From the 11/6/04 Cincinnati Post:

 

 

Newport to clear more of riverfront

By Jeanne Houck

Post staff reporter

 

It's been some six years in the making and should be another three before it is completed, but there finally are obvious signs of progress in an ambitious housing initiative that will free up prime riverfront property in Newport's West End for private development.

 

This week, Housing Authority of Newport workers boarded up two apartments at the agency's family complex north of 4th Street at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers -- the first of 202 apartments there that will be shut down as residents leave in anticipation of the buildings' planned mid-2006 demolition.

 

http://www.cincypost.com/2004/11/06/hope110604.html

I refuse to believe that this project has avoided controversy. Someone has paid the dissenters not to go to or speak to the press when approached. Out of 202 units, this reporter didn't manage to speak to even one resident. Out of 202 units, and a gaggle of social service organizations who work with residents, nobody has anything negative about being forced to move. Hmmm...remember that whole controversy over English Woods in Cincinnati?

It's easy to avoid controversy if you just ignore the residents.

Here's a study I found (PDF), including renderings somewhere around page 32.  There is also a demographic breakdown and some stuff that was, frankly, very boring and dull.

 

http://www.louisville.edu/org/sun/hopevi/hope6sect5/fullreport.pdf

 

From the 4/15/05 Enquirer:

 

 

Newport delays authority's plan to build 6 homes

By Ryan Clark

Enquirer staff writer

 

NEWPORT - The city's Board of Commissioners tabled an idea this week to vacate sections of Broadway Street and Hoyer Alley, part of a Newport Housing Authority plan to buy land in the area and develop homes for low-income families.

 

Commissioners said they would like to hear more public input and see designs of the buildings before considering the idea.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050415/NEWS0103/504150392/1059/news01

 

I noticed they are clearing riverfront in Bellevue for something.

Harbor Greene and Bellevue Townhomes, probably.

yep.

http://www.harborgreene.com/

I wonder if they'll be using Cole + Russell for the design of the Hope VI project.  They're the only ones I've seen who have the project listed on their website:

http://www.colerussell.com/CR_housingPort.asp?id=84

The following blurb appeared within a story from the 6/19/05 NKY Sunday Challenger:

 

 

...

 

Over in Newport, plans continue for the eventual removal of the Newport Housing Authority's public housing complex north of Fourth Street.

 

The housing authority, in conjunction with the city of Newport, was awarded $28.4 million in 2000 through the federal Hope VI Program to create mixed income development throughout the city.

 

City Manager Phil Ciafardini said 202 units of public housing will be eliminated, most likely in early 2006. After the buildings are razed, Ciafardini envisions the 14-acre site being converted into a mixed-use residential and office space, with perhaps some entertainment uses similar to those at Newport on the Levee.

 

The city also owns three acres at Fourth and Columbia-now an overflow parking lot for the Levee-that could be part of the project.

 

Training programs for home ownership will help relocate residents from public housing into their own homes, said Ciafardini.

 

"It's a great opportunity for people who have lived in traditional public housing to be in other parts of the community. They would have better access to other services and will be afforded the opportunity - whether through rental or buying - to be in nice, affordable housing," he said.

 

...

 

http://www.challengernky.com/articles/2005/06/21/around_nky/doc42b332d89b109978302853.txt

 

BTW, Phase I of this project is already under way and consists of 14 single-family homes.  One of them I posted in the Random Cincinnati developments thread, so I went ahead and moved it here:

 

NEWPORT

* Sort of bland if you ask me...801 Isabella. (Is-a-not-bella!)  $120K.

801 Isabella listing

 

 

Also, word from the Cole + Russell website:

 

COLE + RUSSELL ARCHITECTS’ MASTER HOUSING PLAN TO CONTRIBUTE 300+ AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS IN NEWPORT

 

NEWPORT, KY – The first phase of a $72 million urban revitalization effort is underway, as construction of 14, affordable, single-family homes commences in the historic, 19th Century river community of Newport, Ky.

 

Cole + Russell Architects, Inc., (C+RA), in collaboration with the City of Newport, the Housing Authority of Newport and Pennrose Properties, Inc., developed the urban master plan for the mixed-income housing development, which involves nine scattered sites within the urban core.  The first phase, known as Liberty Row, includes the rehabilitation of two existing, historic single-family homes and 12 new homes that will serve to recreate the urban density found elsewhere in Newport.  The existing homes have served as a model for preserving the historic character of the community.  The construction of each new home will exceed residential standards in typical affordable housing and will feature amenities, such as all-brick facades, metal roofs, double-hung wood windows, historically appropriate architectural cornices, underground utilities, and pre-cast concrete piers with wrought iron fencing and landscaping along the street.  Liberty Row is scheduled for completion in June.

