They've started rebuilding and painting parts of the cornice and detailing as well. I haven't heard anything yet though which is surprising. I thought this was going to be part of a later phase of 3CDC's projects but maybe not. It looks like they're going beyond just stabilizing the property but it's hard to tell at this stage.

Is that 3cdc owned buildings? Or is it a private developer? If it's the latter then that's probably why there's little to no information about it

I believe those are 1428-1434 Vine St which are owned by 3CDC.

I believe I saw the corner building being gutted last time I drove past (SE Corner of Vine and 15th).  Here's to hoping they will rehab these quickly, but usually they send over some announcement of projects on 3cdc.org before doing a full scale reno, correct?  Possibly, they could be readying them / stabilizing to make it more attractive for re-sale?

That group of four buildings could be combined a la Parvis or Westfalen and create a nice little development. Hopefully we'll see some action or find out more soon.

EXCLUSIVE: Owners explore major development at Findlay Market farm site

Jan 16, 2015, 6:52am EST

Chris Wetterich Staff reporter- Cincinnati Business Courier

 

 

The 1.5-acre city block bordered by Liberty, Elm, Green and Logan streets has an interesting combination of uses today: A charter school, a parking lot, four vacant buildings and an urban farm.

 

But a development group of six led by Steve Tino of Jaymar Cole Investments and REM Group, real estate management companies, has big plans for the site, which was identified by the Courier as one with major development potential for our cover story today on properties along the streetcar line.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/01/16/exclusive-owners-explore-major-development-at.html?page=all

 

The former Findlay Market Farm has been looks horrible. All of the old greenhouses and stakes remain on the site, but are overgrown with weeds. Why wouldn't the owners just let the site continue to be farmed until their real estate plans get closer to reality?

New shoe and clothes retailer heading to OTR on Vine.

 

Local sneaker shop Corporate expanding to a second location at 1323 Vine, across from The Mercer. While the Hyde Park location specializes in special edition footwear, the Over-the-Rhine location will cater to a more mature audience. Expect to see streamlined basics from modern streetwear brands, as well as classics from the usual suspects at the top of the sneaker game. The plan is to open for business in this Fall.

 

http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/stylescoutblog/corporate-is-headed-to-a-new-hq/

Lyric food truck is parked on Mercer outside of 16 Bit this afternoon. First time I've seen a truck there. Good thinking. 16 Bit is almost always busy and no food in the vicinity.

Good thing Che is opening up right across the street from 16 bit next month

So that Shell in OTR is probably one of the sketchiest shells I have ever been to in all of my life.

 

There was a long line around 9 pm. I wanted to get beer but for whatever reason kroger closes super duper early down in OTR. So I thought the next best bet is Shell. There was a long line but apparently your not allowed to go inside the building, and have to use a little sliding shelf to put your money in, and have to tell the attendant what you want to buy. The locale was made of homeless I figure. They looked incredibly high, and they were really agressive when they saw 2 white boys waiting in line. They cut in front of us, we chose not to make a big deal of it.

 

Luckily there's a cop constantly parked right next to the shell, so I'm sure that helped the rowdiness, or any potential of it, but damn, the quicker that shell lot can be converted the better. Also, having a place where you can buy alcohol that doesn't originate from a bar would also helped. Literally everywhere, all the convenience stores, and kroger close super early.

Don't expect that Shell to go anywhere anytime soon. It's the only gas station down there and as such does insanely well. Plus they generally charge about $0.10 more than everywhere else per gallon because they can. It's sketchy, but it's not going anywhere.

 

I do wish Kroger would stay open later, at least on weekends. It's frustrating when at 9:30 I can't go grab something real quick.

I'm guessing they close down that Kroger early because of potential looting, robberies?

No they close the Kroger earlier because the store is not a money maker for the company.

 

That being said the Kroger has been staying open later than it used to a few years ago.

If Kroger opens a grocery store down at the banks...Does that make the one on Vine street expendable? I mean, OTR is only 3 miles away from the banks, and the street car would easily take you down there in 10 minutes.

 

I'm hoping that lot becomes another Mercer Commons type of project to revitalize that final stretch of Vine.

