Anybody tried the Pi place?

 

I went a week ago and it is pretty good.  But I don't think I'll be going again anytime soon since I like the Incline Public house better and the prices are cheaper.  Plus I get a great view of the city.

Still haven't been to IPH, they have good pizza?

Still haven't been to IPH, they have good pizza?

 

Yeah it's really good!  It also reminds me of Pi (I got the Maplewood), which is partly why I mentioned it. 

Are they adding a new roof top to this building.  In rendering it looks like a new roof top

What's going on with this project? Anyone know?

I had heard some rumors that this project wasn't going well, but nothing substantive. I think they are minimizing construction in preparation for the All Star Game.

Here’s when AT580 apartments will (finally) be ready

Jul 7, 2015, 1:08pm EDT

Tom Demeropolis

Cincinnati Business Courier

 

 

It has been more than two years since developers announced plans to convert the former 580 Building into a mix of luxury apartments, office space and retail. Now, Indianapolis-based real estate developer Anderson Birkla Investment Partners says apartments should be ready by the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2015.

 

Tony Birkla, partner at Anderson Birkla, said the construction of 179 luxury apartments has been delayed for various reasons, including streetcar construction and other events happening downtown. Earlier media reports said the first batch of AT580 apartments were expected to be ready in March.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2015/07/here-s-when-at580-apartments-will-finally-be-ready.html

Do we have any updates on this project?  It really seems like this has taken a while to finish up. It seems the momentum has been lost a bit regarding some of these projects downtown.

Do we have any updates on this project?  It really seems like this has taken a while to finish up. It seems the momentum has been lost a bit regarding some of these projects downtown.

 

The sidewalk on Main next to the building has been blocked for so long now that I've just stop walking near that part of downtown.  I really wish they would either finish up or re-open the sidewalk until they figure out what they're doing.

Do we have any updates on this project?  It really seems like this has taken a while to finish up. It seems the momentum has been lost a bit regarding some of these projects downtown.

 

We're into about the 24th month of construction at this point.

 

This project has gone on longer than the streetcar has been under construction!

Well at least I'm not imagining things...  I am looking forward to the finished project, as I think it will spice up that corner with (even) more people and evening activity. I guess we'll have to wait and see.  I would love to see some interior photos, etc.

Do we have any updates on this project?  It really seems like this has taken a while to finish up. It seems the momentum has been lost a bit regarding some of these projects downtown.

 

I was just thinking this yesterday.  This project has taken SO long, but at least it does appear that work continues to be done, even if it is moving at a glacial pace.  Remember the ~5 story addition to the building on Main St. that was announced? Haven't heard a peep about it since, and there's definitely not any sign of activity.  This seems to happen for about a third to half of all projects that are announced around here (and probably other places too--don't know, though). That's why I don't really get excited about projects until they're actually under construction these days.

 

I know I might be the only one with this opinion, but I think the CBD has not kept pace with OTR and the riverfront's renaissance.  Outside of Fountain Square and about a block radius of the Aronoff, the CBD is pretty sleepy on most nights and weekends.  I walked the entire length of 4th st last Friday around 2pm, and I think I maybe saw 10 total people (not counting people in cars).  I was also struck by how run down many of the historic buildings on 4th St. are.  As nearly every street in OTR is seeing substantial investment and renovation, it seems that the CBD continues to improve at the slow pace it always has.  It's disappointing.  Off the top of my head, I can think of only 3 current residential projects underway: 580, 7th and Sycamore, and the building next to CVS on 6th.  The NW side of downtown is a mess of parking lots and is eerily quiet at night.  Court Street is pretty underperforming given its proximity to OTR. I guess I just find the slow pace of downtown development surprising, given the hot OTR market, developing riverfront, and low residential vacancy rate. 

Edit: Never mind, I misread.

 

As for that five story addition to the building on Main Street, it went through the historic review and then likely still had quite a lot more work to be done before permitting. Historic review starts early in the process so that's likely why there hasn't been anything since on that building.

