Boo...from the 7/16/04 Cincinnati Post:

 

 

Feds to city: Repay $3.95M

By Kevin Osborne

 

Federal housing officials are demanding that Cincinnati repay $3.95 million in grants that were used to renovate the now-closed Huntington Meadows apartment complex in Bond Hill. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the city didn't comply with a grant agreement to maintain the site as low-income housing for at least five years after the renovations were completed.

 

Huntington Meadows' owners filed for bankruptcy in June 2001 and the property was foreclosed, forcing the eviction of about 200 families in September 2002. In February, City Council approved spending $13.7 million in taxpayer money to help two churches redevelop the sprawling, 60-acre site into market-rate houses and condominiums.

 

Full Story:

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2004/08/23/story1.html

Found this stuff on the Net about the redevelopment of the former Huntington Meadows housing projects in Bond Hill.  Good reading, including PDFs and FAQ's

 

 

Villages of Daybreak Land Plan (PDF)

 

Huntington Land Plan/study of Bond Hill area (PDF, 22 pages)

 

FAQ's

Here's a thread about how it came to be (not so much a thread as a single story):

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=701.0

Just an update...the buildings are all down now.  Rhode Island Ave. south of Langdon Farm is eerily spooky and barren.  Rhode Island Ave. north of Langdon Farm is closed, as they are working on the northern portion of the plan.  Heavy equipment is in and it looks like they are doing grading and utility work.

These CitiRama homes are pre-selling at $200,000-$250,000.  These things look huge--they're all 3-4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 to 3 baths.

 

http://www.huff.com/web/search/SearchDetails.asp?mls=930780&prop=1083810

http://www.huff.com/web/search/SearchDetails.asp?mls=931656&prop=1084697

 

It's much better than Huntington Meadows.  When Jordan's Crossing was Swifton Commons it was the hotspot for black folk in the city, stores galore.  I hope that with the devlopments near there that Jordan Crossing will get some of that uhh back because it's lacking right now.

Here are what the houses will look like...nothing special but definitely a much needed option in the Bond Hill area.

 

Also, here's the local HBA Citirama website, with more info on the homes:

http://www.citirama.cc/homeshow/homeshow.asp?id=8

 

          

                    The Dayton                                           The Gibson Girl                                            The Mariemont

 

          

                    The Patrick                                             The Salvadore                                              The Shelley

 

                                       

                                                      The Venetian                                             The Whitley

 

Those look ok.  Bond Hill already has pretty impressive housing stock take a look at Elizabeth or off some of the side streets on Reading and you'll see damn good houses with many well kept.

Excellent!

Here are looks at a couple of the homes for those of you who didn't get down to Citirama.  They're pretty suburban.

 

5936 Rhode Island Ave., $224K

 

5944 Rhode Island Ave., $222.5K

Hey!  Almost the exact same headline they used a year ago!  Anyway, the city has to pay.  From the 8/18/05 Cincinnati Post:

 

 

Feds to the city: Repay $3.95M

By Kevin Osborne

Post staff reporter

 

Shoddy record keeping and oversight by city officials of the now-demolished Huntington Meadows apartment complex could end up costing Cincinnati taxpayers nearly $4 million. Because local officials so far have been unable to prove that they tried to correct problems at the Bond Hill complex before it closed, federal authorities are insisting that Cincinnati repay $3.95 million in grants.

 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently rejected - for the second time - a request from local officials who wanted the repayment waived. City administrators made two requests - in October 2004 and again in June - asking that HUD forgive the grants or reduce the repayment amount. In the first request, local officials argued a waiver should be granted because Huntington Meadows was foreclosed on despite the city's efforts to exercise due diligence and oversight of the project.

 

Full Story:

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050818/NEWS01/508180380

Even more stuff soon to be built by Drees at 5989, 5991, 5993, 5995 and 5997 Wanderling Ln.  I believe these might be affordable townhomes.

Phase II getting into gear: 5933, 5949, 5952 Morningdew Ct.  These homes appear to be at the lower end of the price scale.

For as long as they've been working on this, there is precious little to see.  Outside of the model homes there are only a few others scattered around, mostly on Rhode Island and on Seymour.  They were supposed to start construction on 1870 Yorktown, but the permits have been held up.

