January 23, 200916 yr Growth perking at coffee roaster Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Lisa Biank Fasig The owners of Coffee Emporium, the roaster and seller that buys its beans straight from the source, are ramping up capacity with plans to expand their operations by as much as five-fold. The long-term goal is to grow the number of coffeehouses that Coffee Emporium now supplies and open more of its own locations. It now sells to 12 shops and operates three locations, in Hyde Park, at Xavier University and downtown on Central Parkway, where its roasting now takes place. Tony and Eileen Tausch have signed a lease on a building at 12th and Vine streets to expand their 1,000-square-foot roasting and warehouse operations to 5,000 square feet. But not overnight. With the economy as tight as it is, they plan to approach the expansion methodically, with the roasting operations relocating perhaps by the summer. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/01/26/story17.html
January 27, 200916 yr Just though I would share this. With the big snowstorm today ("Blizzpocalpyse '09"), Baba Budan's café in Uptown built a snowman outside its store. Of course, he was warming up with a cup of Baba Budan's delicious coffee.
January 28, 200916 yr Looks like Snowman's getting some Go-Go Juice before cramming some groceries down his neck.
February 13, 200916 yr Vacancies: Hard times for Tri-County retail One time shopping mecca hopes for rebound JC Penney and Great Indoors started the exodus. Sofa Express, CompUSA, Longhorn Steakhouse and Value City followed last year. And already in the first six weeks of 2009: Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Applebee’s, Borders and World Market have closed or announced they’re shutting their doors. “It’s almost like the last one out at Tri-County,” says Andrew Sellet, a retail broker with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. Once Greater Cincinnati’s undisputed shopping mecca, the Tri-County retail corridor in Springdale is struggling through hard times. The square-mile mix of national clothiers, furniture galleries and restaurant chains is today littered with vacancies and dollar and discount stores. An ailing national economy is playing a role. So is amplecompetition from new shopping centers in wealthier suburbs north of Interstate 275. Read full article here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090213/BIZ01/302130015/1055/NEWS
February 13, 200916 yr I love how they try to be optimistic at the end. Send the bulldozers to Tri-County.
February 16, 200916 yr This area is really depressing to drive through with all the shuttered buildings and for lease signs.
February 23, 200916 yr Z. Gallerie to exit Rookwood Household furnishings chain Z. Gallerie is planning to close its Rookwood Commons store as part of a broad store shuttering that will eliminate its presence in Ohio. The Gardena, Calif.-based retailer said it will close 25 underperforming locations, according to Cleveland news station WKYC. That includes stores in Lyndhurst, Westlake and Easton, Ohio, as well as at Rookwood Commons in Norwood. The company cited “deteriorating economic conditions” as the cause. A spokesman at Z. Gallerie could not be reached for comment. But Tracy Nemenz, a spokeswoman for Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate, which handles leasing for the center, said her firm has not been notified about the closing. The retailer may have had conversations with members of JPMorgan Chase and Columbus-based Casto, which own the center, she said. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/02/23/daily7.html
March 2, 200916 yr Ouch!!! Dillard's to shutter Northgate Mall store By Laura Baverman • [email protected] • March 2, 2009 Dillard’s, Inc. announced today that it will close its Northgate Mall location in 2009. The store’s 85 associates and managers were notified last week of the store closing, says Julie Bull, the Little Rock, Ark.-based company’s director of investor relations. Most of the employees will be placed at one of Dillard’s five other Greater Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky locations. It operates stores at Kenwood Towne Centre, Tri-County Mall, Crestview Hills Town Center, Eastgate Mall and on Glenway Avenue in Green Township. Read full article here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090302/BIZ01/303020030/1076/BIZ Bankhardt's closing downtown store By John Eckberg • [email protected] • March 2, 2009 After more than 130 years in business downtown, Bankhardt’s Luggage Shop, 6 W. Fourth St. downtown, will close on April 30. Slow business traffic downtown, the Internet and the recession doomed the institution, said owner Mike White. Other Bankhardt’s in Kenwood, Deerfield Township and Norwood will remain open and are owned by a cousin. “We’ve been at this location since 1935,” White said. “I just couldn’t throw any more money at it. In this economy, I’m lucky to have even sold the building.” Read full article here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090302/BIZ01/303020029
March 2, 200916 yr Dillards: 85 Employees, 89 words; 1.04 words per lost job Bankharts: 6 Employees, 172 words; 28.6 words per lost job
March 2, 200916 yr Bankhardt's has been downtown for 140 years. I think that warrants a few more words.
