I just registered for a City of Cincinnati virtual meeting (a meeting that ought to be at City Hall or in a neighborhood) and was asked to identify my race/ethnicity.  This is absolutely ridiculous, as there has never been any sign-in process where such a question could be asked at any of the many meetings I have attended in person in the past. 

Honest question @Lazarus, since I've only seen you post complaints about Cincinnati on UrbanOhio. Is there anything in the past 20 years that has happened in Southwest Ohio that you actually approve of? Because frankly, your Eeyore attitude about Cincinnati is getting really tiring.

Edited January 29Jan 29 by OliverHazardPerry

To whom is this directed? Lazarus?

 

1 minute ago, buildingcincinnati said:

To whom is this directed? Lazarus?

 

Yes, sorry. Didn't mean to address it to you. Edited my comment with his username.

2 minutes ago, OliverHazardPerry said:

Yes, sorry. Didn't mean to address it to you. Edited my comment with his username.

Oh, I knew it wasn't about me. I'm just not on here enough to know users' behaviors anymore. I used to be a moderator!

4 hours ago, Lazarus said:

I just registered for a City of Cincinnati virtual meeting (a meeting that ought to be at City Hall or in a neighborhood) and was asked to identify my race/ethnicity.  This is absolutely ridiculous, as there has never been any sign-in process where such a question could be asked at any of the many meetings I have attended in person in the past. 

 

Grow up

23 hours ago, Ucgrad2015 said:

Overall this years there’s going to be a good chunk of mid/high rises under construction. 

Under construction/starting this year

 

1. Convention Center Hotel (26 floors)

2. FC Cincinnati development (2-13 floor towers)

3. Factory 52 development (10 floor? Apartment tower)

3. Medpace (7 I think floor tower)

4. Uc Block 1 and 2 (9/14 floor towers) (6 floor smaller tower)

5. Peace Bell site(7 floor hotel)

Maybe this year?

 

1. District at Clifton Heights tower (26 floors) (haven’t heard any updates on this) 

2. Other developments around UC (seems to be a decent amount of new apartment buildings in the works around campus, not sure of the floor counts though) 

3. Margaritaville hotel (15 floors)

4. Covington Central riverfront (not really and renderings but could see a couple 6-7 floor buildings) 

 

No idea if/when it will happen 

 

1. Western and Southern development (no idea of size but did mention a 400 room hotel)

2. Gallery at Kenwood (10 floor tower) 

3. Central Parkway apartments (7 floors at the Northwestern corner of Central Parkway and Vine)

4. Spot just to the East of Convention Center hotel (was mention of a possible tower but that was a few years ago)

5. Northeast corner of 7th and Vine (7 floor apartment tower)

 

Im sure there may be some that I am missing and some that could prolly be moved around but just what I am getting from most up to date news article. 
 

Hopefully Cincinnati can start gaining more new mid/high-rises. Seems like Cleveland has been doing decent and Columbus seems to be heating up. 

 

 

 

Nearly all of these are mid-rise (5-10 stories).  Unfortunately, Cincinnati is not, for the most part, a high-rise city, but maybe that’s one reason it’s a more comfortable city.

20 hours ago, thesenator said:

Nearly all of these are mid-rise (5-10 stories).  Unfortunately, Cincinnati is not, for the most part, a high-rise city, but maybe that’s one reason it’s a more comfortable city.

Not knowing a lot of other bigger cities besides Indianapolis, it feels like Cincinnati at least in the city of Cincinnati and Norwood has a good overall density of commercial districts and housing. I bet our resident expert @ColDayMan could chime in ;-)

 

The area around UC is really adding a lot of midrise and density to it. I would guess that area continues to fill out from UC and the corridors heading east from UC to Walnut Hills. With areas closer to UC slowly getting taller as more fills out. There is still a lot of land between UC and Walnut Hills that is fairly empty that can get filled in with more density.

