1 hour ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

Until the Mod's create a separate thread for "Fantastic Smells and Where to Find them: Cincinnati"

 

Alright, alright. I have split the "fun city smells" tangent off into a new thread.

 

7 minutes ago, taestell said:

 

Alright, alright. I have split the "fun city smells" tangent off into a new thread.

 

 

And there was much rejoicing.

 

Just wanted to give an update on OTR's growing nightlife and dining scene. Here's what's opening soon....

 

Urban Axes - Just opened this weekend next to Rhinegeist

 

Northern Row Brewery Taproom - No clue

 

Odd Fellows Bar + Mikeys Late Nite Slice - Should open by early Feb

Social OTR - No clue, but seems soon.

 

Food Hall from Hickory Wald Group - No Clue

 

CHX (fried chicken join next to 3 points brewery) - Probably by late Jan

 

BrewDog TapRoom + Resturaunt - They said Summer 2019?

 

Babushka Perogies + Vodka Bar - March-ish

 

Platform Brewery Tap Room - End of Jan? Idk that place has taken foreverrrr to open

 

Holiday Spirts (bar + taco stand from Senate Group) - Probably late Feb/Early March

 

Vine St Italian Restaurant from Thunderdome Group -  They said Spring?

 

Taglio Pizzeria + Bar (taking former Lachey's Spot) - They said Spring?

 

Lost and Found OTR (bar next to Empower Media Marketing building) - No Clue, I'm guessing spring. 

 

 

Growth as far as bars/restaurants are concerned are still going quite steady. Walnut St can obviously use more establishments (but the Columbia building is being rehabbed by 3cdc this year and should be done by summer)...Also I'm hoping that Main St will continue it's growth as well. Last year was a really successful year for Main St...but I'm still hoping for a few more restaurants scattered about, and would also not be upset if a few more unique concept bars opened as well. Lastly, I'm still holding out for a major upscale club to land somewhere on Main or OTR proper...Mr. Pitifuls is cramped, the drinkery is basically mr.pitifuls copy/pasted...and OTR Live/Treehouse makes you feel really out of place at times...

 

 

 

 

 

 

3CDC redeveloping ‘critical’ corner in Over-the-Rhine

 

Renovation work recently started on the Columbia building, a 32,000-square-foot building at the corner of 13th and Walnut streets. 3CDC is redeveloping the building, located at 1301 Walnut St., restoring it to 36 apartment units and street-level commercial space. The project is expected to be a total investment of $10.8 million. [...]

 

Of the 36 apartments, eight will be affordable units. These units will be available to renters making 80 percent of the area median income, or less than $43,900 for a single person or $62,650 for a family of four.

 

As 3CDC has done with previous mixed-income developments, all of the apartments will have the same fixtures and finishes. The eight that will be reserved for lower income residents will be indistinguishable from the rest

 

Read more at the Business Courier (subscription required)...

Signage is up at the new Platform location on Main:

 

 

Platform is an interesting brewery to say the least. They have been rapidly growing into different markets like crazy... Just recently announced a Pittsburgh taproom for this year...can't tell if this expansion will crush them or help them prevail to be a leading craft brewery. 

 

Getting this large building developed will really help increase the street presence on Walnut.  Get residents moved in and retail into the available space for this building and the smaller ones 3CDC already did across the street.  I love seeing the side streets in OTR fill in as the larger ones like Vine, Race and Main continue to see development move north.  

Considering the location of this building, I'm surprised it wasn't rehabbed sooner. 

 

I'm glad they're including some affordable housing, but $44,000 seems a tad high of a threshold for affordable housing for a single person in Cincinnati. But I am sure there are other forces and metrics that come into play here that I am not aware of. 

 

Does anyone know if this building has parking included somewhere or will it be making use of the city's new no minimum parking requirements? 

People who live in the building and want a parking space will likely be told to either pay for a pass for the Mercer Garage or apply for a residential parking permit from the city.

13 minutes ago, Lucas_uLsac said:

Considering the location of this building, I'm surprised it wasn't rehabbed sooner. 

 

I'm glad they're including some affordable housing, but $44,000 seems a tad high of a threshold for affordable housing for a single person in Cincinnati. But I am sure there are other forces and metrics that come into play here that I am not aware of. 