 

Anyway, here are a couple of crappy shots from my car.  The first one was through the windshield which gave it a green tint:

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone know how these are selling.  I toured them during the cityrama and I wasn't impressed.  I thought they were "ok" but not worth the $225-$300k they are asking.  That price just seems very high, particularly for Bond Hill.  Its great to see more brownfield development, but I have a hard time seeing follks shelling out that kind of money to live in that area. Most of the other (albiet older) housing in the area doesn't break $150k - and it has better construction with some TLC...

I have no idea how they're selling.  I do know that they're getting ready to move on to a next phase.  I don't know if that's indicative of sales or not.

 

Personally, I'm not too huge of a fan of the houses either.  The one thing I do like is having multiple builders on scattered lots, which gives the appearance of something that came together gradually over time rather than the cookie-cutter effect of one builder-one subdivision.

EDIT (5/15/05):  Permits for 5932, 5936 and 5948 Morningdew.  Permits for 1850, 1862 and 1870 Yorktown.

---

From the 5/7/06 Enquirer:

 

 

At 300 homes, city in building revival

BY JEFF MCKINNEY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

BOND HILL - Work is progressing on the Villages of Daybreak, one of the largest proposed housing developments in decades within Cincinnati city limits. Eighteen new housing units have already been built or are under construction at the former Huntington Meadows apartment site.

 

The development, site of last year's Citirama, will eventually be 300 homes along Seymour Avenue and Langdon Farm Road. It will be the largest home development in this community and one of the largest in the city in the last 40 to 50 years, Cincinnati officials say. The city provided a $13.5 million subsidy to development corporations representing Allen Temple AME Church and Tryed Stone Missionary Baptist Church to help finance the project in partnership with Cincinnati land developer NorthPointe Land Co.

 

Full Story:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060507/BIZ01/605070407/1076/rss01

From the 9/24/06 Enquirer:

 

 

Bond Hill housing units 1/4th finished

300 total to be built on Villages site

BY JEFF MCKINNEY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

BOND HILL - Homes are steadily popping up at the Villages of Daybreak, a new development in the city that will eventually include 300 housing units along Seymour Avenue and Langdon Farm Road. About a quarter of the housing units have been built at the former Huntington Meadows apartment site, which was torn down two years ago.

 

The project, site of the 2005 Citirama, is one is one of Cincinnati's most ambitious housing projects in the last several decades, say city officials, who approved a $13.5 million subsidy for the project. The land is owned by a local partnership of the Allen Temple Foundation, Tryed Stone Community Foundation and NorthPointe Land Co., said Rick Kimbler, a partner of NorthPointe, the project's lead developer.

 

The Drees Co. of Fort Mitchell has committed to building 76 single-family homes and 106 townhomes and "carriage homes " - single-level condos. Terry Sievers, Drees' Midwest regional president, said Drees is excited to be involved in another development in the city. Drees also is involved with City West, a new development in the West End where more than 500 housing units have been built.

 

Full Story:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060924/BIZ01/609240359/1076/rss01

So far, so good.

I have a few pics I'll post later.

 

Here are a few pics I took a week ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks good, except for the houses with garages that extend to the front facade and those garage-happy condos with no sidewalk in front.

^Agreed.

You gotta have garages in this day and age. Unless your into waiting 10-20 defrosting your car each morning or worst spending a half hour plus scrapping the ice off your car, garages are the only way to go. I would never buy a home or condo without one and I would think most potential buyers would agree. Of course the one thing I see happening is the garages being filled with crap and the cars being parked on the street. Now that annoys me.

^Yes, but garages could much be improved on. They could have built them toward the back of the property with a drive running between the houses, just like many neighborhoods in the 20's/30's. Even sunken garages would look better.

That sounds expensive. You got to be practical. This was a ghetto before Daybreak came along. I can understand the dislike of huge garages taking over a whole house, but this is development in a city neighborhood that is certainly needed regardless and it's nice to see this aimed at middle class residents, a group leaving the city in-mass.

