Jack

OTR development, convention center expansion, a new fountain square, QCS, streetcars, the Banks, condos along the river and Easten Ave.,small population increase, possible new hotel downtown, stabilized crime statistics. WOW!! have I left anything out?

Does anyone know when actual construction will begin? All I can see at the live webcam is a large flat surface.

Rob Alpern says there will be a webcam for the Queen City Square developlment site once construction (not demolition) begins.

Does anyone know if there will be a live webcam to view the construction of QCS?

The groundbreaking celebration for QCSII will be held Monday (6/23), noon, at Fourth and Sycamore. I got this from a good source, but I hope someone else verifies this.

The forty-one floors is the correct value, but the total height of 660 feet remains the same. Someone apparently miscounted the floors.

According to R. Alpern demolition of the existing garage will begin in June - not in April as some newspaper reporter said.

Ronnie's design is more beautiful (but the original design is also attractive), and expecially accentuates the crown. I wonder how much W&S paid for the original design, and how many months it took the designer to come up with the design. And Ronnie practically did it overnight!

The new design may have less square footage, so maybe this could justify adding a few more floors.

Extremely conservative W&S (~20 years in deciding to begin construction) will probably not make the bold decision to add an observation deck.

Rob Alpern said: "Neither the height nor the basic shape and size of the building has changed. The architect merely made the center element narrower on the north and south facades, thus making the building appear taller and slimmer, despite no real change." He made no comment about any possible observation deck.

Ha, Ha, Ha!

Does ANYONE know when the Urban Design Review Board will meet in regard to QCSII?

Does anyone know when the Urban Design Review board is stated to review the QCSII design?

Reply to Uncle Rando (how does one reply to a specific comment made in this blog?) Do you have anything more definite about the fifth and race building being as high as 35 floors?

I agree. I sent an e-mail to Barrett saying, that although I thought the building was beautiful, it was somewhat "stocky." and I hoped by adding several floors including a two-leval observation deck it would top out at over 700 feet.

sO.....does anyone know what the final height will be?

I recall that John Barrett said it was possible that more floors could be added. Does anyone know what the present design calls for: 37 or 40 floors? I believe the height from street level to the top of the tiara was 689 feet. It would be nice to have a few more feet to make it over 700feet.

John Barrett replied to my e-mail, requesting info on QCSII, and said, "Stay tuned." hmmm.....

Whenever I questioned Western Southern (several times over the past five years or so), they always said that construction would not begin until the pre-leasing was at least 50% They never said anything about what year construction would begin.

The following is an e-mail from Rob Alpern ********************************88 Jack, Good to hear from you. There's much that I cannot tell you at this time but please know that the project's prospects have never been brighter. We hope to have something exciting to announce in early 2008.

This the e-mail I sent to Joseph Trouth who represents some downtown business concerns. Joseph Trouth Dear Mr. Trauth I read your comments about the concerns of some downtown Cincinnati business interests that the revised plans for the Banks would seriously jeopardize the central business district so that it would possibly "dry up" and blow away." Development in Cincinnati is not a zero-sum game. The largely ULTRA CONSERVATIVE business community should not expect that exciting and progressive development at the Banks will hurt the rest of downtown. If they feel that this potentially could be the case, I have a suggestion: BUILD SOMETHING!! For over 10 years downtown Cincinnati has been stagnent when it comes to vitalizing the area, with a few exceptions. FINALLY, after being on the drawing boards for over 10 years it appears that Queen City Square Phase II will be constructed. The rest of the business community should "walk the talk" rather than complain about potential developement along the riverfront! Regards, Jack Geis

I e-mailed Rob Alpern about the status of QCQII, and received no reply. He has always responded before. What do you think this means....an announcement in the near future?

I have already read the last several pages...I wondered if anyone had heard news since sept.

Does anyone have any updates on QCSII, such as grounbreaking date, pre-leasing, new height of the building?