seanian

You are correct, he is an egomaniac. The sad thing is that the city has to pay the price for his ego. I would like to say so much more, but his ego pretty much sums it up.

Scary, but I agree. And since he hasn't commented on it publicly (to my knowledge), we have no idea of this project's fate either. I'm sure he would claim to have better ways to spend city money than by subsidizing a new tower and a grocery store. A statue of himself? A bike path through Queensgate? I think you nailed it! Kill the funding for progress and erect a statue for King Cranley. I will say it screaming from tower to unbuilt future towers and all other progress, "Cranley is an A$$ and needs to be stopped". He is so full of himself that he would make a physiatrist have a wet dream.

I read this article yesterday and just had to shake my head. They use a projection based on past increases which were very small. Since momentum has picked up downtown and you have many people on a waiting list, you therefore cannot use this report to project the need for downtown living. Using that report is just idiotic, but I'm assuming the reporter was going for the doom and gloom aspect of reporting. Did this reporter work for the Enquirer at any point?

I guess I need this explained to me. How is it that the people of Cincinnati voted for the street car (twice) and won, and now Cranley, along with the new city council is talking about killing it. How can they kill it when it's already been voted for by the people of Cincinnati to have it put in? Do these things we vote for me nothing? The whole reason that this went to a vote (twice) was because the anti streetcar people wanted to overturn what city council was doing. So it tells me, that when this went up for a vote, what the people voted for now has to happen regardless of what council wanted, even though the two where in agreement. Tell me where I'm not following the logic here. Again, how could the new mayor and new city council kill the project?

I know so many people would say, "at least it's better than a parking lot", but come on. This suburban building should've been put at the banks and not at this location. So very disappointed.

This doesn't make since to me. How is it that it had to be shortened to conform to FAA standards? How is it that there are much taller structures all across the US in major cities, but in the vicinity of downtown Cincinnati the FAA doesn't allow it? I'm not buying it. I would want to see that report from the FAA and the ridiculous reason of why it's not allowed here, and how it's allowed elsewhere across this country. :whip:

I agree, don't we already have a Belterra close by in Indiana? What is this, an attempt to confuse people? It has been River Downs for how long? If you can't live with established Cincinnati names then just stay out of Cincinnati. Also agree, why change the name. River Downs name is known and should stay. Why change it to some generic entertainment venue.

What is all of this idiotic talk about farming on the caps. I'm sorry if this offends some people, but that is exactly what it is. There is so much land available around and outside of the city to grow food. It would be such a waste of space to grow the minimal amount of food that you would get off of them. It is such a small amount of space in a highly desirable connector area between the CBD and the Banks.

More attention needs to be made on the caps. I know it's in the "idea" stage and what could be put on the caps, but it needs to pick up speed. This is a vital connector to the riverfront. We don't need to wait until the Banks is filled to start the caps. They'll be an important connector. As for what goes there, I love parks and fountains, but this would be overkill if we used the caps for this purpose and it wouldn't have the same sense of continuity from the CBD to the Banks.

Kasich is not for Ohio, Kasich only interest is in Columbus and on occasion will throw a bone to the other areas in Ohio. Just look how generous his offer was when he was trying to get Sears to relocate to Columbus. He didn't do that when Chiquita was looking to relocate. Then the rejection of Pure Romance was extremely obvious. Kasich is a d**khead and needs to go away. :shoot: Let's make sure we vote him out of office :whip:

Thank you CincyGuy, for the comparison. This hotel they are proposing to put in is just pathetic.

I was reading the Cranley vs Qualls information today and it just really irks me when I see what Cranley is proposing. The public has voted and voiced their opinions that they want the streetcar. Then you get Cranley who says he vows to kill the project. That's just great, ignore the people and waste more money by killing a project that has already spent how many $$$...? What an idiot! He is the same type of Politian that made Cincinnati lose ground to other cities decades ago. I want a forward thinking person in charge and I'm hoping the people will see that.

Vantiv is already outgrowing it's 205,000 sf office space in Mason. Is there enough room for them if they came to the banks in the available office tower not yet built or is it too small an area for them with their rate of expansion? I'm not sure how much space was dedicated for the office tower portion. I'm thinking if they were to be enticed to come downtown, the banks just wouldn't be large enough and a tower in another section of downtown would have to be built. That's if they would even consider the move.

This has been up for about a week now, but check it out. The article is called: Cincinnati To Grow Taller in the Coming Years http://www.urbancincy.com/category/development/ Click on the pic to enlarge. I'm a bit disappointed with what they think the apartments above Macy's would look like, without any rendering they would have no idea, but I would think it would be higher, not wider. Again... it's just guess work.

So.... We're pretty much getting what was already there before?

