Oops, looking back on some of my photos from last year, it looks like the Fifth Third building already had the green swoosh logo on the narrow sides. So I really don't know what they're up to.

 

I found out that one of my favorite buildings in OTR got restored:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/07/21/get-a-look-at-the-latest-condos-in-over-the-rhine.html?ana=twt#g1

 

This is the Chicago-y (but about a story higher, narrower and with a more elaborate cornice than any you'd find up here) Greystone that has been abandoned for a long time.

Oops, looking back on some of my photos from last year, it looks like the Fifth Third building already had the green swoosh logo on the narrow sides. So I really don't know what they're up to.

 

 

I just told you...

Been curious about 5/3 as well. Haven't been able to find mind info. It'd be great if they added some element of a LED Backlight to the signage.

 

New York City banned corporate logos from its towers back in the 1960s.  The MetLife Building (formerly Pan Am) is what motivated the ban.  Just imagine it today littered with 100+ logos. 

Fifth Third is bringing new look to Fountain Square

By Steve Watkins  –  Staff Reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

 

Fountain Square and Cincinnati’s skyline will soon have a new look as Fifth Third Bancorp is changing the sign atop its headquarters building.

 

Downtown-based Fifth Third (Nasdaq: FITB), Cincinnati’s largest locally based bank and the nation’s 13th biggest, is adding lighting and changing the background on the “Fifth Third Bank” sign at the top of the 32-story building, Fifth Third spokeswoman Shandi Huber told me. The new programmable lighting and new white background will allow Fifth Third to change colors on the sign, which faces Fountain Square.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/08/25/fifth-third-is-bringing-new-look-to-fountain.html

Nice that sounds like a great upgrade. 

Steiner planning $15M apartment project in Columbia Tusculum 

By Tom Demeropolis

Senior Staff Reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

Aug 25, 2017, 12:06pm EDT

 

 

Steiner + Associates, the Columbus-based developer of Liberty Center, is working on plans to develop an apartment project in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Columbia Tusculum.

 

The developer is scheduled to go before the Cincinnati City Planning Commission on Sept. 1 for its proposed project on the western side of Hoge Street between Columbia Parkway and Widman Place. The developer is requesting a change of zoning for the property to planned development from residential mixed. The change would allow Steiner to develop a $15 million, four-story residential building with 69 apartment units that will be constructed on top of a one-level parking garage.

 

[urlhttps://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/08/25/steiner-planning-15m-apartment-project-in-columbia.html][/url]

 

The Cincinnatian Hotel will become a "Curio" by Hilton: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/08/28/exclusive-cincinnati-lands-ohio-s-first-curio.html?ana=TWT_staffTD

 

The interior design of The Cincinnatian seems a bit bland and dated... so I suspect the interiors will be updated to have more personality, and be more competitive with 21C, Hotel Covington, and the soon to open Autograph Collection (at the Anna Louise Inn).

 

Curio manages the "Hotel Phillips" in Kansas City, which looks like a similar historic, downtown building: http://curiocollection3.hilton.com/en/hotels/missouri/hotel-phillips-kansas-city-curio-collection-by-hilton-MKCCUQQ/index.html

Cincinnati Ballet hunting for new, larger facility

 

The Cincinnati Ballet has outgrown its West End facility and is searching for a new location in the city’s core.

 

Scott Altman, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Ballet, said the organization initially reached out last fall to see if people in the real estate and development community had land or an existing structure that could accommodate its growing needs. The organization continues to look at any possible sites that could meet its requirements.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/08/29/cincinnati-ballet-hunting-for-new-larger-facility.html

Would make sense to land within otr considering the presence of all the current theaters like ensemble theater, and music hall and of course the new cincy shakes theater on elm.

 

Only question is where they could land this within in otr that would make sense?

 

A part of me wonders if that empty lot in between memorial hall and music hall could fit?

Would the Emery make sense for the Ballet? Aside from the auditorium, I know the Emery has a few classroom/gallery spaces that might work as rehearsal spaces. I'd love to see them make it work, though I imagine there'd be some challenges.

Kind of a fat chance but would be sweet if it went here next to the 8th and Main Development in a stand alone building.  Maybe on the lot directly to the west they could develop a mixed-use building with structured parking.  I know, ugh parking, but they got to incentivize the parking lot owners somehow.  Either way, I'm mostly never too fed up about building parking ramps in mixed used buildings downtown, if it allows more development to happen around it and helps bring in more people from the suburbs.  As long as we continue to add lots of population, and also if the developers / owners of the new buildings construct the ramps to have even floors to eventually convert to more office if need be...

