I think at this point they should really target more upscale, national chain restaurants. Think Hard Rock Cafe, Cheesecake Factory, Hershey's, etc. Those accompanied by some more LED screens and billboards would liven up the place and further solidify it as the Times Square of Cincinnati. 

2 hours ago, IAGuy39 said:

 I think rehab the building but they can add up to 22 additional stories on top of the existing building

 

I'd be curious to know if the building was built so that the department store can be easily turned into a parking garage, as was the case with Tower Place Mall. 

3 hours ago, 513to424 said:

the Times Square of Cincinnati. 

 

The same thought crossed my mind. The current building already has the Fountain Square jumbotron on top. Why not go all in and add multiple large displays for advertisements and a few news tickers? I bet it would end up looking a lot better than Columbus' version of Time Square.

I doubt 5/3 would want more video boards and/or LED signs staring back at them.  Since they have the air rights over the building I wonder if they get a say in stuff like that.  Also hard pass on those types of shitty chain restaurants.  Let that stuff go over to the levee.  

3CDC plans on demoing the structure adding retail on the first floor,  2 to 3 floors of office and plan to sell the rights to build residential on top.  

Is that "8 On The Square" building modern construction?

I feel like it's really wasteful to demolish construction that is both not that old, in good condition and already has the foundation structure to support 22 stories above. There is SO much sunk cost in the existing foundation and structure that it would seem extremely wasteful as well as time consuming to dig all that out and start from scratch. 

 

I'm hoping that when they say they are demolishing they mean that they will remove the architectural facade and reconfigure the layout but keep the existing structural layout, otherwise this project will take years just to get back to the current state of 4th and Race. With this being such an important and visible block downtown I don't think that's what anyone wants.

Not trying to give away existing details but on the news release it said: "Rehabilitate existing structure with a mix of commercial and office." Then mentioned it could support 22 stories on top of existing building. I would guess it may be similar to what ucgrady posted

1 hour ago, ucgrady said:

I feel like it's really wasteful to demolish construction that is both not that old, in good condition and already has the foundation structure to support 22 stories above. There is SO much sunk cost in the existing foundation and structure that it would seem extremely wasteful as well as time consuming to dig all that out and start from scratch. 

 

I'm hoping that when they say they are demolishing they mean that they will remove the architectural facade and reconfigure the layout but keep the existing structural layout, otherwise this project will take years just to get back to the current state of 4th and Race. With this being such an important and visible block downtown I don't think that's what anyone wants.

 

I think a gutting down to structural supports and renovation is more likely of at least the part of the building that has foundation and supports for an overbuild. The west section of the building could be demolished and completely reconfigured as it was designed to plug into the now destroyed skywalk crossing Race Street. I'm sure 3CDC will solicit developers for the overbuild. 

I think we will get a better sense of 3CDC's long term plan for the building pretty soon. If they announce that they have signed new tenants for the retail space, or office tenants for the former Macy's space, it's pretty clear they are just going to build on top of the existing structure and maybe do some work to the facade. If they announce that The Booksellers are being relocated, it's more likely that we'll see the existing building stripped down to its structural bones and rebuilt.

On 1/8/2019 at 11:02 PM, mcmicken said:

 

5/3 continues to invest and update their tower. They are about to embark on some changes to the ground floor and part of the Square it owns. The planning and design process predates the horrific shooting incident of a couple of months ago, but look for them to reclaim part of the Square that is on their property and close off the pedestrian tunnel to Walnut Street to tighten up access to the building and surrounding spaces.

 

That would be a big loss if access to Walnut Street from Fountain Square is closed off. That access provides optionality for pedestrian routes though the area and thus is good for walkability and the vitality of the square. The far northeast corner of the square will be less visited without it. (I just used it this weekend going from the Aronoff to Fountain Square garage.).  Hope it doesn’t happen. 

 

In other news, the purchase price of Fountain Place, $7.5 million, seemed low to me, compared to other recent purchases in the downtown area ($1 million for the cell phone store on Liberty by 3cdc, $25 million for Trisate Building Supply building by FCC.) By all accounts it should be considered “prime” but the situational details matter more I suppose. 

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 20196 yr by thebillshark

The Tristate building purchase also included a 350x150 piece of vacant land between Central Ave. and Provident St. within the stadium's footprint.  So FC needed Tristate or else the stadium wasn't going to happen, hence the outrageous price collected by Tristate for a building and piece of land that were worth at most $5 million prior to the FC stadium search. 

Hints from 5/3 that there may be apartments in 3CDC's vision for the old Macy's building: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2019/01/22/apartments-top-old-macys-fountain-square/2644775002/

 

Really just speculation at this point, but maybe good things are happening:

 

Quote

"3CDC has a great track record and we're very optimistic about what they've been talking about," Carmichael said, adding he liked the idea of putting first-floor retail in the spot and installing offices – and possibly residential when the property is redeveloped.