 

Then downtown, so many conversions happening with low usage commercial buildings turning to residential / hotel. If the economy continues to be solid for Cincinnati or even gets a nice jolt (I am hopeful maybe some DC operations can save on costs by moving to Cincinnati, for example) then maybe in 5-10 years you start getting some higher rise construction downtown. It does feel like overall though there is a lot of really good momentum in the city and development leaders like Bobby Maley and Steve Leeper are very bullish on the prospects.

 

OTR is pretty much is what it is and obvoiusly we all know there won't be tall buildings there but there is a lot of room for growth and density with abandoned buildings turning into housing.

27 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

Then downtown, so many conversions happening with low usage commercial buildings turning to residential / hotel.

Yeah I know it's not the exact same, but we do have the equivalent of two 25ish story towers being built downtown right now between Central Trust tower and Macy's headquarters, not to mention the even taller residential Carew conversion when that gets going for real. That's like adding two new residential skyscrapers to downtown, like actual 150 meter tall meet-the-definition skyscrapers that are going to be residential towers downtown.

 

Columbus is doing better than Cincinnati in residential new construction for sure, but it's also worth looking at their downtown compared to ours which has so much more parking. For instance, they got $33 million in TMUD funding for the "Capitol Square Renaissance" project which is going to be great for them, but it's also possible for them to have such a large downtown project because of how much surface parking exists there at the moment. 

Out of all the buildings that are at least 350 feet tall in Ohio, here's the breakdown:

 

Cleveland - 18

Columbus - 14

Cincinnati - 12

Toledo - 3

Dayton - 2

400 feet or taller:

 

Cleveland - 11

Columbus - 10

Cincinnati - 7

Toledo - 2

Dayton - 1

 

450 or taller:

 

Columbus - 8

Cleveland - 6

Cincinnati - 4

 

500+

 

Columbus - 5

Cleveland - 5

Cincinnati - 2

Clearly Cincinnati could use a few more 500+ footers.

2 hours ago, IAGuy39 said:

Not knowing a lot of other bigger cities besides Indianapolis, it feels like Cincinnati at least in the city of Cincinnati and Norwood has a good overall density of commercial districts and housing. I bet our resident expert @ColDayMan could chime in ;-)

 

Yes, Cincinnati, structurally, is quite dense.  The issue is it's depopulated to the point where those NBDs and even OTR/Downtown could/should be more busy by simply adding more residents (which they slowly are). 

1 hour ago, ColDayMan said:

 

Yes, Cincinnati, structurally, is quite dense.  The issue is it's depopulated to the point where those NBDs and even OTR/Downtown could/should be more busy by simply adding more residents (which they slowly are). 

Just where I am at work in East Walnut Hills / Walnut Hills alone could really add a ton of vibrancy, lots of "missing teeth". Where I live in Loveland the downtown is so busy now it's an hour wait to get into a restaurant on Friday and Saturday, and downtown Montgomery is the same. Those two areas are adding lots of people. Directly downtown in Montgomery off the new intersection of Ronald Reagan and Montgomery Road, and in Loveland it's more housing being developed north and east of Downtown Loveland.

 

So there are definite areas of growth in the metro and city just in my small areas of town. I do think the Walnut Hills area connecting to UC up to the hospitals and back around is going to look a lot different in 10 years.

47 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

Where I live in Loveland the downtown is so busy now it's an hour wait to get into a restaurant on Friday and Saturday, and downtown Montgomery is the same. Those two areas are adding lots of people

I think the fact that they're "adding lots of people" (not sure what the numbers are) reflects that there is demand to live near these areas, but I don't think those new residents are enough to explain all (or even a significant %) of the increase in retail activity. I suspect those NBDs are succeeding by attracting people who drive in from nearby residential areas that have no NBDs (Indian Hill, Sycamore, Blue Ash, etc.). Preferences for a "Friday evening out" are such that some people would rather drive to an "urban" business district like Montgomery or Loveland that at least has a few blocks of walkable sidewalks, rather than going to completely car-centric malls like Kenwood Towne Centre or Harper's Point.

