Just to get this straight, the development as originally proposed is now back on? Or are they going to come up with a new plan since it has been a few years?

 

all that has happened is the last holdout sold. as far as i know there is currently no developer in place, and nothing has been said about the status of the project in light of the final property being acquired so it is technically still dead... but you don't shell out 1.25 million to sit on property so something should be coming down the pipeline though with the market being different than the market of 3 years ago, i'd imagine some changes.

If I was a gambling man, unless Norwood pushes hard to get it moving (with capital/cash), this will likely sit until at least 2010 or 2011 - at which point we should be heading out of the current real estate situation and the next gen of retail and housing will likely be coming into view.

Eminent domain holdout sells

By Steve Kemme • [email protected] • September 4, 2008

 

 

 

NORWOOD - The owner of the lone house standing in the middle of the 11-acre site that was the focus of a landmark eminent-domain case has sold his property to Rookwood Partners for $1.25 million.

 

Joe Horney's sale of his vacant rental house ends a long legal battle that drew national attention, and clears the way for development of the site, located on prime real estate at Edwards and Edmondson roads.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080904/NEWS01/809040403/1168/NEWS

I predict this will just be a typical suburban office complex with boring 4 or 5 story buildings.  A lot has changed in a few years.

I predict this will just be a typical suburban office complex with boring 4 or 5 story buildings. A lot has changed in a few years.

 

Sadly because of the hold outs this might be the case. Crate & Barrel was pretty much set to come to this project and while Kenwood is up the road, I prefer the unique retail to the region to be closer to the city.

Joe Horney...$1.25 million richer

 

^ I wonder what the amount is after lawyer fees? Fellow attorney members; what would you guess?

I would tend to think that when the court ruled in his favor he probably filed some sort of lawsuit to cover his attorney fees for the case.  The sale of his property, I would imagine, is a separate issue.  I don't really feel like digging through the archives to find out if this is true, but it would seem reasonable enough to me.

Norwood has the opportunity to do this right and make a big splash. They could try to steal some of the folks that have been looking at Millworks, since that is much further from getting done and to be honest this has much better expressway access than the Oakley area (w/out the need for a new connector road). I also wonder if Anderson might try to get the whole block - to Edwards - since this area is now undeniably blighted and most of that area half vacant at this point anyway.

I had to laugh at the pic from the paper of Joe Horney.  He is going for that tough guy/pissed off look.  If I just got $1.25MM for a house worth less than $75K, I would be smiling so hard they would need a wide angle lens!

Norwood has the opportunity to do this right and make a big splash. They could try to steal some of the folks that have been looking at Millworks, since that is much further from getting done and to be honest this has much better expressway access than the Oakley area (w/out the need for a new connector road). I also wonder if Anderson might try to get the whole block - to Edwards - since this area is now undeniably blighted and most of that area half vacant at this point anyway.

 

To add to your point, a movie theatre at this location would be fantastic!  While Mariemont & Esquire are great (Was just at Esquire this weekend for Bottle Shock), Cincinnati needs a top rate megaplex in the city/inner ring suburbs.  Even the Showcase in Reading is now closed.  It is hard to believe that the soon to be closed, Kenwood Cinema is the closest Movie Theatre to the city on the Ohio side of the river.

A movie theatre like that somewhere in the city would eliminate my only desire to go to Newport on the Levee (and Brio for that matter...my gf LOVES Brio).

^ I wonder what the amount is after lawyer fees? Fellow attorney members; what would you guess?

 

I am pretty sure zero, since the holdouts were represented by the non-profit Institute for Justice. 

^Kenwood Cinema

 

I thought I heard the Kenwood Towne Centre Cinema will be closing as well.....

 

 

If you disagree then fine, but from my understanding it is not the role of the lower courts to overturn legal standing. The courts did not do their job here and they caved in to political pressure being felt nationwide. The case was denied by the Supreme Court, that is where it should have ended. Unfortunately for us, our judicial system failed us. No one should be happy with that.