 

Does anyone know if this building has parking included somewhere or will it be making use of the city's new no minimum parking requirements? 

 

From what I heard it took long because the building was part of a housing portfolio that included properties outside of OTR and it took forever to separate them out.

8 minutes ago, taestell said:

People who live in the building and want a parking space will likely be told to either pay for a pass for the Mercer Garage or apply for a residential parking permit from the city.

 

Good, I'm happy that developers are going ahead and making use of the no parking requirements. I was truly worried that they would be skittish and fret that they wouldn't be able to move units without a plethora of super convenient parking. I think the removal of required parking was the last solid prohibitive barrier, and now the core will truly start to flourish as an urban oasis (aside from commissions and NIMBY's). 

 

1 minute ago, JYP said:

 

From what I heard it took long because the building was part of a housing portfolio that included properties outside of OTR and it took forever to separate them out.

 

Ah, I see. I'm glad bit by bit some of these complicated logistical knots are getting untangled and allowing developments to proceed. 

I'm hoping we see the Grammer block developed at some point before emergency demo is required for the detoriating Grammer building completely collapses. 

 

Maybe 3cdc can purchase this block at some point. That last block of Walnut truly is the biggest remaining sore point of south of liberty.

I don't think Grammer's is in any danger of collapse

24 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

I don't think Grammer's is in any danger of collapse

 

Maybe not at this point in time, but if this divorce will take another 15 years it will 

On 8/16/2018 at 3:00 PM, thebillshark said:

I hope whatever it is preserves Grear alley. It’s a long, brick, great historic alley with some building entrances fronting it and a connection to the little pocket park & Pendleton businesses.

 

I’d actually like to see townhomes fronting the alley. Would be unique to Cincinnati if they did something like that & be like the screenshots of the narrow streets in Philadelphia that someone posted awhile back.

 All about that. Working on a proposal for the alley corridor from Main Street to Reading Road, at least for full enhancement of the space. It's an untapped gateway. 

On 1/10/2019 at 11:23 AM, taestell said:

Other than rumors posted here, I have not seen any evidence that 3CDC is planning to create as SID for OTR. 3CDC did acquire DCI which is funded by the SID for the CBD, but they have pledged to continue spending all of the DCI money Downtown and not in OTR. They have not said a word about expanding the DCI SID into OTR or creating a new SID for OTR.

Per the most recent OTR Chamber of Commerce newsletter there will be two upcoming public forums on a SID in OTR:

 

There will be two public forums to present a proposal for a Special Improvement District in Over-the-Rhine. Dates and times below, both will occur at Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm Street, 45202.

Jan 23 @ 4pm – Memorial Hall

Jan 29 @ 7pm – Memorial Hall

Edited January 16, 20196 yr by mcmicken

On 7/30/2018 at 4:14 PM, jmecklenborg said:

It's not unrealistic at this point to expect a wildly transformed area, including renovation of the Jackson Brewery, by 2025.  My one personal request would be for a stairway connection between W. Clifton at the bend (Zier Pl.) and Renner St. 

 

Also, if we had been applying for Tiger grants, we could have gotten a streetcar extension up McMicken St. to Mohawk Corner built for free by this point.   

 

 

The Zier Place ROW actually runs as far west as the Renner Street bend.

5 hours ago, mcmicken said:

Per the most recent OTR Chamber of Commerce newsletter there will be two upcoming public forums on a SID in OTR:

 

There will be two public forums to present a proposal for a Special Improvement District in Over-the-Rhine. Dates and times below, both will occur at Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm Street, 45202.

Jan 23 @ 4pm – Memorial Hall

Jan 29 @ 7pm – Memorial Hall

 

So what will this SID proposal allow? Is this going towards future 3cdc projects/affordable housing projects/eviction protection/artworks projects?

It's probably going to go towards similar things that DCI does: "Safe, Clean & Friendly" programs.

17 hours ago, troeros said:

I'm hoping we see the Grammer block developed at some point before emergency demo is required for the detoriating Grammer building completely collapses. 

 

Maybe 3cdc can purchase this block at some point. That last block of Walnut truly is the biggest remaining sore point of south of liberty.

 

 

I'm sure 3CDC will take a good hard look at it.

