Mercantile Library's $5 million expansion doubles size of downtown's literary hub

By David Holthaus – Courier contributor

Dec 20, 2024

Updated Dec 18, 2024 11:56am EST

 

The Cincinnati of the early 19th century was a boomtown, a rough-and-tumble crossroads, a river town where fortunes were to be made in meat packing, barrel-making, boot crafting, tanneries and soap. The finer pursuits of education, culture and scholarship were still getting a footing in what was then a Western outpost of a young country. To begin to remedy that, 45 forward-thinking merchants met on April 18, 1835, to establish a library and reading room “to be appropriated to the use of young men engaged solely in mercantile pursuits.”  

 

It would be a Mercantile Library. The Young Men’s Mercantile Library Association raised enough in memberships to buy 700 books, and a Cincinnati institution was born. A couple years after its founding, the library was moved to a site on Walnut Street between Fourth and Fifth streets. It survived two serious fires there, the last of which destroyed the building, as only heroic measures by its members saved many of the books. Eventually, Cincinnati industrialist and developer Thomas Emery constructed a 12-story building on that site and asked the Mercantile Library to be its chief occupant. Since 1904, the 11th floor of the Mercantile Building has been the library’s home.

 

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Historic downtown Cincinnati building slated for hotel ‘ready to go’

By Chris Wetterich – Staff reporter and columnist, Cincinnati Business Courier

Dec 30, 2024

 

The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority will provide key assistance to the developer planning to bring Cincinnati’s first Kimpton Hotel to downtown.

 

The Port approved a structured lease for the historic, vacant, 121-year-old Traction Building at 432 Walnut St., which Parkes Development Group, a Franklin, Tenn.-based firm, plans to convert into a 152-room hotel.

 

The agreement gives the Port formal ownership of the project, but it will lease it back on a long-term basis to Parkes. The structure allows the developer to purchase construction materials without paying sales taxes. It’s an arrangement that is virtually standard now in pricey, major downtown construction projects.

 

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I hope it really happens this time, it's a very difficult project due to stair and elevator issues with modern codes so I'm glad that they are getting whatever help from the Port and tax credits that they can. It's a very important corner and a beautiful Burnham designed building so I'm really pulling for this one to finally get going for real. 

And the decade long list of starts and stops continues. What a joke. This developer needs to sell this building if they don’t get underway now, I hope the city/county does not make any more accommodations.

'Scaffolding … up forever': City Council tweaks terms to get $120M downtown project underway

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/06/10/traction-building-kimpton-hotel-city-council.html

I was hopeful when I read the headline, but in the article it says this will allow them to "Start to put capital together" - my pessimistic side says this will sit empty for a few more years then get sold via auction.

4 minutes ago, wjh said:

I was hopeful when I read the headline, but in the article it says this will allow them to "Start to put capital together" - my pessimistic side says this will sit empty for a few more years then get sold via auction.

But they reported 6 months ago all was ready to go. And about a year ago that a 90plus million dollar construction loan was secured. It’s been a clown show. Yet the Business Courier keeps reporting the none sense without asking what’s really going on. I’ve heard this developer is in over their head and the building would have been better off in other hands. It’s really an embarrassment especially at that location.

17 minutes ago, wjh said:

I was hopeful when I read the headline, but in the article it says this will allow them to "Start to put capital together" - my pessimistic side says this will sit empty for a few more years then get sold via auction.

It has 3CDC written all over it, which would be a shame as I hate to see them having to get involved in so many projects.

1 hour ago, 646empire said:

It has 3CDC written all over it, which would be a shame as I hate to see them having to get involved in so many projects.

I just hope this building ends up as a Kimpton or something similar.

2 hours ago, 646empire said:

But they reported 6 months ago all was ready to go. And about a year ago that a 90plus million dollar construction loan was secured. It’s been a clown show. Yet the Business Courier keeps reporting the none sense without asking what’s really going on. I’ve heard this developer is in over their head and the building would have been better off in other hands. It’s really an embarrassment especially at that location.

Funding is hard to keep tied down, and construction costs keep rising.

Speaking of hotels, I heard there was gonna be a new hotel built near the convention center. Years ago, there was even going to be a new Ohio River bridge and a new Harrison Ave via duct. hmm.

On the brighter side, UC is becoming a low-high-rise Acropolis, including a γυμνάσιον (gumnásion). It translates to "exercise, school"

Morale is low fam.

I think the economy isn’t looking too hot. Self imposed recessions will do that

9 hours ago, columbus17 said:

Funding is hard to keep tied down, and construction costs keep rising.

This hotel has been in the works for almost a decade. Others that are similar in size have been completed and in operation for years in that time. This developer is a joke.

Edited Wednesday at 04:01 AM2 days by 646empire

12 hours ago, IAGuy39 said:

I think the economy isn’t looking too hot. Self imposed recessions will do that

And yet projects in other cities roll right along.

Here's what's going on in the other "Queen City"

Are these all proposed projects? What do the different colors mean?

Looks like blue is built within the last few years and red is renovation, can't tell the difference in the other colors but maybe various levels of proposed or under construction?

Blue is built. Green is uc 2025, orange and pink are uc 2026. Red is redesign required. Per OP.