April 8, 200916 yr we need a 'hurl/throwing up' smiley guy because I feel that way all too often on this site, esp. when I come across threads like this. This project makes me want to hurl....everywhere.
April 8, 200916 yr I thought the mega mall project at SR129/I-75 was a done deal, and the developers had deep pockets. The zoning was approved by the town, and I thought the project was going forward as soon as the economy bottomed out and the interchange was complete (in about 2 years). Is the project dead, or is it simply on hold pending infrastructure completion ? Here's the article: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,16217.msg338958.html#msg338958 Doesn't sound like an infrastructure issue that was holding it up.
May 4, 200916 yr Monroe outlet mall names tenants http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/05/04/daily13.html Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe is scheduled to have its grand opening Aug. 6. The center also announced more than a dozen of the retailers that will open there, as well as three eateries. ...
May 5, 200916 yr Think I'll bring a lawsuit against this place for deceptive advertising...calling itself "Premium". Also, sounds like this place wants to steal the 'shoe store' crown from nearby Dayton Mall. ------------------------------------ Update - I started to look up the stores in the list... BCBG is a shoe store Cole Haan is a shoe & handbag store Brown Shoe Closet, Factory Brand Shoes, Nike Factory Store all sound like shoe stores. Naturalizer is a shoe store, if I recall correctly. Wonder how many others are shoe stores? Obviously the managers of the place do not tell prospective stores how many other shoe stores are going in. ----------------- *** 2nd update.... Ecco and Easy Spirit are also shoe stores. --------- *** 3rd update... Hugo Boss carries a large line of mens & womens fashions, including shoes. Le Creuset sells cast iron cookware. If I recall..Gymboree is a toddler's clothing store. ----------------- But hey, I won't have to drive quite so far (all the way to the Monroe Kroger's strip mall) for Chineese.
May 5, 200916 yr So there you have it.... Cincinnati PREMIUM Outlets gets 12 new stores: 8 shoe stores 1 todler clothing store with baby shoes 1 full-line clothing store with web site proudly announcing upscale shoes 1 sunglasses/umbrella store with rain shoes 1 cast iron skillet store with corkscrews (I wonder if they carry shoes?)
May 5, 200916 yr BCBG is a clothing store http://www.bcbg.com/home/index.jsp Nike prolly sells a lot more than shoes Hug Boss is a clothing store Just because those places have shoes doesn't make them a shoe store. You could also call them all sunglasses stores or handbag stores. Also interesting Brown Shoe owns Naturalizer
May 6, 200916 yr Also, sounds like this place wants to steal the 'shoe store' crown from nearby Dayton Mall. Hoefully, good Daytonians won't associate themselves with this trash.
May 6, 200916 yr What do you mean trash? Day I guarantee this place will do well. I know people who travel over an hour to go to the Jeffersonville Outlets. So I think one closer will do well. If you people would maybe on occasion leave your dying Metro areas everyonce in a while you will see there is life outside the "big" cities. People are living and thriving even.
May 6, 200916 yr What do you mean trash? Day I guarantee this place will do well. I know people who travel over an hour to go to the Jeffersonville Outlets. So I think one closer will do well. If you people would maybe on occasion leave your dying Metro areas everyonce in a while you will see there is life outside the "big" cities. People are living and thriving even. I'll take a "dying" metro and city over suburban sprawl any day. Dayton has lost population, but it has more culture and entertainment than an outlet mall can ever provide. I'm sorry that you value discount clothes made in Vietnam and in other third-world countries at slave-labour wages over local businesses and shops that sell wares made in the U.S. that provide a decent living wage and benefits to their employees.
May 6, 200916 yr What do you mean trash? Day I guarantee this place will do well. I know people who travel over an hour to go to the Jeffersonville Outlets. So I think one closer will do well. If you people would maybe on occasion leave your dying Metro areas everyonce in a while you will see there is life outside the "big" cities. People are living and thriving even. Might I ask how you became acquainted with the website UrbanOhio?
May 6, 200916 yr I'll agree with arn. Just because urbanites don't want to go to the outlet malls doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people that will. To each his own. And taestall maybe the question should be how did this project come to be discussed on URBANOhio?