I definitely think the streetcar will help fill in some of those gaps on the north south streets.

I think a developer wanted to convert the existing 630 Main into a parking garage and add new residential above.

630 Main Street.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/03/23/apartments-coming-to-main-st-building-along.html

Do we have any updates on this project?  It really seems like this has taken a while to finish up. It seems the momentum has been lost a bit regarding some of these projects downtown.

 

I was just thinking this yesterday.  This project has taken SO long, but at least it does appear that work continues to be done, even if it is moving at a glacial pace.  Remember the ~5 story addition to the building on Main St. that was announced? Haven't heard a peep about it since, and there's definitely not any sign of activity.  This seems to happen for about a third to half of all projects that are announced around here (and probably other places too--don't know, though). That's why I don't really get excited about projects until they're actually under construction these days.

 

I know I might be the only one with this opinion, but I think the CBD has not kept pace with OTR and the riverfront's renaissance.  Outside of Fountain Square and about a block radius of the Aronoff, the CBD is pretty sleepy on most nights and weekends.  I walked the entire length of 4th st last Friday around 2pm, and I think I maybe saw 10 total people (not counting people in cars).  I was also struck by how run down many of the historic buildings on 4th St. are.  As nearly every street in OTR is seeing substantial investment and renovation, it seems that the CBD continues to improve at the slow pace it always has.  It's disappointing.  Off the top of my head, I can think of only 3 current residential projects underway: 580, 7th and Sycamore, and the building next to CVS on 6th.  The NW side of downtown is a mess of parking lots and is eerily quiet at night.  Court Street is pretty underperforming given its proximity to OTR. I guess I just find the slow pace of downtown development surprising, given the hot OTR market, developing riverfront, and low residential vacancy rate.

 

I've been walking my dog down to Fountain Square each night this week and have been thinking the same things.  Vacant storefronts, empty streets, not much activity. Nothing really comes close to Vine St. in OTR in terms of street activity except around the Aronoff and the Square itself just like you said.

 

The renaissance narrative is not really fitting for the CBD itself right now unfortunately. 

I agree with those comments whole-heartedly.  I feel like there are likely conversations going on, but the hustle and bustle of progress and actual renovations seems to be lacking.  I'm sure it will continue to improve, but I'd love to see some actual evening activity in the CBD (outside of weekends).  Maybe I'm just impatient.

Which is exactly why the streetcar is so important and will have the biggest (and most financial) benefit to Cincinnati Downtown. Connecting two really strong areas often means the middle fills in and catches up to the end nodes. And in Downtown there's a lot more room to gain than there is on the riverfront or in OTR.

I think Central Parkway is as much of a barrier to pedestrian movement as Liberty Street, even though Central Parkway is landscaped much nicer. I think the biggest corridor for redevelopment potential is Main Street in the CBD, where people can easily hop on the streetcar and get to 12th & Main Pizza District and other attractions in OTR. Redevelopment along Walnut will happen eventually, but man, that parking lot at Central Parkway & Walnut is huge and ugly. Even Court Street feels a world away from OTR because of crossing Central Parkway and that massive parking lot.

Which is exactly why the streetcar is so important and will have the biggest (and most financial) benefit to Cincinnati Downtown. Connecting two really strong areas often means the middle fills in and catches up to the end nodes. And in Downtown there's a lot more room to gain than there is on the riverfront or in OTR.

 

Yes, but it's interesting that when the streetcar was being planned and when Riverfront and OTR development first started, Downtown was the strong point.  In a relatively quick period of time, the paradigm has shifted from spreading the energy/activity/stability of the CBD to the potential-filled periphery, to spreading activity to the CBD from nodes to the north and south.  Interesting how that has happened.

Which is exactly why the streetcar is so important and will have the biggest (and most financial) benefit to Cincinnati Downtown. Connecting two really strong areas often means the middle fills in and catches up to the end nodes. And in Downtown there's a lot more room to gain than there is on the riverfront or in OTR.