 

The overall master plan, financed through a variety of public funding sources, will ultimately add over 300 mixed-income units to the small community, located just south of Cincinnati, Ohio.  The plan boasts an assortment of housing types, including single-family detached homes, row houses and flats, both for sale and rent.  The city anticipates this new development, designed to fit within the existing contextual urban fabric, will serve as a catalyst for further revitalization. 

 

C+RA is an employee-owned, national architectural design practice specializing in housing, commercial, government, education and hospitality design.  The Housing Design Group’s focus includes multi-family housing, urban infill and loft rehabilitation, student housing and senior housing in the Midwest and around the country.  Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1982, C+RA’s broad scope of services and commitment to excellence continues to provide value-based solutions for all of its clients.

 

http://www.colerussell.com/CR_News.asp?ID=257

 

From the 6/28/05 Enquirer:

 

 

Newport buys public housing buildings for redevelopment

By Ryan Clark

Enquirer staff writer

 

NEWPORT - This city's plans for redevelopment proceeded Monday as city commissioners voted to buy and rebuild nearly 14 acres now home to public housing.

 

The agreement with the city's Housing Authority means those living in the 202 units and 31 buildings north of Fourth Street and west of Central Avenue will be relocated.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/NEWS0103/506280346/1059/NEWS01

 

For a true shocker, spend some time driving through the apartments and some of the deteriorating housing of the neighborhood.  Come south on Isabella down to 8th St.  Take a left on 8th and the whole street looks like this all the way down to Central:

 

         

 

From the 7/22/05 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Slow death of housing complex

Residents pull out

By Jeanne Houck

Post staff reporter

 

As neighbor after neighbor moves out of a public housing complex on the Newport riverfront scheduled to be leveled for private development, Juanita Stolt gets more and more nervous.

 

"I've lived here five years, and the first four were good," Stolt, 65, said Tuesday as she clipped towels onto a clothesline in the backyard of her home on Grant Lane. "But for about the past year, with more empty apartments, it seems like there are more young people making noise and getting in fights and attracting police.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050722/NEWS02/507220374/1014

 

From the 8/24/05 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Newport's next project - The Projects

The city's northeast corner is the next development target

By Bob Driehaus

Post staff reporter

 

Fresh off another riverfront success in the form of the $165 million South Shore condominium and office-tower project approved by city council Monday, Newport is poised to continue its economic renaissance with redevelopment of a prime location at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers now occupied by public housing.

 

The 202-apartment complex is on both sides of Fourth Street in the northwest corner of the city, across from downtown Cincinnati.

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS02/508240379/1011/RSS02

 

From the 10/10/05 Enquirer:

 

 

PHOTO: The old Corpus Christi Church in Newport is being converted into an apartment complex. Fred Lloyd, left, of Miamitown, Ohio, and Ray Evertt, Canaan, Ind, load old wall material.  JOE MUNSON/The Post

 

Church becoming apartments

Building on Isabella Street to be converted to 20 units

Post staff report

 

A 104-year-old Newport church is being renovated into apartments for low-income senior citizens.

 

Corpus Christi Church on Isabella Street on Newport's west side was purchased last year by the Newport Housing Authority for conversion into 20 apartments.

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051010/NEWS02/510100365/1011/RSS02

 

There's something weird but also wonderful about converting churches into apartments.

Related, from the 11/5/05 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Newport's West End

Vibrant but tattered, it is targeted for change

By Stephenie Steitzer

Post staff reporter

 

Newport's West End has been targeted in a strategic plan that aims to reduce crime, redevelop commercial areas and improve the overall quality of life in the neighborhood.

 

The West End was the only specific neighborhood cited in a 29-page document city staffers gave to the city commission recently outlining ways to improve the city.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051105/NEWS02/511050349/1014

 

From the 12/31/05 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Newport plans new riverfront

Public housing to be spread out

By Luke E. Saladin

Post staff reporter

 

Newport officials hope by February to begin demolishing 202 public housing units in the city's West End to make way for another major re-development project in the city.

 

Acting City Manager Tom Fromme said city staff is reviewing bids from several contractors for the job.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051231/NEWS02/512310334/1014

 

From the 1/10/06 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Contract given for demolition of housing units

Post staff report

 

The process of making way for another redevelopment project in Newport moved forward Monday night.