March 2, 200916 yr Dillard's to shutter Northgate Mall store By Laura Baverman • [email protected] • March 2, 2009 Dillard’s, Inc. announced today that it will close its Northgate Mall location in 2009. The store’s 85 associates and managers were notified last week of the store closing, says Julie Bull, the Little Rock, Ark.-based company’s director of investor relations. Most of the employees will be placed at one of Dillard’s five other Greater Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky locations. It operates stores at Kenwood Towne Centre, Tri-County Mall, Crestview Hills Town Center, Eastgate Mall and on Glenway Avenue in Green Township. Read full article here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090302/BIZ01/303020030/1076/BIZ You have to wonder how the demise of Northgate as a viable mall will affect the west and northwest side of Cincinnati. I have to imagine that a new shopping center serving both areas will be developed in the near future. The Dillards in Green Township is in high need of a remodel or outright replacement.
March 2, 200916 yr Dillards: 85 Employees, 89 words; 1.04 words per lost job Bankharts: 6 Employees, 172 words; 28.6 words per lost job lol ... man, you're ridiculous!
March 3, 200916 yr Lets compare the Business courier's coverage of Brentano's closing downtown and Borders in Springdale http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/01/12/daily61.html http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/12/22/daily26.html Borders: 24,700 square feet, 226 words; 0.009 words per closed sq. ft. of bookstore Brentanos: 6750 square feet, 184 words; 0.027 words per closed sq. ft. of bookstore the Brentano's sq ft rounded up from the nearly identical space 210 at Tower Place Mall http://www.towerplace.com/media/pdf/towerplace_leasing.pdf Border's sq ft http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=BGP.N&rpc=66
March 3, 200916 yr I imagine your point is that the press gives more attention to declining retail downtown than to arguably more significant declines elsewhere in the region and that is true, but Bankhardt's is an entirely special case, this is pretty sad.
March 3, 200916 yr I hate to click on this thread anymore. All we see are closings and no openings lately. :-(
March 3, 200916 yr I hate to click on this thread anymore. All we see are closings and no openings lately. :-( Here's a little ray of sunshine! Target to open two local stores Retail chain Target is opening two prototype stores in Greater Cincinnati on March 4, as part of a 27-store opening nationwide. The stores, one in South Lebanon and the other in Western Hills, will employ 150 to 250 each, though the Western Hills store, at 6150 Glenway Ave., is relocating from just down the street. The South Lebanon store is off Interstate 71 at Route 48. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/03/02/daily30.html
March 3, 200916 yr I think a Target or Costco would be a great replacement for the old car lot on 8th in queensgate just to the west of Linn St. The location could serve downtown, Mt Adams, Over The Rhine, Downtown Covington, Price Hill and the West End.
