CincyGuy45202

I find it interesting he is convinced a transportation project through the urban core has 0 economic impact but putting a religious facility in an industrial park will be perfect.

Regarding room increases, 21C is 140 Enquirer is about 240 Banks would be around 160 Holiday Inn & Suites at 7th & Sycamore is supposed to be 200 Right there is 700 rooms + SREE saying they are looking at "more sites" currently. I'm not saying it's bad, just find it very interesting. The Residence Inn was the first new hotel since the late 1980's and several had closed since then. Now in a span of around 5 years we might be adding nearly 900 rooms (Res Inn opened just over a year ago). Nothing wrong with it, obviously it's great news, but it's a little surprising.

I agree about Meijer, I only threw them in there because their hypermarket format (along with Wal-Mart's), along with Kroger upgrading many of their high volume locations, is what pushed Thriftway and IGA out of the Cincinnati market. The Kroger name is very strong in Cincinnati. People feel allegiance to it even if it is an enormous corporation that is more likely to place its hand in your pocket than to give you a pat on the back. I think that intrinsically influenced the decline in interest Cincinnatians showed toward Thriftway and IGA in their waning days. They weren't keeping up with today's grocery format, which is to offer as much non-grocery as grocery. Neither was Kroger, but they have the loyalty of the locals, as well as a store every two miles. Even with the CBD and OTR seeing new, single residents with annual incomes above $40,000, the average resident of OTR is living in extreme poverty. Having a mid-level grocer like Whole Foods in a scaled-down space as part of an urban shopping center, complete with a housing component, would be ideal to maintain their presence as well as having a Kroger for the community at large. I wonder if Whole Foods could work in Tower Place. I liked everything you were saying until you described Whole Foods as mid-level. I can't imagine what high-level would be!

Also, W&S wants that building, not just that location. Keeping it intact is kind of important if you want to make it condos...

Except that the Smitty's fire didn't do anything other than help Smitty's get a huge insurance payout. All he did was move half a block down the street into a new storefront. If the goal was for 3CDC to "burn" him out of the neighborhood they failed as he got a huge insurance payout and then opened a new storefront next door. I don't see how that would work as a conspiracy to get rid of him...

It should be noted that almost none of these pilots will be moving to Lunken. Lunken is almost entirely full. There are almost no available hangars and no room for any businesses or other pilot schools to move to (there already is a pilot school). So everyone should accept that these jobs/pilots are going to Butler or Clermont County airports. I don't think there's anything wrong with that as the benefit of selling & shutting down the airport is worth it to the City of Cincinnati, but the idea that most of these jobs/pilots/revenue will move to Lunken isn't true, only a little if any of it will.

Ah yes- My bad I only thought of the 4 standard hotels. the Residence Inn is an extended stay, the Cincinnatian is sort of our comparable to a boutique hotel and I guess the Garfield is split about half extended stay and half regular rooms. Either way, considering occupancy is somewhere around 67-69% I think it's a little crazy to expect 4+ new hotels to open and no one to do poorly or go out of business. Like I said, if the Millennium closes that's great, but beyond that occurring I don't see how we're going to add another 25-30% in available rooms without someone shutting down.

Just to be clear, there are only 4 hotels downtown right now- so we're saying, double that number. If the Millenium is going to close, then yes, it not I don't see how they can all stay viable.

I agree mostly with Ryan, but see no benefit in a west end Kroger. Why should Kroger keep 3 recently renovated stores in 5 square miles? They aren't losing many potential customers by not renovating these, as the white and afluent people are willing to drive to better Krogers and Whole Foods probably only takes a Small portion of their customers away. I think a longer term plan for them will be to open a larger downtown Kroger once downtown gets ~3,000 more people at which time they'll close the OTR Kroger. Also, a strategy for the neighborhood is always to get more typical grocer options at Findlay Market. The streetcar line will eventually have Findlay market, a Cvs, & two krogers along the route. sounds good to me!

Those numbers are a bit skewed. The City's general fund gets 1.55% of the income tax which is about 70% of all general fund revenue, close to BlueAsh's 63%. I believe your number included water works & MSD which make it seem like the city relies less on income tax. But yes, property taxes are almost nothing, and something like $60 million in property tax revenue is abated.

It's not that Kroger can't do well, it's that all the YP's and empty nesters who have moved to OTR & Walnut Hills drive to the Newport Kroger or the Hyde Park Kroger so they have little incentive to update the smaller ones since those with mobility and $$ still spend money at a Kroger

^ do you have any written evidence or anything where Kroger says it's against connecting the road? The land is owned by Anchor Properties. They would have to sell the land to the City and then the City would have to make it a road (there's no way they would keep it as a private road). Kroger is not about to tell Anchor properties, you have to sell land you have to the City. It's not like its Kroger's job to tell a private company it needs to sell its land to the City to connect a road that was removed (I think) about 40 years ago. That's a bit idealistic.

We just need to keep moving forward & making out OWN investments & changes to the city. These people & their ally John Cranley have no interest to move the City forward.

I think if they were interested in adding to neighborhoods they would not object to connecting Vine with Short Vine and they would make that store more urban-friendly. Kroger doesn't own university plaza or the buildings. Anchor properties does.

You don't think they plan to? There's just not enough demand yet. Give it 5 years, we'll have a great urban grocery store.

Thanks for that great contribution Jake.

No one else thinks it's crazy we're potentially adding 4 hotels in as many years? Hotel Occupancy downtown is only about 65% as is.

How the hell can you call one guys random (and immediately deleted) post on reddit a "sexual harrassment allegation". That's hilarious. Pretty sure the Enquirer interviewed the manager of Bakersfield and she said it was a regular night, nothing happened. Next we're gonna read 4Chan for the inside scoop on PG's dating life or the Mayors night life.

This is a ridiculous comment. A year an a half from now when he's up for reelection people won't be talking about how while he was walking home from a bar he got jumped and called 911 drunk. If you think a drunk 911 call ruins a political career you don't pay much attention to politics. Sen. Vitter had sex with multiple prostitutes & has been reelected in a conservative state. Clinton cheated on his wife & he's beloved.

^ just to be clear, nearly all the buildings along reading facing the casino are already redeveloped into condos/event space.

8th & state, I've been told by a friend consulting on the projec that because of all the ballot initiatives & everything COAST did, Duke assumed the project would never happen & hadn't even considered preliminary engineering until after this past election because they just blew off the city & assumed the project wouldn't happen. That right there puts everything behind.

^ pretty sure an employee posted it on Reddit first, then immediately took it down, then James Dego/COAST put it up.

I remember that incident, and it was absolute bullshit because the fire station closest to that fire was NOT browned out & was on seen in like 4 minutes or something.

^ I'm pretty sure Their menu is just very uneven. I had friends go and say it was a huge disappointment, but I went for a couple appetizers as thought it was fine. I've heard similar stories & Polly campbell at the Enquirer wrote a review that said that as well. Hoping they even out their quality.

Man- they are scary. Like lose it at any time scary.