18 hours ago, jwulsin said:

I think the fact that they're "adding lots of people" (not sure what the numbers are) reflects that there is demand to live near these areas, but I don't think those new residents are enough to explain all (or even a significant %) of the increase in retail activity. I suspect those NBDs are succeeding by attracting people who drive in from nearby residential areas that have no NBDs (Indian Hill, Sycamore, Blue Ash, etc.). Preferences for a "Friday evening out" are such that some people would rather drive to an "urban" business district like Montgomery or Loveland that at least has a few blocks of walkable sidewalks, rather than going to completely car-centric malls like Kenwood Towne Centre or Harper's Point.

It's definitely interesting. Looking at this, Warren County is up 10k people since 2020:

 

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/warrencountyohio/PST045224

 

For Clermont County, 3k people since 2020:

 

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/clermontcountyohio/PST045224

 

The ODOT is also looking at a study to add a new bridge over the Little Miami to ease congestion on the bridge in downtown Loveland and Loveland Madeira Road, most likely on Fields Ertel Road.

 

I am really not sure what county it is that is driving the population growth since Loveland is basically a Tri County area, but I think a lot of growth and new housing development in Clermont is close to / Adjacent to Loveland, where there isn't really any close NBD besides Montgomery, Loveland and Milford. Even city officials don't seem to know exactly:

 

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/finding-solutions/these-are-the-three-alternatives-loveland-officials-hope-could-alleviate-the-citys-traffic-issues

 

This is kind of the area where I am seeing new project housing starts and out to Goshen now which is in green:

 

Obviously it's purely anecdotal but interesting.  4-5 years ago when we first moved to Loveland there wasn't so much issue trying to get in a restaurant. Loveland was going to build a parking ramp downtown but I think they ended up finding additional land they bough and ended up with a large surface parking lot. Now that lot and all the other lots downtown get full and there is no room at the restaurants. Maybe that is what is spurring it now with the long waits.

 

 

There's a Springvale and a Springdale?  Oy.

funny that dale and vale both mean valley.

The governors proposed 2 year budget came out today.Some interesting things included in the proposed budget that would pertain to Ohio larger cities esp say Cincinnati?

 

Doubling the yearly amount of tax credits the state provides for Ohio Historic Tax Credits from $60 million to $120 million.

 

Single family historic homes are also now eligible for Historic Tax Credits  up to 20% of investment.

 

Also doubling the state tax rate on sports betting from 20% to 40%.Would allow the county to be awarded up to 40% of the total renovation cost of Paycor Stadium.$1 billion cost the state may kick in up too $400 million ect. 

 

 

https://businessjournaldaily.com/dewine-introduces-biennial-executive-budget-proposal/

Edited February 4Feb 4 by ucnum1

15 hours ago, ucnum1 said:

Single family historic homes are also now eligible for Historic Tax Credits  up to 20% of investment. 

 

👀

15 hours ago, ucnum1 said:

The governors proposed 2 year budget came out today.Some interesting things included in the proposed budget that would pertain to Ohio larger cities esp say Cincinnati?

 

Doubling the yearly amount of tax credits the state provides for Ohio Historic Tax Credits from $60 million to $120 million.

 

Single family historic homes are also now eligible for Historic Tax Credits  up to 20% of investment.

 

Also doubling the state tax rate on sports betting from 20% to 40%.Would allow the county to be awarded up to 40% of the total renovation cost of Paycor Stadium.$1 billion cost the state may kick in up too $400 million ect. 

 

 

https://businessjournaldaily.com/dewine-introduces-biennial-executive-budget-proposal/

 

These are huge wins for the city!

 

HTC awards doubling? SFHs eligible for HTC? Amazing! Gotta hand it to Dewine here.

A little worried about the SFH category. I'm curious how it will be implemented. The last thing I want is to see a substantial amount of money diverted to millionaires who just want to renovate their Indian Hill home.

Potentially yes a big win for the city.But I am also curious if Dewine's proposed  state budget is just reallocating TMUD award money to the Historic Tax Credit awards.

 

The TMUD state tax credit awarded is set to expire by years end.I did not see anything in the proposed state budget it was being renewed.

