May 12, 20205 yr 1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said: Not OTR, obviously, but 3CDC just closed on The Chong. The sale closed on May 4 and the purchase price was $500,000. Per the auditor, Kim Chong Nung bought the building in 1993 for $800,000. Only took them 20 years of "Going Out of Business."
May 12, 20205 yr 2 hours ago, jmecklenborg said: Not OTR, obviously, but 3CDC just closed on The Chong. The sale closed on May 4 and the purchase price was $500,000. Per the auditor, Kim Chong Nung bought the building in 1993 for $800,000. Is this the building along race st.? If so that’s great news. With the 2 new hotels, Fountain Place redevelopment , 4th and race on the south end and the existing 84.51 building Race street has some big potential.
May 14, 20205 yr Coming back to work downtown meant walking past the Townplace Suites in the old McHahns for the first time in months. Edited May 14, 20205 yr by ucgrady
May 15, 20205 yr The three story base to the left is actually newer than the original 8-story tower on the right. I don't remember the dates, but I think we're talking 1920s or 1930s versus early 1900s. The addition was structured to be 8-stories tall, but maybe the Depression or other financial factors caused them to shelve it.
June 24, 20204 yr Some icicle lights have been put up at the Terrace Hotel in the restaurant area. Saw some people climbing it the other day and taking pictures so it may just be something they did. Edited June 25, 20204 yr by dotunderscore
June 30, 20204 yr Swan song for the Chong; 3CDC acquires Race Street building A longtime downtown retailer has closed and sold its real estate to Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/30/exclusive-swan-song-for-the-chong-3cdc-acquires.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
June 30, 20204 yr 1 hour ago, ColDayMan said: Swan song for the Chong; 3CDC acquires Race Street building A longtime downtown retailer has closed and sold its real estate to Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/30/exclusive-swan-song-for-the-chong-3cdc-acquires.html Got my 90’s starter jacket from there ??
July 1, 20204 yr 10 hours ago, GCrites80s said: What if it was renamed Le Chong? 5 years from now it will be a hip new restaurant called "The Chung Resurrection." It will be decorated with wigs and other memorabilia from the store. Drinks and dishes will be hair-dye themed to honor Sun Wigs. Everyday they will have a different Going out of Business special on the sandwich board. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
July 1, 20204 yr So the question is, should they renovate the existing building or demolish and replace it? With a renovation, it could be a handsome midcentury structure, almost like 901 Elm which was bought and renovated by Kroger for internal use. However I don't think anyone would be devastated if it were demolished and something much taller was built on the site. It's going to be a tough few years for 3CDC as they work to fill the vacant storefronts in OTR (Elm & Iron leaving, other possible casualties from the pandemic, plus new storefronts in their newer developments), the former Macy's, and the ground floor of 4th & Race. I predict the Chong building gets "banked" for a few years while they deal with some of those other issues first.
July 1, 20204 yr If I'm 3CDC, I don't know how you could go with anything other than majority Residential mixed use from here on out. Medium scale office space is not a growing need, and its almost a given that office work will not return to the same level of activity even once this pandemic ends. Residents will need to fill the commercial demand.
July 1, 20204 yr There is a lot of open space behind The Chong. Time to get creative! https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1027384,-84.5142584,3a,75y,280.06h,93.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snRq7V7VOnHRdu2BPC9Zrxg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
July 1, 20204 yr 37 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said: There is a lot of open space behind The Chong. Time to get creative! https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1027384,-84.5142584,3a,75y,280.06h,93.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snRq7V7VOnHRdu2BPC9Zrxg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Isn't that space owned by the old Enquirer building or Macys? If I were a betting man, I bet that building gets renovated to apartments with retail/restaurant on the ground level. It is the easiest thing. Maybe they can add 2-3 more floors
July 1, 20204 yr Here are some photos of the back of the building at the bottom of this post. Cincinnati CBD: Off the Beaten Path Edited July 1, 20204 yr by Rabbit Hash Added hyperlink.
