Uptown : Development News

You don’t have to be a UC student or faculty member to take a spin in one of the region’s first ZipCars, convenient alternatives to owning a car in an urban setting. Now, in addition to about 300,000 people in the city limits of Cincinnati, add four ZipCars. Their names are Footsies, Iyana, Felicia and Moto.

Pull up the map on ZipCar’s website, and you’ll see the East coat is full of the easy in-city rentals. They operate out of universities and cities. Even Indiana has ZipCars at four different universities. Ohio, on the other hand, has only had them available in Cleveland. Until now.

The four new cars sit in two separate places on UC’s Clifton campus. But don’t let the university location fool you. ZipCars are available for public rental and while UC students and faculty get discounted prices, the cost is still reasonable for the general public.

Once you sign up for and pay the annual fee, which differs based on the plans, you receive a ZipCard. With the card in hand, you can reserve a car for a couple of hours or the whole day. Walk up to the car, swipe your ZipCard past the windshield, and a new mode of transportation is open to you.

With its proximity to downtown, ZipCar expects to draw users beyond the university. According to ZipCar sales operation managers Bill Connolly, many users in other cities are reporters.

As a reporter without a car, I make my way around town via public transit and a bicycle. Frequently, this means I have to pass up opportunities to do in-person interviews because I can’t make it to locations outside of the city. I jumped on the opportunity to use ZipCar and rent a car for around $7 an hour, including gas and insurance.

The car sharing program can replace a seldom used car, or even owning a car altogether. The benefits are enticing. Hop on a bus to UC, swipe your ZipCard and don’t ever worry about taking your car to get the oil changed or paying $400 for new tires.

By Evan Wallis

When the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati cuts the ribbon Aug. 20 to open its Green Learning Station, it will do more than add a new exhibit to its facility on Reading Road. The nonprofit center, which has provided horticultural education and resources to green-thumbed Cincinnatians since the 1940s, will offer new services, education and scientific information.

The $1.2 million Green Learning station showcases a wide range of environmentally friendly technology, including a composting facility, a green roof and pervious pavers to control water runoff.

"We've got all of this technology concentrated in a very small area," says CGC program manager Ryan Mooney-Bullock.

The technology allows the CGC to expand its educational offerings. Along with its traditional programs focused on growing flowers, fruits and vegetables, the center can now offer courses on composting, rainwater management as well as other environmental topics that shape quality of life. Consequently, the center's long-standing field-trip programming now includes options for middle-and high-school students, and Mooney-Bullock says professional development courses are being created for landscape architects, builders and green professionals.

CGC board member and Green Learning Station project manager Betsy Townsend says this spirit of going above and beyond springs from the very process that launched the station. Input from the variety of granting agencies that funded the project, such as the Metropolitan Sewer District, which supported the project through a $400,000 grant, helped determine its final focus.

"The details of the project expanded," Townsend says. "We were able to incorporate elements that weren't in our original budget."

Some of those elements include research, a new avenue for CGC to pursue with its facilities. Environmental sensor supplier UrbanAlta provided equipment and expertise that turned the Green Learning Station's exhibits into measurable test pieces for environmental technology. Mooney-Bullock explains that students from the University of Cincinnati and environmental engineers are using the sensors to track how the station's green roof, pervious pavers and other rainwater control measures perform on a near-real-time basis. The data collected could help improve the city's runoff management, a major issue for the MSD.

"They really need that data to make the case to install the technology on a wide scale, and to support policy changes," she says.

Townsend adds that the Green Learning Station will continue the CGC's mission of public education as well, through self-guided tours. And as this year's plants take root and begin to flourish in 2012, she says the CGC will work to reach out to more members of the public than ever.

"That's a piece we will really be pushing next spring," she says.

By Matt Cunningham

Follow Matt on Twitter @cunningcontent

The Cincinnati Development Fund has been a financial resource for affordable housing development in the city's neighborhoods for 23 years. And that long track record of helping spur development -- and redevelopment -- in some of Cincinnati's underserved areas recently earned the CDF a $1.5 million federal grant to support its mission.

