JYP

Guys we are losing yet another historic parking lot to rabid gentrification. Sound the alarm!

I have a good feeling about implementation of what we worked on. It's a rare instance where all sides were able to come together and do some good work!

Here is the definition according to the ITE, who may know something about transportation:

Exactly. I want to know more about this. Everyone says it's going to be for improvements to roads with bus routes on them but theres is no guarantee. How is this not just a slush fund for road widening and other highway creations after the new WHV is done?

I've always heard it would go in the turnaround on the Court Street side of the building. I think the casino prohibited a hotel for 5 years after the casino opened. So they could build as early as 2017. Given the reputation for Jack, I can tell why they didn't bother. Hard Rock wants a hotel. It's part of their schtick.

The document linked below contains the current plan for Court Street. https://city-egov2.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/54302.pdf?rpp=-10&w=doc_no%3D'201901393'&m=1 It did not make sense for completely pedestrianizing Court Street due to a truck and parking lot entrances through that block. However the team tried their best to make it as pedestrian as possible. Another huge concern was over parking with existing businesses. IMO this is a ridiculous concern as most of the parking up to the opening of the new grocery store was county employees or visitors doing business at the County Administration office. So to appease the business owners, angled parking was preserved on one side and added to the block of Court west of Vine. Overall this plan is not the best step but it is a better step than what I expected out of the Task Force. It aligns court street through the block and expands the pedestrian areas on the south side. It will be similar to the "festival street" on Short Vine so everything should be level with the sidewalk. This would make it easier to revisit full pedestrianization or something close to it in the future.

Fifth-Third Square redo headed to Planning Commission next Friday. Item 3 in the link below: https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/about-city-planning/city-planning-commission/oct-4-2019-packet/ Say goodbye to the Walnut Street breezeway.

Name the weakest performing coffee shop within a 5 minute walk from here and say goodbye to it.

This is a gorgeous building and has a lot of character on the inside. Be careful of the lead paint.

Jake has a point. What if expanding convention centers were a waste of taxpayer money? https://www.governing.com/blogs/bfc/col-convention-center-promised-benefits-rarely-materialize.html?AMP http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2017/july/what-s-the-roi-of-a-convention-center-event https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2012/06/stop-building-convention-centers/2210/ https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20050117_conventioncenters.pdf

New sweets place opening in Bretzel’s old location. So much for the parking permits scaring away all that business!

The main takeaway is that there are preliminary renders from the developer showing integration and expansion of the Convention Center on this parcel with the hotel. The expansion would close Elm street between 5th and 6th.

The city eliminated the historic district boundaries in this area around 2014/2015. Rumors is that W&S want to level the block cited above and build new. They even have a model of it displayed somewhere. No historic retrofit. No facadectomy.

I knew this was coming but did not realize it was the the parking lot where the Empire Theater once stood.

This could work: https://web.archive.org/web/20140120011428/http://urbanup.net/2012/05/24/cincinnatis-crane-hawley-building/

I agree. The thing transit does is it expands the person carrying capacity of our roadways. Every full bus is 55-60 single-occupancy vehicles removed from the roadway. It makes a difference, even on highway commutes from the suburbs. Ideally, it would be great to have more people using local lines more often but that takes approaching not only the employer but also the potential rider in highlighting that transit can be used to go other places besides your commute.

Galaxy brain level NIMBY would oppose it because it prevents using the space as a station platform for a potential Wasson Way LRT. ??

About a decade ago there was a big push to protect hillside viewsheds in the city by the Hillside Trust. They even got some language inserted into the city's zoning code to protect certain areas along Columbia Parkway. While much of their work goes towards hillside stabilization, preserving viewsheds at key overlooks and the Ohio River have been a priority for the group. https://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/0602hillsidetrust.aspx http://www.hillsidetrust.org/

There is plenty of room to put these scale of buildings in the lots between Eggleston and Culvert/Broadway. I think blocking someone's view of the P&G HQ or 5/3rd's HQ stands less of a chance than blocking the view of the Ohio River (what the NIMBY's were upset about with SkyHouse) but you never know!

I work on a first floor office in a building currently under renovation in OTR. We have construction going on overhead all the time for the residential unit build outs and its pretty annoying. While the work we are experiencing is done by one crew of 2-3 people. I can only imagine how disruptive a construction project of that size could be, especially once you have cranes, welding, concrete pours, drilling for MEP and materials delivery happening above you. No thanks!

Is the skywalk going away? If so, it would really improve that block. Also there are structural support connections on top of Fountain Place for a potential expansion from the days of Fountain Square West. I would assume they would expand on that footprint if floors are added for anything.

Looks like this is the staircase entrance. https://goo.gl/maps/VsJtRihhUZCQmzZ96

I was told QCS was a go around the same time. I think the lower cost of construction was an added bonus however they paid on the back-end as the building took longer to lease up during the recovery.

My wife and I looked in Northside and Walnut Hills earlier this year as well. All the good stuff goes pending in a day so if you are not fast enough or in the know, you lose out. We ended up in Prospect Hill because a friend decided to sell and saved $$ by not using realtors. Oh and we have no abatement. The theory on city property tax in Cincinnati is that because the millage is set to collect only $29 million (at least until we eliminate the rollback) the rate changes to collect that amount. Two things are happening here regarding property taxes. 1.) The rate is likely going down due to inflation. This was a policy put into place in 1999. The buying power of $29 million today is much less than in 1999. https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/01/03/cincinnati-council-members-to-set-property-tax.html 2.) Urban revitalization in OTR and other distressed communities are lifting city tax rolls. Over the last 20 years many of the abatements were used to revitalize properties in the urban core that were a net drain on the city's tax resources. While abatements have kept property taxes low for many of these revitalization projects, not every building in OTR or Walnut Hills was abated. Thus, it sets higher market pricing for existing buildings that may be earlier rehabs, and therefore more property tax collection. More taxes collected city-wide means lower overall taxes for the city (because of the $29 million deal). Cincinnati is the only place I am aware of that does this. It's kinda ridiculous from a practical governance standpoint but does make for some interesting back door tax logic.

I think either way they go the Bengals will want to extract concessions. They've done this at every point since Phase II was proposed in 2014. IIRC the original lease stated that the Bengals had rights to veto anything at the Banks over a certain height west of Vine street. Actually here is some info from a WCPO story from last year: https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/will-bengals-agree-to-music-venue-near-paul-brown-if-tailgaters-get-game-day-concerts- The changes from earlier this year gave the County much of what they want with this guarantee of surface spaces. Does that mean the rest of the development has to remain parking to make up the difference in spaces? It's probably the cheapest option for sure, but probably not the only option. There are a few other lots they could consider as options but they are closer to Longworth Hall and potentially staging for BSB. The properties in blue could be potential parking. Red is Hilltop.