July 1, 20204 yr 20 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said: Isn't that space owned by the old Enquirer building or Macys? I don't know. The Auditor doesn't list any property owners in the 600 block of College St. I'm at work so I'm not going to bring up Cagis. Assuming that whoever does own it is willing to part with 15~ parking spots, that area could be turned into a rear outdoor patio for a ground-floor restaurant/bar facing Race St.
July 1, 20204 yr That access drive and parking is owned by the City. College Street should be maintained as a public right of way, but it does present a neat opportunity for a hidden little public plaza.
July 1, 20204 yr 1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said: I don't know. The Auditor doesn't list any property owners in the 600 block of College St. I'm at work so I'm not going to bring up Cagis. Assuming that whoever does own it is willing to part with 15~ parking spots, that area could be turned into a rear outdoor patio for a ground-floor restaurant/bar facing Race St. Biergarten!
July 2, 20204 yr 18 hours ago, 10albersa said: If I'm 3CDC, I don't know how you could go with anything other than majority Residential mixed use from here on out. Medium scale office space is not a growing need, and its almost a given that office work will not return to the same level of activity even once this pandemic ends. Residents will need to fill the commercial demand. Anecdotal and not in Cincy, but my company has already been contacted to help convert hotels, office space, and retail space to residential here in NYC, some of it brand new construction. Owners of these spaces, especially Class B and C office and the MANY hotels built in Midtown the last decade, are panicking. Hotels especially. I'm particularly excited about it because turning a hotel room into a micro-studio that rents for far less than immediately adjacent studios means high quality living in an expensive area but at a relatively affordable price. A lot of our large institutional partners are starting to look at the Midwest. Potential projects in Cleveland, Columbus, Kansas City, etc. Nothing has come up in Cincy yet, but wouldn't surprise me if we see big players on the coasts pivot to non-coastal markets to diversify their portfolios through strategic conversions of uses that will have reduced demand for the forseeable future. Edited July 2, 20204 yr by jmicha
July 2, 20204 yr 19 hours ago, 10albersa said: If I'm 3CDC, I don't know how you could go with anything other than majority Residential mixed use from here on out. As someone who has been saying for years that our city has been focusing way too much on restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues over the past ~5 years, I am excited for the possibility that developers might shift their focus back to adding residential to the core.
July 2, 20204 yr 30 minutes ago, taestell said: As someone who has been saying for years that our city has been focusing way too much on restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues over the past ~5 years, I am excited for the possibility that developers might shift their focus back to adding residential to the core. Yeah, there's plenty of other commercial needs that need to be filled on the first floor. In big European cities, there's convenience stores, discount stores, laundromats, cheap restaurants on almost every block. In Downtown/OTR, that stuff barely exists. Makes it feel like it isn't a place that people live, and a place that people visit. Edited July 2, 20204 yr by 10albersa EDIT: And I get it, in Cincinnati, you need to start by making it a destination for suburbanites to get the cash flowing into Downtown/OTR in the first place, but now it's time to make the switch to focus on residents.
July 2, 20204 yr 17 hours ago, taestell said: Biergarten! I rode my bike around downtown last night and rode on College St. for probably the first time ever. I hadn't been back there in like 20 years. I was immediately descended upon by a trio of homeless guys who "wanted to ask me a question". Anyway, I had forgotten that The Chong looks like one seamless building from the front but it is in fact two buildings in the back. It's possible that there is a historic façade hiding behind the plain brick façade we're all used to as well as surviving historic interior details.