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1048981,-84.5109082,3a,75y,198.31h,92.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgBzxOloGbB7WmzNEoXc9PA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Maybe the Ballet could be a new tenant for the soon to be decommissioned Main Library Annex?

 

Maybe the Ballet could be a new tenant for the soon to be decommissioned Main Library Annex?

 

I actually think that could be a great idea. Re-reading the article about the ballet, (and looking at the examples cited from Salt Lake City, Houston, and Kansas City), it's clear that the new facility would *NOT* be intended to be the ballet's primary performance venue (rules out The Emery). In all 3 of those cities, the training facilities are separate from the primary performance venues. With Music Hall and the Aronoff, the Cincinnati Ballet will continue to use those venues for their performances. The new Cincinnati ballet facility would be for training. In other words, it would serve a similar role as their current facility in the West End. They'd just be upgrading to a newer, larger facility. I assume they'd have some spaces for small performances, but I would not expect them to build a large auditorium.

 

I'm not sure how tall the ceilings need to be for the ballet studio spaces, but <a href="http://wedge3.hcauditor.org/view/re/0760002024700/2015/appraisal">according to the auditor's site</a>, the library annex has 3 floors with 12' height. (It also has 2 floors with 8' height, used for storage and stacks). The 3 stories with 12' height have a cumulative square footage of about 85,000 sq ft. The Annex has a drop-off lane on 9th street, an attached surface lot on the east side, and close proximity to a few garages and surface lots. If you draw a straight line from the Aronoff to Music Hall, it basically passes right through the Annex (in other words, if you're trying to minimize cumulative distance to Aronoff+Music Hall, you won't be able to do better).

 

Here are the requirements as listed in the article, all of which seem to be met by the Annex:

Cincinnati Ballet is looking to double the size of its facility, to about 70,000 square feet from the 35,000 square feet it it has leased at 1555 Central Parkway since 1994.

...

The ballet would prefer to relocate in downtown Cincinnati or near the city’s core. Altman said the idea is to be close to the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall, as well as its sister organizations in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Opera.

...

It would need large, open spaces with tall ceilings for ballet studios. Altman also said the ballet is looking for a location with accessibility, safe drop-off and pick-up areas for students and families, and parking.

^ I can't recall exactly, but I think that the library floors are supported by normally spaced interior columns. I'd think that alone would be a deal killer.

^ I can't recall exactly, but I think that the library floors are supported by normally spaced interior columns. I'd think that alone would be a deal killer.

ahh... if that's true, that'd be a deal killer.

I very much like the idea of using the library annex for the ballet facility. It might not be possible from a space perspective, but it's a great idea and it seems like it would be about the right size.

 

My parents are long time ballet supporters, and I know they go to the West End facility for the "new works" series each year. There is definitely a performance space requirement for the new facility, but I think it can be a little more of a flexible concept than a traditional theatre. Moving the ballet from its current location, which is pretty off the beaten path for most of OTR and Downtown, could be a way to breathe some life into a portion of the core that could use it.

 

If they are going to build a new facility, maybe one of the surface lots on the west side of Central Parkway could be good. They'd be across the street from SCPA, close to Music Hall and the streetcar, and they could still provide pretty easy parking for visitors.

 

So I have a friend that works in the library system who has told me that the annex is likely to be used for a library operations facility to consolidate all of the administrative people into one building that they have been wanting to build for some time but don't have the money to build a new building for.  He said from what he's heard they will either sell it or do this but it's looking like they are leaning towards this.

^ Thanks for the info. That would be an easy and logical use of the building, and it would bring more employees Downtown.

But still leave a rather boring building with absolutely awful siting in place. The northern building really has no business being located on that block the way it is. It's really unfortunate. I know it's a result of the era it was built, but it's really terrible.

 

I hope they do sell and something more imaginative and engaging winds up in its place.

The redevelopment of this block and building is very low on the list of development needs in downtown Cincinnati, imo. When we have all the surface lots built on, maybe we can revisit the library's north building.

I disagree. It's directly in the path of the most logical pedestrian connections between OTR, Court Street, and Downtown.

Unfortunately this north building has always felt a little "dead", even though it is open for business.  There are surface parking lots on the opposite sides of its bordering streets.  The Vine lot is small but the rest of the block is similarly "deadish".  The Walnut St. side faces a much larger parking lot. 

