Good. Maybe this will keep Jeff Ruby's trap closed.

 

+1

Am totally over the restaurants. Retail please!!

The first phase of retail at The Banks is now more than 70 percent occupied.

 

The retail space is almost full...with no retail!

well if anything, Ruth's Chris is an important restaurant to have here to signal to more national oriented retailers that this is a good bet to open up shop. 

Yeah...bring on the Gucci, Prada, and Armani!

An Apple Store would be sweet.  Cincinnati definitely needs another one Kenwood is a mob scene.

Although I would love to see some traditional retail at The Banks, on non-game days there is just not the amount of foot traffic needed to justify it.  They would be much better served, at this point in time, to locate in the CBD core.  Hopefully in a few years that will change as The Banks becomes more an extension of downtown.

The upside to all of this is that upon build-out, there will be a three block stretch of modern, flexible and heavily amenitized commercial space that can be whatever it needs to be going forward. In 2020 it could easily have evolved into a sort of downtown shopping strip.

 

Moral: Because they got the urban design right, it doesn't really matter what the first commercial tenants are. Good urban design is flexible and timeless.

Wow , there more I look into this project the more I like it.    So how much of the project is built?

^Phase 1 is built which includes rentals and retail space on two blocks. Within these two blocks there is also a spot for an office tower (I believe up to 30 stories), a hotel, and parkside townhomes. Future phases will build out the block to the west of the Freedom Center as well as two smaller plots on the lawn separating the Freedom Center from the Roebling Bridge. All of this, of course, adjoins the new Central Riverfront Park which will span the entire riverfront in front of The Banks creating an awesome front entry into the city from Kentucky.

^ 15 story office tower.  250,000 square feet.

^Well there you go, smaller than I thought, but still some great variation in height for the development.

^ 15 story office tower.  250,000 square feet.

That would be too small if they expect to land Dunnhumby.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120118/BIZ/301180139/Banks-an-eclectic-mix-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

 

Nice write-up in the Enquirer about the Banks. I have to say, the plans for Phase II sound really nice (I don't care about spas, but a coffee shop and grocery store would be great).

 

My overall attitude toward the Banks so far is qualified enthusiasm. It doesn't look as nice as it could, but it is exponentially better than the vacant dirt-mound that blighted the riverfront beforehand. And Smale Park looks sweet.

 

My  hope is that with so much visible progress by Opening Day, people who come to Reds games will be more and more impressed by what's going on and will start thinking of downtown as less of an empty shell. I don't expect this to make Cincinnati gain 50,000 residents in 10 years or anything like that, but I do think that it will gradually shift attitudes towards the center city towards the positive.

^ 15 story office tower.  250,000 square feet.

That would be too small if they expect to land Dunnhumby.

 

Dunnhumby is currently in 111,000 ft.². They announced they're looking for 250,000 ft.². It just happens to be exactly the size that the banks is designed for. Something tells me they did that on purpose :)  at least, I hope so!

^^ From the article:

 

"On Wednesday, The Banks’ first 300 apartments, known as Current at The Banks, reached 100 percent occupancy."  :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

Someone needs to build a huge f@$king residential tower downtown to soak up all this excess demand. The Banks and OTR renovations aren't cutting it.

Actually I'm seeing a lot of ads for apartments in One Lytle Place on Craigslist.  Would be interesting to know if their occupancy is down. 

I am sure the demand is for new construction.  If a new tower was built I bet it would go quickly.  One Lytle Place seems outdated. 

^Also isolated.  It's got nice views and access to Sawyer Point, the river, and NOTL, but it feels pretty far from the rest of downtown.

Well, like demand for downtown and OTR apartments is near 100%, One Lytle Place is not facing that much of a suffer. They are about 90% right now, which is good.

^ ya, and I'm sure with a modest renovation it would be great.

^ I toured the building and a few apartments about a year ago. I have to say that it is looking pretty good for something built when? 70's? For such a huge apartment building I would say 90% occupancy is pretty solid. The building and apartments are decidedly unhip, but they could start changing units to hardwood, updating kitchens and opening them up to the living rooms and I bet they could return to a premier building. I know back in the day it was a happening and sought-after place to live.

Completed in 1980. It's not that bad on the interior and it has been updated, but it's about as generic as you can get for a building from that era. I lived in a similar complex in downtown Lexington, Ky. that was completed in 1989, and it was all generic - generic white countertops, cabinets, aging stove, etc. At lease with these, you have fantastic balcony views, which is the main selling point and which is why their rents are $1,000+. Plus, you have a pool and interior parking.