 

The city commissioners gave first reading to an order that would award a demolition contract to AFM Demolition on Independence for knocking down 202 public housing units.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060110/NEWS02/601100378/1014

 

From the 2/13/06 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Old housing projects to be razed

Post staff report

 

Newport will begin tearing down parts of its old housing projects this week, the next step in its efforts to create an income mix throughout the city and clear prime riverfront property for development.

 

Workers will be on the site today doing preliminary work, although actual demolition won't begin until Wednesday, said Newport Housing Director Joe Condit.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060213/NEWS02/602130373/1014

 

From the 2/18/06 Cincinnati Post:

 

 

Newport 'village' envisioned

By Greg Paeth and Luke E. Saladin

Post staff reporters

 

Two of best-known development corporations in the tri-state expect to be among the competitors to redevelop a 13.9-acre tract on the Newport riverfront where demolition of a public housing project began this week.

 

The site, just west of Newport on the Levee, is being cleared to make way for what the city anticipates will be a signature urban village, where people will live, shop and work.

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060218/NEWS01/602180365

 

From the 2/20/06 Kentucky Post:

 

 

Newport cautious this time

By Bob Driehaus

Post staff reporter

 

With a Wal-Mart probable on the last big site Newport cleared for redevelopment, city officials are promising a tighter rein as they recruit developers for the next site: prime land along the riverfront.

 

Demolition of public housing just west of Newport on the Levee began last week, when the city also confirmed that it has invited companies to apply to develop the 13.9-acre tract.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS02/602200378/1014

 

From the 2/26/06 Enquirer:

 

 

PHOTO: Gregory Fant, of AFM Demolition, salvages aluminum from the rubble of the Newport Housing Authority housing project on Central Avenue at Third Street. The city wants the 13.9-acre site to be developed commercially and residentially.  Photos by Patrick Reddy/The Enquirer

 

PHOTO: Mailboxes show the dwindling occupation of the units on Central Avenue at Third Street.

 

PHOTO: Two weeks ago, demolition began on the housing authority units on the riverfront.

 

Onward, upward

Newport dreams of upscale towers

BY MIKE RUTLEDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - When Newport officials look at the land owned by the Newport Housing Authority, they see property that can hold towers or perhaps a billion dollars' worth of development someday.

 

Just 13 months ago the land was home to 175 low-income families.

 

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime, or once-in-100-years opportunity," said Acting City Manager Tom Fromme. "We don't want the non-descript. We don't want the mediocre here."

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060226/NEWS0103/602260372/1059/rss13

 

From the 2/28/06 Cincinnati Post:

 

 

Newport project a blockbuster

By Peggy Kreimer and Luke E. Saladin

Post staff reporters

 

With the demolition of Newport's riverfront housing projects now under way, the battle among developers for what could be the biggest redevelopment project in the city's history is about to begin.

 

At least eight developers or teams of developers are interested in the multimillion-dollar project on one of the most prime tracts of land in Northern Kentucky - at the convergence of the Ohio and Licking rivers.

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060228/NEWS01/602280362/1010/RSS01

 

From the 3/1/06 Cincinnati Post:

 

 

Six seek to develop riverfront site

By Luke E. Saladin

Post staff reporter

 

Six different development entities - two of them multi-company collaborations with Cincinnati ties, a third a Covington firm - have responded to Newport's invitation for developers interested in transforming a riverfront site now occupied by public housing into a multi-million-dollar "urban village.".

 

Newport Acting City Manager Tom Fromme said the fact that so many of the firms chose to enter the process with partners spoke to the scope of the project.

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060301/NEWS01/603010352

 

Here's an older article I never got around to posting regarding the scattered-site development referred to earlier in the thread:

 

 

County supports home ownership program

BY CHRIS MAYHEW | COMMUNITY RECORDER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT -- The Newport Housing Authority and Brighton Properties, a subsidiary of Brighton Center, Inc. have partnered to build more than 32 houses throughout Newport this year to increase home ownership in the city.

 

Campbell County Fiscal Court is working with the agencies to help people buy the homes by applying for a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant, said Robert Horine, the county's administrator.

 

http://news.communitypress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060323/NEWS01/603230506/1077/Local

 

From the 4/19/06 Kentucky Post:

 

 

PHOTO: Vic Doyen stands in front of his 13th Street home and a sign proclaiming the hiring of attorney Kurt Meier to protect his house from eminent domain. His daughter Cheyenne, 6, looks out from the partially open door.  BRUCE CRIPPEN/The Post

 

Fighting to stay put

13th Street residents hire attorney to battle eminent domain threat

Post staff report

 

Property owners are mobilizing in Newport again to fight the possibility of their homes being taken by eminent domain.

