The former H&R Block at 14th & Main:

 

 

Seems legit, being all official on the window like that. :-D

 

Well of course it's going to be in a space with a big window right onto the sidewalk.  I mean, why wouldn't it be? 

Does anybody know what the deal is with the stoplights at the intersection of Green and Race St? Looking at the streetview over the years, it appears that around 2010, Green was converted from 2-way into 1-way, point in separate directions making the stoplight unnecessary at Race. So, the stoplights have been covered in plastic ever since then.  It just seems weird that the stoplights have been covered in bags for over 5 years now.

 

Here's the 2009 streetview showing the 2-way configuration with the stoplights: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1143153,-84.5179577,3a,75y,175.5h,87.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sysqlkQPeDGuYhVQXz76rWA!2e0!5s20090801T000000!7i13312!8i6656

 

Ever since 2011, the stoplights have been covered. Here's the most recent (2015) streetview showing the stoplights covered in plastic: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1143214,-84.5179593,3a,90y,178.39h,86.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgqs2ljnwIRDv8gWY1tiIXg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

The plan is to convert Green Street to two-way and new signals were installed during streetcar construction. They also planned to convert 14th Street between Elm and Race to two-way but there was some neighborhood bickering that resulted in a few meetings being held on the topic. I'm not sure where either of those conversions stand right now.

That's what I figured... but I got confused looking at the old streetview footage since Green was 2 way as recently as 2009. I guess somebody wanted to make it 1-way back in 2010.

I think it was made one-way to discourage drug dealing. Notice that the two halves of Green Street were made one-way in opposite directions, which would make it impossible for someone to just cruise down that street.

The plan is to convert Green Street to two-way and new signals were installed during streetcar construction. They also planned to convert 12th Street between Elm and Race to two-way but there was some neighborhood bickering that resulted in a few meetings being held on the topic. I'm not sure where either of those conversions stand right now.

 

I assume you meant 14th between Race and Elm since they put up the traffic signals and even put up the "begin one way" sign (which is still there I think) but nothing ever happened after that. Not sure why people bickered. It makes logical sense to have the north and south borders of the park 2-way. And I can't really see a downside to switching over to two way. Unless the people living on Pleasant with garages in the alleys fear turning out of the alley would become dangerous since it very well might. I use Osborne Alley almost everyday to get to that stretch of Pleasant between 14th and 15th and turning out of the alley onto 14th requires moving extremely slow since you can't see a single thing beyond the parked cars or buildings. Not that I think that's any reason to not convert to 2-way though.

I think it was made one-way to discourage drug dealing. Notice that the two halves of Green Street were made one-way in opposite directions, which would make it impossible for someone to just cruise down that street.

 

I worked with a guy who used to deal on that street.  He had a picture of a wad of cash on his phone that was literally the size of a brick, so probably over $10,000. 

 

 

The plan is to convert Green Street to two-way and new signals were installed during streetcar construction. They also planned to convert 12th Street between Elm and Race to two-way but there was some neighborhood bickering that resulted in a few meetings being held on the topic. I'm not sure where either of those conversions stand right now.

 

I assume you meant 14th between Race and Elm since they put up the traffic signals and even put up the "begin one way" sign (which is still there I think) but nothing ever happened after that. Not sure why people bickered. It makes logical sense to have the north and south borders of the park 2-way. And I can't really see a downside to switching over to two way. Unless the people living on Pleasant with garages in the alleys fear turning out of the alley would become dangerous since it very well might. I use Osborne Alley almost everyday to get to that stretch of Pleasant between 14th and 15th and turning out of the alley onto 14th requires moving extremely slow since you can't see a single thing beyond the parked cars or buildings. Not that I think that's any reason to not convert to 2-way though.

 

Yep, fixed my original post. The issue is that in order to convert the street to two-way, they'd either need to eliminate the parking lane on the north or south side of the street. 14th Street residents didn't want the north parking lane eliminated because they want to park directly in front of their homes, and 3CDC didn't want the south one eliminated because it's used sometimes by food trucks at Washington Park.