July 4, 20204 yr On 7/2/2020 at 10:08 AM, taestell said: As someone who has been saying for years that our city has been focusing way too much on restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues over the past ~5 years, I am excited for the possibility that developers might shift their focus back to adding residential to the core. I'm going to post this article a few times whenever its appropriate whether virus- or non-virus-related. This restaurateur has some really good insights as to why so many restaurants open and why so many close these days: the prices are too low. Back in the '50s and before did you hear about as many flash-in-the-pan situations? I'm not sure; I wasn't there. 'THE MODEL IS BROKEN' Having grown frustrated with the business model of the restaurant industry, Ambrose & Eve’s Matthew Heaggans says he needs to make a fresh start of things... ...“I want to reassess how I think a restaurant can operate,” he said. “I want to advocate for change. “We’ve had 60 years of pricing ourselves to the bottom, but this is the type of thing that if a majority of restaurants don’t do it, it’s going to fail.” High-powered celebrity chefs including Tom Colicchio and David Chang are among those that have been vocal about these issues in the past few months. Even Chang is closing multiple restaurants. “We don’t pay (workers) enough because we don’t charge enough,” Heaggans said. “Other businesses adjust for inflation and overhead, but restaurants don’t work that way. We don’t charge what we’re worth.” Randazzo also said she supports the concept. “Price structures have to increase,” she said. https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/05/28/the-model-is-broken.html
July 4, 20204 yr 2 hours ago, GCrites80s said: I'm going to post this article a few times whenever its appropriate whether virus- or non-virus-related. This restaurateur has some really good insights as to why so many restaurants open and why so many close these days: the prices are too low. Back in the '50s and before did you hear about as many flash-in-the-pan situations? I'm not sure; I wasn't there. 'THE MODEL IS BROKEN' Having grown frustrated with the business model of the restaurant industry, Ambrose & Eve’s Matthew Heaggans says he needs to make a fresh start of things... Obviously, the current situation is unprecedented. However, it should be noted that far too many businesses - restaurants included - start with far too little cash or don't make adjustments when their cash situation gets low in order to maintain a healthy supply of cash. Many restaurants only have 1 month - at most - cash on hand, and a disturbing number haved even less. If you're serious about opening a restaurant and you are going to center your life around the thing for the next 15-20 years you need to preferably a) own the building b) have 6 months or more cash on hand. Even better is to own the building outright - have it completely paid off and have several apartments above that provide supplementary income. What's more, there needs to be a budget for renovating the place. For example, hotels budget to renovate every 8 years. That means that every month money is set aside for that purpose, not unlike an HOA fee. If a restaurant isn't doing the same then it runs of the risk of looking absolutely ridiculous in 12 years.
July 4, 20204 yr Constant remodeling is another bill that wasn't as burdensome until the late '90s. Before then, you ate in restaurants that hadn't been remodeled since the '50s-'60s-'70s all the time. A lot of times you barely noticed unless the place was especially loud inside, like it looked like it belonged on the set of Laugh-In or something.
July 4, 20204 yr I found most places I ate at in Italy were pretty much "normally priced", and Europe actually pays their waitstaff living wages. And there are waaaay more restaurants than even in restaurant-saturated places like OTR. I know their dining culture is different over there, but as always they've found a way to make it work while American restaurants struggle to make ends meet even with near-slave wages for their employees. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
July 4, 20204 yr A lot more people live close to the restaurants, they don't have to compete with "outerbelt food" (since there isn't any), you build it once and don't have to remodel a million times. Seems like every restaurant in the U.S. has to come with upper six- or seven-figure buildout costs.
July 5, 20204 yr 10 hours ago, BigDipper 80 said: I found most places I ate at in Italy were pretty much "normally priced", and Europe actually pays their waitstaff living wages. And there are waaaay more restaurants than even in restaurant-saturated places like OTR. I know their dining culture is different over there, but as always they've found a way to make it work while American restaurants struggle to make ends meet even with near-slave wages for their employees. I might be wrong but I didn't get the sense in Europe that restaurants "compete" with each other in quite the same way they do here. Like, I didn't get the sense that people were driving across town to eat at the new hot spot or that the trendy areas of Paris, for example, skip around the city every 3-5 years like they do here.