 

Randy, I'm a little confused.  I thought it was the Ohio Supreme Court that eventually came down on the side of the homeowners?

The $1.25 million goes to Joe Horney, minus whatever his soon to be ex wife takes from him in the pending divorce.  The nonprofit that represented Joe applied for attorneys fees.  I believe a ruling on this separate request for attorneys fees is pending or has been resolved (quietly).

 

The trial court (Hamilton County Court) ruled in favor of Norwood.  The nonprofit appealled the decision on behalf of Joe and the matter eventually went to the Ohio Supreme Court (OSC).  The OSC found Norwood's actions to be unconstitutional.

They should convert his house into a unique store as part of the new Exchange.  That way he could actually make money instead of use it for court fees and his ex hell wife.

I hope the developer puts the restrooms of the development right where the house previous sat so we can all piss on his land ;)

 

Someone should document the GPS coordinates to see what ultimately gets built right on this location.

It's nice to see the little guy come out ahead for a change.  It's a shame that little-old-lady who lost her house on Hopple St. couldn't have been so successful.

^I think you're referring to Emma Dimasi...she lived on the corner of Dixmyth Avenue and Clifton Avenue.  Dixmyth was the street that was widened there that required the acquisition and demolition of her property.

^I think you're referring to Emma Dimasi...she lived on the corner of Dixmyth Avenue and Clifton Avenue. Dixmyth was the street that was widened there that required the acquisition and demolition of her property.

 

Thanks, Randy.  I guess I can't say I'm never wrong again!

^ not quite widened... Realigned  :roll: ... in order to create space for Good Samaritan to expand... definitely not just the widening of the road.

The road was both widened and realigned.  This process also worked out in a way that opened up more land to Good Sam for potential expansions down the road.  This has all been discussed on this forum before, so lets please not turn this thread back into an eminent domain pissing match.

For future reference, the house of Joe Horney at 2652 Atlantic Avenue sits at 39.149846, -84.443745.  We'll have to see what ends up at this location when the future development is complete.

 

What is the over/under that Anderson will mark this part of the development with a special marker or something noteworthy?

Long-delayed Rookwood now back to ‘ground zero’

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/09/15/story6.html

 

In the end, Rookwood Exchange – that long-planned development that fought for a place in Norwood since 2003 – might better be called Rookwood’s Changed.

 

The developers might have acquired the last property on the site, after losing a legal battle to purchase it through eminent domain, but Rookwood Exchange will emerge as a much different project than originally planned. For starters, it has lost some of its most promising tenants, including Crate & Barrel and Arhaus Furniture. Worse, its developers are faced with an economy that has nose-dived since they launched this endeavor, with a declining housing market and very tight financing opportunities.

Before any of this goes in, I hope Norwood/Cincinnati work together to fix the interchange/traffic problems exist around all of this. If the "car" lifestyle is going to feed this development, make the developer pay to impove the road. When the Rookwood and other development was being proposed, the roads should have be repaved and upgraded with better technology to handle the increase.  I would think a new north I-71 entrance ramp with connector roads between the ramps would work much better than the current situtation.

 

Something like:

 

Where the yellow is new or widened road.

 

Good idea, but I can't see them giving up their own land for that new connector road.

They also do not own all that land, the northern tip of the triangle still has businesses and homes.

Did cincybearcat just take out the Gold Star Chili?

Looks like it.  I always thought that Gold Star was in a sort of weird spot. 

I hate to say this, but this is the type of stuff eminent domain is for.

Blasphemy!

 

I don't see much of a need for it, given that there are adequate routes to the west and east that duplicate the function of the collector/distributor road. I do see a need, though, for synchronized signals to facilitate smoother traffic flows. There is nothing worse than turning off of the ramp and being stopped at the Rockwood Commons traffic signal, and then for the cross-street just ahead. Traffic departing I-71 NB should have free flow through the Commons light up to Edwards.