If Kroger opens a grocery store down at the banks...Does that make the one on Vine street expendable? I mean, OTR is only 3 miles away from the banks, and the street car would easily take you down there in 10 minutes.

 

I'm hoping that lot becomes another Mercer Commons type of project to revitalize that final stretch of Vine.

 

UC is about 3 miles from The Banks. OTR is 1-1.5 miles, I think.

KrOTR used to close around 6pm on Sundays. They recently started staying open until 9pm.

 

You can also go to the H+A Market on Main Street to get beer. IDK what their hours are on Sundays, but most days they stay open later than Kroger. Great place to have around the corner, especially when you run out of toilette paper late at night. They have an ok selection of beer. Not sure about their wine or liquor sales. IIRC, they don't sell liquor and may have a couple bottles of wine.

 

Halfcut has a great selection of beer, but mostly growlers.

 

Liberty's also sells beer to go. And on Second Sundays on Main you can get to go beer in plastic cups!

 

If you're in a pinch, you can get to-go beer at MOTR for about $1-2/can until closing (for Hudy Delight, Burger, PBR, High Life, Bud Light, etc).

If Kroger opens a grocery store down at the banks...Does that make the one on Vine street expendable? I mean, OTR is only 3 miles away from the banks, and the street car would easily take you down there in 10 minutes.

 

I'm hoping that lot becomes another Mercer Commons type of project to revitalize that final stretch of Vine.

 

Urban locations don't make sense for a "one size fits all" grocery environment. The OTR Kroger is great for the essentials and supplementary specialty stores would be more beneficial. Because grocery shopping in urban areas isn't a once a week kind of activity but rather a once every day or two activity there isn't as much of a need for a store to carry everything one needs. A series of smaller, more specialized stores meets the needs of an urban population better than, say, the Newport Kroger jammed into The Banks.

KrOTR used to close around 6pm on Sundays. They recently started staying open until 9pm.

 

You can also go to the H+A Market on Main Street to get beer. IDK what their hours are on Sundays, but most days they stay open later than Kroger. Great place to have around the corner, especially when you run out of toilette paper late at night. They have an ok selection of beer. Not sure about their wine or liquor sales. IIRC, they don't sell liquor and may have a couple bottles of wine.

 

Halfcut has a great selection of beer, but mostly growlers.

 

Liberty's also sells beer to go. And on Second Sundays on Main you can get to go beer!

 

If you're in a pinch, you can get to-go beer at MOTR for about $1-2/can until closing (for Hudy Delight, Burger, PBR, High Life, Bud Light, etc).

 

Taft's sells 6 packs of Nellie's to go for $9.99 and is open late.  Complete game-changer for me!

If Kroger opens a grocery store down at the banks...Does that make the one on Vine street expendable? I mean, OTR is only 3 miles away from the banks, and the street car would easily take you down there in 10 minutes.

 

I'm hoping that lot becomes another Mercer Commons type of project to revitalize that final stretch of Vine.

 

Urban locations don't make sense for a "one size fits all" grocery environment. The OTR Kroger is great for the essentials and supplementary specialty stores would be more beneficial. Because grocery shopping in urban areas isn't a once a week kind of activity but rather a once every day or two activity there isn't as much of a need for a store to carry everything one needs. A series of smaller, more specialized stores meets the needs of an urban population better than, say, the Newport Kroger jammed into The Banks.

 

I've never understood this sentiment. If by "one size fits all" you mean a supermarket with parking and huge set-backs so it can be accessed by cars and pedestrians, then yes, that's totally not right for an urban setting. However, a large, top of the line grocery store is definitely something that works in an urban environment.

 

I remember going to visit my girlfriend in NYC and going grocery shopping at the large, 2-story place about 8 blocks away. It was cheaper than the corner convenience store on her block, and had everything you'd want. The second floor was actually the basement, accessible by stairs or a large elevator. Only real difference is that everything was a bit more squished together.

 

And before anyone says, "this isn't new york!" I will preemptively push back and say that Cincinnati's urban basic can easily support 40,000 people. And that a large grocery store in the middle of the three neighborhoods, say around CP and Walnut, with a layer or two of parking between the grocery store and upper apartments/offices, would see a ton of use.

Except we don't have 40,000 people and that number won't be "easily" reached for a long time.