March 10, 200916 yr Nordstrom plans opening gala Nordstrom hopes to raise more than $120,000 for Cincinnati-area charities with a gala and sneak-peek shopping two days before the new store at Kenwood Towne Centre opens on Sept. 25. The Seattle-based retailer will sponsor a charity event Sept. 23 in the new store to raise money and awareness for the Cincinnati and Queen City chapters of The Links Inc., Cris Collinsworth ProScan Fund and Lighthouse Youth Services. Models will mingle in fall fashions as partygoers dine on hors d'oeuvres, dinner and dessert buffets. Tickets are $75 a person. "This partnership and our combined efforts will greatly benefit the Cincinnati community," said Lauren Cohen, Lighthouse Youth Services board member and gala co-chairwoman. Everyone is invited "to celebrate our newest neighbor and support the community all in one evening," she said. Read full article here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090310/BIZ01/903100321/1055/NEWS
March 14, 200916 yr Abode closing in Covington Abode, the family-owned contemporary furniture store at 440 Scott St., said in a recent letter to preferred customers that it would close following a complete sell-out. Owners Barney and Julie Stengle opened the store on historic Scott Street in 2002. They purchased the Mertacks building, which had housed an old furniture store, and renovated the 8,000-square-foot, two-story space. Read full article here: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090314/NEWS01/303140016/1055/NEWS
April 4, 200916 yr Ace Hardware to rock site of storied Clifton venue Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Jon Newberry Four decades after its brief heyday as an underground music venue, the Ludlow Garage in Clifton is being given new life as an Ace Hardware store. That might not sound as exciting as the MC5’s revolutionary late-1960s rock anthem “Kick Out the Jams,” which once ricocheted off the club’s bare brick walls and open steel rafters, but Bryan Valerius thinks people in the community will greatly appreciate the convenience. The closest Home Depot and Lowe’s are seven miles away. Valerius, a former manager at Keller’s IGA down the block, is overseeing renovation of the structure’s main level. He’ll run the hardware store for a family-owned corporation that signed a 10-year lease. An opening is planned for the first week of June. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/04/06/story6.html
April 13, 200916 yr Mitchell’s to reopen at Kenwood Towne Place Bedecked in more than $2 million of decorative glass, massage chairs and a shower that rains in color, Mitchell’s Salon & Day Spa will open its new location April 15. The salon, at the developing Kenwood Towne Place in Sycamore Township, is about a third larger than its 21-year-old space down the street on Montgomery Road, and includes the added services and breathing room to use it. Employing a staff of roughly 80, salon founder and owner Deborah Schmidt expects to add 10 more, and sales are projected to increase over the next 12 months by 10 percent to 15 percent (prices for services will not change). “We definitely want this to be a resort atmosphere,” Schmidt said, after passing through the granite-counter bathrooms and dimly lit relaxation parlor, with its chaise lounges of muted gold. “When you are here at the spa, we want you to feel like you are at a resort.” Schmidt and Michael Batchelor, general manager at Mitchell’s, took time a few days before the opening to provide a tour. Schmidt invested $2.2 million in the new space, and it shows. The 13,600-square-foot location, with its expanded manicure and pedicure rooms, spacious salon and 10-room spa, is adorned with quartz-tile walls, locally produced art and custom-made glass throughout. The wall of the main entry is slate, and the Mitchell’s sign hangs against backdrop of highly polished copper. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/04/13/daily3.html
April 14, 200916 yr it is. They have Segways and bicycles that have battery assist power. I am interested in taking a test drive.
April 15, 200916 yr ^ I just don't know about Segways. I think that there are already better ways of getting around.
April 15, 200916 yr I may now visit Mitchell's once it is open! There are a couple of great salon's located downtown.
April 15, 200916 yr Yeah, but some of the services offered at Mitchell's aren't offered elsewhere. I really liked going to King Spa & Sauna in Palisades Park, NJ, and really felt at home with Mitchell's more so than most other locations that I've been to. I'm looking for more than a salon.
April 16, 200916 yr General Growth Properties declares bankruptcy General Growth Properties Inc., the owner of Kenwood Towne Centre and Florence Mall, has filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection to reorganize. General Growth listed $29.5 billion in total assets and about $27.3 billion of debts in its bankruptcy petition, making it the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history. Chicago-based General Growth (NYSE: GGP) said Thursday it sought bankruptcy protection only after being unable to refinance or extend maturing debt. The company said all day-to-day operations and business of its shopping malls would continue as usual while it reorganizes. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/04/13/daily48.html
April 16, 200916 yr I can't see this having much effect on Kenwood, but some of the bigger plans for Florence would seem even further off now.
