9 minutes ago, tonyt3524 said:

 

I'm wondering if they are just planning to purchase part of the property. I believe they already use some of the surface lots on east side.

That seems more reasonable. I’d assume if Siemens wants to sell they would want a pretty penny for the site. They would more than likely have to build a new plant in the suburbs. 

1 hour ago, Cincy_Travels said:

That's a great catch! Though I'm not sure how much I belive that PLK can afford to purchase a functioning manufacturing site (Siemens) to convert it to residential as well as purchase another manufacturing site (Multi-Color) that is guaranteed to require a lot of environmental remediation. 

 

They still have the lot on Montgomery of the old Quality Inn that they haven't started construction on.

 

Edit: The city did just pass a L shaped TIF zone that encompasses the Siemens property, the Multi-Color property, and the multi family properties in between. Just an interesting development coupled with what the brochure says.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but how are you able to locate the TIF zone information? Is this through the city council minutes? 

The Siemens plant is 2 parcels: the plant itself is one giant parcel that stretches all the way to Factory 52, while the 3 parking lots on Park Avenue is the disjointed 2nd. It seems more reasonable to buy some of that out, as previously mentioned, as well as potentially the Norwood Police training facility and/or Happy Hollow Inn. If Siemens were to close down, they would be legally required to notify the state due to the WARN Act. In any case, PLK has carved out a niche by redeveloping sites needing some remediation as it allows them to get a tax abatement from the state, instead of the city, which is a lot easier of a process.

On 1/8/2024 at 1:40 PM, cincy_flight_83 said:

 

Forgive my ignorance, but how are you able to locate the TIF zone information? Is this through the city council minutes? 

I only know of this TIF because it was voted on in a recent City Council meeting. I'm not 100% up to date on stuff but I try to watch the meetings when I can. 

 

Here's the link to the referenced meeting: https://www.youtube.com/live/fwqTQoxtUuM?si=ZN9e8DgL1Pu179nG

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/01/30/plk-communities-purchases-multi-color-corp-factory.html
 

PLK has purchased the Multi Color Corp factory and will be turning it into 175 Apartments. 

Very exciting to see that they can salvage the larger building (green) for apartments and have room for more development. I hope they consider repurposing that small front lot as a way to connect the park across the street but that might be wishful thinking lol.

 

26 minutes ago, tonyt3524 said:

Very exciting to see that they can salvage the larger building (green) for apartments and have room for more development. I hope they consider repurposing that small front lot as a way to connect the park across the street but that might be wishful thinking lol.

 

Heres my prediction for the rest of the site. They state that there will be a new entrance off of Robertson (Red). Apartment buildings are in purple. Hotel in yellow and office in green. The office could prolly scratched for more apartments, but I’m assuming they would want some office space to diversify the project. Could see the lot next to Siemens also be part parking garage to accommodate Siemens employees.

Edited January 30, 20241 yr by Ucgrad2015

I mean they are basically asking for more public input.Have at it.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/100057182811057/posts/pfbid0ZeZggy2GxxAMH9UhMdQ6evhQLGvaA7L7VE1E64q5GxTxVM1dgbRWadP91F5pGn4Kl/?app=fbl

7 hours ago, ucnum1 said:

I mean they are basically asking for more public input.Have at it.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/100057182811057/posts/pfbid0ZeZggy2GxxAMH9UhMdQ6evhQLGvaA7L7VE1E64q5GxTxVM1dgbRWadP91F5pGn4Kl/?app=fbl

 

Green poof jacket's beer gut really honors Norwood's blue collar past. 

 

 

I'm not entirely sure what this is actually doing but exciting to see it all the same.
 

@JYP^

This is a CNU Legacy Project. One of four we are doing in anticipation of CNU 32 in Cincinnati in May. 

 

More information here.

 

CNU 32 is the 32nd annual gathering of the Congress for the New Urbanism. There were over 1400 people who attended last year in Charlotte.

