Brutus_buckeye

We maybe 5/3 can develop their air rights above the old Macy's to expand their corporate campus that direction.

The county has the right to vote up to a .25% increase on the ballot without first taking it to the voters. The big problem with what just happened. 1) they tried this last year only to have COAST organize a large petition drive and convince them into repealing it, which they did. (They should have learned from this) 2) The voters voted in 2015 to save Union Terminal by agreeing to a 5 year sales tax increase and then being promised to have it roll off the ballot. This move betrays their the voters trust. Yes, they are waiting until it expires, but from the avg voter viewpoint, it looks as if the county did not keep their word. This will poison the well for all future sales tax increases. The timing of this ensures as much. 3) COAST is likely to launch a petition drive. The petition drive is highly likely to succeed in getting this on the ballot. Whether it succeeds in repealing it does not matter. The fact it would get on the March ballot would make a larger tax increase much more challenging to pass. Voters could vote against both (likely), spilt the baby and vote for the smaller one (also a likely scenario), vote for both (probably less likely but still a reasonable choice), vote against the county and for the bus levy (probably unlikely). Just having it on the ballot poisons the bus levy. 4) The big plan was to do the bus levy last year, but the county poisoned the well by doing the sale tax increase which subsequently was defeated by COAST. You would have to expect a similar result this time. COAST was probably going to be silent (against it but not overly vocal) on the bus levy. You can all but assure that will no longer be the case with this move by the county

That is good news. I like this location a ton and it will be a great addition to the center of the city.

any updates on this project? it has been quiet for so long. of all the downtown boutique hotel conversions, this one excites me the most if they can make it happen. The location is prime and perfect for it. Plus I am sure they can market the old CAC space as event space for the hotel.

I was at Court Street over the weekend and I know there has been some talk about closing it off to traffic. It made me think of walking through Little Italy in New York in the summer when they close down the street and make it an al fresca dining spot on the weekends. To me, this could be the best of both worlds. Court street could be used for vehicle traffic during the day and week but in the after hour period, the cafe's could capitalize on open air dining and using the space as a gathering area.

ValleyFair is a small park. I don't think it gets the same level of investment of a park like Cedar Point, KI, Carrowinds, and Canada Wonderland.

Also, I think MLS is starting to see the benefits of a stadium in the urban core. Mapre was nice until is wasn't. Having people walk from bars to the game is much more of a soccer thing. Toyota Field catered more to suburban parkers and tailgate crowd (which did not seem too popular in soccer) than an urban venue.

They do, but often at the behest of the incumbent's recommendation, which of course is also blessed by the party.

Never personally flown Allegiant, however If you have flexibility in travel it can be good. I have enjoyed Frontier. They fly to most major airports so they seem to have a pretty good record in and out. Southwest is the best. With the free bags, it is price competitive, however, If you do not need a bag and just have a small carry on, they are not as price competitive.

It is purely anecdotal of course, but I found it interesting, the last 3 times I flew from CVG I was chatting with a number of people on the parking lot bus and at the gate who came in from Columbus. They said they fly monthly to Florida on Allegiant and Frontier because they offer the best rates than they can find in the Columbus market. While I don't think that really speaks to the Columbus market at all, it is a bit of a change from say 10 years ago when there was zero net migration from Columbus to CVG and there was a large number of Cincinnati passengers traveling from Cincinnati to CMH or Dayton.

Six Flags parks suck. They are too corporate and full of sameness. There is nothing that makes them unique. Plus 6 Flags is always going in and out of bankruptcy as they are controlled by Private Equity (or had been so often in the past) so I cant see this as a good thing

They could easily tear it down and build a new convention hotel on the same spot. That would be fine. However, if the plan is to close Elm and go over Elm like the renderings show, I am skeptical they can meet that timeline.

It seems too unlike Cincinnati to close the Millenium, start tearing it down in 4 months and build a new tower and convention center expansion over Elm Street and have it all open in 2 years. The worst thing that could possibly come from this is to close the hotel, tear it down and then have the entire project mired in controversy for 3-4 years while they argue the merits of closing or not closing the street and which direction to expand, and then having every interest group come with their hands out. It seems as if the ambitious time line for the project is too good to be true. I also question how it can include the convention center expansion over Elm since there would have had to be a bunch of meetings on that already to make such a timeline realistic. Call me skeptical, but I can see this project being mired in controversy for years and becoming an empty lot.

If you are truly looking for mailbox money, go and buy a single tenant Starbucks or Panera location. Likely only a 5% return (unlevered) but the leases are NNN and you never have to do anything.

Bigger Pockets is a good resource for that. You can learn about single family, apartment, storage, office, or whatever asset class you desire on there. I do a lot of work in those areas especially with apartments so if you ever need to run questions, I am happy to consult with you. We started working with small apartment buildings 10 years ago as I was getting frustrated with my legal practice, and it has been a great thing for my wife and I.