 

Casual pedestrians (especially tourists) don't like crossing even a one-block break in the action.  They definitely won't cross two dead blocks, which is what the situation is now (or truthfully three all the way up to 12th).  In Columbus, High St. has been steadily filled in to the point where there is now a 3-mile stretch with no dead blocks, which is an incredible achievement for a mid-sized city.  The whole upper part of downtown needs to fill in all of the large parking lots with large buildings with some street restaurants/retail.     

^Putting some cool lighting/public art under the bridge could probably substantially help lessen the dark and dead feeling of that area at night. Some sort of neon installation would be cool, I think.

 

As far as increasing the vibrancy of that area, I think the fact that West of Vine is essentially a complete dead zone is a much bigger problem than the library north building. The whole area between City Hall and the library is SO under utilized, and there are a ton of surface lots. Fill those in, and fill in some more of the lots east of Vine, and the library blocks become much less problematic.

I do think that for a city of our size it is possible to spread yourself too thin however. I think there is something to what Columbus and Louisville and other cities do by focusing all the bars, restaurants, hotels, entertainment, etc. on one street so that there is an unbroken chain of action. I think instead of trying to spread east or west downtown we need to focus on Vine street from Fountain Square all the way to Findlay Market/Playground to act as the central pedestrian spine of the core. Once that spine is solid, you can worry about spreading out to the West side of downtown.

^I agree completely with what you are saying.  Vine from Fountain all the way up to the hill should be the main corridor for Cincinnati downtown, then the rest will fill in more or less from market pressure, etc. and help needed in certain areas.

 

Quick question: What is Louisville doing currently which is in line with this?  I am curious because my friend used to live there, I loved it there as it reminded me of a mini-Cincy in a way, but wanted to see where at they were focusing efforts there?

Can we please get a European style pedestrian entertainment  corridor that have no cars and only pedestrians and benches and cafes.

 

Why American cities don't have more of these is beyond me.

Can we please get a European style pedestrian entertainment  corridor that have no cars and only pedestrians and benches and cafes.

 

Why American cities don't have more of these is beyond me.

 

One reason is the lack of transit, so it's harder to fill up the space with pedestrians since it's easier to just drive somewhere else.  Also because of our wider streets, it's even harder still to make the street feel bustling and activated.  That leads to it feeling dangerous and creepy.  Proper pedestrian streets are usually less than 30 feet from building front to building front. 

 

http://newworldeconomics.com/narrow-streets-for-people/

http://newworldeconomics.com/narrow-streets-for-people-2-subtleties-of-street-width/

http://newworldeconomics.com/place-and-non-place/

http://newworldeconomics.com/the-triad-of-city-design-failure/

http://newworldeconomics.com/toledo-spain-or-toledo-ohio/

Are the streets in otr not compatible for this? I feel like main is a really centralized street that could be suitable for such a pedestrian entertainment street.

 

Also the street car could funnel pedestrians in and out.

I don't know about traffic free, but Vine street should two-way from the carousel all the way up through OTR, one lane each direction with parking either side and bumpouts with wider sidewalks through the CBD. The streetcar already straddles this route on either side to aid in pedestrian movement as well. 

I don't know about traffic free, but Vine street should two-way from the carousel all the way up through OTR, one lane each direction with parking either side and bumpouts with wider sidewalks through the CBD. The streetcar already straddles this route on either side to aid in pedestrian movement as well.

 

At least in the abstract, I like that idea. Vine St is such a cool "spine" that runs from the river, up though the CBD, OTR, Clifton Heights, Avondale, and beyond. In the short term, before making updates to Vine St in the CBD, I'd like to see the city make updates to Vine St north of Liberty: burying utilities, adding trees, adding bumpouts. That stretch of Vine gets a lot of through traffic and currently looks very rough. Since it's the "welcome" to the basin for people coming down Vine St, I feel it should be a priority to clean it up.

The Library plans to close its North Building and consolidate all operations in the South Building, which opens up nearly an entire block downtown for redevelopment. 3CDC is being tagged as a 'consultant' but I wonder if they are going to bid to redevelop the lot as well.

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/07/31/public-library-close-north-building-might-leave-entire-downtown-block-available/492586001/

 

The "Democratic Socialists of Metro Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky" oppose this deal. A member of that group was banned from the library for 6 months for passing out anti-3CDC pamphlets inside the library.