Awesome they are talking about a 16 story and 2 15 story buildings among other things.

$200M plan for Rookwood

By Steve Kemme • [email protected] • October 16, 2008

 

NORWOOD – The Rookwood Partners are planning a $200 million commercial complex on the 11-acre site at Edwards and Edmondson roads that had been in limbo because of a lengthy eminent-domain battle.

 

The Rookwood Exchange complex would include office and retail space, condos, a hotel and a two-story underground garage, according to preliminary plans recently filed with Norwood.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081016/BIZ01/310160110

Okay---now unusualfire's comments make sense.

Good to hear this may finally be moving forward.

Norwood approves project plans

By Lisa Bernard-Kuhn • [email protected] • January 9, 2009

 

 

NORWOOD - The plans are preliminary, but the Rookwood Partners development group is one step closer to realizing a more than six-year effort to transform a long-embattled site at Edwards and Edmondson roads into a massive commercial and retail development.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090109/BIZ01/901090355/1055/NEWS

Rookwood gets one more approval

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/01/05/daily73.html

 

The city of Norwood has given preliminary planning approvals to the latest plans for Rookwood Exchange, the bedeviled mixed-use development that spent more than five years mired in legal battles.

The latest preliminary plan follows a series of proposals submitted over the years, as the project was upended by an eminent domain battle. It would include seven buildings, some as tall as 16 stories, built out in two phases. The first would include a 475,000-square-foot, 16-story office tower; a 100,000-square-foot hotel; a 90,000-square-foot building for retail or entertainment; a 120,000-square-foot medical office with retail or restaurants; and a 15-story 330,000-square-foot mixed use building for entertainment or retail and residential space.

 

The second phase would include a 15-story, 275,000-square-foot building for hotel, office and residential.

 

That's a massive project.  I'm really glad there is a residential component to this project.  It should probably sell well and add some vitality to the Rookwood area.

The scale and layout of this project last time I saw it left a lot to be desired.  Hopefully with the economy slowing developer "progress" down, things change for the better.

My sense is that they are basically getting everything lined up to go so that this can be a big splash at the front of the recovery which is when the biggest money can be made. The stuff built in the last couple years of the boom usually fails to hold its value.

A healthy Norwood is healthy for Cincinnati.

The scale and layout of this project last time I saw it left a lot to be desired.  Hopefully with the economy slowing developer "progress" down, things change for the better.

 

A scrapped project and a Miller Valentine bankruptcy leave a lot more to be desired. What is the latest rendering? I can't find anything but the one I saw was hyper-dense. That was a few years ago though when a guy at MVG showed it to us. I'm sure it's changed since then. Remember, MVG has experience with urban development. It won't be bad but it obviously won't be downtown Cincinnati. The location will always be the best in the entire region outside of Downtown Cincinnati, for retail and office space. If it goes out of style, they can always demolish it and replace it with something better and still make a huge profit. I don't think that area will ever die. It's just too perfect, geographically.

Last I had heard Hixson did the new masterplan.  It was to mixed use what Rookwood Commons across the street is to lifestyle centers.  Take that to mean as you like.

What is the latest rendering?

 

Randy posted it upthread a while back - 'The Chateaus At Rookwood Exchange':

 

 

Jeez Riverviewer, where in the hell have you been!?

Oh, you know, I come, I go...been kinda busy, and soon to be really busy again, but I've got about another month, and hope to spend some quality time with you'ins between now and then!

possibly 2 hotels..seriously.. does the area need more hotels?

Yes, this area could certainly use more hotels, in my opinion.

 

I live somewhat near the Rookwood exchange site, and there are very few hotel options. You'd basically have to send someone to Kenwood or a more expensive place downtown. The area could really use a couple of mid-level chains like the Springhill Suites that was jus built near downtown.

 

Anyway, it's a moot point because this project might as well be dead. I'm sure something will get built eventually, but they'll probably propose something entirely different again, before a shovel turns any dirt.