Port grant aids Harrison Terminal apartment project

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/harrisonterminal0120.aspx

 

The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority has received a Clean Ohio Assistance Fund grant that could bring new apartments to the Queensgate/Camp Washington area.

 

The $148,122 grant will be used to perform Phase II Environmental Assessment on the 2.4-acre Harrison Terminal property at 1220 Harrison Avenue, site of the proposed Lofts at Harrison Terminal market-rate apartment and office project.

 

In its 100-year history, the building has housed a furniture manufacturer, a bakery supply company, several transportation companies, a trailer sales and rental company, and various advertising and music recording companies.

 

The assessment will allow developers E&T Real Estate Holdings, LLC to prepare cost estimates for any remediation that might be necessary to clean the site of any industrial contaminants.

 

The Lofts at Harrison Terminal will include 18 market-rate apartments on four of the five floors, with 11,000 square feet of commercial or office use on the first floor.

 

So far, E&T, made up of Elwood Jee and his nephew Tim Mahurin, has installed a new roof, windows, and fire stairs.

 

"I always wanted to live and build apartments in an old warehouse," Jee says.  "Very few places are doing them nicely with apartment rentals.  I want to do apartment as nice as some of the condos."

 

Jee says that they'll work from the top down, restoring and then renting out one floor at a time.

 

Two-bedroom units of between 1,800 and 2,200 square feet will likely rent for between $900 and $1100 a month.

 

Loft spaces will stay true to the building's industrial roots, with exposed beams and original brick, and units on the top floors will feature sweeping views of the city skyline.

 

"To get apartments or condos with that kind of view, that's an asset," Jee says.

 

Jee says he hopes the area will become similar to Cleveland's Warehouse District, an entire neighborhood built around the re-use of old warehouse and manufacturing facilities.

 

"It just takes the first person to jumpstart it," he says.  "I've always been like that.  I like to take a chance."

 

I like this one!!!

this is huge news!

This is great.

 

So long as no one restores the Crosley Building, I have dibs on that one.  I've already started saving.

So long as no one restores the Crosley Building, I have dibs on that one.  I've already started saving.

 

The Crosley Building is to die for.  I just can't believe no one has gobbled that one up yet.  There have been other nearby renovations into residential.  My dream for Crosley though has been a boutique hotel with a giant party deck on the roof (see Miami Beach for inspiration).  Picture that as you're driving south on I-75.

^Hah, I don't see that happening, but this is great news!

^ That'd be amazing, but I have always envisioned the top floor as my loft, and the roof as my personal party deck. 

So long as no one restores the Crosley Building, I have dibs on that one.  I've already started saving.

 

The Crosley Building is to die for.  I just can't believe no one has gobbled that one up yet.  There have been other nearby renovations into residential.  My dream for Crosley though has been a boutique hotel with a giant party deck on the roof (see Miami Beach for inspiration).  Picture that as you're driving south on I-75.

 

The Crosley building is for sale.  Horrible owners are asking $1.8 million. It looks as though they owe a couple hundred thousand in back taxes which would have to be paid at the sale. Auditor values it at $800,000.

 

Also--- Does anyone have an update on this project?  When it was completed/occupancy/etc.

 

A guy I know just moved into it. I plan to ask him for some photos and a tour.

Are the Lofts at Harrison Terminal complete? A young woman and her family stopped me at 12th and Vine on the 4th of July and asked me which restaurants were open and what I would recommend --- the young woman had just moved to a cool new loft in an old factory in a neighborhood called 'something washington' near the Hopple St exit...I informed them it was called Camp Washington (haha) but I still wonder which lofts she was talking about.

 

BTW, I told her what was open and then recommended Taste of Belgium (where I was headed too).

 

They all said they were really impressed with the city.

Dunno if they're complete but they're renting

http://harrisonterminallofts.webs.com/

Interesting - I' bike by this every few days and have never noticed it before. I wish that this area would remain industrial, though - it's such a prime location next to Queensgate, and there is limited room for industrial growth in Cincinnati, which provides a much better tax base. But at least a building is saved and readapted for other uses.

The Crosley building is for sale.  Horrible owners are asking $1.8 million. It looks as though they owe a couple hundred thousand in back taxes which would have to be paid at the sale. Auditor values it at $800,000.

 

For what it is worth, they are trying to sell the building for what it was purchased for years ago ($1.8 million).  Even if it is sold for their asking price I'm sure they've lost their shirt on this purchase after all the costs associated with the building over the years is taken into account.

Dunno if they're complete but they're renting

http://harrisonterminallofts.webs.com/

 

The website's a little primitive, but the photos look nice - good to see a converted loft space that has exposed brick.  I wonder how the soundproofing is?

 

as for the Crosley building - I honestly can't see it selling and being converted until Camp Washington perks up a bit more.  It's at the very north end of CW and the various overpasses make it feel cut off from Northside. The boutique hotel idea is really neat but since there's nothing in the immediate vicinity to walk to (and being a pedestrian feels so unfriendly), I can't imagine it working. :c

 

Personally I'd love it if they went the mixed used route with apartments, offices, and rentable workshop space.  It seems like we're seeing a rise of small-batch fabricators in Cincinnati and it would be great if Camp Washington could stay in touch with its industrial roots.

Here's a couple videos of the lofts:

 

 

They're basically the same, but there is some different photos in them.