 

We landed the host city designation in 2022 and are working hard to show of the city. It will be from May 15-18th at the Hilton Netherland Plaza Hotel. Early registration starts on Feb. 9th!

^I don't go to Norwood very often... but I was there recently... and man the stretch of Montgomery Road through the heart of Norwood is so much wider than necessary. What is the expected timeline for the Montgomery Road BRT route? Norwood has a lot of potential to create a better sense of place if they can better design Montgomery Rd. 

18 hours ago, jwulsin said:

^I don't go to Norwood very often... but I was there recently... and man the stretch of Montgomery Road through the heart of Norwood is so much wider than necessary. What is the expected timeline for the Montgomery Road BRT route? Norwood has a lot of potential to create a better sense of place if they can better design Montgomery Rd. 

I don't think there is a timeline for the Montgomery Road BRT. The existing projects will be funded by SORTA so unless there's a big shift in Federal funding, they probably won't start working on Montgomery and Glenway until the first 2 are up and running.

 

Norwood did develop a redevelopment plan for Montgomery back in 2021. The pdf is on their website. It includes a road diet, along with some good traffic calming measures like bump-outs, green medians, and added street trees. However, the extra space from the road diet is going to be marked on-street parking. It does not look like it includes any bike or bus infrastructure.

 

They did apply, and receive, funds from the SORTA TIF in the first 2 rounds. In their first application, it had a tentative start date of July 2023, noting that it might get delayed a year depending on disbursement of funds, so hopefully it happens later this year. It also does not mention the bump-outs, green medians or street trees, so they may have been value engineered away. It does mention installing a RRFB between Prentiss & Mentor, the existing crosswalk in front of UDF. There are other updates mentioned, like bus pads, sidewalk repairs, new ADA compliant curb cuts, better pavement markings and more reflective signs. So this isn't really a redesign at all, just a rehab compliant with modern standards.

On 2/2/2024 at 8:40 AM, Dev said:

I don't think there is a timeline for the Montgomery Road BRT. The existing projects will be funded by SORTA so unless there's a big shift in Federal funding, they probably won't start working on Montgomery and Glenway until the first 2 are up and running.

 

Norwood did develop a redevelopment plan for Montgomery back in 2021. The pdf is on their website. It includes a road diet, along with some good traffic calming measures like bump-outs, green medians, and added street trees. However, the extra space from the road diet is going to be marked on-street parking. It does not look like it includes any bike or bus infrastructure.

 

They did apply, and receive, funds from the SORTA TIF in the first 2 rounds. In their first application, it had a tentative start date of July 2023, noting that it might get delayed a year depending on disbursement of funds, so hopefully it happens later this year. It also does not mention the bump-outs, green medians or street trees, so they may have been value engineered away. It does mention installing a RRFB between Prentiss & Mentor, the existing crosswalk in front of UDF. There are other updates mentioned, like bus pads, sidewalk repairs, new ADA compliant curb cuts, better pavement markings and more reflective signs. So this isn't really a redesign at all, just a rehab compliant with modern standards.

Okay I dug a little bit more into this. ODOT has this assigned as PID 115747. They list the project as being constructed during 2025 with a grand total cost of $3,649,914.00. It is described as just an Urban Paving Project. That is a pool of ODOT funds just to help pave for new pavement on state and US routes within municipalities. If you click through, it does breakdown all of the types of costs including the local match. That's important because a SORTA TIF award can be used as the local match for a state or federal grant. These numbers don't seem to match with the applications Norwood sent to the SORTA TIF however. Here's the total breakdown of all the grants I have found so far:

• TIF 2021: Montgomery Road Improvements
  • Sidewalk and street repair on Montgomery Rd. between Cleneay Ave. and Ross Ave. including bus pads, curb ramps, and pavement markings serving Metro Rts. 4 and 90.
  • Requested: $765,900 (50%)
  • Project cost: $1,531,800
• TIF 2022: Montgomery Road Pedestrian and Safety Improvements
  • Reconstruct roadway and sidewalk along Montgomery Road
  • Requested: $2,317,825 (48%)
  • Project cost: $4,837,200
• FY2025 ODOT Urban Paving Project
  • Local match: $1,782,000 (50%)
  • Project cost: $3,564,000

So it's not clear to me how this all changed but if I'd have to guess, I'm thinking the second TIF application was to cover cost increases. I am going to hit up SORTA about the TIF page though, as they only uploaded the packets for the 1st year of awards. Having that 2nd application would probably clear all of this up. I'm still not optimistic that Norwood is doing much other than a straight modern rehab of the road.

