PhattyNati

yeah, i dont doubt that to be true. its not like they have to build more parking though.

if they were to try and approach some semblance of affordability with this project the market is ripe...i guess thats just not the path anybody wants to take.

almost makes you want to vomit how amazing yet underutilized so many of the great assets of our city are.

^ i am not an insider with this project anymore...i truly wish that i was. but i am familiar with the early Nordstrom 5th and Race designs. however since then they have completely retooled the development team including the architect (as we all know from previous news). the point i was trying to make about "leaks" was not so much to do with the release of approved documentation. any image, sketch, rendering, that is released to the public has been approved by those involved as not to give a somewhat accurate depiction of what they hope the finished product will look like. if w&s was showing three different schemes, obviously they have not made a decision. to somehow get a hold of one of the "wrong" schemes and publish it could very well negatively impact the project perhaps because of broken trust between development team members etc. i was talking to a friend of mine that works at FRCH and he was telling me that when the enquirer wrote the article about their las Vegas project, the reporter swiped an unapproved image of the project and published it obviously without permission. that did not go over well. my point to all of this is w&s will release this information when they feel it is appropriate and not before. if they feel this is a significant project (which we all believe is the case) then they probably want an unavailing that is suitable.

that is true, but i am curious to know if you can point me to one of these renderings that was any more than a napkin sketch. there is a difference between releasing a concept rendering and a "this is exactly what our building will look like" rendering. as an insider on previously abandoned w&s projects i know first hand how sensitive they are about this type of thing. everytime this company uses the imagery of one of these abandoned projects for portfolio submissions that accompany new project proposals, they have to wipe them clean of anything that would associate who, what, where, why, and when. thats not limited to w&s either. on an unrelated subject, ive heard they have the queen city square physical model in their office. would be pretty cool to see that.

i would imagine something like that would be more successfull next year when people know for sure that the square will be finished....hopefully!

^ I understand. Sometimes people would have an idea on whether its pushing the edge or not...i was hoping your friend would. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.

im perfectly ok with an opening day fountain turning on tradition

^ obviously we all want to see what this thing could look like but there is a reason why we havent seen any renderings yet. companies like western and southern are so sensitive to how a building will reflect on their image. if there are three options, im sure they run the range of really conservative to ultra conservative (quite a range i know!) and they wont release ANYTHING until they are absolutely certain its what they want to build. my point is, even if someone finds something, unless they want to contribute to the leaking of sensitive information which could negatively effect the outcome of the project, keep it out of here. im sure there are any number of people on this forum who bite their tongues daily because of insider info they have. just be patient. on another note...release the damn images already! this thing had better be slick. Rando you need to pester your acquaintance for at least an impression of what they were like.

^ i completely disagree. i used to be an advocate of annexation for the city of cincinnati but recently i have done a complete 180. maybe i am not seeing things the way that they actually are but i think being in the city of cincinnati is the kiss of death for "non trendy" neighborhoods. case and point being the city of norwood. for as difficult as the city of norwood has had it over the past couple of decades, its neighborhoods have held up like stone. you can even experience this difference as you move in and out along montgomery road. i think a lot of the west siders on this board are going to tear me a new one for saying this, but i think the west side of town has a very difficult stretch ahead. westside neighborhoods have just as much character as the "hyde parks" and "mt lookouts" around town but the fact remains that it is the west side where the majority of the city's flight is taking place. cincinnati has its only problems to fix right now and adding one more struggling area isnt going to do anything but make it worse. let the smaller communites work out the issues on their own. there is obviously something missing from cincinnati's inner ring suburbs and im curious to know what everyone thinks this is. is it transportation? proximity to jobs? have hyde park n such held their ground because they are closer to 75? how does that explain avondale....walnut hills?

anybody visit the square today at lunch? there was hardly room to breathe! amazing how seemingly "nothing" has transformed the space. i can wait for everything to get wrapped up and for each of those restaurants to start kicking. i never would have thought it would have such a quick impact.

thats interesting...mcdonalds is a place i dont often remember as being absent from downtown. anybody know when the last one was there? even without these two as possible additions...there certainly seems to be a momentum building. good things!

Well if thats not prejudice I dont know what is.

the only two ripleys that i am familiar with are on the magnificent "strips" of gatlinburg and branson. my personal feeling is that they are tourist traps that dont belong in a legitimate urban setting. maybe there are locations that are in respectible city centers, but iam unfamiliar with those. whenever i think of ripleys i think of their "crumbling building" motif (typicaly 100 percent eifs)...very cheesy. but like i said, that is all i am familiar with.

i always though it was cheesy the way they reference the suspension bridge as inspiration for the "swoop". well now that the form of the building is mostly complete, i recomend that the next time any of you drive down 3rd street just past the ball park...glance to your left. the view you get with the suspension bridge in front and the ascent immediately behind is quite powerful. from that angle as well the ascent seems to be scooting out from behind the river center towers as if to say "get me the hell away from these"

so they only have 11 signed agreements, 9 more are currently in negotiations. so assuming all nine of those buyers agree, they are still about 20 short of being half sold. i cant imagine miller valentine is going to do anything before they reach 50% which means ground breaking will be in 2009. get on it!

interesting. hopefully they have better luck than the last two guys. the scary thing is that there is still pleanty of developable land in blue ash...its just that most of it has 1960's/70's warehouse and distribution centers on them. there have already been a number of "industrial teardowns" in blue ash, including this one and the site on the southeast corner of reed hartman and pfiefer. i would only expect this to keep happening until blue ash turns into one giant developer office building.

isnt that where harbor green is?

my understanding is its this http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=16&ll=39.118091,-84.46656&spn=0.010388,0.018883

^ haha yeah. i appreciate their optimism and desire to make the most of what seemingly is an impossible devlopment challenge but it doesnt seem like they have any idea what they are doing. its like they reached their hands into the "development vocabulary fun bag" and pulled out "hotel" and "not for parents with young children" without really knowing what they mean.

i sure as hell hope it doesnt look like a riverboat deck...the existance of the "power stacks" is already overboard...hahaha

So should we be impressed that we beat out those schools? Looks like we was interested in coming north one way or another. I hope he helps.

This is quite frightening to me. I heard from a 5/3 employee that new CEO Kevin Kabat "hates cincinnati" and had mentioned the possibility of moving the HQ to Chicago. When he said this an instant quiver went through my body and I wanted to knock the guy out. I hope to god almighty that this guy doesnt have his way if in fact he wants this to happen.

"He told the audience he doubted the new development would bring as many as 15 students into the school system, because the developers aren't building for parents with young children." These guys are on crack! This is such a long shot. Were going to have 2 billion new residential units along the river before ( if ) its all said and done. Which dont get me wrong would be a great thing if that many more people were living that close to downtown. But i do believe a few of these developers are getting a little ahead of themselves with new housing demand.

Interesting...seems like maybe AIG is wanting the decking to be a priority. Good Stuff.