April 20, 200619 yr i came home around 6:30 and 4th was closed in front of the building. i live down 4th and was going to walk over to check it out but got tied up with some other crap
April 20, 200619 yr ^ yea its kinda interesting. i guess it used to be apart of a major shopping area. I read a book about Little Rock's Central High integration and the main character visited Cincy (in the 50's) and talked about how big and incredible the cincy shopping district seemed to her. kinda funny i thought. Yes Cincinnati used to be referred to as 'The Paris of the West'. This was for its great shopping and theatres. The shopping in Cincinnati was second to none in the US and had a brilliant collection of theatres. Having the largest collection of Italianate architecture in the US helped also
April 20, 200619 yr Yeah, I saw the fire-trucks also. I didn't really smell anything though, maybe it was small? My only concern was that such an old gem like the McAlpin's catching fire would be disastrous.
April 21, 200619 yr I talked to someone with the McAlpin today, and she said that the fire was small. It was contained in the sub-basement. I'm not sure what caused the fire, but the damage was minimal. No one was hurt.
April 21, 200619 yr Did she also tell you it won't be till September until you can move in? ;) Just think Fountain Square, Government Square and xumelanie's condo all opening at once.
April 21, 200619 yr Did she also tell you it won't be till September until you can move in? ;) Just think Fountain Square, Government Square and xumelanie's condo all opening at once.
April 22, 200619 yr On another note, my husband and I bought the domain name www.themcalpin.org (not to be confused with the developers site themcalpin.com). My husband set it up as a wiki for the residents of the building. We do have construction pictures on the site along with news as we hear it. Nice. I wish we had something like that when Park Place was going up. I'm sure it would have driven the developer crazy, but we all could have exchanged ides on how to tweak the units. :-D
April 25, 200619 yr So I spoke with the developer today and they are now saying that the units will not be done until October :x. Also, there are 1 or 2 model units that should be done in June.
April 25, 200619 yr There have been a few surprises when rehabbing the building. Some areas needed more support than they had originally realized. Some of this happened when cutting the holes for the new atriums. Also, part of the building has two basements. This was not originally designed to be a parking garage, so extra supports had to go there.
April 25, 200619 yr xumelanie, I can understand the fustration. Has the developer received any money from you yet? Did you have to take out a construction loan where the builder takes a little bit of money each month?
April 25, 200619 yr ^ I went to the sales office today, too. In fact, she told me that you had been there 20 minutes earlier. I added a note to the wiki about this. <vent> I'm pretty mad and disappointed right now. :x I feel like my life is on hold. Our house is for sale right now, so we'll probably be moving twice. :( I just want to move!! :cry: </vent> I'm been there myself, so I know how you feel. It's all worth it in the end. Strangely, they let us (well, made us actually) move in while the building was still under construction (heck, it's *still* under construction). They issued temporary occupancy permits. Perhaps your building is configured in a different method that doesn't allow that to be done safely? Monte - typically the developer takes a percentage as a downpayment,and/or a reservation fee that goes towards the cost of the condo. I imagine the situation at the McAlpin is similar... but I could be wrong (I've been wrong before, believe it or not).
April 25, 200619 yr ^ That's pretty much how it worked in our case. We had to make a small deposit when we signed the contract. We also had to pay most of the closing costs up front in order to secure the loan.
July 23, 200618 yr A tenant has been signed for one of the retail spaces in The McAlpin. It is "Fabulous Frames and Art." This is one of the stores that will be leaving the 5/3 building, and this one is in the location where the market should be built. They move into the McAlpin on December 15. They will be moving to a temporary location at some point before that date. Our unit has been framed, and the future models have dry wall. They hope to have the models open by August 7. Many of the units have windows! These pictures were taken at the end of June.
July 23, 200618 yr We went to the Reds game last night, and walked up to O'Malley's afterward. I was struck by the number of windows that are on the alley side of this development. It looks like a lot of work is getting done on these, and I think they going to really have a "big city" feel.
July 23, 200618 yr They are working 7 days a week and starting to take residents on construction tours. I can't wait!