This reminded me that I had previously found construction drawings for State Ohio 651 in Norwood, which includes Ross to Carthage in the northwest, and Sherman to Smith to Williams in the southeast. The drawings were stamped last June and ODOT's tracker says it should happen this year. There's nothing exciting here with the only 2 things you can count as an improvement is ADA-complaint curb cuts, full-depth repairs in select spots, and updated crosswalks that are striped, instead of parallel lines. I think the new 51 is the only SORTA bus route along any of these segments. They probably didn't know about that to try to add in some concrete pads at those stops but I would have figured they still could have been useful at some of the busy intersections to prevent warping.

 

On 2/11/2024 at 10:20 PM, Dev said:

This reminded me that I had previously found construction drawings for State Ohio 651 in Norwood, which includes Ross to Carthage in the northwest, and Sherman to Smith to Williams in the southeast. The drawings were stamped last June and ODOT's tracker says it should happen this year. There's nothing exciting here with the only 2 things you can count as an improvement is ADA-complaint curb cuts, full-depth repairs in select spots, and updated crosswalks that are striped, instead of parallel lines. I think the new 51 is the only SORTA bus route along any of these segments. They probably didn't know about that to try to add in some concrete pads at those stops but I would have figured they still could have been useful at some of the busy intersections to prevent warping.

I had not noticed at the time but the city posted about this project on Facebook last week, referring to the ADA curb ramp improvements.

On 1/31/2024 at 1:41 PM, Dev said:

I'm not entirely sure what this is actually doing but exciting to see it all the same.
 

I was able to stop by this about halfway through the Public Open House last night. After the presentation was over, I was able to talk to a city councilmember and the Safety Service Director about the work for Montgomery and OH-561. Montgomery has been scaled back due to costs, but they are still going to move a curb to narrow the street in some of the sections south of the lateral. I cannot remember the exact blocks he mentioned but it's either across from Surrey Square, and/or in front of City Hall. There will be better lighting and more street trees as part of the project, as well as bump-outs. The biggest issue is the green medians. Apparently the police and fire departments oppose them so those are not going to happen regardless of costs. Also the funding complicates things, but they seem to be doing a great job of managing it. Since they got funding for just certain pieces of the work, like a set for resurfacing, a set for curb cuts etc, they are actually doing the project in phases. So the concrete work for Montgomery will happen this year, but the resurfacing will be next year. Similarly, the curb work for 561 is happening now, with the resurfacing for later.

There has been some discussion of sending a proposal to voters for a road maintenance levy but there won't be any detailed discussion about that for a while, as they have to get out of the fiscal emergency first. They also keep having major stormwater/sewer management issues that interrupt their workflow. They have talked to NSR about purchasing the former N&W Belt Railroad, to the point of learning how to apply for grants to help pay for acquisition, but with everyone else going on, there is no expected timeline for it.

 

Anyways, I'm excited for what the final plan for this will recommend. There seems like there is a lot of momentum for what is going on in Norwood, and it sounds like they got some dedicated people who will try to figure out how to move things forward, even if it's slow going at times.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2024/03/06/norwood-cincinnatis-factory-52-project-expands-with-retail-housing/72748402007/
 

Enquirer article talks about the new apartment building at Factory 52. Mentions what is next for the site and that it’ll be announced in the next few months. 

Paycor owns 11 acres, while Norwood owns almost 4 adjacent acres that support their building. It'll interesting to see what happens to it all.
 