July 10, 20204 yr Not sure if this has been posted anywhere, but they have been working on the interior demolition of the buildings at 3rd at Main to make way for a new hotel. The plan was to keep the facades, and build a new building behind them. Hope to see that start soon.
July 11, 20204 yr It appears they are painting all the original concrete at the old McHahns, not sure why they couldn’t just clean it, seal the joints and move on but oh well. I hope this is a primer cause the color is too brown/puddy, instead of grey concrete/limestone.
July 14, 20204 yr Hopefully we will see the whole building renovated and the outdated office space converted to residential! Quote Iconic downtown Cincinnati tower is for sale Greg Power, CEO of Belvedere Corp., which owns and manages Carew Tower, said it was a very difficult decision to make. Since taking ownership of the building nearly six years ago, Power views himself as a steward of the property. It wasn’t until he went through the due diligence of converting the upper floors of the tower into residential condominiums that he made the decision to sell. Power said they are looking for the right buyer that understands older, historic structures and has the ability to modernize the building. The building has 11-foot ceilings, an attractive feature for converting a portion of the office space to residential. And the views, Power said, “are spectacular.”
July 29, 20204 yr 3CDC buys small building near center of downtown Cincinnati Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. has purchased a second building on Race Street near the center of downtown Cincinnati. More below: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/07/29/exclusive-3cdc-buys-small-building-near-center.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 29, 20204 yr 1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said: ^Mmmkay, time to move that building to the Cincinnati Demolition Watch thread. I feel like it's been years since 3cdc has demoed a historic building. They seem to be doing a better job of late with rehabbing versus immediate tear downs.
July 30, 20204 yr I think they'll keep that one, but the Chong building could be on the chopping block.
August 12, 20204 yr 310 Race Street is up for sale, listed at $5.1 million: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/308-310-Race-St-Cincinnati-OH/20557525/ https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/08/12/former-pogues-service-building-listed-for-sale.html I was curious if the surface parking immediately to the south of the building is included in the sale (the listing doesn't mention the parking lot parcels), but in the Courier article it says: "The building has views of Cincinnati’s riverfront and comes with an 8,000-square-foot parking lot." Edited August 12, 20204 yr by jwulsin
August 12, 20204 yr Really hoping this isn't torn down and is instead added onto with tower on the parking lot. Would be a shame to lose more from this era of architecture.
August 12, 20204 yr Always curious if there is any old equipment in there from when it was a Central Trust Data Processing center. You can see the sign in this photo
August 12, 20204 yr 20 minutes ago, jmicha said: Really hoping this isn't torn down and is instead added onto with tower on the parking lot. Would be a shame to lose more from this era of architecture. For whatever reason, many people seem to think "historic architecture" means 100+ year old buildings. They have no qualms about tearing down 50-70 year old buildings. Of course, the reason we don't have more 100+ year old buildings is that 50 years ago, people had no qualms about tearing down 50-70 year old buildings. We're just repeating the same cycle. Specifically when it comes to mid-century buildings like this one, the fact that people don't care more is strange to me because mid-century modern furniture is so popular.
August 12, 20204 yr 24 minutes ago, Ram23 said: For whatever reason, many people seem to think "historic architecture" means 100+ year old buildings. They have no qualms about tearing down 50-70 year old buildings. Of course, the reason we don't have more 100+ year old buildings is that 50 years ago, people had no qualms about tearing down 50-70 year old buildings. We're just repeating the same cycle. Specifically when it comes to mid-century buildings like this one, the fact that people don't care more is strange to me because mid-century modern furniture is so popular. Yep. We lost so many great examples of mid-century design, international design, brutalism, etc. because people are completely unaware this cycle exists and refuse to accept that it does even when pointing out how and why post-WWII so much great late 19th, early 20th Century architecture was torn down in a similar fashion. It's a shame.
August 12, 20204 yr Like how everybody dumps all their video games when the games are 5-15 years old and wonder why they don't get any money for them, then the minute the game turns 16 the value of it skyrockets and nobody will sell it.
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