Have any of the packet-watchers seen any news on the Central Parkway CMHA or LibertyElm developments? I haven't heard anything in awhile, although I think neighborhood groups are pushing to downsize both of those projects.  :x

Just got notice of another zoning hearing for this project on May 20. So they are not sitting on their hands.

Progress at 15th and Race:

 

The 1500 block of this side of OTR is booming. Between Republic, Race, Pleasant, Elm, and the east-west streets bound by Elm, Central Parkway, Liberty, and 15th are all seeing tons of construction and renovations. It's crazy how much is going on right now in such a small area.

The 1500 block of this side of OTR is booming. Between Republic, Race, Pleasant, Elm, and the east-west streets bound by Elm, Central Parkway, Liberty, and 15th are all seeing tons of construction and renovations. It's crazy how much is going on right now in such a small area.

 

Thank you, Cincinnati Streetcar!

Looking good.  I must admit I will miss the 'Survive & Advance' mural leftover from the AVP event a few years ago.

I really hope that among all this new development we will begin to see more neighborhood retail needs pop up.

 

OTR really doesn't feel like a neighborhood, but more of a touristy destination with all the bars and restaurants. Would love to see laundromats/dry cleaning stores, tailor shops, smaller mom and pop deli's, hardware stores, mom and pop grocery stores, etc. It's really lacking those basic amenities.

 

From what I understand though, the 1500 race infill will feature another restaurant that focuses on breakfast & lunch.

I really hope that among all this new development we will begin to see more neighborhood retail needs pop up.

 

OTR really doesn't feel like a neighborhood, but more of a touristy destination with all the bars and restaurants. Would love to see laundromats/dry cleaning stores, tailor shops, smaller mom and pop deli's, hardware stores, mom and pop grocery stores, etc. It's really lacking those basic amenities.

 

From what I understand though, the 1500 race infill will feature another restaurant that focuses on breakfast & lunch.

 

Sadly, I would say this is true of most places in the US anymore, not just OTR. Those places exist either because they have been there forever & weathered the storm through the recessions & big box rise or the rent is cheap enough to get a foot in the door. I share your desire to make it a 'real neighborhood' though. With the residential density and money moving in Id say they have a better chance to reestablish those things over other neighborhoods that have lost them though.

 

I really hope that among all this new development we will begin to see more neighborhood retail needs pop up.

 

OTR really doesn't feel like a neighborhood, but more of a touristy destination with all the bars and restaurants. Would love to see laundromats/dry cleaning stores, tailor shops, smaller mom and pop deli's, hardware stores, mom and pop grocery stores, etc. It's really lacking those basic amenities.

 

From what I understand though, the 1500 race infill will feature another restaurant that focuses on breakfast & lunch.

 

Sadly, I would say this is true of most places in the US anymore, not just OTR. Those places exist either because they have been there forever & weathered the storm through the recessions & big box rise or the rent is cheap enough to get a foot in the door. I share your desire to make it a 'real neighborhood' though. With the residential density and money moving in Id say they have a better chance to reestablish those things over other neighborhoods that have lost them though.

 

 

Spend more time on Main Street. 

I really hope that among all this new development we will begin to see more neighborhood retail needs pop up.

 

OTR really doesn't feel like a neighborhood, but more of a touristy destination with all the bars and restaurants. Would love to see laundromats/dry cleaning stores, tailor shops, smaller mom and pop deli's, hardware stores, mom and pop grocery stores, etc. It's really lacking those basic amenities.

 

From what I understand though, the 1500 race infill will feature another restaurant that focuses on breakfast & lunch.

 

Sadly, I would say this is true of most places in the US anymore, not just OTR. Those places exist either because they have been there forever & weathered the storm through the recessions & big box rise or the rent is cheap enough to get a foot in the door. I share your desire to make it a 'real neighborhood' though. With the residential density and money moving in Id say they have a better chance to reestablish those things over other neighborhoods that have lost them though.