 

https://development.ohio.gov/business/state-incentives/transformational-mixed-use-development-program

23 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

A little worried about the SFH category. I'm curious how it will be implemented. The last thing I want is to see a substantial amount of money diverted to millionaires who just want to renovate their Indian Hill home.

Good point, maybe cap it at an appraisal value. No properties eligible already valued over a certain number.

How many homes in Indian Hills or other outer ring suburbs of Cincinnati fall under these categories making them eligible for funding?

Owners and long-term lessees of historically designated buildings who undertake a rehabilitation project may apply for the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit. A building must be individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places; contribute to a National Register Historic District, National Park Service Certified Historic District, or Certified Local Government historic district; or be listed as a local landmark by a Certified Local Government to be eligible.

 

 

What percentage of homes in Indian Hills were built before say 1960? id say 90-95% of eligible homes for funding in the metro area are in Cincinnati or the inner ring suburbs.

 

 

 

Also, pretty sure a property has to be vacant/uninhabited for at least 2 years to get maximum points for an HTC award. Highly doubt very many houses in Indian Hill would qualify. I think being in a low-moderate income census bracket also matters.

I imagine tax credits for SFHs would be in a different category, not competing with the other projects. If that's the case, the current rules really don't apply, and we would need to see what the new rules are for this set aside.

 

And you can get the awards if you are in a local historic district or designated a local landmark. Indian Hill is free to name anything as a historic building. There are properties in Indian Hill that harvest a couple of trees every year so they can count their land as agriculture and get lower tax rates. If there's a way for rich people to avoid paying taxes or to get massive handouts, they'll find it.

 

And it's not limited to just Indian Hill, that was just an example I threw out. I just hope there is a vacancy requirement, a maximum award per project, and other safeguards to prevent it from becoming a slush fund for millionaires to renovate their second homes or something.

4 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

I imagine tax credits for SFHs would be in a different category, not competing with the other projects. If that's the case, the current rules really don't apply, and we would need to see what the new rules are for this set aside.

 

And you can get the awards if you are in a local historic district or designated a local landmark. Indian Hill is free to name anything as a historic building. There are properties in Indian Hill that harvest a couple of trees every year so they can count their land as agriculture and get lower tax rates. If there's a way for rich people to avoid paying taxes or to get massive handouts, they'll find it.

 

And it's not limited to just Indian Hill, that was just an example I threw out. I just hope there is a vacancy requirement, a maximum award per project, and other safeguards to prevent it from becoming a slush fund for millionaires to renovate their second homes or something.

The proposed tax credit for historic single family homes and or owner occupied homes with multiple tenants is a new tax credit not under the current historic tax credit umbrella.

 

It is capped at $30 million though under Dewine's Budget.This is not going to be a tax credit awarded to the masses.Probably a few hundred homes a year get awards.

 

I would believe the criteria for eligibility and funding will be similar to the current historic tax credit awards but that is just a guess.

12 minutes ago, ucnum1 said:

capped at $30 million

oh well nevermind. Maybe a more potent 100plus mil in the future. Great idea tho.

1 hour ago, ryanlammi said:

A little worried about the SFH category. I'm curious how it will be implemented. The last thing I want is to see a substantial amount of money diverted to millionaires who just want to renovate their Indian Hill home.

Non-millionaire looking to renovate my 100 year old baby. I think a LOT of individuals will be interested to save 1/5 of a project budget through a single state tax credits typically awarded to large developers.

I think the single family and owner occupied multi tenant tax credit it will speed up development in dense older city neighborhoods.

 

Instead of Cincinnati getting 30-40 historic building awards a year for apartment building rehabs.And let us be honest OTR gets the majority of these awards.

 

I would guess Cincinnati would now get 50-75 single family historic homes awards a year.This will go a long way to helping out places like Millionaire Row in Walnut Hills.