 

But instead of the city, it's the Newport housing authority pondering the tactic.

 

And the agency doesn't want the properties for an upscale retail development, but as sites for homes for low-income people.

 

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060419/NEWS02/604190360/1014

 

My comment is this, when it comes to eminent domain within the core (And I know we are talking about KY) ,but it is within the core area of the Cincinnati area!!

Most all of the U.S. cities are loosing pop. at rates that to me ,are knee buckling. I know these people call this home but we all have experienced a move of some sort within our lives.    You will live, You will get on with your life.  These people are getting AT LEAST what the property is worth, and most of the times more.   Now I know money is not everything but you live in the deep heartland of the mighty U.S.A.  Our cities are shrinking and our suburbs are showing no signs of stopping :whip:.   

 

   Seems to me that taking these homes by force to try and SAVE the huge American City that we have all grown up in, depended on to survive, and even maybe learned to love, is worth it!!!         Anything to reverse the trend we got going now. 

 

I do think eminent domain does get abused in this country, but this seems like a no brain-er to me.    We are not talking about farmland or suburbs here.

 

I think Cincytucky with a pop, of 1 million + in the valley sounds better than

"Cincinnati settled in 1788.    Population 150,000" (Obviously futuristic number)

Colrain Township                Population 61,000

Green Township                  Population 60,000 and still friggin growing  ???

West Chester                    Who the hell cares!

 

Hamilton County needs to jump on board with this whole Urban Renewal thing too!

 

Well that is all I got right now!    Gimme some opinions on this.

150,000 living in Cincinnati?  You're on drugs.

Sarcasm Grasscat.   

I know it will never get that bad here, there are too many infill projects going on.

 

Aren't we close to 300,000 though.  (or in the neighborhood of)

^ Yeah, we're dangerously close to that.

From the 4/24/06 Enquirer:

 

 

PHOTO: Caroline and Vic Doyen, with daughter Cheyenne, 6, don't want to be forced to sell their house on West 13th Street in Newport. They fear Newport will use an eminent domain action to use their property, and their neighbors', to build low-income housing.    The Enquirer / Patrick Reddy

 

Don't take my house

BY RYAN CLARK | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - The sign on Caroline Doyen's house says it all.

 

"I hired Kurt Meier attorney at law to protect my home," it reads.

 

Doyen is one of at least eight residents on Newport's 13th Street who have retained Meier, a Fort Thomas attorney who specializes in protecting land. The residents on both sides of the street are concerned their homes and land may be taken by Newport's housing authority.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060424/NEWS0103/604240354/1077/rss02

 

an interestingly titled follow up article...

 

Yes, we can take your house

BY RYAN CLARK | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

Officials with Newport's housing authority wanted to make one thing clear Monday.

 

"I think people need to listen," said Tom Guidugli, a member of the authority and mayor of Newport. "We're trying to see who wants to sell. If you don't want to sell, we're probably just going to move right on by."

 

Probably.

 

That's the word that makes residents of 13th Street cringe.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/NEWS0103/604250367/1059/rss13

 

I would be extremely suprised if they took middle-income housing by eminent domain to convert it to low-income housing.  That wouldn't make financial sense.

From the 5/6/06 Enquirer:

 

 

2 residents escape eminent domain

Housing Authority sends letters saying homes not needed for project

BY RYAN CLARK | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - Two Newport families are breathing easier this week.

 

While Housing Authority of Newport officials continue to determine which properties they want along 13th Street's north side - part of an eminent domain plan to acquire property for new public housing - the Doyen and Cook families have received notice that their properties will not be taken.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060506/NEWS0103/605060426/1059/rss13

 

From the 5/26/06 Enquirer:

 

 

5 teams vie for waterfront

Site at Licking, Ohio rivers prime Newport real estate

BY MIKE RUTLEDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - Five teams are vying to develop what a spokeswoman for one group called "quite potentially the best piece of real estate in the region" - near Newport's confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers.

 

Newport plans to buy the prime 13-acre site from the Newport Housing Authority for about $11 million and sell it to developers.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060526/NEWS0103/605260424/-1/rss

 

From the 6/1/06 Enquirer:

 

 

New public housing spreading

BY SCOTT WARTMAN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - Residents have relocated. Windows on public housing units north of Fourth Street have been boarded up. Now construction on new public and/or low income housing is spreading throughout Newport.