Completed in 1980. It's not that bad on the interior and it has been updated, but it's about as generic as you can get for a building from that era. I lived in a similar complex in downtown Lexington, Ky. that was completed in 1989, and it was all generic - generic white countertops, cabinets, aging stove, etc. At lease with these, you have fantastic balcony views, which is the main selling point and which is why their rents are $1,000+. Plus, you have a pool and interior parking.

 

Non-urban urban living

Fun fact: a similar apartment tower was planned for the space between Riverfront Stadium and the Coliseum, and so if it had been buit, Great American + The Banks would never have happened.

I am sure the demand is for new construction.  If a new tower was built I bet it would go quickly.  One Lytle Place seems outdated.

 

A bunch of floors in the Reserve Building are currently being converted into apartments--it's on 4th and Race. It'll have 88 one and two bedroom units once it's done (which will be Summer 2012). For whatever reason, no one posts about that project here. Not nearly as many units as The Banks, but still a decent chunk of new apartments. Here are some pics from google image search, which I think are pre-renovation:

 

 

Fun fact: a similar apartment tower was planned for the space between Riverfront Stadium and the Coliseum, and so if it had been buit, Great American + The Banks would never have happened.

 

There were actually two more identical towers planned adjacent to the built one for residential.  The building planned between the stadium and coliseum was a hotel.  I have posted the rendering before, I will dig it out again and re-post it.

 

 

It's great news hearing that last apartment was leased and phase 1 hitting 100 percent residential occupancy and 82 percent retail. That brings up a question that I haven't seen answered anywhere yet. Is there any information on how many people are actually living in the buildings? I'd be curious to know how many people per apartment are living there to gauge how many more people we can expect from the upcoming units.

Just read that recent article from Cincinnati.com, but I still have a question.  When will phase two start?  Or does demand first have to be there before construction.

^ 15 story office tower.  250,000 square feet.

That would be too small if they expect to land Dunnhumby.

 

Dunnhumby is currently in 111,000 ft.². They announced they're looking for 250,000 ft.². It just happens to be exactly the size that the banks is designed for. Something tells me they did that on purpose :)  at least, I hope so!

They would need bigger. If they need more room they would just find a bigger building. Didn't  they learn anything from covington's river center. Don't put all your eggs under one roof.

>There were actually two more identical towers planned adjacent to the built one for residential.  The building planned between the stadium and coliseum was a hotel.  I have posted the rendering before, I will dig it out again and re-post it.

 

Here you go, from my own archives:

 

 

This was from Dan Hurley's book, I think.  I scanned this back in 1998 and somehow the file hasn't corrupted.

 

Here are some even older ones of the same model, but before the update above.  Note the giant office building where the Westin sits now and some quirkier versions of buildings which sit where I believe the Atrium complex or PNC Center is now!

 

 

 

 

I am also re-posting all the old versions of the riverfront I had previously posted before, plus the first one which I just re-discovered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the one with the light rail bridge on Race St.  I was just talking to someone about that last weekend.  I remember the flimsy excuse given for it being dropped was the proximity of the south approach to the IRS building.  So somehow shots fired from a moving train were a greater threat to the IRS than, say, just walking up to the fence.  The real reason why we'll never see that bridge or a subway tunnel between Cincinnati and Covington is because it will make "downtown" Covington a much more viable competitor to downtown Cincinnati's office market. 

Artifacts from Banks dig site have familiar ring

8:43 PM, Jan. 19, 2012

Written by Brent Coleman

 

The Cincinnati Museum Center Thursday became the guardian of more than 400 everyday 19th-century items sifted from a 2010 dig at The Banks.

 

The artifacts suggest that an old, local adage is true: Some things never change in Cincinnati.

 

The numerous bottles – some beer but many mineral water – unearthed in the city-county Ohio riverfront project point out that “people didn’t trust the public water source,” said Robert Genheimer, Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology at Cincinnati Museum Center.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120119/NEWS01/301190200

the baseball stadium in that 4th and Race picture looks sweet.  So does the park renderings.

More towers planned would explain the "One" Lytle Place moniker

^^ From the article:

 

"On Wednesday, The Banks’ first 300 apartments, known as Current at The Banks, reached 100 percent occupancy."  :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

Someone needs to build a huge f@$king residential tower downtown to soak up all this excess demand. The Banks and OTR renovations aren't cutting it.

 

^ I'm guessing that's a joke...