May 6, 200916 yr I'll agree with arn. Just because urbanites don't want to go to the outlet malls doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people that will. To each his own. And taestall maybe the question should be how did this project come to be discussed on URBANOhio? eeerrr....yes to each his own. I mean, who cares about how such crap affects the region. Who cares about regionalism at all. Thank God we have 60 plus suburbs in the area....to each his own. :roll:
May 6, 200916 yr I'll agree with arn. Just because urbanites don't want to go to the outlet malls doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people that will. To each his own. And taestall maybe the question should be how did this project come to be discussed on URBANOhio? eeerrr....yes to each his own. I mean, who cares about how such crap affects the region. Who cares about regionalism at all. Thank God we have 60 plus suburbs in the area....to each his own. :roll: Different people want different lifestyles, regions should provide space for all of them. There is a place in the region for an outlet mall. It's not like these stores could go anywhere else. The whole concept is based on a model that requires this type of exurb development. The option of not having them just takes the money out of the region.
May 6, 200916 yr I'll agree with arn. Just because urbanites don't want to go to the outlet malls doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people that will. To each his own. And taestall maybe the question should be how did this project come to be discussed on URBANOhio? eeerrr....yes to each his own. I mean, who cares about how such crap affects the region. Who cares about regionalism at all. Thank God we have 60 plus suburbs in the area....to each his own. :roll: Different people want different lifestyles, regions should provide space for all of them. There is a place in the region for an outlet mall. It's not like these stores could go anywhere else. The whole concept is based on a model that requires this type of exurb development. The option of not having them just takes the money out of the region. Monroe shouldn't even be considered apart of our region. This type of use should be in Forest Park, with a growth boundary just outside the beltway. Or is a growth boundary disallowing people to live certain ways (at the expense of everyone else mind you)?
May 6, 200916 yr and plus, we have plenty of shopping malls and strip centers in which this development could have went into. But it didn't....because of a 'to each his own' attitude.
May 6, 200916 yr e.g. Cincinnati Mills, which Simon Properties all but gutted for the Monroe Premium Outlets. It's not a new development with new stores; it's merely moving stores from one mall to another.
May 6, 200916 yr Yeah, when they announced their tenant list with their "new" stores, I nearly gagged. The vast majority of the stores were once in Cincinnati Mills when it functioned as an outlet centre.
May 6, 200916 yr I agree with everything you said. The point I was making is that I agree with arn that it will probably be successful because many people don't take issue with these things. They tried an outlet mallish thing in Forest Park and it didn't go so well. Typically that type of development is way out of the city because the low overhead requires it. Placing it in between Cincinnati and Dayton gives it a bigger draw. And Monroe is south of Middletown which is the northern edge of our MSA.
May 6, 200916 yr This development = utterly ridiculous. :-P Northgate mall, Tri-County Mall, Deerfield Towne Center (in a few years), Bridgewater Falls... You pick.
May 6, 200916 yr This development = utterly ridiculous. :-P Agreed! But that doesn't mean it won't be successful. And I would say malls and outlet malls are different beasts, you don't see a lot of out of business outlet malls. In response to myself I remembered there being a second Jeffersonville outlet that looked pretty empty. I found this article that discusses success and failures of outlet malls: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/2586890 While Jeffersonville II failed it was probably due to Jeffersonville's success which is still at 90% and adding retailers. The question is how much traffic Cincy Premium will draw from Jeffersonville. Even more interesting is that Jeffersonville II apparently has a 21 and up video game parlor. I think that may make it worth the drive. I hope Monroe gets one.
May 7, 200916 yr This development = utterly ridiculous. :-P Agreed! But that doesn't mean it won't be successful. And I would say malls and outlet malls are different beasts, you don't see a lot of out of business outlet malls. Actually, I have seen many outlets malls go out of business. The Kansas City area alone had 4 different attempts at outlet malls--all failed. All were well positioned between Kansas City and other population areas off I-70. I can think of at least 5 other failed outlet centers in the Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas part of the country. All strategically placed for sucess and failed.