 

And if we're using NYC as an example, though there are the occasional massive grocery stores throughout what's more common are the 10,000-30,000 square foot grocery stores that service a neighborhood. It's rare to find something the size of my example of the Newport Kroger which is 128,000 square feet, or over 10 times the size of the OTR Kroger.

Except we don't have 40,000 people and that number won't be "easily" reached for a long time.

 

And if we're using NYC as an example, though there are the occasional massive grocery stores throughout what's more common are the 10,000-30,000 square foot grocery stores that service a neighborhood. It's rare to find something the size of my example of the Newport Kroger which is 128,000 square feet, or over 10 times the size of the OTR Kroger.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Cincinnati's population close to 300K?

 

And from what I understand about 50K of that population lives in the urban core of Cincinnati, no?  I mean you would think a major urban grocery store that serves the population from Clifton to Walnut Hills, to the Banks, OTR, and Even those who live on the banks of Covington and Newport (I know Newport has it's own Kroger but still). You would surely think there's a large enough population downtown in Cincinnati and KY that would use it?

 

Or is the population in the core truly that low?

I'm talking about down in the basin. OTR, Pendleton, and Downtown combined have around 17,000 people.

 

 

If you think people from all those neighborhoods are going to go to a giant singular store you're misunderstanding how grocery shopping works in urban locations. If they made one giant store to serve all those neighborhoods you'd leave literally tens of thousands in a food desert with no reasonable access to groceries.

I know the 40k number isn't easily reached. Might not ever be reached. Still something to shoot for.

 

I do agree that the smaller stores, like NYC bodegas, are probably going to pop up sooner and would make a bigger difference in terms of overall accessibility to food for people living in the basin.

 

On a side note, does anyone have hard and fast numbers on how many people live in lower price hill, the west end, otr, pendleton, and cbd?

^this is still the best source for that data I think, even though it is five years old.

 

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/reports-data/census-demographics/

 

Edit: "There were over 15,500 residents estimated to live in zip code 45202 in 2014, according to CBRE."

 

http://www.downtowncincinnati.com/docs/default-source/Stakeholder-Docs/2015_dci-report_lr.pdf?sfvrsn=4

 

Edit edit: 13,521 in Downtown/OTR/Pendleton (2013 DCI Estimate)

 

http://www.downtowncincinnati.com/docs/default-source/20th-anniversary-docs/2014_sod.pdf?sfvrsn=2

If Kroger opens a grocery store down at the banks...Does that make the one on Vine street expendable? I mean, OTR is only 3 miles away from the banks, and the street car would easily take you down there in 10 minutes.

 

I'm hoping that lot becomes another Mercer Commons type of project to revitalize that final stretch of Vine.

 

You revitalize a neighborhood by replacing the payday loan places. A grocery store is a neighborhood amenity that cuts across social and economic divides. Especially a good quality yet affordable brand like Kroger. If the grocery store was replaced with another store selling high end knick knacks the neighborhood will have lost something valuable.

 

I, and a lot of neighborhood residents, find the Kroger on Vine to be really personally convenient. That being said I would be open to one of the following instead: 1. A supplementary grocery store up at Findlay Market where you could buy things like toilet paper etc. not available at the market currently with longer hours of operation than the Market currently. 2. A larger Kroger at Walnut and Central Parkway double the size of the one on Vine with better selection. For example I'd love if I could find some free range chicken. Perhaps a location like that could have more deli and bistro options for a quick affordable lunch too. Also it should be part of a residential or office tower. 3. A combination of #1 and a grocery at Toby Keith's space at the Banks once the streetcar is up and running.

 

But jmicha is right about trips to the grocery being smaller and quicker so convenience is key. Maybe a good model would be a few small groceries spread across the basin mixed with specialty stores like Picnic and Pantry. Your walkable radius kind of shrinks when you're carrying bags of groceries.

Am I the only one who thinks this would be a cool aesthetic feature to have in some of the streets in OTR, like Main for example?

 

 

I know there are some setts where it's more of a cosmetic feature, so it doesn't create loud noise. Just think it would be to have in some of the otr streets to really emphasize the look and feel of the historical nature of the district, besides just the architecture.