 

Walked through fountain place today.   It is very cold in there, 3cdc is not wasting any money on heating.  They have permanently closed off the western portion of the 2nd floor.  The little lunch counter that used to be there is closed.  You can no longer get to the Race street entrance.  The skywalk between Fountain place and the Carew tower had one of the doors boarded up.  I am wondering how long until they close it down.

1 hour ago, JoeHarmon said:

Walked through fountain place today.   It is very cold in there, 3cdc is not wasting any money on heating.  They have permanently closed off the western portion of the 2nd floor.  The little lunch counter that used to be there is closed.  You can no longer get to the Race street entrance.  The skywalk between Fountain place and the Carew tower had one of the doors boarded up.  I am wondering how long until they close it down.

My guess would be when the booksellers lease it up. Not sure when that will be. 

Hopefully we can expect an announcement on a 300'+ development so after it's completely closed.

I know someone who works at the bookstore. They told me the store owner had a meeting with 3CDC and wants them to stay. They even offered them the old Tiffany's location, which is on the corner but less square footage.

 

Not saying they won't eventually move for new construction, but it may not happen soon.

It's also possible their plan for a tower above won't require full demo and rather selective demolition. That corner might be able to remain occupied during the process. Always an option.

Probably will just complete the original plan of adding another 22 story tower. While nice, I would hope for something a bit more grand at this point in time.

3 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

Probably will just complete the original plan of adding another 22 story tower. While nice, I would hope for something a bit more grand at this point in time.

 

 I feel like the only way a taller tower would be built is if a major fortune 500 tenant leased portions of the tower. It's a pipe dream, but it would be awesome if Cintas (pipe dream I know) or even World Pay (Vantiv) moved in. World Pay in particular in fields ertel is outgrowing there leased office space and parking lot.

5/3 may want a corporate upgrade. Their current HQ is 50 years old.

Someone mentioned on the forum a few weeks ago that 5/3 will remodel their current building.

I don't know if it was formalized anywhere, but when the original 22 story concept came about, it had a lot to do with the amount of sunlight hitting the square, which limited the height.

 

^ I dont necessarily buy that because prior t that they had plans to build a 55 story tower on the site.

Yes, they did have plans for a much larger tower, but when the large tower plans fell through after multiple false starts, the plan that came together with Macy's and the Towne Properties/Warm Bros./Belvedere/Madison Marquette team along with the City, there was a strong push to limit the height due to the sunlight factor.  This occurred when I worked at DCI and was peripherally involved in the meetings, but I don't know if it was formalized in the air rights sale to 5/3 or in a zoning restriction of some sort, or if it was just a gentlemen's agreement.

I really hope it's taller than 40 stories whatever they put there. Cincinnati tends to build small or 10 to only 20 stories in the last 15 years( Outside of Great American Tower). 3CDC or however needs to think more office Class A or B multiple use tall structures in the CBD

The back-back Amazon office that Nashville is getting should have been in Cincinnati given the Prime Air hub at CVG, plus the fact that Cincinnati is a real city and Nashville is not.  What is about to go up in the Nashville Yards development would have been perfect for the Fountain Square West site and/or the Riverfront.   

On 1/8/2019 at 11:02 PM, mcmicken said:

5/3 continues to invest and update their tower. They are about to embark on some changes to the ground floor and part of the Square it owns. The planning and design process predates the horrific shooting inciden t of a couple of months ago, but look for them to reclaim part of the Square that is on their property and close off the pedestrian tunnel to Walnut Street to tighten up access to the building and surrounding spaces.

 

Fifth Third has posted a job listing for a Museum Operations Manager for "Fifth Third Bank's corporate museum" which I have never heard of before. Is that something that already exists but is open to employees only? Or perhaps something they might be adding as part of their renovations?

You can see that museum on Walnut looking west between 5th and 6th Streets just north of the skywalk.

 

So hopefully we might hear about 3cdc plans around April/May?

 

Also a court St pedestrian mall would be awesome, especially as 3cdc begins to rennovate the surrounding historic buildings and adds new retail.

Pedestrian mall? wHaT aBoUt ThE pArKiNg?!?!?

16 minutes ago, troeros said:

 

So hopefully we might hear about 3cdc plans around April/May?

 

Also a court St pedestrian mall would be awesome, especially as 3cdc begins to rennovate the surrounding historic buildings and adds new retail.

Perfect spot for an Apple store. 

I’m really curious to see what 3cdc is going to do with all that open space at fountain square. Sadly I don’t think a tower on top will be in the immediate plans, but hopefully I’m wrong. 

11 hours ago, troeros said:

 

So hopefully we might hear about 3cdc plans around April/May?