 

Yes, but it's interesting that when the streetcar was being planned and when Riverfront and OTR development first started, Downtown was the strong point.  In a relatively quick period of time, the paradigm has shifted from spreading the energy/activity/stability of the CBD to the potential-filled periphery, to spreading activity to the CBD from nodes to the north and south.  Interesting how that has happened.

 

Yeah back in the 00's we would go downtown to the bars along 7th street and that little strip of Walnut. Not much was happening in OTR at the time. 

I have noticed significantly more activity at 580 over the past few months. I think they had some sort of permitting issue if i recall correctly.

 

But, off the top of my head ....between 580 (~200), Banks phase 2 (300), 8th and Sycamore (200), 6th and Race (~75), and then the Village Green project on 4th under development which seems to be likely to happen (~300) that is roughly 1,100 actively under construction or nearing construction. Unfortunately it takes time, and i am sure there is a lot going on which is not public knowledge yet.

 

I've been walking my dog down to Fountain Square each night this week and have been thinking the same things.  Vacant storefronts, empty streets, not much activity. Nothing really comes close to Vine St. in OTR in terms of street activity except around the Aronoff and the Square itself just like you said.

 

The renaissance narrative is not really fitting for the CBD itself right now unfortunately.

 

This probably comes from the fact that rehabbing a dozen 3-4 story buildings all in a line creates a much nicer neighborhood feel and gives the perception that there are a lot of people and a lot of stuff going on, even if in real terms one 30 story building would be denser and thus have more bodies in a given space. It's ironic that downtown feels liveliest precisely where the buildings are shortest: on Walnut at the Aronoff.

In the long run, I think that OTR will become a much more residential-oriented neighborhood with upscale retail and restaurant, and the areas around Fountain Square and The Banks will become more of the Friday/Saturday night party destinations. But I'm starting to go off topic from the thread here.

 

I've been walking my dog down to Fountain Square each night this week and have been thinking the same things.  Vacant storefronts, empty streets, not much activity. Nothing really comes close to Vine St. in OTR in terms of street activity except around the Aronoff and the Square itself just like you said.

 

The renaissance narrative is not really fitting for the CBD itself right now unfortunately.

 

This probably comes from the fact that rehabbing a dozen 3-4 story buildings all in a line creates a much nicer neighborhood feel and gives the perception that there are a lot of people and a lot of stuff going on, even if in real terms one 30 story building would be denser and thus have more bodies in a given space. It's ironic that downtown feels liveliest precisely where the buildings are shortest: on Walnut at the Aronoff.

 

This actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. In the CBD the size and shape of buildings are completely random, the way they meet and address the street is inconsistent and may or may not engage pedestrians, and there are surface parking lots scattered throughout including at key street intersections. So it's been a struggle to build up consistent corridors of activity. Serves as an excellent real life case study for the principles Jeff Speck puts forward in the book "Walkable City."

I definitely think the streetcar will help fill in some of those gaps on the north south streets.

 

I agree, but would caution against thinking the streetcar will do everything on its own. In Portland the Pearl District was built out on mostly cleared land from my understanding. In Cincinnati we have:

 

-surface parking lots worth piles of cash money to their owners (so much so that NOT ONE has broken ranks and developed their lots so far.) (and the owners of Parking Company of America have made campaign contributions to the mayor)

 

-high cost of renovating large historic buildings (like the building on seventh that was going to be converted to residential but then wasn't, I think after missing a tax credit)

 

So we're going to need to enact policies to solve these issues. I think reducing or eliminating entirely parking requirements for new developments would be a good place to start. Once it's built out, I hope Hamilton County lowers their rates in the "largest in North America" Banks parking garage to $2 a day and people park there and take the streetcar to work to undermine the value of some of these lots so we get new development.

The RoadmapCincy Twitter account just posted "Construction of AT580 apts on Main at 6th continues thru June."

The RoadmapCincy Twitter account just posted "Construction of AT580 apts on Main at 6th continues thru June."