 

 

Spend more time on Main Street.

 

The small low budget stores on Main Street are really crap, no offense.

 

The retail row on Main in general is crap. You got a few great bars, a few nice places to eat (Iris, Goodfellas), a nice tat shop, and a lot of arts and craft junk stores.

 

There's so much more potential for that street. Not saying overfill it with bars and resturaunts and bars like Vine, but some high quality retail places would be nice

^ depends on what you want, obviously. Some people really love Park & Vine, and folks that are into vintage clothing have a few nice shops.

 

Honestly, I'm not sure what my ideal mix would be. In general I hate to shop, cause it makes me sleepy. I like looking at tools and cool appliances. One of those places with like everything you could ever want in terms of electronics would tempt me to go in. A good shoe store would also be nice. In terms of what we have already, I'm usually not bored going into places like Elm and Iron and Mica.

The Kruckemeyer building is selling units fast! Apperantly only 3 are available.

 

Speaking of this building though, I noticed the ground floor has not been discussed. Does anyone know if the owner will pursue and try to lease the ground floor of the building for a potential retail spot?

Not a lease, but they're looking to sell the ground floor retail space. When they advertise the building as, "13 condos" one of those condos is the ground floor retail space. It's being advertised as one large space.

The first floor (3023 sf) and half of the basement (2170 sf) are being marketed as a "commercial condo".

 

I never realized in the drawings, but it appears the basement extends underneath the sidewalk. I wonder how many other buildings have a situation like that.

Can anyone remind me why 3cdc didn't go with their first plan for a more dense development at 15th and Race? Seems like It would have been a good idea. Was it because they didn't get some historic credits they were hoping for or was it because folks we'rent keen on another parking garage? I remember people didn't like the first plans they laid out.

I never realized in the drawings, but it appears the basement extends underneath the sidewalk. I wonder how many other buildings have a situation like that.

 

It's actually quite common. Often, there is a "trap door" in the sidewalk which was used for dropping coal down. Pretty neat. I'd love to see more of those spaces renovated (in the style of the basement in Myrtle's Punch House) because they can create neat, cozy spaces which provide a nice contrast to the crowds and bustle at street level (or increasingly on rooftops). One downside to those basements it that they make it difficult/impossible to plant trees on those streets/sidewalks.

The neighborhood said, "we don't want another massive garage at 15th and Race." So 3CDC downsized the entire project. Ideally they would have kept the density of units the same and just eliminated the garage... but they didn't.

A lot of people complained about the scale of the garage that was to be a part of the project, myself included. 3CDC took that as meaning people didn't like the scale of the entire thing when in reality a ton of us were calling for less space for cars and more units of housing and more retail space.

 

What we're getting isn't really a downgrade in terms of number of units, but it will be smaller buildings from the street since they are no longer thin buildings lining a garage like originally planned. I don't necessarily dislike the scale of the current building being built (I wish it was 4 stories, not 3) but I'm very concerned about their desire for a "one, possibly two story" building on the corner of 15th and Race. I'll be at every public meeting discussing that building to publicly voice my opposition to such a small building on a prominent corner.

 

I'm hoping the plan for the townhomes on Pleasant and 15th are replaced with something a little higher density, but I'm doubting that will happen. But who knows, with the 30 or so townhomes being built in this corner of OTR 3CDC may want to diversity a bit.

I've seen a ton of the coal chutes or bulkhead doors that go down to the basement but most it seems are just that. The rest of the footprint is within the property line and only that one element sticks out beyond it. My building (which is actually 7 buildings combined) has a handful of them that they paved straight over which is somewhat weird. The basement is a hot mess of different sized spaces, stairs that used to go to street level, old coal chutes, etc.