 

I'd rather have more Banks (300 more in The next 2 years), more OTR development (200 units will break ground this spring/summer by 3CDC alone), federal reserve conversion (88 units from empty office space), and conversions of the old Bartlett building & Enquirer buildings than a new 30 story residential tower.

And now add thousands of more visitors to The Banks this summer:

 

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2012/01/20/bengals-will-train-at-pbs-in-2012/

 

Great news for all the new restaurants and bars, not to mention the parking revenue.

Critical mass is coming together.

Banks pullout brings suit against Doyle Restaurant Group

Developers say restaurant group owes $208K for improvements

Business Courier by Jon Newberry, Staff Reporter

 

When Doyle Restaurant Group Inc.    pulled out of the Banks project on Cincinnati’s riverfront last year, the New Orleans-based company didn’t leave empty-handed, according to a lawsuit filed by the developers.

 

Riverbanks Renaissance Phase I-A Owner LLC, an entity created by the Banks’ Atlanta-based development team of Carter    and the Dawson Co.    , claims it paid two Doyle affiliates more than $200,000 for tenant improvements to the three would-be restaurant spaces the Doyle Group had leased – and that money has never been paid back.

 

The $208,160 was just the first installment of what was to have been more than $1...

 

Cont (Premium Article)

I noticed on my way into work today that they have removed a number of masonry units on the column wraps near the entry to Toby Keith's.  I wonder if they are retrofitting a canopy.

Metal drywall framing going up on the 1st floor of Ruth's Chris.

I walked through The Banks today (great day to do so) and there is some definite work going on inside Ruth's Chris. And work continues to go on inside Toby Keith's. I'm not sure what's taking so long there - it looked completely finished more than a month ago. Everything is in place and I even saw a bartender behind the bar today.

 

A couple of questions though:

 

1. Is there eventually going to be permanent poles for the stoplights/intersections, ala downtown? The new Lager House looks amazing, but then the deck is perched right over lights dangling from floppy, wind-blown wires. Same thing with the Freedom Way/Main intersection wires outside the Grail. It looks cheap.

 

2. Across the Main/Mehring intersection from the Lager House, is that awkward, empty, astroturf-covered space a pad for a future restaurant? It looks so strange. Why didn't the ballpark's plaza level just extend out to the sidewalk or at least take the rose garden space down to the end of the block?

 

3. I wonder why the space between the Holy Grail and Crave hasn't been spoken for yet? It would seem to be in one of the three most prime locations in the entire Banks development. I assume it'll eventually go restaurant/bar?

Toby's opening night is tonight.

Toby's opening night is tonight.

 

Talk about a soft opening. Not a peep from the "media."

Im hearing people on my facebook are loving it.

 

"Complete mixture of ppl. Not bad for a Wednesday and not being publicized. Tonite is opening nite."

Went to Toby's Kieth's last night for opening weekend and it was indeed packed by 11:30. It's quite a large space and essentially feels like a sports bar with a live music stage. No cover, but drinks were on the more expensive side for Cincinnati ($4 for a domestic bottle)

 

The mix of people was straight-up weird. Lots of UC kids, YPs and even some hipsters, and then much of what I imagine the real target audience is for this place if you get my drift...

 

While this is not really my kind of place, I can guarantee that most of the people in there last night were from the suburbs and came into the city just to check it out. More people coming into the city to see the real progress happening, the Banks especially, is definitely a good thing.

Anybody know how Johnny Rockets is fairing there? The only time I've ever tried it was after a Cyclones game, and it was closed. I've driven by it a half dozen times and have never seen more than a couple groups eating, mostly families. Maybe it did well during Bengals games? I'm sure it'll be hopping with families attending Reds games, but right now it seems to be the odds-on favorite to be the first Banks establishment to shut down.

They are usually half full during weekday lunch. One day this past week they picked up some extra business as there was a line out the door for Holy Grail.

Anybody know how Johnny Rockets is fairing there? The only time I've ever tried it was after a Cyclones game, and it was closed. I've driven by it a half dozen times and have never seen more than a couple groups eating, mostly families. Maybe it did well during Bengals games? I'm sure it'll be hopping with families attending Reds games, but right now it seems to be the odds-on favorite to be the first Banks establishment to shut down.

 

I went there before a Bengals game and it was pretty crowded. There were no tables and we had to sit at the bar. I think it gets a decent amount of Holy Grail overflow business. The only reason we went there before the game was because the Grail was shoulder-to-shoulder with a line out the door.