It took them this long to design 4 floors that have no walls and they still don't have designs to show of the building? Did they not actually have somebody working on this, or was the firm that was working on this really good at a con scheme? Oh look at the emperors new clothes. Essentially 4 floors of a warehouse design, how can you get any easier than that? Wait a second, they do have skylights, that should've added about another year in design. Then the article states that they want the color of the outside of the building to blend in with the surrounding buildings. Yes, that's creative thinking "Let's blend in" Now regarding the reason for cancelling the residential is just silly. They needed more space? Did they go from 3 floors to 4 floors, oh my hold me back. They didn't need to own the residential, some other entity/investor could've owned that portion so that's a non-issue. The amount of elevators added would've been inconsequential. Now if they were worried about the light coming in at the top, they could've put the residential underneath them and kept the top portion of the building for themselves like they did. So instead of them occupying floors 6,7,8 & 9, put 15 to 20 stories of residential between them and the garage, they now would occupy floors 21,22,23 & 24 or 26,27,28 & 29. Now if they would've added the residential underneath them, it could've been added in a very creative way and the entire building could've really stood out downtown. Am I glad this piece of land will no longer be a parking lot, yes I am. Am I glad that downtown gets another corporate headquarters with more jobs, yes I am. I'm just disappointed that with such a prime piece of real estate downtown that this was the best that could've come about.

4 stories? How weak for such a prime area of real estate downtown.

The Banks have actually been able to satisfy both urban and suburban cravings, so kudos to the Banks.

It's really funny reading some of the comments about the possibility of a new tower over Macy's to make people feel like it is closing them in, or closing Fountain Square in. While I stand there on Fountain Square the 5/3 tower doesn't make me feel like it's looming over me and it's right on the square. Then you have the Carew Tower across the street and as tall as it is, it doesn't feel like it's looming over me either. Then you have to the South of the square the Westin hotel and that is by no means tall. Now look to the North and you have a very low, actually suburban sized low rise building. Then you have the views that spread out from the streets and it feels even more open. Where is this closed-in feeling coming from? All I can say is WOW! Seriously, where is this coming from? People actually like to go down to Fountain Square and take in all of the wonderful views and that has a lot to do with the buildings around them, not just the fountain alone. There are many views to take in and a high-rise over Macy's isn't going to close in the square.

Agreed, it is the heart of the city and should be impressive.

Is DH having the building built to accomodate additional floors to be added as needed? I would think they would build more than what they need now to allow for easy growth in the future. A while back I worked for a company that purchased two floors of a building that had a very large foot print (it was not located in Cincy or the tristate area) and they barely used up the space of just one of the floors when they first moved in. The business expanded so fast, that after 2 1/2 years they outgrew both floors and had to convert a large auditorium for large functions converted to office space and had to convert some other meeting rooms. The building was not designed to build on top of the existing floors since garage parking was built on top and the parking was partly owned by the city and the other floors of the parking were owned by another company that needed parking space for their tower next door since they didn't have parking. My point being is that they did have much more space than they thought they would need, but they were mistaken. They didn't think far enough into the future. Even with the very large foot print and square footage, they should've had much more built than what they did. I was with that company for a few years. From the time when they were a small company and took up 4 floors of a typcial office tower. There was no room in that tower to expand the way they wanted to and decided to own their own portion of a building. I personally liked the tower that they were previously in because it was tall and built up rather than out as it was much easier and quicker to get to different departments by way of elevator or stairs if I need to get some cardio (which I liked because it really does help you stay fit going up and down stairs throughout the day). But DH likes the large floor plans and that's their personal thinking and good for them, it's their space. While it would be nice if they had to start adding additional floors to the building 2 to 4 years down the road, it would make more since to add them now rather than do it later. Or even if they put many additional floors for an actual large tower, I'm sure they wouldn't have any problems getting class A office space leased at that location. Look how quickly Queen City Tower got that space leased.

[it's not as if Newport and Cincinnati have run out of other sites that could be developed, and I'd prefer to see the bridge preserved for future light rail or streetcar use. I agree, I wouldn't want to see a missed opportunity for light rail or streetcar for the bridge.

That is just laughable. I guess they couldn't think of anything else to say?

I was wondering if there was an update on the Covington convention center? There was an article in the Biz Courier Sept 23 2011, but I haven't found anything else Since they're expanding into the IRS parking I was also wondering if any news was happening there with the new IRS tower that the IRS was going to build that was to take up a smaller footprint? Now that I'm thinking about it, what happened with the 3 major Covington projects, one was called the Sail Project, the building was scratched but I think the apartment portion was to be intigrated into another new project called the Kentucky queen hotel and conference center, but this was also to use property from the existing sprawling IRS site. I guess a lot of this new development depends upon the IRS building that new tower to make the land available.

Agree with all of this. Fountain Square close by and parks to the south of the area, so there is no need to add more park area. Even if they aren't large buildings, we still need the feeling of connecting to both areas. It would bring the whole area together. I remember a long time ago they envisioned a large green house at Fountain Square West called Crystal Forest. I remember it being a really large and nice looking structure. Either this is a really bad picture or it just wasn't what I thought it could've been. This picture here looks nothing like I remember it looking like: http://acincinnatihistory.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html Could be an idea for something above one of the caps if I could find a better rendering. In that same link, I know it has nothing to do with the caps, but I really liked that idea for the CMC office towers at Union Terminal.