 

Maybe waiting on Liberty Street Project? Anyone heard anything on that recently?

 

I Agree, that area of Walnut to E 15th and over to Vine is pretty rough. Isn't there some private projects going on E. 15th?

 

How are the buildings moving along at the East 15th and Vine Intersection?

Once the Kroger on Vine can be knocked down and 3CDC can redevelop the entire block it will greatly help that area.  There are a lot of buildings on 15th between Walnut and Vine that I think will see more work once the area south of them starts being redeveloped.  

This is totally off topic, but I was poking around OTR on Google Maps to see what buildings on 15th you all were talking about, and it occurred to me that OTR has a really wonky and fragmented grid. 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th all zig and zag multiple times from Central Parkway to Sycamore. There are also a bunch of small east/west streets that are only a block long, like Mercer, Orchard, Woodward, and of course the numbered streets totally stop north of Liberty. Why is this? You would think that a historic neighborhood like OTR would adhere pretty strictly to the grid, like much of Downtown, but it definitely does not.

15 minutes ago, edale said:

This is totally off topic, but I was poking around OTR on Google Maps to see what buildings on 15th you all were talking about, and it occurred to me that OTR has a really wonky and fragmented grid. 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th all zig and zag multiple times from Central Parkway to Sycamore. There are also a bunch of small east/west streets that are only a block long, like Mercer, Orchard, Woodward, and of course the numbered streets totally stop north of Liberty. Why is this? You would think that a historic neighborhood like OTR would adhere pretty strictly to the grid, like much of Downtown, but it definitely does not.

 

The grid was planned, but different lots developed at different times and people added, subtracted, and altered the positions of streets. It's similar to some of the oldest parts of Philadelphia. Check out Queen Village, one Philly's older neighborhoods:
 

 

The north/south streets were simply extensions of the existing grid layout from downtown.  However the east/west streets were built haphazardly as larger parcels were subdivided and sold off at different times for different size lots depending on demand.  You can see in this 1819 map how the subdivisions already started to have different overall plans and cross street layouts.

49 minutes ago, jjakucyk said:

The north/south streets were simply extensions of the existing grid layout from downtown.  However the east/west streets were built haphazardly as larger parcels were subdivided and sold off at different times for different size lots depending on demand.  You can see in this 1819 map how the subdivisions already started to have different overall plans and cross street layouts.

If you go to CAGIS and look at the maps with the property layer turned on you can start to see all the individual subdivisions that were created over time as @jjakucyk stated, which allowed for a lot of unique street/alley/block configurations. You also have the grid running into the hillside at McMicken.

Edited January 16, 20196 yr by mcmicken

8 hours ago, IAGuy39 said:

 

 

I'm sure 3CDC will take a good hard look at it.

 

Maybe waiting on Liberty Street Project? Anyone heard anything on that recently?

 

I Agree, that area of Walnut to E 15th and over to Vine is pretty rough. Isn't there some private projects going on E. 15th?

 

How are the buildings moving along at the East 15th and Vine Intersection?

 

This is what sort of confuses me about 3cdc. 

 

Clearly they are in the field of positively marketing OTR as a safe, clean, and family friendly environment.  Obviously they want to market that image to gather new commercial tenants, and sign leases for there 300k dollar condos. It's part of their business. 

 

By and large they have successfully done that. That said, if you are new to OTR, and stumble across Walnut St at night and continue North past 16 bit it becomes legit scary. Abandoned buildings, pitch black streets. I know 3cdc can't necessarily control how fast buildings are developed around OTR...That said they can definitely make an impact with the lighting. There is no reason why Walnut St should feel so dark and uninviting compared to Vine or Main or even Race!

 

For instance, that last block of Walnut where Grammers is located, and Mecca (super popular hipster bar), that walk from 16 bit to 15th and Walnut can be legit scary at night for newcomers to OTR become of how damn pitch black it is. 

 

Hopefully 3cdc can hurry up with a master plan to streets cape Walnut St, and make it feel more inviting for newcomers, because it's hard to advertise all the beautiful improvements of OTR and then show them a street that's so pitch black that you can easily be mugged in a Mississippi second. 

 

I've clearly brought this up alot...but something simple as street scaping and improved street lighting goes a long way in detering crime, and create a safer environment for those who live and visit in OTR. 

