Brutus_buckeye

The more people wanting to rent means the higher landlords can push the rent. Good time to own investment property.

Jake, the arena is outdated and it would not put the best face out there for the national media, etc. who would be at the event. Yes, it would be functional, but at the end of the day, when there are much nicer facilities, all else being equal, US Bank was not going to cut it. What needs to be decided is that in the future, is the cost benefit analysis enough to support building a new one. At this time, I agree with you it is not, but know that it comes with trade offs. KC built their arena with the hopes of bringing an NBA team there and you can see it is a lightly used place. Look at San Antonio with the Alamodome. Also not the best use of public money. Indy was lucky when they built the hoosier dome years ago, but most places are not that fortuitous. By the time an NBA team would go to KC, the arena is out of date and they would need a new one.

Go to South Park, up coming area near UD. Great vibe, a little bohemian. Mix of students, young professionals, urbanites, empty nesters.

Interesting news on AirBNB. Looks like the beginning of the end for this service, or it will definitely curtail its growth. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2014/05/airbnb-new-york-attorney-general-host-records.html?page=2

It would not be a Harris Teeter store since the name is not in Cincinnati, it would be under Kroger name, if it would happen.

The latest plan died because city officials thought is was not ambitious enough. I am all for thinking big, but if someone is going to be able to put together the means to build a 100 million dollar development with hundreds of apartments/condos in the heart of the city, don't criticize it for not being ambitious enough. If there were 2 or 3 competing projects then it is a fair argument to make, but since this is the only one, take what you have. A more ambitious project is not on the table because it probably could not get financing. It may take a generation for a suitable project to come around that meets the ambitious needs of some city council clown. also, as an example of holding out for the ambitious project, Fountain Square West comes to mind. What was once a 50 story tower turned into a 3 story department store. which was preceded by 3 years of a parking lot on that site.

Jake - what exactly is your point here? That insurance companies have the ability to outlast a historic district and then lobby to change the zoning and therefore they must be up to no good? I just don't follow where you are going here? Please elaborate.

I would hardly say they did any poaching from OTR and other parts of Uptown and such. That is a fallacy that stems from people upset with the whole Anna Louise Inn. Look at QCSquare and 303 Broadway's tenants - Great American was the main tenant and came from another part of downtown (while that could be considered "poaching," the building would not have been built without it). The other key tenants in the building are law firms who moved from one Class A office to another downtown. None of those companies would consider going to OTR for business. OTR and uptown cater to creative companies and emerging companies. QCS is for the established financial center companies. At 303 broadway, the same thing. Most of the companies there are W&S subsidiaries and some of them were relocated here from out of town. Key Bank moved there from the suburbs. ALso, they are always looking for an out of town tenant to poach and bring here. International Paper was close to relocating their HQ here a number of years ago but the city just missed out. There are discussions going on all the time with these businesses. By having a top notch facility, this will allow the city to compete for those companies. I just don't see why you seem to feel Barrett is this nefarious creature that does not have good intentions. Yes we all have some self interest in the matter but you better believe that he recognizes that what is going on in OTR is good for his company

way to be the conspiracy theorist, Jake. It is one thing for him to be against the streetcar but at the same time it still has benefits to them attracting people from out of town to locate here. Lytle Park is only about a 2 block walk from Main Street. Not something that would deter a streetcar rider from OTR from doing and walking to work. I think the bigger impetus for the expansion is that W&S has a number of subsidiaries based in other cities that would likely be relocated here in the next few years. They did this about 4-5 years ago where they brought a subsidiary from Louisville and somewhere in Indiana to Cincinnati to be based out of 303 Broadway. I bet there is more of that to come if they are able to develop this area.

I do not know much about AirBNB but did read that some state taxing authorities were looking into it. The issue is whether you have to charge sales tax when you rent a room by the night. This is what separates apartments from Hotels. If such is the case, it could make the business model for AirBNB rather difficult as the average person may not want to go through the requirements of getting a business license and paying sales tax on renting their rooms out short term.