Yeah - I guess I should qualify "common" as in "I've seen it a handful of other buildings". The majority of basements end - like you mentioned - at the sidewalk and have an angled chute.

Thanks for the replies. At first glance I just think its ridiculous seeing another significant parking lot being built. Especially since this one is likely going to be there to stay for a while.

 

I know the Barr's Loans building and the Guildhaus both extend below the sidewalk.

I worked in a building in Boston that had a basement that extended out to the curb and shared a wall with the red line subway tunnel.  The basement shook a lot more than a typical basement would whenever a trained passed, which was about every two minutes.  The sidewalk above had early glass blocks in it (they were cylindrical), so light got into the basement.  You could see people walking over them, but they were frosted.  So no you could not see up women's dresses. 

Myrtle's is interesting because the arched stone vaults in the basement aren't under the sidewalk but a side access drive/alley.  They do have a stair and trap door to the sidewalk though.  The basement changing rooms at Bob Roncker's Running Spot in O'Bryonville are two stone vaults that go under the sidewalk too.  I wouldn't hazard a guess at how many of these are out there, but I bet there's a lot, even if only a small percentage of building have them. 

Winery coming to Over-the-Rhine

Two couples who've been making wine together as a hobby, Anthony and Jodi Maieron and John and Amy Coleman, are opening urban boutique winery and wine bar Revel OTR at 111 E. 12th St.

...

The wine itself will be made in small batches –  there's space for only 44 barrels in the basement of the building, where wine will be made. Visitors won't be able to tour the winery, but they'll be able to catch a glimpse of the winemaking operations through barred windows just above street level. (And they may notice grapes being taken downstairs via a vintage, human-powered elevator.)

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2016/05/16/winery-coming-over--rhine/84275680/

The barrel-vaulted sub basement at Cintrifuse (1313 Vine) used to extend pretty far out. I heard they has to seal it off, but I saw a fairly recent photo that looked like it was still open. I guess we will see when they get a business operating down there. The floor was pretty sandy and there was a freaky white mold-like thing scaling the walls when I was in there, but that was a while ago. You can see it in the photo in this column, it si the area in the back through the arched door.http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/55soapdishwhatliesbeneath.aspx

The basement of 1724 Vine St used to extend all the way to the street with sidewalk above it. The rebar holding the sidewalk up was rusted through to the point that if an emergency vehicle drove onto the sidewalk it would've ended up in the basement. The building department forced the area under the sidewalk to be filled in with dirt, build a new wall in the basement, and pour new sidewalk.

 

A heavy truck recently fell through the sidewalk in Covington because of something similar I bet (http://www.wlwt.com/news/Dump-truck-falls-through-Covington-sidewalk/39134940).

Looks like there are three connected properties are for Forfeited Land Sale in the northwest corner of OTR for anyone interested.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1216646,-84.528221,3a,75y,202.17h,100.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHv4MzO5BaW8dIlMEud0INw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/pdf/FLSAD2016.pdf

How do those work? Is the buyer responsible for paying the full amount of the delinquent taxes?

How do those work? Is the buyer responsible for paying the full amount of the delinquent taxes?

 

Oh gosh, I not 100% sure.  I'm guessing you can get it for less than that as the county probably doesn't want to own those properties.  The only issue with properties like these is that it will cost a small fortune to stabilize and eventually rehab.

The planned above ground garage would have demolished the rear of two historic buildings and dominated the block, so I'm glad it didn't get built.

 

I echo jmicha[/member] 's call for a taller, multi unit building at the corner of 15th and Race than is currently planned. Really it could extend along 15th Street all the way to the cut in for the alley that will serve the condos that are currently being built.  My concern is that 3cdc will be reluctant to do this with the limited amount of parking available in Washington Park garage.  There are also many vacant lots in the vicinity in the same situation.