 

Also a court St pedestrian mall would be awesome, especially as 3cdc begins to rennovate the surrounding historic buildings and adds new retail.

 

I wonder how the Avril Bleh butchers feel about the closing of the streets right in front of their business when they get so much traffic from people parking on Court Street.

^ The Court Street proposal is also being discussed over in the Court and Walnut thread. I am not a fan of the idea of making Court Street ped-only.

12 hours ago, Cincy513 said:

I’m really curious to see what 3cdc is going to do with all that open space at fountain square. Sadly I don’t think a tower on top will be in the immediate plans, but hopefully I’m wrong. 

 

I am also very curious to see what will be proposed. Over the past few years we have seen so many older/outdated downtown office buildings converted to other uses like hotels or apartments, and new residential buildings going up replacing parking lots. However we have also seen 3CDC incorporating more and more office space into their OTR developments, and large new office spaces like the Streitmann open up, but those are mostly smaller spaces for more "creative" companies. I wonder if we are nearing a point where it would make sense to build a new Class A spec office tower in the CBD.

Might not even have to be spec. There was speculation about Kroger spinning off one of its tech divisions to create a new company. If that is indeed happening, a new tower across from 84.51 would make a ton of sense. I just hope whatever is announced for this site has a bit of height to it. A new tower would be great for the Fountain Square area.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2019/02/27/mayor-big-news-coming-ex-macys-fountain-square/3002219002/

Major announcement for former Downtown Macy's coming 'in the near future,' Mayor Cranley says

Along with the building of the new Kroger downtown, the Mayor is hopeful there will be news soon regarding the vacant Macy's building.

 

"I'm positive that there's going to be some great news about Macy's...in the near future, which will be very exciting''

 

So is Cranley "hopeful" that there will be news or "positive" that there will be news? This sounds like a non-story to me.

2 hours ago, taestell said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So is Cranley "hopeful" that there will be news or "positive" that there will be news? This sounds like a non-story to me.

 

He also visited the Enquirer to tell them this, which also seems odd. Kinda like he knows what mom got you for your birthday and he promised not to tell but it is "cool" and hard to keep secret.

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 7:08 PM, jmecklenborg said:

The back-back Amazon office that Nashville is getting should have been in Cincinnati given the Prime Air hub at CVG, plus the fact that Cincinnati is a real city and Nashville is not.  What is about to go up in the Nashville Yards development would have been perfect for the Fountain Square West site and/or the Riverfront.   

 

 

Maybe now the Amazon pulled out of NYC we can get some of those jobs.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2019/03/12/fifth-third-has-big-plans-fountain-square-hq/3141500002/

On 2/12/2019 at 2:58 PM, taestell said:

Fifth Third has posted a job listing for a Museum Operations Manager for "Fifth Third Bank's corporate museum" which I have never heard of before. Is that something that already exists but is open to employees only? Or perhaps something they might be adding as part of their renovations?

 

^ Well, that article answers my question:

 

"The Downtown-based bank teased its undisclosed big plans on Tuesday as it announced it also would open a small museum dedicated to the company's history."

Man I hope that isn't the only thing they announce.  

6 hours ago, lobanio0 said:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2019/03/12/fifth-third-has-big-plans-fountain-square-hq/3141500002/

So the inside scoop that I got -- They are going to turn the old Macy's into a conservatory of plastic trees to attract tourists to the area and 5/3 is going to be the presenting sponsor. They will have naming rights for 20 years on the deal to reinvest in the city. It will be BIG. Think the only California Redwood in the Midwest except it will be plastic.

Unless it's Meow Wolf, that sounds awful.

^ This Meow Wolf sounds very similar to Otherworld Ohio opening in Columbus.

3 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

So the inside scoop that I got -- They are going to turn the old Macy's into a conservatory of plastic trees to attract tourists to the area and 5/3 is going to be the presenting sponsor. They will have naming rights for 20 years on the deal to reinvest in the city. It will be BIG. Think the only California Redwood in the Midwest except it will be plastic.

 

3 hours ago, taestell said:

Unless it's Meow Wolf, that sounds awful.

 

Reminded me of my idea to create a haunted house of famous rock star deaths.  Elvis on the toilet.  Mama Cass choking on that sandwich. 

9 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

So the inside scoop that I got -- They are going to turn the old Macy's into a conservatory of plastic trees to attract tourists to the area and 5/3 is going to be the presenting sponsor. They will have naming rights for 20 years on the deal to reinvest in the city. It will be BIG. Think the only California Redwood in the Midwest except it will be plastic.

 

So no new tower structure over the old Macy building?

 

That will be severely disappointing if it's only a man made forest tourist trap...unless they can intergrate bars, resturaunts, cafes, etc inside the proposed, "forest" and create an entertainment emporium of sorts inside the Forest. That would be admittedly cool.