 

Work has started or will start soon at:

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060601/NEWS0103/606010388/1059/rss13

 

Riverfront developers line up

Among proposals from five groups: Ice arena, water park

BY MIKE RUTLEDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

 

NEWPORT - Three towers could rise near the Ohio and Licking rivers, along with a village center and ice arena that could host figure skating and maybe professional hockey. There also could be shops, an amphitheater and water park under one proposal to develop Newport's western riverfront.

 

Another developer, Corporex Cos., promises to build "the most significant development ever undertaken in Northern Kentucky," which it calls Ovation.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060610/NEWS0103/606100417

An indoor ice arena on prime riverfront land is such a bad idea.

Water park on the riverfront?

 

By Greg Paeth and Kerry Duke

Post staff reporters

 

A Los Angeles development firm has proposed building three towers for a hotel, offices and condominiums as well as an enclosed water park that could be used year-round on the Newport Housing Authority property being cleared for redevelopment at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers.

 

A glass-enclosed Village Center that would be packed with retail and entertainment attractions and the Newport Landing Village Amphitheater for concerts and theater productions also would be built if the Marquee Dalian Development Corp. is selected to develop the 14-acre site, which the city of Newport is acquiring from the housing authority.

Yeah, they're a little full of themselves over there at the Levee.

do they just pull these ideas out of their butt?  a hockey rink??

Yeah, I wondered where the hockey rink idea and the water park idea came from.  Seems like a huge waste of valuable land.

>>Newport, already basking in the afterglow of its highly successful Newport on the Levee retail-entertainment complex, has said the new project could be one of the most important in the city's history.

 

>What, their half empty retail portion?  Like I said before, I like the Levee, but it is a failure as a retail spot.

 

^You took the words right out of my mouth.  I had copied that phrase and my forefinger was itching to click and paste.  There is seemingly no convincing anyone, anywhere in Cincinnati that Newport on the Lamee was anything other than a 100% success.  I think a big reason why people don't notice the vacancies is because there has never been anything there and they successfully comouflaged the empty storefronts. 

 

As for this new development, I've said it before -- why the hell public housing was built on such a prime real estate in Newport fourty years ago is absolutely baffling.  And it should be said as well that when this sprouts it will have been going on 20 years since the appearance of the first Rivercenter tower, so when people, as they love to do, point to the "explosion" of development on the NK riverfront, they will have convinced themselves in their mind that it all happened in around 7 years.  And of course Covington Landing came and went in that time, and noone has ragged them in the way a similarly failed "Cincinnati Landing" would have.           

 

 

 

 

Newport on the Lamee

 

This place just got a new nickname!

From the 6/17/06 Kentucky Post:

 

 

What's really happening on 13th Street?

Who's buying up homes on the edge of Newport's last big tract that isn't already redeveloped or targeted for it - and why the sudden interest?

By Greg Paeth

Post staff reporter

 

To residents along 13th Street in Newport, it seems as if a vise is tightening.

 

On one side are government interests.

 

The city of Newport has condemned about a dozen properties in a two-block stretch. The Newport Housing Authority, which operates public housing for low-income families, has made overtures to buy about 35 homes and vacant lots to clear the way for new construction.

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060617/NEWS02/606170335/1011/RSS02

 

Transparent government

 

 

Suspense and suspicion permeate the air in Newport these days.

 

On one end of town, near the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers, five developers are vying to erect their vision of Newport's future on a highly coveted piece of land where public housing apartments are being torn down.

 

What exactly do the developers have in mind?

 

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060623/EDIT/606230325/1003

From the 6/26/06 Enquirer:

 

 

PHOTO: One of the blighted homes sits on West 13th Street in Newport. Developer interests have created uncertainty among residents in the neighborhood.  The Enquirer / Ernest Coleman

 

13th St. tenants uneasy

Developer interests cause concern

BY SCOTT WARTMAN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - Recent property sales and proposed low-income housing have some residents on 13th Street questioning the future of the street.

 

Well-maintained homes on the street sit amid about a dozen condemned homes with panoramic postcard views of Cincinnati, Newport and Covington.

 

The street, tucked away along the hillside in the Clifton neighborhood, is separat

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060626/NEWS0103/606260364/1059/rss13

 

From the 7/6/06 Enquirer:

 

 

Development site needs a better name

BY MIKE RUTLEDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

NEWPORT - Newport officials want a new name for the Ohio River shoreline development area they hope can become their city's symbol.

 

City staffers are working on a naming contest for the area of subsidized housing projects that are being razed north of Fourth Street, just east of where the Licking and Ohio rivers meet.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060706/NEWS0103/607060382/1059/rss13