City of Cincinnati proposes fee for businesses participating in Covid-era parklet program

 

The city of Cincinnati is proposing a new fee for its Covid-19-era parklet program, which was instituted to transform parking spaces in front of urban bars and restaurants into additional outdoor seating during a time where social distancing was mandated by the state.

 

A Jan. 16 memo from the city manager’s office sent to Mayor Aftab Pureval and members of Cincinnati City Council proposes a new fee structure and annual renewal process that will cover the cost of managing and maintaining the parklets, while also covering the loss in revenue from the parking spaces taken over to build the additional seating.

 

These outdoor “seateries” started popping up around Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in late 2020 as a temporary way to help struggling businesses at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Then, in 2021, the city and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) collaborated on the permanent installation. At the time, the city invested more than $2 million into the program.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/02/06/city-proposes-fee-restaurants-parklet-covid-era.html

 

^The specific cost for the fee can be worked out, but in general I agree that restaurants should be paying annual fees to cover ongoing maintenance and offset at least some (if not all) of the foregone parking revenue. 

I agree with the businesses being charged for the installation and maintenance costs of the parklet, but charging the business for the foregone parking revenue seems hostile, especially at a time when so many businesses in the urban core are closing and many others are struggling. The city benefits in so many ways by using that space for people instead of car storage.

8 minutes ago, taestell said:

I agree with the businesses being charge for the installation and maintenance costs of the parklet, but charging the business for the foregone parking revenue seems hostile, especially at a time when so many businesses in the urban core are closing and many others are struggling. The city benefits in so many ways by using that space for people instead of car storage.

I agree. Doesn't need to be a full recovery of parking revenue. But the fee should represent the fact that a) it costs to maintain the facilities, and b) the City is giving up revenue in most (perhaps not all) cases. 

I'm a strong believer that sidewalk cafes that don't use any road space should essentially be given the space for a nominal fee (a couple hundred bucks a year). I would even argue that small cafe tables (typical for 2 people or so) should be 100% free to put out on a daily basis (not permanent structures and barriers) without any permitting or fees. Obviously depends on the size of the sidewalk.

Here in NYC this change happened in 2024. Nearly every single outdoor dining space is now gone. Some definitely were a problem, but all the nice ones are also now gone. They need to be careful not to price out the ability to cover the fees. It honestly feels like a lot of business districts are significantly less dynamic now as a result. I know I miss being able to sit outside in some of our go-to places. 

1 minute ago, jmicha said:

Here in NYC this change happened in 2024. Nearly every single outdoor dining space is now gone. Some definitely were a problem, but all the nice ones are also now gone. They need to be careful not to price out the ability to cover the fees. It honestly feels like a lot of business districts are significantly less dynamic now as a result. I know I miss being able to sit outside in some of our go-to places. 

I would be very sad to see them go. They add so much life to the street, slow down traffic, and create a nice buffer from traffic. I can definitely understand why an already struggling restaurant and bar industry wouldn't prioritize paying this fee over other things. 

1 hour ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

I would be very sad to see them go. They add so much life to the street, slow down traffic, and create a nice buffer from traffic. I can definitely understand why an already struggling restaurant and bar industry wouldn't prioritize paying this fee over other things. 

I know talking with several of our regular spots that the fees here were outrageous. Even successful restaurants determined it wasn't worth their money to pay the annual fees associated with the outdoor seating. Which signals to me either a complete miscalculation on the city's part for how much these things should cost, or the more likely situation, pressure from parking advocates to price these fees so high that it de facto bans them.

Any ideas as to why the Photofocus building isn't finished yet?

On 2/10/2025 at 2:10 PM, anusthemenace said:

Any ideas as to why the Photofocus building isn't finished yet?

Due to open in late spring.With the new Public Radio Building in Evanston both will be the first large mass timber built facilities in the area.Both are very impressive designs though Public Radio Building is more than twice the size comes in at 35k sf to FotoFocus at 15k sf.

7 hours ago, ucnum1 said:

Due to open in late spring.With the new Public Radio Building in Evanston both will be the first large mass timber built facilities in the area.Both are very impressive designs though Public Radio Building is more than twice the size comes in at 35k sf to FotoFocus at 15k sf.

