Brutus_buckeye

It would be more important to cities like Dayton and Toledo and Youngstown to have those agencies than it would be for the big C's who have much more diversified economies.

Coupe this with idea that the state should spread out state agencies across the state too

I just don't see how they have the space here for that dense of a development without some sort of underground parking structure. Pig and whistle has a large footprint, but I remember nights where the lot would be packed and there would be overflow to the Busken lot across the street, and that is just for one bar. Imagine adding 200 apartments to the mix. Without some sort of parking solution, I cant see how this project is feasible.

They are a pain in the ass to take care of. Tenants do not care to maintain them and let the filters get clogged which hurts the efficiency of the individual units too. They get a lot more wear and tear than traditional residential units. Personally, I hate dealing with them at our properties because they are always breaking down for one reason or another, tenant related.

Yup. Gotta have as little shared infrastructure as possible. Because if you share it, you can't bill the tenants as easily for it, nor will they be able to have control of the temperature for their unit. Yes, it is less efficient, but if you want to have a class A building, you better have individual amenities, if you want a class C building then it can be shared.

THis may actually do it. With Vantiv and Ashland and GE with strong British operations I could see the CVG to Gatwick flight starting up again.

But with Oil at $30-$40 a barrel for a long time now, I don't see electric cars getting the huge boost they would if gas prices rose to $5 a gallon

had an conversation with a supplier of parts to the energy industry. They work with everyone but traditional oil drillers (because they don't need their type of parts) but they work with offshore oil, wind, solar, coal, geothermal, etc. his thoughts: It is all about basic economics. It does not matter who the president is or what some central government agency tries to push. 1) Coal is dead. The only future coal will have is not as an energy source because it is too inefficient to compete in today's economy. 2) Solar and wind really are not viable without government incentives to push them and penalties to hold back the oil and gas industry. 3) Offshore Oil, Canadian Oil, Alaskan Oil right now are worthless and will not do anything for a long time unless Ohio gets to around $70 barrel. 4) US Oil is more plentiful than ever due to fracking and natural gas is too. 5) Electric vehicles will begin to lose some of their appeal because Oil is so cheap and natural gas, being so plentiful and cheap may become the clean, green choice for the future. Ultimately, he expects rough waters ahead for Tesla and the EV makers domestically, but there may be possibilities in Europe.

The nice thing about living in the burbs is that there were no politicians messing up the parades this year. The only one I saw was Portman, which was kinda cool since it is cool to meet a sitting US Senator, and he is not running for re-election for another 5 years.

^ It is because banks are not lending on such projects. In order to get a project off the ground like that now, you need to be like 75% pre-sold on it which is absurdly high, and they are making it tough for buyers to finance their units too since they took such a bath on them 10 years ago. They are starting to loosen a little, but it is not the developers as much as it is Fannie and Freddie who do not like condo developments in secondary or tertiary markets.

Commercial property is assessed by a combination of land value and income. Therefore, a vacant 580 building (before turning it into condos) could theoretically be assessed less than say the Tri-State building if it were fully 100% occupied because the income it brings in is more than the 580 building. You can appeal property taxes all the time and it is part of managing your expenses if you own investment property since taxes are often the largest expense to manage.

If you want to kill development or people investing in their existing property, don't balance your budget on the backs of property owners. I know they are working on ways in the statehouse now to control cities ability to bump valuations on commercial properties in the event of sales or changing market conditions around them so that property owners do not have to worry about a huge spike hitting them every few years. This is a good thing for affordable housing in the market How is not rolling taxes backwards the same thing you suggested I was saying? There's a world of difference in having a tax rate and sticking with it and arbitrarily increasing valuations to collect more money and balance your budget. Basically every city has a property tax rate and sticks with it. Doesn't seem to be killing development. First, most cities that have significant development outside of NY and San Fran, DC, etc offer property tax rollbacks to spur development in the cities. It makes sense too. Many of these downtown projects cannot be justified without tax incentives. See the Kroger store for example. We are not a city of 6 million people. If the goal is to attract more taxpaying residents who will support local businesses and develop new businesses in the area, then this is how to do it. If it means keeping the tax rate the same as it would be if the property were a parking lot, then the city comes out ahead since instead of a parking lot, you have residential units that help increase the income tax base in the city. Having 500 people paying the 2% income tax is going to bring in more money than the property tax would on that property anyway.