April 16, 200916 yr Clifton Jazzed by Garage Developments Hardware store to open in Gaslight District; Blue Wisp might follow Unlike most of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods, residents of the Clifton Gaslight District don’t have to get in their cars or catch a bus to go about their daily lives. Depending on their mood, Gaslight dwellers can walk to get groceries, watch the latest independent film, grab a bite to eat at restaurants featuring various types of cuisine and price levels and take their pick of assorted taverns to drink a cocktail, including the city’s oldest gay bar. They even have a wide choice of places to worship, ranging from a mosque to a Unitarian church. Soon those choices will include a place to buy hammers and nails and possibly a venue to hear live Jazz performed nightly. Already considered one of the city’s most livable neighborhoods, the Gaslight District’s versatile, metropolitan vibe continues to evolve. A new 9,000-square-foot Ace Hardware store will open on the ground floor of historic Ludlow Garage in June. The Blue Wisp Jazz Club also is considering moving into the building’s basement level from its current home on East Eighth Street downtown. Most of the Ludlow Garage’s space has been vacant for months, since a bicycle shop and contemporary furniture store left the space, while the building’s owners decided on a new direction for the site. The large structure first was used as a parking garage and car dealership when it was built in 1929 and was a storage depot for garbage trucks throughout the 1950s. But it’s best known as a trippy Rock & Roll club in the late 1960s and early ’70s operated by the flamboyant Jim Tarbell, who decades later became Cincinnati’s vice mayor. Read full article here: http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-17608-clifton-jazzed-by-garage-developments.html
April 16, 200916 yr Although I think that is a great spot for the Blue Wisp, and I don't like their current location I'd hate to see it leave downtown.
April 16, 200916 yr I too would hate to see it leave downtown, but where it is right now is so out of the way, that I bet most people don't even come across it. I would like to see it move closer to Fountain Square so visitors could access it easier, although Clifton does seem like it would be a good fit, and it would increase the night time activity there dramatically.
April 16, 200916 yr Blue Wisp did start in O'Bryonville, and Clifton could use the energy of having the club there.
April 17, 200916 yr Five Guys nonnews: I noticed the architectural plans for Five Guys sitting on a table that was between Kinkos and BW3. I doubt they'll take the whole space, but if you were wondering the exact location, look there in the coming months.
April 28, 200916 yr Provident Camera on W. 7th Street has closed after 80 years. They redirect you to K&R Photographics in Florence.
April 28, 200916 yr K&R Photographics is great; locally owned, in an old house, and stocked with... fresh and new camera equipment and supplies. While I miss having a downtown camera retailer, I rarely went in, and I never saw a customer inside except to do prints. Most of their supplies had a massive amount of dust on them, and some of their chemicals that they had in stock were past their expiration date :(
May 11, 200916 yr College Hill Coffee Co. is located at the northern end of the College Hill NBD, but is a great coffee shop in that part of town. Good food, some retail offerings, table service and most importantly good coffee. It wasn't long before I realized that I had been there for over 3 hours. Here are a few pics from last week. 1. 2. 3. 4.
May 11, 200916 yr It's one of my favorite coffee shops in Cincinnati, outside of the one that's in the building I live in now :)
May 13, 200916 yr Looks a little too much like a grandmother's living room from that last picture. The rest of it looks decent though. But they have QUICHE! I've never been there, but I'll stop by for quiche.
May 13, 200916 yr Lego, Teavana to open at Kenwood Towne Centre International toy maker Lego, and tea retailer Teavana will open stores at Kenwood Towne Centre this year. Lego, known for its colorful building blocks and life-sized creations, is opening its first Ohio store May 21. The store will hold grand opening celebrations June 19 to 21, according to Lego’s Web site. It will be located on the upper level of the mall in the Macy’s wing. Teavana, a carrier of loose-leaf teas and accessories, will be located on the upper level of the mall between Ilori sunglasses and Oakley, which opened in early May. Teavana is advertising for managers and baristas, but an opening date has not yet been set, according to mall officials. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/05/11/daily30.html
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