Those streets seem amazingly too wide, you could park cars on both sides, which is crazy with garages and driveways. Prehaps they can have built alleys behind the homes, and turned the garages to face the rear, like many developments I've seen. The street could then be built much narrower, making up for the cost.

Moonloop - I agree, garages are a big appeal, for security and for convenience (although 10-20 minutes or a half hour for snow removal is an obscene exaggeration...I park outside every day, and on the worst days cleaning the car is 3-4 minutes; most days with frost it's 1-2 tops).  But I'd be surprised if putting the garage on the side of the house would add much expense.  Any developers out there who could give us an educated opinion on that?

^Man, you must have an industrial strength defroster. I'm still traumatize from the days of apartment living. Any hint of frost or ice in the morning always made me late for work. I resorted to using plastic to cover my windows and countless cans of de-icer. Hole in the ozone -- me.

 

As for garages, Charlton Place certainly got it right. I can see this being done in OTR. But, again, I don't think it's practical to move them behind the house on subdivisions.

 

As for sidewalks, I don't think a developer is required to build them. They should be, but I think that falls on the local government to require them.

 

 

Here are looks at a couple of the homes for those of you who didn't get down to Citirama.  They're pretty suburban.

 

5936 Rhode Island Ave., $224K

 

5944 Rhode Island Ave., $222.5K

 

Do these houses even have garages? Maybe they are in the back. I wouldn't spend 200K+ without one.

There are "alleys", or lesser streets running off of the main ones.  You can see signs for one of them in the 3rd pic.

 

How useful they are, I don't know...because it seems like garages are being built in the front on all of the adjacent properties.

 

There are some alley garages nearer the Drees model, which I didn't photograph.

 

^Now that's a concept I can get behind. Maybe it will catch on. I think the homes look decent with a nice mix.

 

Well, I'm truly impress now. I went to look up the floor plans from: http://www.citirama.cc/homeshow/homeshow.asp?id=8

 

And of the 9 models shown, 7 have garages and ALL of them are in the back! I'm a big fan now. Not that I have a garage fetish or anything.

I believe every house pictured in grasscat's photos has a garage, but they are in the back, abutting an alley for the good looking houses.

I drove through the Villages of Daybreak subdivision today.  There has been a lot of building activity there in the 9 months since my last drive through.  There is a reason that Drees didn't include this development in its most recent sale list, they seem to be selling well.  I don't like the winding, cul-de-sac street layout, but I do like to see the new construction in the city. 

Villages of Daybreak photo update, 10/20/07

Building Cincinnati, 10/24/07

 

Work on the Villages of Daybreak has now shifted south of Langdon Farm Road, with only a handful of houses currently under construction.

 

The 60-acre project in Bond Hill is being built by Allen Temple + Tryed Stone Development on the former site of the Huntington Meadows housing project.

 

The project was the site of Citirama in 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.building-cincinnati.com/2007/10/villages-of-daybreak-photo-update.html

^What the hell happen to all those retro-styled homes?

Poor sales may mean style change at Daybreak

Building Cincinnati, 11/1/07

 

Townhomes of this type have not sold well

 

Due to slow sales, the developers of the Villages of Daybreak are asking to revise their development plan by abandoning multi-story townhomes.

 

On Friday, the City Planning Commission will consider a revised subdivision improvement plan from Allen Temple + Tried Stone Development that will replace the townhome units with single-story, attached carriage homes.

 

The number of units in this building phase, Phase 3B, will increase from 48 to 50.

 

Three of the buildings will front on Sunwalk Drive. The other eight will have access via a private drive. There will be no frontage along Seymour Avenue.

 

Revised Phase 3B plan: Click to enlarge

 

Previous Phase3B plan: Click to enlarge

 

http://www.building-cincinnati.com/2007/11/poor-sales-may-mean-style-change-at.html

 

Any news on this development?  I was looking at listings on zillow, and it seems that values are dropping.

This is where $15 million of Cincinnati's pension fund was allocated in 2003 in the Athem Fund demutualization spearheaded by...John Cranley.  Ffwd 10 years and this development is not really finished and feels pretty fake.  The value of these homes is going to tank, I predict.

Looks to be true, but with the economy, it's a tough call. It's such a small development, I could see it getting swallowed back up by the hood rats.