 

Over the weekend I posted this on Downtown and OTR Neighbors Facebook group: https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/liberty-and-race-underground-garage/

 

The new concept it introduces from 3cdc's old 15th and Race plan is an underground garage that extends underneath Pleasant Street all the way to Elm. I really hope someone from 3cdc reads it and considers it carefully. I think it is the only way to build out the surrounding neighborhood to the density we want, under the current parking minimums for development (which should be reformed someday under a more progressive administration.)  And, the garage would serve a few blocks on both sides of Liberty, especially possible once the street is narrowed.

How do those work? Is the buyer responsible for paying the full amount of the delinquent taxes?

 

Oh gosh, I not 100% sure.  I'm guessing you can get it for less than that as the county probably doesn't want to own those properties.  The only issue with properties like these is that it will cost a small fortune to stabilize and eventually rehab.

 

Forfeited property sales are different than sheriff sales. Bidding starts at like $5 or $50 and back taxes wiped off. Properties only get to this stage after being offered at a certain number of sheriff sales for the delinquent amount and no bids being received. As bfwissel stated these are properties that usually have major issues, but there are diamonds in the rough. The city and/or landbank can swoop in before sales start and claim any property as well.

I have mixed feelings about the old proposal at 15th and Race. I supported saving the rear of the existing building and reducing the parking but now city commissions like the HCB and Planning Commission are looking for agreements on parking for garages (like the Streitmann Biscuit building on 12th and Central Parkway) as conditions for project approval.

 

While I think this is an unfair bar for an urban neighborhood there are many stakeholders now seeking parking guarantees for projects in OTR. Having a public garage at 15th and Race would have eased those pressures, at least for a few years, but now the perceived lack of parking in OTR is starting to restrict development density for new infill projects.

 

And its not as simple as saying, "But the streetcar is nearby," as a reason to reduced parking because most local developers and lenders do not figure that into their loan calculations. This may change over time, but not overnight, and likely not without the expansion of the existing system.

In the <a href="http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings/historic-conservation/historic-conservation-board/">May 2 HCB packet</a>, 3CDC is requesting permits to demolish two small buildings with the goal of selling the empty parcels to third party developers. The HCB staff recommends the demolition, and I agree. These parcels will contribute more to the neighborhood if they can be sold to developers as empty parcels.

• 1604 Elm - aka "Trusty Tires" (<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1133207,-84.5193893,3a,75y,78.22h,90.23t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNm5rEp_F9Id5voWVGvG3tw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1">streetview</a>). 20'x100'. Unfortunately does NOT include the corner lot (1600 Elm) facing Liberty, which is owned by Norton advertising.
  
• 1618 Pleasant - rear 2 story structure (<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1136619,-84.518633,3a,75y,60.94h,81.74t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1seuKr-SDwzvEwMx0-k9-Qyw!2e0!5s20140701T000000!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1">streetview</a>). 28'x85' parcel. The building is leaning 6-8 inches off plumb. Would have to be completely rebuild. The front building on this lot was demolished some time ago.
  

^A good example of two sites that could accommodate denser development if parking requirements were satisfied by spaces in my proposed underground garage!

The former H&R Block at 14th & Main:

 

 

Seems legit, being all official on the window like that. :-D

 

 

Pretty funny... someone keeps putting fake businesses on the window and they keep getting removed after a day or so. The latest one said something about "adult novelties".

Does anyone know the latest about that restaurant that was proposed in the Union Hall space? Was supposed to have an enterance off republic street, and was supposed to have a dining space in the old larger tunnels.

ToB is expanding.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/05/17/taste-of-belgium-expands-in-otr.html

Are they actually expanding or just redoing their space? Because they've had the southern half of their space blocked off for awhile now and I don't see where they could actually "expand" their footprint.

I'm pretty sure Taste of Beligum is renovating their existing space, which will increase the number of seats available for diners... but not expand their total footprint.

Actually, they are expanding their footprint slightly by taking over a storefront that faces 12th Street, which will act as a private dining room. They are also renovating their current space, and total seating will go from 77 to over 100 seats.