^Is their HQ in Northside?

Why don't they do this for the North library:

 

1. Library sells building to Hamilton County

2. Library keeps open it's public spaces in the building and moves out its operations from upper stories

3. Hamilton County renovates portion of  building into new offices for their operations that are housed in these historic buildings they have in the neighborhood: http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/government/departments/facilities/county_facilities/

4. Hamilton County builds a new office building on the adjacent lot at the NW corner of 9th & Walnut 

5. The former Hamilton County office buildings are converted into residential

Does anyone know what's going on with 222 W 7th? I saw it sold on the auditors site for 8.4M to 222W7 LLC.

Why don't they do this for the North library:

 

1. Library sells building to Hamilton County

2. Library keeps open it's public spaces in the building and moves out its operations from upper stories

3. Hamilton County renovates portion of  building into new offices for their operations that are housed in these historic buildings they have in the neighborhood: http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/government/departments/facilities/county_facilities/

4. Hamilton County builds a new office building on the adjacent lot at the NW corner of 9th & Walnut 

5. The former Hamilton County office buildings are converted into residential

 

Most of the opposition to the sale of the north library building are not based on any rational logic. It’s simply the anti-gentrification crowd getting worked up because a publicly owned asset may be redeveloped by 3CDC. They have not stopped to ask basic questions like, does the library actually need that space? For all we know the library could make a profit by selling the building, and have more money to pump into providing more services and enhancing some of their other buildings.

Does anyone know what's going on with 222 W 7th? I saw it sold on the auditors site for 8.4M to 222W7 LLC.

 

The address for ownership of 222W7, LLC is the same address as Parking Company of America... considering 222 W 7th is a parking garage, I assume it will simply continue to operate as that.

 

Only other side note is 222 W 7th was the original Federated Dept Stores (now Macy's)  garage, which they had owned since it was constructed decades ago. 

I sort of feel the owners of all those super dated, near-the-end-of-their-design-life parking garages on that side of Downtown are just waiting out until they can sell to a developer.

 

They sell the rights to develop their property but partner with the developer to build a larger garage than is needed for the development and continue to operate the new garage under contract with the developer. If I were the owner of a junky old garage in a city where mixed use development is beginning to happen pretty frequently that's where I'd be aligning my future investments.

Macy's recently purchased the former Avon office building in Springdale and moved many of their downtown employees there. The 222 West 7th garage was the "cheap" garage for Macy's employees if they didn't want to park at the more expensive garage in the Macy's building. These things may be related.

Only other side note is 222 W 7th was the original Federated Dept Stores (now Macy's)  garage, which they had owned since it was constructed decades ago.

 

I had always heard of it as the Shillito's garage, was Shillito's a part of Federated?

Only other side note is 222 W 7th was the original Federated Dept Stores (now Macy's)  garage, which they had owned since it was constructed decades ago.

 

I had always heard of it as the Shillito's garage, was Shillito's a part of Federated?

 

Yes.

Speaking of Parking of America

Wow look at all the Indian Hill good ol' boys donating exclusively to Cranley. That should say everything you need to know about this mayoral race.

Silverton, CPS clash over asbestos at site of major mixed-use project

 

 

The village of Silverton and Cincinnati Public Schools are embroiled in a dispute over asbestos at the site of a former school that the village and developers plan to turn into a signature, mixed-use development for the small Hamilton County village.

 

Miller-Valentine Group, which is redeveloping the 10.6-acre site along Montgomery Road with Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate Inc., found “a huge amount of construction material that contained asbestos” in August as they prepared the site, according to Silverton Village Manager Tom Carroll.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/09/28/exclusive-silverton-cps-clash-over-asbestos-at.html

The Neyer Redevelopment of the Reakirt and Brunswick buildings demolition has unveiled some old signage of the Frisch's that once existed in the space. Came across it today on Sixth Street

^That old sign is awesome! Hope it makes it over to the Sign Museum.

Very happy to see this project progressing.

My high school's band played at a George Bush rally on Fountain Square in 1992.  A few of us ate at that Frisch's while the secret service was checking our instrument cases.  A clarinet player who shall remain nameless put the tip in a glass of water and turned it upside down on the table using the old envelope trick. 

Looks like St. Francis de Sales is restoring their clock.  I noticed the hands missing on one of the faces about a week ago, and just yesterday it was looking all pink and weird.  When I got closer I realized they took all the glass out and that's foam board covering the openings.