May 7, 200916 yr Outlet malls were overbuilt in the latter part of the 1990s and 2000s. Developers assumed that there would be willing customers wanting to by cheap, discounted clothes around every turn in replacement of shopping centres, but they assumed wrong when outlet centres were hit justifiably just as hard as shopping centres during the downturn of many commercial ventures. America is vastly over-malled; we have more square footage dedicated to shopping than any other developed country by far, and the addition of Cincinnati Premium Outlet doesn't help that fact. What good did it do? We can't drive to Jeffersonville? We can't shop at Cincinnati Mills (which was surprisingly a functioning hybrid outlet centre)? It's that much more of an inconvenience to find the same goods at most malls, including Dayton, Northgate, Tri-County, Kenwood, Eastgate and that dead mall in Middletown?
May 7, 200916 yr ^Agreed. Malls, and especially outlet malls, are done as a slam-dunk business model. Lifestyle centers like Rookwood and Crestview Hills and just plain big box stores like Center of Cincinnati in Oakley are clearly the new way to go for retail. I'm not sure what company is developing this but they better hope they can earn a decent ROI in a couple of years. Places like this go down hill fast in this day and age.
May 7, 200916 yr Yeah, the article I linked to above discussed the lack of outlet malls being built or surviving. This location would seem to have a built in client base with Trader's World and Treasure Aisles but yeah certainly not the latest fad in retail
May 7, 200916 yr As I said before, in a place like Middletown/Monroe, a shopping center should go big or not go at all. Strategically, the location is great. But as the Towne Mall (that dead mall in Middletown - 2 miles north of this) showed, going small means you play only to the locals, which is a guaranteed failed buisiness plan in this area. Had they built a mega outlet mall, it might do a lot better financially. These undersized franchises seem to acquire a "poor man's" label very quickly, as the newness factor wears off and the 'dinky little place' factor grows. I think you guys were pretty harsh on yesterday's poster. He/She has a point about there being different styles of shopping for different folks. Middletown/Monroe/Franklin are very different from the rest of the Cincy/Dayton metro area. I'm not so sure the average person in these areas graduated high school, and very few make more than $50k/yr. They were raised in, and still live in, a culture that undervalues education, worldliness, cultural diversity, etc. Cincy & Dayton are not world cultural centers for sure, but they are light-years ahead of these 3 little cities. These cities were populated by folks coming out of Central and Eastern Kentucky to work in the steel mill. Some wonderful people for sure, but the cultural background they bring is vastly different than what settled in Dayton and Cincy. But to tie this back to the thread... the locals will shop at the mall. Not sure a lot of people from Cincy/Dayton will shop there more than a couple of times as the place will probably seem 'dinky and useless' to them. Will local shoppers be enough to make it a success? I suspect no.
May 7, 200916 yr The biggest problem with this thing is that there is no real reason to go here. There are no big anchor stores that will draw people in, and the whole project is WAY too small. As CincyDad said, go big or don't build at all because this market will not support "small malls" as shown by Towne Mall. Everybody drives to Dayton or Towne mall, myself included when I lived by Monroe. Plus, announcing TWO cheapo chinese restraunts in the press release about what stores will be located in the mall? Give me a break, this is nothing but a new flea market with a couple of dumb retailers led into it. This project is truly Simon's worst venture to date. Hopefully the recession kills them, because our nation CANNOT waste resources in such a careless fashion, as these people think is acceptable.
May 8, 200916 yr Someone asked how I found this site. I was searching for a restaurant in Cincinnati and stumbled onto it. Sherman u said I want low prices over wares made in the U S A well I drive a Chevy have a Craftsman lawnmower and probably a lot of other items. What clothing , which is what is mostly at an outlet mall, is still made here? My Ralph Lauren Shirts and Tommy clothing are made in the same place as yours only I got them for a few dollars less. Day you said you hope this place fails, Why?? How does it affect you at all if it fails or succeeds? I don't get it if you don't want to go don't. But to wish failure on others is just petty and shows how sad your life must be . I personally hope all new ventures succeed with flying collars . That would show our economy is on the way back. Even the Banks project in Cincy I hope they can get it right after spending 7000 years trying to decide what to do.