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/08/22/factory-52-norwood-second-phase-plk-communities.html
 

Second phase of Factory 52. I didn’t renew my subscription so sadly I cant read it (don’t have a library card either). 

Edited August 22, 2024Aug 22 by Ucgrad2015

First quarter of 2025 start date:

 

350 to 400 housing units: a seven-story multifamily mid-rise & some number of townhomes;

A 17,000-square-foot hotel with 100 to 125 rooms;

40,000 to 50,000 square feet of retail with a leasing strategy focused on entertainment-based retailers; 

A commercial building with 10,000-square-foot floor plates and an undetermined number of floors (but < 7); 

An event lawn;

844 new structured and surface parking spaces (though the development will see a net gain of just 423 spaces, because 421 existing surface spaces will be removed for phase two).

PLK Communities to double size of Factory 52, incorporate Multi-Color site

 

The master developer behind Factory 52 has filed plans for a colossal second phase including hundreds more apartments, a hotel and possibly a mid-rise office building.

 

Kenwood-based PLK Communities, under Playing Card Partners LLC, filed documents with the Norwood Planning Commission Aug. 20 requesting the original planned unit development, or PUD, of November 2020 be supplemented with phase two plans and expanded to include 12.63 non-contiguous acres.

 

The changes will bring Factory 52's buildout flush with Interstate 71 and extend it south across Robertson Avenue.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/08/22/factory-52-norwood-second-phase-plk-communities.html

 

15 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

PLK Communities to double size of Factory 52, incorporate Multi-Color site

 

The master developer behind Factory 52 has filed plans for a colossal second phase including hundreds more apartments, a hotel and possibly a mid-rise office building.

 

Kenwood-based PLK Communities, under Playing Card Partners LLC, filed documents with the Norwood Planning Commission Aug. 20 requesting the original planned unit development, or PUD, of November 2020 be supplemented with phase two plans and expanded to include 12.63 non-contiguous acres.

 

The changes will bring Factory 52's buildout flush with Interstate 71 and extend it south across Robertson Avenue.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/08/22/factory-52-norwood-second-phase-plk-communities.html

 

So is the mid rise part office/apartments? 

That pedestrian bridge connecting F52 with Oakley Station is looking better and better... 

1 hour ago, Ucgrad2015 said:

So is the mid rise part office/apartments? 

One mid-rise is an apartment, one is a hotel, and the southern one is intended to be commercial:
 

Quote

The size of the commercial/office building just north of Robertson Avenue on the west side of I-71 will be determined by market demand. That, in turn, will determine how the land immediately to the west of it will be used. The current site design shows the land as a future surface parking lot, but PLK has built in the flexibility for that to become a parking deck wrapped in residential units – or any of several other designs – if office demand drives up parking demand.

 

3 hours ago, wjh said:

That pedestrian bridge connecting F52 with Oakley Station is looking better and better... 

Never going to happen...

Oh I know unless the 2 developers ponied up the funds which is a less than 0% chance. 

15 hours ago, wjh said:

Oh I know unless the 2 developers ponied up the funds which is a less than 0% chance. 

It's more than the $$$. ODOT won't allow it, the railroad refuses to even meet/talk about the potential of repurposing their existing bridge.

What is more likely to happen is to make the existing Robertson bridge more pedestrian friendly - reduce to 1 lane each direction & wider sidewalks, possible bike lane - and improvement at the Robertson/28th/Millsbrae intersection on the Oakley side. And then there is the work being done on a pedestrian tunnel between Oakley Station and the northern end of 28th, that will help. 

Edited August 24, 2024Aug 24 by jag

So the old multi-color corp building is now coming completely down? And the townhomes south of Robertson look to be something new as well.

1 hour ago, tonyt3524 said:

So the old multi-color corp building is now coming completely down? And the townhomes south of Robertson look to be something new as well.

 Not all the buildings coming down.

3 hours ago, jag said:

 Not all the buildings coming down.

 

I'm told only the facade of the Multi-Color Building will remain.  The hazardous material mitigation cost was too high to keep the remainder of the building along with design challenges with an old warehouse building.