If you want to kill development or people investing in their existing property, don't balance your budget on the backs of property owners. I know they are working on ways in the statehouse now to control cities ability to bump valuations on commercial properties in the event of sales or changing market conditions around them so that property owners do not have to worry about a huge spike hitting them every few years. This is a good thing for affordable housing in the market

So it looks like this is happening?

This was before Skyhouse. There is even a thread on this board in the abandoned project thread for One River Plaza. IT was going to be a phenomenal place if built. It was condo as opposed to apartment. It was proposed around 2006 time frame and leasing up through 2008 when the crash came and killed the project. I reviewed a few contracts for people looking to purchase there and they were pretty close to being able to break ground on the project when the bottom fell out and all the financing dried up. It was so bad that you could nto get financing for a condo project until only 2-3 years ago.

They may own the land but to get financing to build you need to have commitments from tenants. I do feel the office in that location should do well with all the people wanting to get into OTR. They should build it higher personally, but office is definitely going to work.

^ does the Kingsley development still happen? I thought it was supposed to have a grocery store component and with Kroger going where it was going, I don't see a grocery store component feasible anymore. Does that change the economics of the deal.

Looks like Amazon may not have the lock on Whole Foods after all http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/19/investing/whole-foods-amazon-bidding-war/index.html

^ It would be hard to try it without parking because there are a lot of people at the Courthouse and County Admin building who use that lot. A garage would not necessarily be for the building but to replace the lost parking for the workers in the area.

I think it will be a condo development similar to what is proposed on 8th and Main area. I used to walk there and always envisioned a boutique movie theatre there, but I really cant set that happening anymore at that site. Some combination of housing/garage/ and destination level retail would be a great fit there, maybe a furniture store or something

I am torn as to whether the apartments and garage should enter along Court as well, directing all foot traffic to Court, or if it makes sense directing it over to Central and creating foot traffic on that block.

Life can never be fair because fairness is all about perspective. To complain about things being fair or unfair is a matter of your point of view. Regarding your question about subsidizing drivers as being fair, I find it very fair, as do many other members on the board because the stakeholders get good value for this subsidy, and it is a subsidy that was bargained for at arms length. If you want a nice, new, upscale downtown grocery store with 150 apartment units attached, it is going to cost the taxpayers a parking subsidy. If that subsidy is too much to stomach for the majority of people, then they can have a parking lot instead. It is all about bargaining and in this case, most people will agree that the price of parking is small relative to the benefits of receiving the store. That is why it is very fair.

^ O how sweet, you actually think life is supposed to be fair, that's cute. This is a pure economics matter. Fact is, people downtown want a grocery store. It is important for there to be a grocery store downtown for continued development and to get more people to move into the urban area. The market without subsidies does not allow an apartment tower to be built in Cincy right now. In New York or San Fran, that is not the case, they can do that. So the question becomes how bad do we want something and what can we do to make it happen. If you look at things through the lens of what is fair and equal to the little guy, then nothing will ever get done. The better way to look at it is, is this project going to make the city a better more livable place and will the quality of life be increased for people of all ages, races, and socio economic levels. Through that lens, there is no arguing the answer is a resounding yes!!

^ Right now I would not consider that prime Riverfront land. Prior to PBS, what was there? It was pretty much a bunch of run down warehouses. The fields give people more reason to visit there now. Plus, now that the Bengals have training camp there it gives people more reason to come to that part of the city.

^ By paying pool, my thoughts is that they would then be re-allocated to Kroger employees working at corporate who need additional spaces. This may not be that bad of a thing if it creates more jobs downtown