May 8, 200916 yr Even the Banks project in Cincy I hope they can get it right after spending 7000 years trying to decide what to do. Good, but you should understand that it takes many, many years to get projects done like The Banks. It is a multi-billion dollar riverfront redevelopment project that has to deal with flooding concerns, connectivity with downtown over an interstate varied political interests and concerns. So far we have built two professional sports venues, a new world-class museum, reconfigured and buried an interstate and are now building the garages that will lift the development out of a major flood plain. To assume a project of this scope and nature could or should get done within a couple of years of planning is somewhat unreasonable.
May 8, 200916 yr I was just being a little sarcastic I realize it takes time to get it right, I just hope they do and turn downtown around so more people want to go there for something other than just a ball game. And yes I know people go there for More than that now on a limited basis. When I go to a game it seams like after the game there is a mass exudes of people onto the highways. Maybe with the banks complete more people will stay downtown and see what there is to offer and by so doing more businesses will start to thrive.
May 8, 200916 yr Someone asked how I found this site. I was searching for a restaurant in Cincinnati and stumbled onto it. Sherman u said I want low prices over wares made in the U S A well I drive a Chevy have a Craftsman lawnmower and probably a lot of other items. What clothing , which is what is mostly at an outlet mall, is still made here? My Ralph Lauren Shirts and Tommy clothing are made in the same place as yours only I got them for a few dollars less. Day you said you hope this place fails, Why?? How does it affect you at all if it fails or succeeds? I don't get it if you don't want to go don't. But to wish failure on others is just petty and shows how sad your life must be . I personally hope all new ventures succeed with flying collars . That would show our economy is on the way back. Even the Banks project in Cincy I hope they can get it right after spending 7000 years trying to decide what to do. I hope you realize that many Chevrolet models are actually manufactured in Mexico and Canada. My father's 2006 Chevrolet Silverado was sourced and built entirely in Mexico. So much for that "American Revolution" bit they had going for a while. That said, I try to purchase as much locally or sustainably, which includes clothing. I purchase most of my basic necessities at Park+Vine in OTR, for instance. My plants come from City Roots; my furniture was mostly hand-me-downs but I bought the remainder from local dealers; my scooter was manufactured in the states; my food is purchased with sustainability and local fare in mind (e.g. Findlay Market, farmers markets, Whole Foods). My clothing comes from a variety of sources, but I've made it a habit to purchase as much as I can locally. You would be surprised, but you can find many shirts and clothes produced locally and sustainable for prices that are competitive with that of essentially slave labor overseas. Many neighborhood business districts in Cincinnati feature at least a store or two that sell local wares, and to say that no one can afford or purchase these is a false statement. "But to wish failure on others is just petty and shows how sad your life must be..." Let's leave the ad homiem statements out and focus on the facts. Note that I did not wish failure on somebody, just an entity because it is a waste of resources and valuable farmland. Simon Properties, which built Cincinnati Premium Outlet, owned what was Cincinnati Mills. Cincinnati Mills, over its short existence, has failed pretty much at every concept that it has tried. Then, the Mills Corp. purchased Forest Fair and refurbished the mall with a really snazzy design that cost millions of dollars and put in a viable hybrid regular/outlet mall concept that actually worked. Mills went belly-up and Simon purchased the mall but did zero investment. In fact, a multitude of stores left shortly after the announcement by Simon that they would build yet another shopping center on the outskirts of town. Simon then sold the mall to a group of investors that have done nothing to the mall outside of change its title to "Cincinnati Mall." In essence, Simon purchased the property, gutted it, transferred the tenants to it's new Monroe development, and lay the blighted property onto someone else. Monroe's shopping mall isn't a development that is bringing new or conceptual stores to Cincinnati and Dayton. It's rehashing and lifting stores from other centers, and merely shifting the store demographics all about. Oh yes, we may have three Chinese fast-food eateries come in, but the tenant list that's been released so far is mostly sourced from existing shopping malls and outlet centers. Nothing new, just a reshifting of what already exists. As for The Banks, if you truly believe that it took "7000 years" (a gross exaggeration, I know) to "decide what to do," then you are seriously misinformed. Here are two articles I've penned. Cincinnati Mills -- http://abandonedonline.net/index.php?catid=484 The Banks -- http://urbanup.net/index.php?cityID=8&ID=333
May 8, 200916 yr I know about where vehicles are made. A lot of cars that are supposedly American are made elsewhere and some foreign cars are made here. I read min your article about the banks being long delayed but I know it is something that you can't just shake like an etch a sketch and start over I was just saying I hope they get It right. I stand corrected at your statement about the failure. but there are others who do hope this and openly say it on here. I read the article about the banks and looked at the other. I will admit I am not as informed as you but when I look on this site and see people always talking negatively about anything outside of a large city, it just seems liker they are looking down on those areas for some reason. For example some one in the Ohio pictures part took time out of there day to go to West Chester, take pictures of it, and post them will comments to make fun of it, just seems petty to me. And to see on here most people not hoping it succeeds it will just put a lot of people out of Jobs. I commend you for shopping locally whenever possible. I too shop at farmers markets for as much as I can I even grow my own veggies that I bought from the local farmers market.