I would consider talking to a business broker, you can find them on bizbuysell. It would be good to make sure you truly get an understanding of the type of business that would best suit your interest, capability, and most importantly the capacity you have to operate it while working your day job. The one thing that a number of peers whom I went to law school with struggled with was the desire to acquire a passive income by purchasing a small business yet still wanting to work full time in their legal practice. It was a very difficult task as the challenge of running a business (no matter how small) was too time consuming that it interfered with the day to day rigors of the actual practice of law (if you bill by the hour, you essentially have to account for 6-8 hours of billings per day one way or another). Some of the businesses were too small or labor intensive to justify a full time general manager to run them, so it essentially required the founder to devote a ton of their time to the business. After a few years, they looked to sell for a loss. As for taking a stake in small, local companies, it will depend on the type of business you are looking to take a stake in. Talk to some of the local venture capitalists and Angel Investors to get their criteria to understand how they invest. There are a lot of small mom and pop companies out there which may have the desire to grow, but would not make sense for a silent partner because the value of your minority stake cant be transferred and often times is worthless without the founder/manager/etc. and the companies are not big enough or have the growth potential to organize them like a tech company (with Class A, B,C shares, preferred stock, convertible shares, etc). If you are investing in say a small painting company, small restaurant or convenience store, or even law firm; it is harder to work as a passive investor. (in general service businesses are harder to work) If you are going to invest in businesses with hard assets, it is something that works better as you have collateral there. Real estate is a perfect example of this and why it works so well. Businesses where you have a real estate as a primary collateral (a manufacturing business, self storage, hotel, Dry cleaner (with real estate)). This way, if you have the business go South because of poor management, you have some collateral to recover or attempt to instill new management to turn it around without the entire value deteriorating (see WeWork as example 1). I know a lot of people who act as private lenders to these types of businesses, which is often a better structure if you are looking to be passive, because you then have the interest in the collateral if it goes south and can then take over the asset if you need. If you have ideas you may want to run by me, you are always welcome to reach out. Especially, if you are doing something real estate related, there are a ton of different methods you can use to grow a real estate portfolio or business portfolio with real estate collateral.

^ While still a Casino and designed to discourage foot traffic, I will say that the one thing they did to the neighborhood was open up the main entrance on Reading facing the Pendleton neighborhood and not completely closing off to street life in that area. While the majority will still be In and out car customers, there is hope that if the hotel is done right, it could add some additional street presence.

I am sure they would build a skywalk if they built a hotel across the street.

Yes, but it is essentially semantics (new tax by commissioners to replace the expiring one the voters voted in). It keeps the tax rate the same. I know a .25 raise does not need to be put before the voters, but it may cause a number of people to vote against the bus tax who may have otherwise given it a chance if the County goes back on their promise to roll back the .25 tax voted in 5 years ago.

So - what are the odds of this passing? It seems as if it is hated by a lot of people. There is still a ton the County can do to poison the well on this (such as not letting the Union Terminal Sales tax roll off) as well as if the earnings tax repeal fails in the city. However, taking things as they are now, is the feeling that this passes ?

I think the Hard Rock Brand, especially casino is still significant. Believe me, I am excited about this change. If they build a nice hotel, it Is a great addition. The stand alone café model has gotten stale and overbuilt, but there are only 12 casinos in the world with the Hard Rock name, so that still means something. They have to make it unique though. It would be a shame if they build a 5 story box hotel that does nothing to stand out. Do what they did in Tampa and make something that is architecturally significant. The Cleveland location was a bit of a head scratcher for me. It was in Tower City, but on the far end and really had nothing else near it, at least on the street level side. I ate there a couple times when I lived up there and it was underwhelming for the most part.

My "Cincinnati has made it" comments are more tongue n cheek. Getting a Hard Rock used to be a status symbol, now, half of the original locations have closed and gone out of business, the excitement has worn off. Back in the 80s, wearing a Hard Rock t-Shirt around, especially for a kid, was almost a badge of pride, like you have been somewhere and were in the cool club. I remember in the 90s when the Cleveland Hard Rock opened, it was a huge deal for the city for months. However, once it did open, it was much more of a thud as it was not much different than most other restaurants that served overpriced bar food.

For this to pass, the County has to let the music Hall tax passed 5 years ago to expire which is what the voters were promised. To essentially make that part permanent to cover county operating costs would be in bad faith and could really poison the bus levy.

Cincinnati is finally on the map. You can now get a Hard Rock Café Cincinnati T- Shirt. Take that Niagara Falls and Branson.

While I think this would be a great option for the convention center, I have a feeling that it would be a challenge to turn over the convention business to a private casino who may not align with the rest of the hotel industry in the city.