 

Did they say what year?

The latest map posted by RoadmapCincy shows work on AT580 "March 2014 - June 2016" ... I wonder if they actually expect to be wrapped up by then, or if that's just when their permits run out. If they're not making progress in there, they need to clean up their mess on Main Street and stop blocking the sidewalk.

I wouldn't put much faith in @RoadmapCincy. They weren't aware of lane/sidewalk closures for the Renaissance sidewalk restoration and when I notified them they update their map showing the hotel at 4th & Main and only mentioned the sidewalk being closed.  :|

I wouldn't put much faith in @RoadmapCincy. They weren't aware of lane/sidewalk closures for the Renaissance sidewalk restoration and when I notified them they update their map showing the hotel at 4th & Main and only mentioned the sidewalk being closed.  :|

 

That and @RoadmapCincy is usually not even updated for the week until Monday afternoon or even Tuesday making it a much outdated source of information on top of its frequent inaccuracies.

I think that account was being run by a consultant that was brought in to manage it while there was a ton of construction happening related to the streetcar and various other projects, and they seems to do a great job. Now that most of that work is over, I wouldn't be surprised if that account is now being managed internally or part-time.

There are people actively working at the 580 building daily, just taking a very long time to finish the project. you can see drywall is done on various levels for the units.

The speed has been SO SLOW.  Does anyone know what's going on? I almost feel like we're going to find out that the project is dead halfway through

It's definitely not dead. They have guys working daily inside and they've gotten quite a bit of work done. But there's not really a good reason for the lack of haste in the project.

It's possible that there was a major problem with a release of some phase of the financing. 

"New, existing tenants bring AT580 near capacity"

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2016/04/20/new-existing-tenants-bring-at580-near-capacity/83242276/

 

It looks like residents could start moving in (finally) in June.  Also some very good news regarding a new Yoga studio, restaurant, and 5/3rd expansion!  Glad to see this come together.

Looking through their website, they've really made an effort to use as many chic urban buzzwords as possible in describing the apartment options.  I giggled when I saw they've named each floor plan option in the 'Live@580' section after a style of wine.  The one and two bedroom options range from Zinfandel to Riesling to Pinot Noir.  The corner units are referred to as the Prosecco option, and the studio units are being called the Cava floor plan.

 

Trying too hard aside, these look promising!

I did the same and just brushed it off since they're so silly sounding. Nothing you can do but laugh haha.

 

A major portion of the development team is a client of ours and is very much the type of person very worried about doing things correctly, not cutting corners, and making sure everything works out perfectly. His input was a huge part of why it wound up taking longer than expected from what I've heard. Redesigns of the units to better fit in with customer needs, changes in selections for fixtures and finishes, etc.

 

Which is nice to hear. Based on the project we did with him, not surprising either. His desire for quality of design and construction was apparent which is really favorable and respectable.

Does anyone know the price range of the units?

They haven't stated in awhile what the price range will be, but if I had to guess they'll be pushing upwards of $2/s.f./month based on trends in the area.

 

The 13 penthouses are still planned to be the most expensive units in the city if I remember correctly.

They finally took the plastic wrap off of the north wall of the building, revealing the balconies.

 

Photo by John Schneider

 

Maybe they will be done before the streetcar opens??!!?

That picture looks very San Francisco-esque...  :-)

^-When I'm in the lower nob hill or "TenderNob" area of San Francisco I get a very "Old picture of downtown Cincinnati" vibe to it.

^-When I'm in the lower nob hill or "TenderNob" area of San Francisco I get a very "Old picture of downtown Cincinnati" vibe to it.

 

I totally agree with this.

Feel like they've been working on this forever. 

Business Courier subscribers can check out these photos from inside the new apartments.  The article states that people began moving into them in mid-July.

Any insight into what this is for? Business Courier subscriber content only... AT580 lands $70 million in financing: Cushman & Wakefield has secured construction and permanent financing for AT580 totaling more than $70 million.