 

 

Maybe the proposed SIDS district can help fund some of that?

Cool news! The OTR museum finally lands 2 buildings in North of liberty for it's 2020 museum opening.

 

https://www.citybeat.com/arts-culture/culture/article/21043460/an-overtherhine-museum-chronicling-the-neighborhoods-past-is-underway

Could it just be that there's a fried street lighting circuit?  Nobody reports burned out or malfunctioning street lights, so they can be left unfixed for months or years at a time.  It's not as if there aren't lights on Walnut up there. 

^^Could be.   I count 4 street lights from this one vantage point on Walnut and one directly behind you on 15th.    

 

https://goo.gl/maps/ikeyJ1LYvHy

Edited January 17, 20196 yr by oakiehigh

Council passes plan to end Washington Park parking garage dispute

 

 

Cincinnati City Council unanimously approved a plan on Wednesday to resolve a contentious disagreement between Cincinnati Public Schools, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. and Grandin Properties over parking in the Washington Park garage.

 

Without comment, council passed an ordinance that would allocate Grandin 200 spaces in the Town Center Garage adjacent to WCET-TV and Cincinnati Public Radio’s studios. Grandin would give up 20 spaces it controls in Washington Park, which would be reallocated to the school district for parking by teachers at the School for Creative and Performing Arts. 

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/01/17/council-passes-plan-to-end-washington-park-parking.html

So they essentially punted and did not address the major underlying issue: Central Parkway is dangerous for pedestrians.

31 minutes ago, taestell said:

So they essentially punted and did not address the major underlying issue: Central Parkway is dangerous for pedestrians.

Central Parkway was down to one lane for months for subway tunnel repairs and no one noticed or cared. 

On 1/15/2019 at 9:18 PM, Blue Line said:

 All about that. Working on a proposal for the alley corridor from Main Street to Reading Road, at least for full enhancement of the space. It's an untapped gateway. 

 

Cincinnati did used to have alleys like this, there actually is an old synogague in downtown by the aranoff that was converted into housing that sits in the alleyway.

I was at 16 bit last night and unfortunately a triple shooting occurred while I was there. 

 

3 men shooting each other on the street and could've easily hit a by stander. Sad and I hope this won't hurt otr reputation

8 hours ago, thomasbw said:

Central Parkway was down to one lane for months for subway tunnel repairs and no one noticed or cared. 

If only this statement meant what I wish it did. 

OTR is still one of the top most dangerous neighborhoods in the city despite all the recent progress.  I imagine it will be decades before that is no longer the case.  This is just another reminder to be careful when in the neighborhood.

Yes there is still lots of illicit activities south of Liberty that very sadly can turn into violence quickly. The only way that gets cleaned up completely is when they renovate buildings that are abandoned to turn trap houses into actual houses. I also think the Liberty Street Project will help with lighting a bit going into that area of Walnut and Liberty

1 hour ago, bfwissel said:

OTR is still one of the top most dangerous neighborhoods in the city despite all the recent progress.  I imagine it will be decades before that is no longer the case.  This is just another reminder to be careful when in the neighborhood.

 

Yet there are single family homes listed for 1.5 million in some cases... It's quite strange that some folks are living in 600k dollar luxery condo with a triple shooting casually occurring on there doorstep.. And despite all this crime people still yearn to live in otr. It's really interesting to say the least!

22 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

Yes there is still lots of illicit activities south of Liberty that very sadly can turn into violence quickly. The only way that gets cleaned up completely is when they renovate buildings that are abandoned to turn trap houses into actual houses. I also think the Liberty Street Project will help with lighting a bit going into that area of Walnut and Liberty

 

Most of the south of liberty shootings have occurred on Walnut St or streets that intersects with Walnut next to the 15th block. 

 

I believe the last south liberty shooting occurred on Vine close to the Kroger store a few years back.

 

Since then they have mostly been concentrated next to the last block of Walnut and liberty.

Quite a bit of construction activity on the west (edit) side of the 1700 block of Vine. The large building at 1721-1727 has finished most of the interior renovation and they are about to begin construction of the new addition in the rear. They are expecting to finish in the next ~9 months. 

