JoeHarmon

I hate the convention center. It kills that whole area. In my ideal world they would tear down the current one, reconnect Plum, let 3CDC do their thing to reinvigorate the area. Then partner with the casino, add another floor to the casino which would be the convention center. Then at least we could have only one giant ugly building that would be 2 stories, instead of 2 giant ugly 1 story buildings.

The density is great, but I HATE the combinations of facade materials. Brick for 5 stories, then siding for 3, but all siding over here in front of the garage. Just pick a material a go with it.

Does anyone know what the hold up is with this site? It would seem cheaper to build on an already vacant site as compared to the demolition of the old hospital they are doing for The District. With all the new apartment buildings that have gone up around campus, It is very surprising this land has stayed empty for so long.

Development at the Banks has basically come to a Halt. I know there is all the talk about a music venue, and a proposal for phase 3. But hard reality is that Phase 3 of the Banks has been sitting there ready for development for a couple years now, and nothing. If we can't even get something built on phase 3, which is "shovel ready", I don't see us ever getting these caps built and something developed on them. There obviously isn't enough demand for that right now.

I missed the Pendleton Neighborhood council meeting last night, but I heard this udpate. Matthew Andrews from the city came and presented about a 7 lane option for the liberty street road diet. Essentially keeping the road as is but with pedestrian bump outs. Pendleton voted in favor of this. I don't know if this is going in front of OTRCC again or if this is just making up for Pendleton not being included in the presentations for the road diet in the first place. Seems like with FCC coming in though, the road diet is never going to happen.

I don't think you have to worry about that, they have already started construction on "phase 1" lets call it, on the North side of Straight street.

The $250,000 is currently spent in a smaller area, mainly around Vine Street and Washington Park. They will need the $650,000 to provide these additional services on all the streets in the new proposal.

The ballet parking lot at the corner of Wade and Central parkway is the site of what used to be a brewery. There are lager tunnels under the parking lot. You can actually still see the foundation of the building at the perimeter of the lot. I assume they mean to incorporate the tunnels into the new development. However, the ballet has a lease on that parking lot. FC still needs to buy them out of their lease for the parking lot, and the building at some point.

Booooooooooooo. In the immortal words of Lando Calrissian, This deal is getting worse all the time.

Walked through fountain place today. It is very cold in there, 3cdc is not wasting any money on heating. They have permanently closed off the western portion of the 2nd floor. The little lunch counter that used to be there is closed. You can no longer get to the Race street entrance. The skywalk between Fountain place and the Carew tower had one of the doors boarded up. I am wondering how long until they close it down.

I would much rather see a building go on any of these lots. Permanently designating a lot a food truck area, and hence making the lot permanent seems backwards to me.

Agreed, my argument was that Pendleton already has a number of large historic buildings, the 8 story tall Arts Center, the old High School that is now the alumni Lofts, etc. Plus this site originally had a brewery on it. So historically, it was a large building. I voted for it and hope it gets built. Those surface lots aren't helping the neighborhood.

I spoke with Danny about this after the meeting. He is very passionate about the character of the neighborhood. He doesn't particularly care about buildings looking "Historic", he is fine with modern architecture, but he very much does not like the size of the building. The standard 25' wide 3 -4 story tall building is what I believe he wants to see for infill. Also, he was very bothered that the developers had been going back and forth with the planning department for about a year, finalizing the design. Then they ask the community councils to vote just a couple weeks before it goes in front of the HCB. He felt they were intentionally trying to minimize the Community councils input to the project. Which they probably were after the Liberty and Elm debacle.

Since this project sits on the brder of Pendleton and OTR, the HCB had asked them to go to both Neighborhood councils. OTR did not vote to support, Pendleton did, although it was very close. The development group is trying to get the appeal thrown out since it is in Pendleton.

The HCB asks developers to go to the community councils and have them vote to support a project or not. But you are correct there is no real power there. The HCB takes the vote into consideration, but they can still make whatever decision they feel is best. I was not aware of the ability to appeal one of their decisions until last months Pendleton Neighborhood meeting. The representative from the Development team gave us that update. I don't know any more than that.

I hope this take priority over the 5th and Plum lot. This is far more important.

There is a guy who is I think the VP of OTRCC. He is a nice guy who is super passionate about OTR/Pendelton. He strongly believes in finely grained urbanism. He also believes no infill in OTR/Pendleton should be taller than 4 stories. He will do everything he can to stop any large building. I don't disagree that finely grained urbanism infill would be preferable to one large ownership model. I just don't see that as a realistic development model in today's environment. I would rather have a large building than a surface lot.

Other the Rhine community council appealed the Historic Boards decision to let it move forward. The development group is arguing that since it is in Pendleton, OTR shouldn't be allowed to appeal it. But if they can drag this out long enough, the developer will go over the timeframe to purchase the lot at the price they had negotiated. At that point, if the owner of the lot asks for more, the project is likely dead.

A small building on Vine just south of Madfrog was recently demolished. Also, right next to that, the Simply for U Hair Salon was for sale a year ago or so. I could see a small apartment going in there, and then start to see more development creep down Vine.

We need a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant

The Pendleton Community Council meeting voted strongly in favor of this project. However, of those who were against, the 5 story height was a concern. I pointed out that the Historic Pendleton Arts building is 8 stories tall. The old High school that is now the Alumni Lofts is a very large 5 story building, etc. But they don't want to hear that. As far as they are concerned, any infill should be 3, maybe 4 stories max. That is what "fits" the neighborhood. They will fight any large building.

Does anyone know if the Stetson square project is ever going to fill in the block on MLK, Eden, Gerard ?

So frustrating. If someone came in proposing a handful of single family townhomes here, that would probably get approved no problem. But a project with nice density, nope. Also, the proposed infill project on Sycamore is currently being held up by an appeal from the OTRCC. Even though that project is in Pendleton.

The Park board voted down the CCAC building in Burnet Woods. https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21037785/cincinnati-park-board-says-no-to-ccac-in-burnet-woods Not terribly surprising. I always thought the proposed development on Howell was a better location for CCAC anyways. Although it doesn't seem like the CCAC likes that option.

Sycamore apartments was approved by HCB, but I haven't heard anything since then. The Casino does sell monthly passes. It is $40 for a spot in their surface lot. They sell limited number of passes in their garage, but you can get on the wait list.