A lot of OTR streets still have their brick or stone pavers, they've just been covered up. When they were resurfacing for the streetcar a bunch of old brick pavers were uncovered. I'd love to see some of these restored a la Elm Street but don't know how realistic this is.

 

Fun bit of history. There are wooden pavers in an alley (someone help me out I'm completely drawing a blank which alley it is) that still remain. Super cool and a little known hidden feature.

The wooden pavers are at Wilkymacky Alley off of Main Street just north of Central Parkway and they go behind the Davis Furniture Building toward the Salvation Army.

 

I think returning to brick streets makes most sense on small side streets (Pleasant, Republic, 15th, Clay, Dunlap, etc). But this isn't a pressing issue, so I don't think city money should be put toward it.

Definitely not pressing. But it would be cool if some of the side streets were redesigned to resemble a more European type of street where there isn't a distinction between sidewalk and street surface and parking was a little less regulated. The scale of the numbered streets and the mid-block streets like Pleasant and Republic are perfect for a more pedestrian street environment.

Except we don't have 40,000 people and that number won't be "easily" reached for a long time.

 

And if we're using NYC as an example, though there are the occasional massive grocery stores throughout what's more common are the 10,000-30,000 square foot grocery stores that service a neighborhood. It's rare to find something the size of my example of the Newport Kroger which is 128,000 square feet, or over 10 times the size of the OTR Kroger.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Cincinnati's population close to 300K?

 

And from what I understand about 50K of that population lives in the urban core of Cincinnati, no?  I mean you would think a major urban grocery store that serves the population from Clifton to Walnut Hills, to the Banks, OTR, and Even those who live on the banks of Covington and Newport (I know Newport has it's own Kroger but still). You would surely think there's a large enough population downtown in Cincinnati and KY that would use it?

 

Or is the population in the core truly that low?

 

The population is certainly 50K when you include Clifton to Walnut Hills to Downtown, etc.  But you also have to remember there are already Kroger stores in Corryville, and Walnut Hills, and Newport, etc.  So it's not like you have this big swath of people that aren't already served by a Kroger.  And as others have pointed out, when you live downtown, you use grocery stores differently than residents of farther out neighborhoods or suburbs do. 

Kroger should open at Central & Walnut, at the streetcar's midpoint. People should be able to take the streetcar for the larger grocery trips.

 

People near the northern end of the route are already served by Findlay Market and will be served by the new mini-grocer going in to Model Group's development on Race.

 

People near the southern end of the route will be served by the mini-grocer going into the 309 Vine development.

I think that system could work nicely. Smaller grocery stores that are planned at the extremities of the streetcar and a larger store at the midpoint. A store in the 30,000-50,000 square foot range at Walnut and Central Parkway integrated into a development/tower would work well, offer larger selection, but not be unnecessarily large.

Liberties Bar and Bottle sells to go beers at basically standard retail prices (what you would pay at Kroger, Market Wines)

1. Black Plastic Records is opening a 2nd location right across from the Woodward theater

 

 

 

 

2. How to flip a 17,500 home on Republic Street, to a 500K luxury loft.

 

 

Comments are really to fun on that one. Either some say how beautiful OTR to looks like, to many people saying I hear it's so dangerous, how do you manage to be so brave! Lol, suburbians.

 

Anyone know the status of the bodega going in at the old New York Dry Cleaners storefront?

He's having permitting issues. And is blaming it on the city and stating ridiculous things like, "3CDC doesn't want me so they're calling in favors."

 

Or, more likely, he's violating code in some manner and doesn't get that he has to fix it in order to proceed.

 

I really want more of this type of place in OTR, but the guy is not proving to be all that competent from what I've seen and heard. Hopefully everything gets resolved and it opens soon though.

A recent Streetvibes article says that 3CDC bought the Columbia Building at the NW corner of Walnut and 13th?  But the Auditor still shows it as an LLC in Boston with tons of subsidized housing around the City. 

 

Any truth to the Streetvibes article?

 

This link is to a list of property sales and is updated daily: http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/dailysales/dailysales.html

 

Sometimes the auditor can take a few weeks to update. But I don't see anything in OTR on Walnut Street that was sold.