Edited August 28, 2024Aug 28 by thesenator

14 hours ago, thesenator said:

 

I'm told only the facade of the Multi-Color Building will remain.  The hazardous material mitigation cost was too high to keep the remainder of the building along with design challenges with an old warehouse building.

Ok, I hadn't heard that. Knew the original plan was to keep some of the original buildings. I stand corrected.

19 hours ago, tonyt3524 said:

So the old multi-color corp building is now coming completely down? And the townhomes south of Robertson look to be something new as well.

Townhomes south of Robertson look inefficiently laid out. It could be the old developer trick of showing something on property we already own so nearby residents will reach out to sell their property, and that scope can grow/change. At the very least it looks like it wants to align with Leslie if they can acquire those properties.

 

I am miffed by the townhomes facing the parking garage on Kenilworth. 

Edited August 29, 2024Aug 29 by CincyIntheKnow

Norwood finally getting some road diets:

  

1 minute ago, Dev said:

Norwood and ODOT are working together for a planned resurfacing project of Montgomery north of the lateral that is turning out to become a 5-to-3 road diet. The extra space will allow for an extension of the painted bike lanes that were put on Montgomery by Cincinnati, although the southbound lane will dissolve into a sharrow as it approaches the Drex intersection to increase the amount of on-street parking. The rush hour parking restrictions will also be removed, so it'll be interesting if it gets utilized more consistently. The Lawn, Moeller and Irving intersections will be upgraded with either a RRFB, or PHB/HAWK lights. The Ross light will also be upgraded to have a flashing yellow arrow, which is something that is common in KY these days but I don't think I've ever seen in Ohio.

 

 

 

Paycor lists its former headquarters building for sale: PHOTOS

By Tom Demeropolis – Editor, Cincinnati Business Courier

Oct 17, 2024

 

One of Greater Cincinnati’s largest public companies is looking to sell its headquarters.

 

Paycor HCM Inc. is listing its 136,000-square-foot, four-story building in Norwood for sale. Paycor is working with commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to market the property, located at 4811 Montgomery Road.

 

The Paycor building is being marketed without a list price. According to the Hamilton County auditor, the property’s total market value is more than $22.5 million.

 

MORE

Factory 52 phase two advances without tax credit award: 'It's not stopping our progress'

 

PLK Communities failed to land a large tax credit award for its Factory 52 phase two project from Ohio's Transformational Mixed-Use Development program. Nonetheless, some construction is still slated to begin in 2025.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/01/28/factory-52-ohio-tax-credit-tmud-plk-communities.html

 

New apartments coming to Wasson Way land owned by Joseph family

By Brian Planalp – Staff reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

Jan 29, 2025

 

Uptown Rental Properties is developing a new multifamily residential project at a site in Norwood owned by the Joseph family, owners of Joseph Auto Group.

 

The 5.4-acre site is located along the Wasson Way bike trail at the southeast corner of Montgomery Road and Lexington Avenue.

 

HGC Construction will break ground in February, according to a spokesperson for Uptown Rental Properties.

 

The project will include 205 residential units in two four-story buildings, totaling more than 200,000 square feet. It will also include a retail space with frontage on Wasson Way.

 

MORE

26 minutes ago, The_Cincinnati_Kid said:

New apartments coming to Wasson Way land owned by Joseph family

By Brian Planalp – Staff reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

Jan 29, 2025

 

Uptown Rental Properties is developing a new multifamily residential project at a site in Norwood owned by the Joseph family, owners of Joseph Auto Group.

 

The 5.4-acre site is located along the Wasson Way bike trail at the southeast corner of Montgomery Road and Lexington Avenue.

 

HGC Construction will break ground in February, according to a spokesperson for Uptown Rental Properties.

 

The project will include 205 residential units in two four-story buildings, totaling more than 200,000 square feet. It will also include a retail space with frontage on Wasson Way.

 

MORE

Bleh I always thought this site presented a great opportunity to do a truly mixed-use bike trail adjacent development with ample commercial space. Instead we get an Uptown special.

