The Cincinnati Post is reporting some info on the Ft. Washington Hotel and other happenings on lower Main Street.

 

Hotel conversion to condos may transform one of downtown's drabbest blocks

By Greg Paeth Post staff reporter

 

One of the drabbest blocks in downtown Cincinnati has attracted developers and business owners who plan to invest in real estate that in some cases dates to the 19th century.  By the end of the year, the 600 block of Main Street, immediately south of the $80 million Aronoff Center for the Arts, may be transformed into one of downtown's more appealing commercial and residential strips.

 

The biggest project is a plan to close the down-on-its-luck Fort Washington Hotel and replace its 75 low-budget hotel and boarding rooms with 10 condominiums. The building's owners plan to transform the Queen Anne style building from a transient hotel where rooms rent for $93 a week to a luxury complex where condos will sell from $250,000 to more than $300,000.

 

There's some history to the Fort Washington. It was built in 1887 as the Bodmann Building and was the first home of Western-Southern Life, the forerunner of the Western & Southern Financial Group, one of Cincinnati's Fortune 500 corporations.

This is very VERY good.

Yeah, that's cool. Unfortunately, they say it's due south of the Aronoff when it's actually south of the back side. That area could use a little cleaning up, though. The great thing about Main through that stretch is that it has so damn many 19th century buildings. I dunno if you saw my Main St. thread a couple of weeks ago.

 

But it's all good that folks want to invest in the area. The Ft. Washington Hotel could use a little help. Shit, I'll just shut up. Good post, Cincy_Kid....

I noticed that work has begun on transforming the horrible old Fort Washington Hotel on Main Street between Sixth and Seventh into condos.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

Awesome. I wish they would have had these on the Downtown Living Tour today.

They are definitely not ready for viewing yet, LOL. At least the outside is beginning to look a lot better. That place was a really seedy flophouse before. Just removing that awful sign helps a lot.

After they painted that first bay window I thought "wow." The renovated Ft. Washington is going to make a big impact on that section of Main. Now if only the Dennison Hotel would go next.

^ Amen to that! At least the Dennison is the last one of those left as far as I can think. There used to be quite a few similar institutions. Believe it or not the Cincinnatian Hotel used to be almost as bad--at least it catered to a similar clientele back in the 1960s-70s when I was a student at UC. Shows you how much a place can change with the right ownership.

Wonderful!

Work on the Fort Washington actually began days after it closed on June 3rd. Most of the work has been on the inside so it wasn't as noticable. I believe the new name is gonna be Fort Washington Place. It'll have ten condos with balcony's on the north side & parking in what was the lobby. It could have changed, I'll check tomorrow. Plans are to keep the original elevator but convert it to automatic. Plans also included a fitness area (for residents) and possibly a retail store.

There is actually another hotel/rooming house besides the Dennison, its the Decker on Court St. Its not as noticable as the others and its suppose to be for seniors only.

Its funny I came across this article on th Fort because I was going to go over there this morning anyway. Haven't been there since the sign came down.

Interesting info. 45202. Parking in the lobby? Weird. I've never heard of the Decker. It must be pretty small I would think.

Yeah, on the last set of prints I saw it had garage doors in the back & on the north side in the alley.

I sort of like the idea of old SROs...they add some character and keep a downtown from being too yuppie-sanitized (as well as providing housing to poor or down-and-out folks). I lived in something pretty close to one during my Sacramento days.

 

I see one of my favorite little dive bars, the Bay Horse, is next to that hotel.

whoa. 'tis going to look very different, especially with the sign gone.

I went in during the open house a couple weeks ago. The model unit looks really great. I don't think they're going to have much difficulty selling the rest of the units. If they selling quickly, it should be a wake up call to other downtown property owners.

There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Ft. Washington condos on June 16th at 10 AM at 621 Main.

Flophouse to penthouse

Ft. Washington Hotel reborn as downtown condos

By Greg Paeth Post staff reporter

 

It was a building that promoters of downtown Cincinnati never wanted to acknowledge in the past; now it's being touted as another symbol of the revitalization of the central business district.  Developer Frank Fieler opened the doors to the public Thursday to unveil the Ft. Washington Condominiums, a $2 million basement-to-roof renovation of the historic Fort Washington Hotel, formerly a rundown, pay-by-the-week flophouse about a block from Fountain Square.

 

Fieler, head of the family that owns the six-story Queen Anne period building, had closed the hotel in June 2004 to begin renovation.  The Main Street building now houses 10 condos, a parking garage and a first-floor commercial space.  Four of the condos - ranging in price from $240,000 to $400,000 - and the first-floor commercial space already have been sold, Fieler said Thursday. He said he did not know how the commercial space would be used.

 

Read full article here:

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050617/BIZ/506170354/1001/RSS04

that interior is beautiful.  they did an excellent job.

They just had to get that last sentence in there, didn't they.

^ Yeah...no wonder people feel the way they do about downtown.

Looks like they are almost done painting the front of this building. Looks great and the old Washington Hotel signs appears to be left alone to be kept original. I am proud of the owner!