May 8, 200916 yr I don't think a lot of people are upset that it's "outside of the city," per se, since Cincinnati Mills/Mall is essentially in Forest Fair and in a suburb. But I think some of the resentment comes from the owner of the property - Simon Properties, that essentially abandoned a structurally and aesthetically pleasing mall (from the interior) to build another center in another location. While Monroe is strategically better suited for success than Forest Fair, it's leaving the largest mall in southwest Ohio all but empty and vacant. That, and Northgate can't get a tenant to fill in the demolished J.C. Penny's, Tri-County is seeing a sharp increase in vacancies (along with the many dead big boxes around the mall), the nearly-dead mall in Middletown, and so forth. I'm glad that the super-regional mall near King's Island was never completed -- that would have saturated the market in the metro area far too much.
May 8, 200916 yr I agree with you about Forrest Fair I was in there a week ago and it is kind of sad to see it so empty. Towne Mall has been empty for a while I wish it would fill, up again it was a fun place to go when I was younger. Hopefully one day someone will know how to use Forrest Fair better and fill it back up or find a better use for it. I don't think Simon filled it and put all that money into it just to get everyone out of it and go to Monroe. But you never know I think they just a better opportunity in Monroe. But the company that bought it i guess sees a use for it but as yet haven't played there hand.
May 8, 200916 yr Mills bought the mall and invested in it, Simon bought Mills and then got rid of the property while taking many of the outlet tenants to this new center. So it's hard to give Simon really any credit for the success of Cincy Mills. The new owners suggested they have plans to announce (which is always the case) but have yet to do so.
May 8, 200916 yr On top of pitting the region against itself for retail space, I still find it pathetic that Simon used the cheapest design and materials possible for this development. (Tilt Up Panels - WTF?) That is a slap in the face to anyone invested in the Monroe area (residential or commercially). And then they design the entrance to resemble Union Terminal and use art deco text in their logo just to associate it with Cincinnati somehow. That's a lack of imagination if I've ever seen it. Maybe they ALREADY have a backup plan for this to fail so they can use the space as warehousing like many of the other new buildings near that exit and that's why it matches those gorgeous buildings! This development seems to me like a last ditch effort to try and build just ANYTHING. The writing has been on the wall for years!! Unsustainable growth will not work, and the blight that will be left in this community 5-10 years down the road will be too much for Monroe to handle. (Look at all the empty retail & warehouses that exist currently!) It isn't going to get any better going forward.