3 minutes ago, dnymck said:

Bleh I always thought this site presented a great opportunity to do a truly mixed-use bike trail adjacent development with ample commercial space. Instead we get an Uptown special.

At least it’s Better than the auto mall the  Joseph family was wanting to put there in 2018. 

In downtown Loveland alone, you've got several restaurants, a few breweries/tap rooms, and an ice cream shop fronting the Little Miami bike trail. Seems like it would be a no-brainer for new developments along Wasson Way to have ground floor retail oriented toward the trail, but I guess that's just too complicated for developers to figure out?

1 hour ago, dnymck said:

Instead we get an Uptown special.

 

The Cranley years continue. 

32 minutes ago, taestell said:

In downtown Loveland alone, you've got several restaurants, a few breweries/tap rooms, and an ice cream shop fronting the Little Miami bike trail. Seems like it would be a no-brainer for new developments along Wasson Way to have ground floor retail oriented toward the trail, but I guess that's just too complicated for developers to figure out?

Honestly I think it's just a lack of vision, unfortunately. The biggest difficulty is acquiring enough contiguous land to create more of a district along the trails, as a single building with 2-3 storefronts likely won't create enough mass to sustain trailside businesses. That's what's so disappointing about this development, this is one of the few locations where you could really do that.

 

I guess the silver lining is that with the addition of new residents here it makes the conversion of some of the older manufacturing buildings on the south side of Wasson Way into commercial more likely.

48 minutes ago, Gordon Bombay said:

 

The Cranley years continue. 

The parcels are in Norwood city limits.
  

59 minutes ago, taestell said:

In downtown Loveland alone, you've got several restaurants, a few breweries/tap rooms, and an ice cream shop fronting the Little Miami bike trail. Seems like it would be a no-brainer for new developments along Wasson Way to have ground floor retail oriented toward the trail, but I guess that's just too complicated for developers to figure out?

The article states that it will have ground floor retail oriented toward the trail. The original post upthread even includes that specific line:
 

Quote

 It will also include a retail space with frontage on Wasson Way.

 

40 minutes ago, Dev said:

The parcels are in Norwood city limits.
 

 

Greatest design ever, then!

1 hour ago, Gordon Bombay said:

 

Greatest design ever, then!

??? I never said it's a good looking building, it just doesn't follow what the previous mayor of Cincinnati has anything to do with a generic apartment building being proposed for an adjacent municipality. It appears to be the same type of 5-over-1 getting built all over the country.

2 hours ago, taestell said:

In downtown Loveland alone, you've got several restaurants, a few breweries/tap rooms, and an ice cream shop fronting the Little Miami bike trail. Seems like it would be a no-brainer for new developments along Wasson Way to have ground floor retail oriented toward the trail, but I guess that's just too complicated for developers to figure out?

 

I'm glad that this new building actually seems designed to "face" Wasson Way. Both the apartments and the ground floor retail seem appropriately sited and arranged. The retail space on the SW corner of the building faces both Montgomery and Wasson Way, which makes sense. I like that the parking is on the north side, not visible from Wasson Way. Sure, the architecture isn't the most exciting, but this form is what I'd like to see more of along Wasson Way. That retail space will get lots of sunlight, which is nice except during the hottest times of year... so I hope they have some nice shade structures (and plenty of shade trees) planned. The sidewalk along Montgomery currently doesn't have any street trees directly in front of this property. But the good news is that there are no overhead utility lines, so hopefully that means they can plant some street trees and they'll be able to grown reasonably tall. 

58 minutes ago, Dev said:

5-over-1 getting built all over the country.

Cincinnati's never seem to go up to 5...

3 hours ago, zsnyder said:

Cincinnati's never seem to go up to 5...

What's your point? It's still the same construction method. Type 5 over Type 1

1 minute ago, Dev said:

What's your point? 

I wasn't correcting you, I was lamenting that the allowable floors are rarely maximized in Cincinnati.