Cool-looking spaces, but I shudder to think of all the dust coming from those exposed brick walls and exposed ceilings, not to mention sound transmission due to the lack of a finished ceiling. Tenants will hear every little noise from the units above and below.

They look very bare-bones, but I guess that's it takes if you're renting for for half the typical rate per square foot around here, and of course the location.  I agree that sound transmission can be a real problem with those exposed wood floors. 

 

I can't really imagine living in that area myself.  You're right next to the Western Hills Viaduct, I-75, and the rail yards, so air pollution and noise is going to be awful.  No way you're going to want to open any windows on nice days.  It's also right next to a large electrical substation.  There's nowhere to walk to either.  If I was going for an industrial setting I'd go north on Spring Grove a bit where there's some actual neighborhood.  This particular location is right at the north edge of the Queensgate redevelopment, so it's all low-density suburban industrial park to the south.  Bleh! 

 

I'll say this though.  If they can rent all these places out and make it work, then it'll show that you can redevelop pretty much anything in Cincinnati. 

^-- There is a huge rental shortage nationally, and I'm sure Cincinnati is in that list, espicially because so much of the developmennt in the region is single family and suburban oriented.  I wouldn't be surprised given that fact that this place would be pretty easy to fill in spite of its issues...

 

Though 1300/mo for a 2 bedroom loft in Cincy in a not very developed part of town, that seems a tad expensive, unless rental rates have really gone up that much  :-o

 

To contrast in a desirable (but not really hot) part of Chicago that same price will get you a 1 - 2 bedroom place - un-remodeled but nice, though lofts are always more expensive...

Some of those factories have really thick floors.

Still, you can buy a house for a rent payment like that.

(I like having a yard - even if it is brown & crunchy right now)

If I were a west sider wanting to stay near friends and family on the west side, and I wanted to live closer to my (well-paying) job downtown, with maximum car-ownership convenience, I might consider this place. That's the only way I could see it!

... I shudder to think of all the dust coming from those exposed brick walls and exposed ceilings, not to mention sound transmission due to the lack of a finished ceiling. Tenants will hear every little noise from the units above and below.

It looks like they poured new concrete floors on top of the wood floor so sound should not be a problem.  The units look pretty cavernous.

^ True, that should help with the noise issues a lot. I had a nightmare scenario in OTR where my upstairs neighbors liked to stomp around on their hardwood floors in cowboy boots, so the trauma is still fresh in my mind. (My place had a finished ceiling with two layers of drywall, but that ceiling's acoustic properties were completely negated by dozens of penetrations for recessed light fixtures.)

 

I can't really imagine living in that area myself.  You're right next to the Western Hills Viaduct, I-75, and the rail yards, so air pollution and noise is going to be awful.  No way you're going to want to open any windows on nice days.  It's also right next to a large electrical substation.  There's nowhere to walk to either.  If I was going for an industrial setting I'd go north on Spring Grove a bit where there's some actual neighborhood.  This particular location is right at the north edge of the Queensgate redevelopment, so it's all low-density suburban industrial park to the south.  Bleh!

 

This is the dilemma for a lot of loft conversions. I love the idea of living in a huge wide-open loft space, but many of these buildings are in former industrial areas that often lack a real  neighborhood feel. The cluster of loft buildings around 8th and Sycamore manages to nicely avoid that problem, and I think the Brewery District also has that potential, but of course you'll pay a premium in rent. American Can Lofts up in Northside is a nice development, but it still feels cut off from the main part of the neighborhood.

This is a neat conversion, but I couldn't live in that area either. It does give me hope for the Metal Blast building in the BreweryD. Metal Blast @ OTR.

At least American Can is near the rest of Northside, even if its connection could be a bit better.  The same goes for Spring Grove north of the Western Hills Viaduct.  There may not be a whole lot there now, but Colerain Avenue, where it reappears north of Alfred and Straight Streets, was historically the commercial corridor of the neighborhood while Spring Grove was the industrial corridor.  They're only a block or two apart, with a good mix of residential, commercial, and industrial uses all within close proximity.  So there you could at least get more of a neighborhood/community. 

As soon as that vacant lot at the corner of Blue Rock and Hamilton gets built on, American Can will feel much more integrated into the neighborhood.  As it is, it's a whole three minute walk from the AC building to Hamilton Avenue.

The Crosley building is for sale.  Horrible owners are asking $1.8 million. It looks as though they owe a couple hundred thousand in back taxes which would have to be paid at the sale. Auditor values it at $800,000.

 

For what it is worth, they are trying to sell the building for what it was purchased for years ago ($1.8 million).  Even if it is sold for their asking price I'm sure they've lost their shirt on this purchase after all the costs associated with the building over the years is taken into account.

 

They haven't taken care of anything. They have a million fines against them for being horrible owners, last week, after the city took them to court, they did some basic work on it.

 

They apparently claim they won't pay their taxes because it's overvalued at $800,000, but are asking $1.8 million for it. Idiots.

Interesting - I' bike by this every few days and have never noticed it before. I wish that this area would remain industrial, though - it's such a prime location next to Queensgate, and there is limited room for industrial growth in Cincinnati, which provides a much better tax base. But at least a building is saved and readapted for other uses.

 

Ya, and there's virtually no way that building could have been saved If that spot stayed industrial.