July 24, 200618 yr Do you guys see how much potential Over The Rhine has? The area would be gorgeous if all them building(1500+) are remodeled
July 31, 200618 yr We got a tour of the inside of the building on July 21. It was dark and raining, so the pictures are not the best. Unfortunately, we had to delete a few pictures because they were too dark. Another view of the front. A new elevator not yet in operation. There will be two models, and the following pictures are of the models. The view from the front model
July 31, 200618 yr Awesome! Paint accent walls! Like a mint green or teal or something like that would be cool.
July 31, 200618 yr Sunday they had the left lane of 4th blocked while they were installing a lot of the larger windows. Looking good!
July 31, 200618 yr it looked like there were a bunch of people working inside the white corner building to the west. any guesses on whether the mcalpins workers were just using the spare space to spread out or is someone actually doing something with that space. those buildings sure look great from the outside...i hope they can match the pain on the bottom portion though!
July 31, 200618 yr it looked like there were a bunch of people working inside the white corner building to the west. any guesses on whether the mcalpins workers were just using the spare space to spread out or is someone actually doing something with that space. those buildings sure look great from the outside...i hope they can match the pain on the bottom portion though! The rumor I heard is that a law firm has purchased the building west of the McAlpin. Someone appears to be doing a lot of work with that building as well.
August 1, 200618 yr I looked on the auditor's website, the residential portion of the McAlpin is owned by a subsidiary of Madison Marquette, no surprise there. However, the short building on the corner is still owned by the City, but the tax bill goes to Madison Marquette. So, they must have had some deal with the City to try to get a commercial tenant in there and then trade ownership once it was occupied maybe?
August 1, 200618 yr I looked on the auditor's website, the residential portion of the McAlpin is owned by a subsidiary of Madison Marquette, no surprise there. However, the short building on the corner is still owned by the City, but the tax bill goes to Madison Marquette. So, they must have had some deal with the City to try to get a commercial tenant in there and then trade ownership once it was occupied maybe? I believe Madison Marquette also owns Tower Place.
August 1, 200618 yr I believe Madison Marquette also owns Tower Place. I think so, too. It would be cool if they filled some of the vacant space in Tower Place with stuff geared towards down town residents. :)
August 15, 200618 yr That paint is really going to brighten things up. Walking down the alley to O'Malley's won't seem so dreary anymore!
September 11, 200618 yr The models are almost ready. They should be open for the Downtown Tour of Living.
September 11, 200618 yr I wouldn't handle that well myself. Hang in there and I hope in the end, you guys are happy with your decision.
September 12, 200618 yr ^^You have been talking about these delays for awhile....hopefully all the holdup is due to a very high quality of work being done. I would hope that after all of this you would not have to deal with any more inconveniences.
September 12, 200618 yr So the units are supposed to be ready for occupancy in October. We still do not have a move-in date, even though they say the building is on schedule. I even asked today, and so did our realtor, but no move-in date. This makes me very nervous. I'm usually a very sound sleeper, but during the past month, I have been waking up at least once during the night because I'm having nightmares. I'm losing patience every day. I seriously doubt I will ever have anything built again. Our house has sold, and we need to be out of it next week. The condo will not be ready. We're putting our stuff into storage, and we'll be moving in with my mom for a few weeks. I could not find a short-term affordable apartment for only a month. We bring this up with them. I mentioned again today that we have to move in with my mom, and I have to tell her that we don't know how long we'll be there. I hope it's only 2-4 weeks. :( The models are almost ready. They should be open for the Downtown Tour of Living. Hang in there! I had to unexpectedly rent an apartment for over a year, it was rough. I imagine that they are being careful and thorough and want to get things done right...
September 12, 200618 yr Those guys should be penalized for not meeting certain deadlines. Reminds me when my car was sitting at Maaco for over a month waiting to be worked on! It drove me insane.
September 12, 200618 yr I had to unexpectedly rent an apartment for over a year, it was rough. I'm sure she thanks you for your reassuring words, mark. ;)
September 12, 200618 yr I had to unexpectedly rent an apartment for over a year, it was rough. I'm sure she thanks you for your reassuring works, mark. ;) :laugh:
September 12, 200618 yr ^I'm glad you added the winking face. That totally changed how your words sound (or read). :)
September 12, 200618 yr :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :behind:
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