 

 

There was some discussion about the Columbia building in this recent CityBeat article:

 

Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation is working with developer Model Group on the so-called Columbia Building at 1301 Walnut, undertaking a full-scale renovation there. That work, as well as work on two other buildings nearby on West 12th Street, will require the relocation of some 70 residents.

 

3CDC, which has led redevelopment efforts in OTR, has said the buildings it is rehabbing have been problem areas with high crime and poor upkeep, and that most of the residents there are glad they’re being offered the chance to move somewhere else. The developer has offered help and funds for relocation. [...]

 

What the Columbia building will become is still in the planning stages.

That's what's slated to go in there? That would be FANTASTIC.

To be clear, the owner is the Owner of the former Circle A. A horrible establishment the city shut down 2 years ago.

Well he's clearly put a bit of money into fixing up the storefront... hopefully he is serious about working through his issues (instead of just blaming the city) and reopening his store.

I forgot I had these photos.  This is 12th & Vine in 2004~.  The building at right was the first Gateway Quarter office and is now Taste of Belgium.  There was so much criminal activity at this corner at the moment I took this photo that I felt a bit unsafe taking it, even though the police officer was right there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure that this was 2005:

 

 

 

 

 

If you've seen the back half of the Circle A building you would be cautious about supporting this business. It is practically falling down. I'm surprised the city hasn't done emergency repairs and placed a lien on the property.

This is off topic a bit but kind of ties in what other people were discussing about a week or so ago.  I was down in OTR this past weekend (Saturday) and walked around quite a bit with my girlfriend.  It was a bit quiet by the time we got down there but it was around 5:00 pm before the big crowds came (still an hour's wait at restaurants). 

 

We were walking down and saw some large buildings being rehabbed on Main Street.  I believe Travis posted pictures on here, I thought it was mentioned it was about 20 residential units and 3 commercial spots?  Then, with the commercial space above Japps area (I think this is approximately one block south on the same side as Main Street), that will really liven up Main Street. 

 

Not that Main Street was completely dead, but it will be great to get more activity.  I really like Main Street, it has that gritty, busy city feel, just a little quiet there now.  Maybe a few new restaurants will help get it more active on a normal Saturday afternoon.  That and continued redevelopment on the side streets between Vine and Main.

 

That said, I think it will really help the feel from walking down 12th from Vine to Main Street when the lot on the SW corner of Main and 12th gets re-developed.  That would be great if they could make some nice condos there in historic fashion ( I know some dislike faux historic) but something done with high quality that fits into the building on the NW Corner somehow.

 

On a side note, it was the first time since I can remember where we walked around a lot and didn't get panhandled once.  I know people have mentioned here before that they have run into this but, I wonder if them moving the City Gospel Mission now if this is starting to have an affect on the panhandling?

Main Street definitely has a sharp contrast in the number of people from night to day and having all that office space plus more storefronts and new condos/apartments is definitely going to be nice.

 

Restoring the Davis Furniture Building, demolishing the Salvation Army, and constructing high density, no-parking-attached condos and apartments in buildings that are 10ish stories along Central and 5 stories everywhere else adding 100+ units or so to that area and another block of storefront would do wonders for connecting Main Street across Central Parkway. And it would activate that streetcar stop immensely.

IAGuy:  Reading your post gets me excited.  The extent to which the street wall is so complete north of 12th on Main really gives it a feleling of being a special place.

wow those pictures make that garage look HUGE.

Great photos! That hole that was there (and had been since the late 40s) was such a gigantic gap in the urban fabric. This project definitely did wonders for connecting OTR to Downtown.

 

For those who don't know 3CDC has two photo sets, one from 2004 and one from 2005, that show the state of OTR before their work began. It's....astonishing how dirty everything was. Beyond just the buildings being fixed up the amount of garbage that was cleared out, power lines that were buried, sidewalks rebuilt, etc. is crazy to think about. A decade has brought with it an incredible amount of change. Sometimes too much to even remember.

 

 

It took me a solid 2 minutes to orient myself relative to this picture:

 

That's a nice Metro shelter, can anyone make out the blue sign?

Urban Sites bought 1207 Main St, the Cincy by the Slice / Maude's building. They nearly own everything on that block that Hanke or Mixx doesn't own.