1400 Sycamore

I don't think it will. It seems like this building would be shorter than the existing building at 1100 Sycamore. I'll try to get a snapshot from the 4th floor at 1400 Sycamore tomorrow. It is elevated from 12th. Pretty good view from up there now.

I'll be the NIMBY: Probably block some of my skyline view from 14th and Sycamore. Same for some units at 1310 Sycamore.

Foreign investment is a large scale process. A 100 million dollar project is not a line item on an international real estate investment organization balance sheet. I get calls every week for one or more of the larger properties I am nominee for and never get an inquiry from a foreign investor. In fact, the largest property people think I own and therefore cold call me is about $5MM in value and I don't even get called by national companies. Big Ohio investors, CA now and then. So I conclude that if someone is selling Kings Island or the Kenwood Towne Center, you might see a foreign investor. But, that's about it. When the Jackson Brewery comes out of hiding in a few years, that could be the first really big OTR project, but until then, its only about the little guys.

Photo images do not capture the pervasive odor of human feces. Nonetheless, a little of the reason local residents do not like homeless outdoor living can be seen from the image below. This is my parking pad in the rear of my well occupied building.

The Parkhaus Garage will be there 20 years from now. Unchanged. The County would not even put renovation of that on an agenda until it is disintegrating.

Any idea who owns the Park Haus garage? Again, if this proposed mixed use development on the sycamore lots contains any parking structures I have to imagine the park haus garage days are over. The County owns that one.

One lot was owned by Arnie Levine and Rick was running it. Sold to TRL Investments on 6/29/2018. I could probably figure out who that is. The other is owned by my former boss Guy Hild as Trustee. The problem with the Hild property is you will never know who Guy is "trustee" for until someone signs a development mortgage. And, note that conveyance of the fee interest on these hugely appreciated properties is a thing of the past. It is trustee to trustee or sale of the LLC interests. I can explain it if anyone cares to learn about it.

The gentrification progress could have played a part, but I don't think so. One of my cronies tried what looks like exactly the same thing (I wasn't ever in EMC but read their reviews, etc.) in Mt Adams which could not have any more gentrification than it does. I told the promoters of Sprouts in the old Alive One space not to do it. and it failed faster than the blink of an eye. I think people like choosing groceries from a thousand SKU's not 15. And, their wines from an expert or a discount house. And, no one wants to pay $27 for a little bottle of olive oil. Gentrified or not.

The 3CDC buildings are not economically stable in a private market. This doesn't matter because they are built with subsidy which becomes permanent. But, at $250- $300 per square foot of construction cost (which is what most of new Vine Street was built for), if privately owned and financed as Main St. was, one could not get a tenant to pay the rents needed to amortize the cost. So, you are not going to get 3CDC quality without 3CDC tax incentives. When City Center Properties fought the first battle with ReStok and renovated the 1400+ Main properties they were renovated in the $50-80 per square foot range. Today, think of that as $80-100 per SF. Model is spending more than that but they don't care. Its not their money. Stable development is private development because people who have an equity interest in th eproperty play for the long term. And, long term is good.

^^ That would be the Shell Station. No one would buy gas there anyway. Its really just a bodega with a big nasty parking lot.

I don't disagree with the premise that bars and restaurants expose a new area and open it up to development. That is exactly what we sought to achieve with the significant sales of develop able properties to the Franz Group and the Model affiliates. If I gave you the number you would be impressed. More bars and restaurants in the area north and west of Findlay Market is the starting point. But the Main St. boom is already won and over as far as an incentive for development. The hundreds of properties that are already online or in the queue are gonna happen without another bar. McMicken? Not so much.

Main St. has plenty enough bars and restaurants. What it needs now are residential amenities. It serves a quite large area being the business district for both Liberty Hill and Pendleton. Its long term stability depends upon people being able to access those less colorful businesses like clothing, grocery, arts, healthcare and offices. Visitors from outside the area will come, see what an interesting life style is available here and continue to drive renovation of hundreds of existing buildings. But hoards of one time visitors are not helpful to a neighborhood on the brink of mainstream residential as Main St. is. Ask anyone who lived in Mt. Adams in 1980.

^^Uh huh. Like all the new bars and restaurants in Hyde Park Square, Mt. Lookout Square and Mariemont, the top three residential neighborhoods that have bars and restaurants embedded in the residential area.

Despite the appeal of bars and restaurants to outsiders, Main St's success does not depend on these businesses. It is already established as the business corridor for market rate residential with all of the residential amenities one needs for good city living. The restaurants are a plus, but they come and go and trends are fickle. If Main St. never got another bar or restaurant, the development progress would continue unabated.

I'm sure he was a big supporter. But, if I listed all of the properties that were included in the deal you would see that the streetcar route was not much involved. The Elder and Elm St. Properties were a small part in number and value.

Oh, I don't think so. Fred and Bobby had discussed these properties for years. They went back and forth adding and subtracting parcels. The whole deal was finally inked by July 2015. I never one time heard Bobby, Steve or Art say anything about the streetcar. The streetcar spurred development but not that group's purchases.

I personally pled with the new owner to learn the process from Bill before he left. It is a craft not for the untrained.

I guess Josh Spring is the reincarnation of Buddy Gray.

PM sent. Thanks.

Thanks for that photo. Pre-landslide. I think there will be a plan for the Jackson Brewery but it is not connected to the Franz Fund activities and it will not happen for a while yet. Things are stable there with the new roof and the ownership issues resolved. Be patient, the Brewery is in good hands. In the meantime, if someone wants to put an incline up W. Clifton to UC, that would be splendid.

My "subtle hint" was only that there are a lot more transactions than the 28 counted above.

Well, to see the whole picture you should also check WMcMicken Properties.

Most of the participants attempting to "solve" this problem assume that the "homeless" do not choose to live the way they do, or that they would prefer another lifestyle. Big mistake. No solution will work unless it is attractive to the "homeless" or, alternatively, combative beyond their comfort level. One or the other. I'd say the least likely "solution" would be a shelter with typical rules: you know: no drugs, alcohol containers, weapons, sex, fires, etc.

I appreciate that you did, but my post is 100% correct. I am both a participant and an insider. And you?

Even a modest restaurant is a menace to tenants in the building. Right now, 250 E. 5th is going through an uproar of incredible intensity due to a simple grill in the first floor lobby. No one is happy about it. The elevators carry the smells up to every floor. Two tenants thought the need to apologize at the start of a meeting and a closing. It did smell. But, in a residential setting, besides the bodily fluids, the biggest problem is not noise, it is garbage. The best, cleanest restaurants bring smells no one would want and rodents bugs and whatnot. When an anchor tenant is needed, a bar or restaurant is sought. No argument. But, when the space can be rented at $1.50 a foot or sold for north of $250 a foot, the restaurant is a bad choice. About half of them fail everywhere. First floor retail and office is far more desirable if it can be filled.