May 8, 200916 yr Or if it is hilariously like the dead outlet center in Cave City, Kentucky, it can become a gigantic adult warehouse and peep show! :)
May 8, 200916 yr ^Haha! I just think the area would have been better off left like it was just a couple years ago. The majority of Monrovians that were already living in this area would probably liked it to stay that way. We all know what a drain ill planned developments and blight will have on a community. Sadly, I foresee this for the good people of Monroe sooner rather than later. Look at the new warehouses on Salzman Rd. They built a warehouse with hundreds of thousands of square feet last summer and I still think they don't even have a tenant yet. (Unless that has changed recently)
May 8, 200916 yr I have several complaints against the new Monroe Outlet mall, but some are self-serving. As mentioned, it is just another reshuffling of local businesses from one municipality to another, and look at the tax breaks the local communities give to lure their neighbor' money sources. I think Monroe is give 15 year 100% tax abatement on the property. So yes, Monroe will collect a little bit of income tax from the workers there, but they are giving up a lot of property tax to do so. But I also have complaints about how Monroe annexed land some 5 miles from their tiny city intersection just so they could turn it into developed land and get some revenue from it. There is no reason for Monroe to contain any land so far from the city center, when much of what is now inside the city limits is still farmland. This was a shamless land grabbed, and I fault Turtlecreek township for letting it happen. Monroe has a very poor record of building codes and planning, and so developers are going to be able to run wild over that area, regardless of what the area should be. I also object to the type of businesses going in along that sectio of I-75. The promise of all the political leaders of the area was for high-paying jobs. Well, you've got some very prime agricultural land at that intersect, an intersection with prime location in the area. So what does Monroe do? Put in an outlet mall paying primarily minimum wages, and 7 million sq feet of warehouses. Warehouses pay most of their workers near-minimum wages. So much for the 'high paying jobs' the polititions promised! I also object to the urban sprawl that this is creating. The land around the site is some of the last undeveloped land along I-75. Can't we leave it alone? We don't need more buildings. We have an oversupply of buildings right now, and we can certainly redevelope some of them. There is absolutely no demand for new buildings at this time, so why build them? I also object to this project on the basis that the people who live in the area (in Turtlecreek township, because no resident of Monroe is within 3 miles of this place) protested such a building, and the politions told the residents to get lost, that they did not care what the people wanted. The politions are all in on making money from the development of the land, and don't give a rats @ss about the neighbors. The land is zoned residential/agricultural, and people bought in the area with that zoning. Now the gov't officials are changing the zoning at a whim, over the protest of the neighbors. This is not how government is supposed to work! The studies that were done on the land said it was a poor project, and it should not have gone forward. The project (and the adjacent Vandercar development) are being built on a flood plain that current serves at the water source for the city of Monroe. In fact, the water table is only a couple of feet underground at that site, and the area repeatedly filled up with flood water after every rain. Several engineering studies said the project would not work there, and that a proposed retaining pond behind the buildings would not be enough. The contractors got company after company to conduct environmental engineering studies on the site, until finally one said it might work. They used that study to move forward ont he project. This was the first project that the new Warren County Port Authority got involved with, and they needed to show that they were useful and could make things happen. One of the county commisioners ran on a platforn of 'jobs', and he's going to deliver 'jobs' regardless of sprawl, regardless of the environment, regardless of zoning, regardless of what the locals want, regardless of.... (you get the picture). The problem is, these aren't the types of jobs that were envisoned. (nothing wrong with jobs, but this is a case of bait-and-switch on top of all the other things mentioned above.) I could go on with the problems with this mall. I have already expressed my belief that there is just plain too much retail in the area, that the mall is too small to be worth a drive from 10+ miles away, etc, etc. Also, this is some prime, and I do mean very high quality, farm land that is being torn up to build this. This country is depleating its farm land very rapidly. I think a lot more protection of farmland is needed before we get to the point where we have too little of it. From what I've read, it sounds like we are getting dangerously close to the break-even point. I don't want to see quality farm land destroyed for another shopping center. I applaud new ideas, new construction, new jobs, and new thinking when it improves the overall quality of the area. I think this project falls short on nearly all those points.
May 8, 200916 yr ^Well said! arn8897, just to clear some stuff up. Much of the criticism you hear about WC and areas like Monroe on this thread and others are not meant to put down or demean the people living in these areas. Modern developers in high sprawl areas like this NEVER live up to what they promise. That is where most of the animosity comes from.
May 8, 200916 yr I think this can really be cincinnati's PREMIUM outlet center, pun not intended but mayb it should be,... maybe this could even draw ppl away from nky residents little dry ridge secret....
May 8, 200916 yr The studies that were done on the land said it was a poor project, and it should not have gone forward. The project (and the adjacent Vandercar development) are being built on a flood plain that current serves at the water source for the city of Monroe. In fact, the water table is only a couple of feet underground at that site, and the area repeatedly filled up with flood water after every rain. Several engineering studies said the project would not work there, and that a proposed retaining pond behind the buildings would not be enough. The contractors got company after company to conduct environmental engineering studies on the site, until finally one said it might work. They used that study to move forward ont he project. This was the first project that the new Warren County Port Authority got involved with, and they needed to show that they were useful and could make things happen. Did they have a hard time getting financing for this? I would think the flooding issues would make it difficult.
