JYP

The rendering is for only half of the block. They are taking the east half of the existing garage to build the Holiday Inn and the other half plus the red cross building for the new garage and tower.

If you assemble 10 bikes you get a year free membership to the bike share.

Even though I wasn't the biggest fan of the proposed One River Place development on Pete Rose Way, I think building something residential at that spot by the Purple People Bridge would be a catalyst for improving that area for a few reasons. One it offers amazing connections and proximity to downtown and Newport and the other is that it would help bolster the emptying retail and office spaces in the vicinity.

I too know from personal real world experience as I have conducted the process of designing, writing and implementing a form-based code for a city. I think a form-based code would do wonders for rehabilitating the area you call Knox Hill. There's plenty of empty lots and development opportunities there. These are the types of small infill projects form-base code helps make possible without the clunky variance processes typically found in zoning. I also think it will help preserve the historic building stock in the area. Maybe the city would be interested in using form-based codes in the redevelopment of South Fairmount for the Lick Run project?

This has been the second of third instance where an office tenant has moved from the fringe of downtown into the downtown. And I think this is the second one from the Sawyer Point building.

I am a big fan of the way the plaza has been redone. It reminds me of similar plazas in front of churches in Europe and I hope that there is some effort in the future to program the space in a way that would compliment the new development and the event center in the church.

Form-based code housing in Nashville. New development on High Street in Columbus is based on form based code. And so is the Arena District, Grandview Heights, Dublin, etc. Form-based codes have done more to protect historic housing and ensure that new construction fits in with historic neighborhoods than any other planning tool used in the last two decades. Just to clarify Cincinnati's FBC, the city was awarded a HUD grant to develop several things. One was a new Comprehensive Plan, the others were the form-based code, a Complete Streets policy and also the Land Development Code, which is currently being drafted. People often forget that HUD stands for Housing and Urban Development, which applies to all levels of housing and cities. Not all of what they do is geared towards housing subsidies for low-income households.

The lending market is indeed starting to turn as I witnessed through organizing the three Owner-Occupied OTR sessions that took place earlier this year. What is happening though is that we have no problem with supply of rehab stock instead it is supply of actually housing units. One of our goals with the workshop was to get more people into the rehab game who would know what they are doing. 3CDC not receiving NMTC is a blow but one I think that could allow the company the ability to reposition and focus on some smaller projects that they may have ignored while working on something as big as 15th and Race. It will likely take an entire generation to rehab the historic housing stock in the basin (OTR, West End, Camp Washington). In order to speed that up we need more developers with more capital to spend to meet the demands of the market.

^^ I agree that the power balance as is tends to work well. The concern is that charter reforms seem to be pointing in the direction of a shift to a strong mayor system. As for the community councils, they actually have no set guidelines or rules in the charter but the political leadership tends to listen to them and take them into account. Unfortunately Community Councils are easy to sway one way or the other because there is a lack of formality and oversight.

EXCLUSIVE: SORTA discussing plans for major bus system expansion, tax increase Chris Wetterich Staff reporter- Cincinnati Business Courier The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority is considering a major expansion of its bus system in Hamilton County to better connect people and jobs, but it will require some sort of tax increase. SORTA Chairman Jason Dunn said that the discussions are preliminary and the board has not decided on any course of action. SORTA’s executive committee discussed the plan, which does not have a cost associated with it, for the first time on Wednesday.

No. The tower will be located on the Phase 2 block between Race and Vine on 2nd. The other blocks are not proposed to start construction yet. However I have a feeling this deal may finally push the county to begin building the parking garage for Phase 3 of the project sooner rather than later.

Can we have this tower too!?

Well if they are looking to capture the 12th/Vine overflow then.... After 5 it should become a gourmet Cincinnati Chili place serving up coneys with fresh farm to fork organic cheeses. It shall be called.... Highline.

I am pretty sure GE will go into the Phase 2 tower. Plans have the building at 11 stories.

Sometime between the beginning of 2011 and August 2012.

Here is a free Biz Courier article with more info. : California craft brewer eyes Cincinnati for $31M project Greater Cincinnati is on the list of sites a California craft brewer is considering for a $31 million brewery project that would create 374 jobs, WCPO reports. Stone Brewing Co., the nation’s 10th-largest craft brewer, is looking for a site to supply customers east of the Mississippi River. It expects the site would create more than 120,000 barrels of beer and $100 million in revenue each year Looks like they want to put it by...the Wilmington Airport!?!?!

There's also the problem of the active rail yard below. Last year DOTE Director Michael Moore explained in an UrbanCincy podcast that the many incidents where trains derail and hit the viaduct supports were one the reasons for pursuing a rebuild. The new viaduct will not require as many supports thus saving the city on maintenance costs over time.

The gain in population is good news however I am still cautious of Census estimates since they estimated Cincy gaining to 340,000 in 2009 only to have the population actually fall under 300,000. Still the city has more real positive moment behind it now than it did back then.

Brad, seriously, no one is ever going to know the true economic impact of the first phase of the streetcar until 100 years from now. :-P

Biking on the sidewalk and the wrong way have become my two biggest pet peeves. It makes bicyclists look bad if they can't follow the law. Also its just not good to bike on the sidewalk anyway. It is dangerous and discouraging to pedestrians.

This would be great. Improvements between CUT and Sharonville could also help make Cincy-Dayton commuter rail possible and be utilized one day by 3-C rail to C-bus and Cleveland.

I don't think there is any way to access the upper levels of the existing garage if the east portion of it is demolished for the hotel.

A light rail line in the subway could connect to the streetcar downtown via tunnels at Central Parkway. Going north it could follow the subway path to Northside and also veer west onto a new Western Hills viaduct to the westside. This would not only provide rail access to Northside, Camp Washington, South Fairmont, Westwood and Price Hill but also Brighton and parts of the West End. Finally running a line in the subway removes the stigma of failure from the subway tunnels. I've been told that the Urbos 3 light rail vehicles we are getting for the streetcar can reach speeds of up to 55 mph.

Working on it.

Great pictures!