhancements ahead of the park opening either.

I imagine the planned unit development designation will speed up the permitting? A lot of the typical slowdowns such as historic preservation review, sewer, and water issues having already been addressed? Can an expert weight in?

Some building permit applications were submitted last week. http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/bldginsp/downloads/bldginsp_eps45248.pdf

The national model always has been and remains Minneapolis, which has the largest system in the world at 7 miles, linking 60ish blocks. I have a lot of experience with their system and I think they have their good and bad. Obvious climate differences aside, what I noticed about the skyways there is that they are primarily used by office workers to go between buildings and are lined with lunch spots which do not stay open for dinner. This gives downtown Minneapolis office space a nice edge as you can travel around the downtown area for whatever reason to carry out your business without having to worry about the wind, rain, snow, heat, and cold. This is a pretty big advantage and is not just related to winter. Would some of these people use the sidewalk if they skyways weren't there? Of course. But how many might just be working in suburban offices and driving around? The connectivity this gives downtown an office space edge over the 'burbs. The skyways basically shut down after 6PM along with those lunch spots. This leaves the street level space open and available for active uses in the evening, not just lined with restaurants that close at 3PM. The streets are still vibrant. The MSA population of the MSP area is about 1/3 larger than the Cincinnati MSA, yet Minneapolis CBD has a little more than double the total amount of office space square footage of Cincinnati CBD (and don't forget there is also downtown St. Paul CBD, not included these numbers). I know there are a lot of other factors here, but I think it speaks to the desirability of downtown office space being stronger there than here relative to the suburbs. The short of it for me: Office workers going about their business and eating lunch - Skyways Good Restaurants and Shopping - Sidewalks Good Another advantage in MSP is that it keeps parking out of the core. There are massive skyway connected garages on downtown's western fringe that I don't think would be viable without those connections. The debate there carries on like it does here: http://minnescraper.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1058 And as further evidence of the office space advantage, private developers are still paying to expand the system: http://finance-commerce.com/2011/11/new-skyway-called-‘game-changer’-for-accenture-tower/

I lived in Minnesota back in 2002 and there was a similar situation where Xcel energy was refusing to pay the $20mil to relocate utilities to make way for a light rail line. It went to court, and it was ruled that based on state law Xcel had to move at its own expense since its a public right of way. Like the streetcar, this expense was threating construction of the line. Do any of the lawyers here know what Ohio's laws are regarding public right of way? My suspicion here is that Duke is not on the legal higher ground. The city should start and take Duke to court for the money. On an unrelated note.... so long as we are moving utility poles and ripping up the street at the same time.... seems like a pretty good opportunity to underground the wires. The overhead lines in Over the Rhine are pretty ugly.

I think 70,000 was for the entire purchase, not per building. I follow the transactions on the auditors website and if a single transaction is made for multiple properties the sale amount for the entire purchase gets assigned to each property. For example, look up 1425, 1429, 1431, and 1433 Vine St. Each is listed as sold for 265,000 from Smitty's. But this was the value of the transaction for the entire set of buildings not the single building listed.

Drove down Pendleton and was greeted with a giant gray wall at Reading. I know I have complained before and that they are not close to done yet, but I really am not sure what they can do about this. It's awful and as lifeless as the backside of the prison. I also am not so sure about a roundabout at reading/liberty/471. These are not very bike and pedestrian friendly. If it means eminent domain to get rid of the check cashing place then cool.