 

Salvagnini America headquarters in Westchester was years ago and larger

Edited February 14Feb 14 by CincyIntheKnow

^Salvagnini is actually in the City of Hamilton.

My bad. It's still a cool building that didn't get much press.

Edited February 14Feb 14 by CincyIntheKnow

Looks like Elon and Trump cut some Cincinnati federal offices leases off.

 

Anyone know the workforce numbers in these federal offices? The bureau of Prisons building is 36 e7th slated for apartment renovations.

 

Main Agency Location Annual Lease Cost Total Savings

 

Bureau of Prisons Cincinnati $75,739 $30,295

 

Office of Labor Managment Standards Cincinnati $102,456 $145,145

 

Railroad Retirement Board Cincinnati$31,416$0

 

Small Business Administration Cincinnati$49,014$32,676

 

National Archives Center Fairfield $478,213$39,851

Amid federal grant heartburn, Port sends money to West Side demolition project

 

Amid continuing uncertainty over the status of federal grants nationwide, the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority allocated a portion of $800,000 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funds to a project aimed at redeveloping the West Fork Incinerator site in South Cumminsville.

 

The Port has received $800,000 from the EPA to help create a revolving loan fund to clean up brownfield sites. It already has allocated $375,000 to Reading's Dow Chemical site cleanup and redevelopment. It will dedicate $500,000 of the EPA funds to the West Fork incinerator.

 

The Port’s board voted March 12 to use the fund for the long-dormant West Fork Incinerator site in order to remove asbestos and partially demolish the site. The Port intends to couple the money with state funds.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/03/12/port-authority-west-fork-incinerator-epa-grant.html

 

On 7/21/2021 at 11:48 AM, jwulsin said:

The old building at 6219 Wooster Pike (which I believe was originally a Cincinnati Bell property) has been demolished. The property changed hands in 2019. Owner's LLC is registered by Scott Davis, who might be the same Scott Davis associated with The Loring Group. Or maybe just a coincidental shared name. Anybody know what the plans are for this site? The property is quite large (nearly one acre) and extends all the way back to the creek that runs from Dogwood Park. 

Street View

Auditor Summary

This project is finally going vertical after new site clearance had started a few weeks ago. There have also been lane closures on Wooster in support of new buried utilities. The first building is in the northwest corner of the lot along Wooster. Google Maps has it listed as "Townhomes at Birkdale by Maronda Homes" but there's nothing on their website about it.

 

Additionally, there is site clearance happening behind the UDF on Beechmont across from the new Skytop Apartments. Permit records show that demolition of the old store was approved about a month ago. Public engagement from the LMST Connection to Elstun Road actually had a rough site plan for the new, larger UDF.

12 minutes ago, Dev said:

Additionally, there is site clearance happening behind the UDF on Beechmont across from the new Skytop Apartments. Permit records show that demolition of the old store was approved about a month ago. Public engagement from the LMST Connection to Elstun Road actually had a rough site plan for the new, larger UDF.

A Wawa is going in across the street at 5315 Beechmont. Both it and the UDF are in Anderson TWP.

Does anyone know what these cranes are building at the waterworks site in California?

 

 

15 hours ago, Lazarus said:

Does anyone know what these cranes are building at the waterworks site in California?

 

 

 

Nevermind, interpreted this as the Little Miami Wastewater Treatment plant not the waterworks out in California.

Edited March 14Mar 14 by osu97gp
I'm dumb.

On 3/13/2025 at 2:29 PM, Dev said:

This project is finally going vertical after new site clearance had started a few weeks ago. There have also been lane closures on Wooster in support of new buried utilities. The first building is in the northwest corner of the lot along Wooster. Google Maps has it listed as "Townhomes at Birkdale by Maronda Homes" but there's nothing on their website about it.

Wait list is now available on Zillow and their website, using stock photos. I'm not seeing any prices

Not that this one brings me any joy.MEMI has started construction on thier new ampitheater at Coney Island site.