 

The corner building at 1739 Vine has new roofing going in today. Not sure of the timing for the rest of the renovation, but even as an active construction site, it will be an improvement over its current status.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 20196 yr by jwulsin

^ wow that's great news. Sounds like buying over on that block, with what's been done already on Race, is no longer a crazy venture. 

 

BTW I think you may have meant "west" side of vine.

EXCLUSIVE: Art Academy plans major expansion in Over-the-Rhine

By David Holthaus – Courier contributor

 

The 150-year-old Art Academy of Cincinnati is planning a major expansion meant to raise its visibility, house new high-tech programs in film and animation, and serve as a working and teaching space for Cincinnati’s design and marketing community.

The expansion will be called Future House and will make use of the former BarrelHouse Brewery space on 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine. That space has gone unused for years but is part of the Art Academy's main facility at 12th and Jackson streets in the heart of the neighborhood. 

 

MORE

3 hours ago, The_Cincinnati_Kid said:

EXCLUSIVE: Art Academy plans major expansion in Over-the-Rhine

By David Holthaus – Courier contributor

 

The 150-year-old Art Academy of Cincinnati is planning a major expansion meant to raise its visibility, house new high-tech programs in film and animation, and serve as a working and teaching space for Cincinnati’s design and marketing community.

The expansion will be called Future House and will make use of the former BarrelHouse Brewery space on 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine. That space has gone unused for years but is part of the Art Academy's main facility at 12th and Jackson streets in the heart of the neighborhood. 

 

MORE

 

Aside from all the cool things mentioned for the expansion of the art institute, it will be really to have an additional restaurant on the ground floor and a roof top bar will be quite popular considering how tall the building is.

I’m glad for the Art Academy. Considering they have such a large building right on 12th, their “presence” is surprisingly missable. I love that they’re in OTR and this project should make it more visible, which is good. 

 

The Art Academy has always been a very small school, even as compared to other independent art schools.  It's probably smaller than DAAP's art program.  Some like SCAD and the Art Institute of Chicago have thousands of students.  But many of the independent schools have at least 500 students.  KCAI in Kansas City has 600. 

1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said:

The Art Academy has always been a very small school, even as compared to other independent art schools.  It's probably smaller than DAAP's art program.  Some like SCAD and the Art Institute of Chicago have thousands of students.  But many of the independent schools have at least 500 students.  KCAI in Kansas City has 600. 

 

Makes me wonder if they would ever expand there campus and purchase the corner lot from 3cdc on 12th and Vine.

What's interesting is that their circa-2004 move from Mt. Adams to OTR occurred well before 3CDC did anything at all in the area.  They could have bought up a bunch of property for cheap at that time but did not.  In fact I think they still might have housing around 12th St. in what are now 3CDC-managed buildings.  For example, I remember going to a party at some art academy student's apartment above what is now Taste of Belgium when that was still an abandoned storefront (I think it became the original Gateway Quarter leasing office around 2009 and then Taste of Belgium moved in around 2011). 

 

So now the Art Academy is landlocked by expensive properties in all directions, which is not a good situation for any institution.  They're right back to the situation they were in in Mt. Adams -- in order to expand economically, they'll have to buy something pretty far away and have a campus split between two nodes. 

 

 

 

The Art Academy owns 1217-1225 Walnut Street. That's a 9,000 SF site. If they built as tall as the building they are remodeling, they could add somewhere around 54,000 SF. Their existing property might be around 120,000 SF. So, on their existing site they could accommodate ~174,000 SF. That's not insignificant. As a comparison, the entire DAA-Alms-Aronoff-Wolfson complex is 295,000 SF. 

As for housing the students, I feel like they could build a dormitory or lease out a building anywhere two blocks from the streetcar and justify it as student housing.

See inside 3CDC’s latest OTR condos: PHOTOS

By Tom Demeropolis  – Senior Staff Reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

 

Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. is finishing up construction on a condominium project in Over-the-Rhine, Rennen & Beecher Flats.

The $7.2 million mixed-used development is located at the corners of 15th and Race and 15th and Pleasant streets. Joe Rudemiller, spokesman for 3CDC, said this project helps to finish out redevelopment in this portion of Over-the-Rhine.

More

Platform's tap room at 1200 Main will be having a soft opening this weekend, 4pm to Midnight on Saturday.