May 9, 200916 yr Monroe is a mess. Here we had the opportunity to have a world class Casino and instead the metro got a weak attempt at an outlet mall. I was surprised we didn't hear about the opening of Big Dogs Clothing, that place is popular with the locals of Monroe.
May 11, 200916 yr Did they have a hard time getting financing for this? I would think the flooding issues would make it difficult. The Vandercar warehouse town surrounding this outlet mall was funded by the government via the Warren County Port Authority. The outlet mall itself may sit on ground that is just high enough to avoid being labeled a flood plain. It's hard to really seperate these 2 projects - the Outlet mall and the Vandercar Warehouse town. They sit side-by-side and essentually are on the same land, but split into 2 different projects. All the infrstrastructure upgrades of the area are to support these 2 projects. The warehouses that were just built (not sure if they are completed) sit directly on top of Monroe's water supply. The pumping stations are basically in the front yard of these warehouses. The project built a retaining pond in the back to help with the flooding, but it remains to been seen if its enough. This Spring we did not have the hard rains we often do. As a point of reference... the warehouses sit on the same reclaimed swamp as Trader world, the old Robinson sod farm and the Solid Rock church - basically along Union Road (which itself is the reclaimed Warren County Canal from 1840s). During heavy Spring rains, Union Road itself is partially underwater, and nearly closed. The long driveway leading to Solid Rock Church has been completely underwater for a couple of days. The barn of the Robison Sod farm (between Traders World & Solid Rock) along with their entire front yard is sometime underwater as well. The whole Union Road area was originally a swamp, which was partially reclaimed by the Shakers when they built Shaker creek to drain it. Shaker creek today is the large drainage ditch along Union Road. A lot of people, including a couple of environmental studies of the Vandercar project, feel that flooding will be a big issue for the area. It may not threaten the actual stores, but it could be a problem for the drive leading to them. And as more and more soil is paved over, the flooding issues become more problematic.
May 11, 200916 yr I was surprised we didn't hear about the opening of Big Dogs Clothing, that place is popular with the locals of Monroe. Ok, just to make the announcements..... " Monroe Crossing, a 1-yr old strip mall just north of Domino's Pizza on Cincinnati-Dayton Road, has just gotten its second tenant. The strip mall has approx 11 store fronts. A Postal-type store oppened in it nearly a year ago, and was the lone occupant of the strip mall until now. Approximately 1 month ago, a Coffe shop ("Kid Coffee"? - not sure of the name) oppened on the end, and contains a drive-thru window. The strip mall now has just 9 unfilled store fronts, and is hoping to land an upscale shirt store, like Big Dog's, sometime in the next decade or two. Monroe Crossing is a "Premium" stip mall just like all the local polititions promised for the area. It hopes to attract the same uspcall Chineese restaurants as other Monroe premium shopping districts, such as the Cincinnati Primium Outlet center just 1 mile east of Monroe Crossing. " source: CincyDad's recent recollections of the area
May 11, 200916 yr ^LOL luxury strip mall! Didn't realize that was there. I remember back when I lived down that way, I was within walking distance of Monroe's finest store, The Gun Runner. It had a picture of a fine-looking pistol on its sign, and truly looked like a friendly, cozy outpost of Monroe friendliness and hospitality. Then, I loved seeing the community build all of these ridiculous city utulity buildings they couldn't afford, which forced Monroe into bankruptcy, truly showing our city's managerial skills. Every once in a while, I would also see Mike Tannheuner, the mayor of this wonderful land, rollin' in his Caddy with "Tannheuner" on the liscense plate, helping me realize what a classy town I lived in. He was good friends with Larry Flynt, the genius behind Hustler Magazine, and helped him get a store located at the site of a former Gold Star Chili (which then moved to Monroe's bustling commerce park). Also should throw a shout out to one of Monroe's other well-respected citizens, Lawernce Bishop, founder of LB ranch, and Solid Rock Church. Also narrowly dodged drug charges dealing with using his horses to smuggle drugs. This, along with the community's other various druglords that operated nearby, made me so happy that I was living in a suburban paradise. Oh, what a wonderful place these suburbs are!
Create an account or sign in to comment