You may want to join Cincinnati REIA. I have belonged to them and the apartment association for years now. They can provide you with vendor discounts and more importantly, they have a library of leases, contracts, checklists, forms etc that you can download and help you in your business. They have already been prepped by attorneys and are tailored for Ohio, KY and IN. There is a wealth of information there. When I got started, I went to their meetings on a regular basis.

Not necessarily true. I know of several reputable property management firms in Cincinnati that specialize in managing smaller rental properties for "silent" property owners/investors. I think it depends on your motivations, if your goal is to have significant cash flow from across the country, it is hard to do that with a property management firm. You still will receive some cash flow when it is operating at peak efficiency (and depending your purchase price). The key is that you buy right. There is a ton of stupid money from the West Coast in Cincinnati now that bought rental properties that had no idea what they were doing and we are buying them for deep discounts while they lose their shirts. I always say Condos are not the best investments, but can be ok if the price is a steal. Also, if you have a friend who can show vacant units to tenants, and let repair people in that is the best way to manage the smaller property. You are still getting the tenant calls and making sure the repair is needed then calling the repair man. Pay your friend a month's rent for handling these tasks. I know a number of people doing this and it works very well for them.

The large suburban style centers are often back office operations. It is often in the company's best interest to keep the back office professionals as close to their desk/campus as possible. Look at Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. They build huge suburban office park campuses. The workers have a few dining options through the company cafeterias but for the most part they do not leave campus. Their goal is not to go directly out to the customer so there is no need to encourage them to leave. In GE's case, that would be appropriate with their model. This is going to be a back office operations center. Typically, it is located in the suburban office parks, etc. because of the cost and type of worker who works there. I think KJBRILL hitting on was this fact. Look at the companies in the urban core (attorney's, banks, corp HQ). Go to any city and see that these businesses are in this location because it connects them closest with the customer base. The engineers and architects who have downtown offices are the ones who are customer focused not back office like GE. As much as I would love to see the banks, given the type of job that is being filled, it almost fits better at Oakley or Mason.

You must have never been to Evendale Jake. It may not be barren land, but there is nothing but old factory buildings and a ton of security to go through.

Supposed to break ground in July 2014

Cant see them going to Evendale. Yes, GE owns the land but that is GEAE and this is GE corporate. I doubt they would want to intermingle the jobs especially since they will support areas outside of GEAE.

Jake--as much as I agree with you on so many things, here I'm really asking you to modify your perception of Oakley No matter what, not some generic "SW OHIO," but actually the "city" of Cincinnati, itself, is about to gain 1,400-2,000 high-paying jobs and the additional presence of one prestigious F10 company! It will probably be much more than 2000 jobs when it is all said and done because it will create other jobs in hospitality, food service, and other industries, and even suppliers to GE that want to be near the ops center. These 2000 jobs will likely have a multiplier effect felt outside of just GE.

Breaking news - GE to develop a 50 story tower to house their operations center at the corner of 4th and Plum in the convention place lot. Will be downtown's new tallest. - It is nice to dream isn't it.

This probably cant hurt his re-election chances this fall http://jobs-ohio.com/news/ge-bringing-1400-jobs-greater-cincinnati/

I have always wondered who does these pages (and so quickly too). Is it someone at Carter trying to promote their product or just someone who is a fan of the Banks?

Looks like Kaisch may have sealed his re-election with this news.

Also, why not have a temp location in the burbs before deciding on a perm location. Office space is cheaper out there anyway. On top of that, placing the temp location downtown will get the workers accustomed to paying parking, etc. which would be a bit of a shock if it were moving from the burbs to city. My bet is that the perm location is the banks.

Would be interesting where the jobs are moving from. Would be hard to think they are creating 2000 jobs from scratch without relocating from an existing site. They say it is not GEAE, interesting to hear what group it is. Also, it seems that they are set on Ohio vs other areas of the country (not sure if that is correct or not). I would imagine it is the consumer Finance division. They have a large office in the Springboro/Dayton area I believe. I could see them moving those jobs down to Cincinnati if that was the case.

Hallelujah. We are now going to BIG Time. Big time renovations, Big Time arena. WOOT

Good point, also, don't forget the huge acts do stadium tours and Cincinnati has been competing well for those in recent years. bottom line, the ROI for concerts alone is not there. Need to have a pro team with 40 home dates a year to make it.