The grant comes from the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI). The CDFI awarded $142,302,667 to 155 community development financial institutions -- like CDF -- nationwide. CDF received $750,000 from the fund in 2010, making this year's award a very pleasant surprise, says CDF president and CEO Jeanne Golliher.

"We were really expecting something along the lines of what we got last year," she says.

The $1.5 million sum is the maximum any single organization could receive from the CDFI. Golliher credits CDF's long-standing role in the community as reason for the high award.

"We're really in touch," she says. "We know where the needs are."

A main focus of CDF's efforts, she explains, are smaller developers -- sometimes individual homeowners, sometimes development companies focusing on one or two buildings -- who wish to revitalize property in parts of the city suffering from high foreclosure and vacancy rates. The smaller developers fit a niche that complements larger development organizations, such as the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), which is in the midst of redeveloping a large portion of Over-the-Rhine. Golliher refers to many of CDF's borrowers as "urban pioneers:" people willing to be early redevelopers in areas that have yet to see widespread revitalization.

"We've had so much activity with our small loan program," she says. "There are a lot of cases where people want to buy and fix up a building on their own, and they come to us."

Golliher says her team is in the process of planning how to best use the grant funds. Some of it may be used as matching funds for $3.3 million in low-interest funding CDF has requested from the U.S. Treasury to help fund small business development in the city.  She plans to present a proposal for how the funds will be used at CDF's August board meeting. In the meantime, she says she and her team are thrilled by this recent show of federal support.

"I think it speaks to our track record," she says.

By Matt Cunningham

Follow Matt on Twitter @cunningcontent

The Cincinnati Streetcar could soon become one of the first projects in the country to be funded by the Federal government's Urban Circulator grant program. The city of Cincnnati announced June 10 that the project received a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a final step needed before the project could access the Urban Circulator funds it won in June 2010.

According to Streetcar Project Manager Chris Eilerman, a key to passing that government-mandated standard has been a commitment to protecting not only the physical environment, but the cultural one as well.

"Because this project extends into Over-the-Rhine, which is pretty heavily regulated, we were really sensitive when looking at the impact," he said. "We want to make sure we don't produce a negative impact on the historic properties."

Over-the-Rhine's historic collection of Italianate architecture is as much a part of the environment as air and water quality - at least in terms of what the EPA's environmental assessment evaluates. Eilerman said as part of the assessment, the city has promised to work closely with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office. The office will review designs for platforms, transmission wire poles and other streetcar facilities, to ensure they complement the historic neighborhood's overall look and feel.

"This is a neighborhood that grew up around streetcar transit," Eilerman said. "We view the resurgence in this type of transit as something that could make the neighborhood better, and we want to make sure we do that."

He explained that, now that the FONSI is on the records, the project will work to complete initial design work and right-of-way negotiations. Throughout the process - especially in the design department - the Ohio Historic Preservation Office will provide review and oversight, to make sure Cincinnati's streetcar fits in with the past as it moves the city into the future.

Writer:  Matt Cunningham

Short Vine in Corryville, once a hot spot for electic night spots, gets a a new bar and restaurant that replaces a former drug hot spot.

Dive Bar owner Joe Pedro, a Columbus native and business owner of two bars near Ohio State University, said choosing the site for the Dive Bar came down to the old real estate maxim: Location, location, location.

"We like the proximity to the college campus and to the hospitals," he said. "There is a lot of people around the area who are good for our services. We also immediately fell in love with the history and character that Short Vine has to offer."

Although in recent years this stretch of Short Vine has been known more for drug activity than business opportunities, Pedro said the past serves as a model for what the street could again become.

"The drug activity is a concern that we are aware of, but we are making an effort to get involved right away with the community and other business members to take hold of the street for the community and push out those elements that no one really cares for," he explained. "Over the past eight months we've seen more businesses coming through as well as more involvement with the community business association and city officials that have made changes that everyone has longed for and wants for the area."

Construction of the bar took six months and involved completely gutting and renovating the whole space, leaving exposed brick throughout. Pedro also installed wood floors and new counter tops. The impetus for the work? Pedro's, and his partners', desire for the personality - and affordable cost - of an older building.

Beth Robinson, President and CEO of The Uptown Consortium, is extremely supportive and thrilled about the new local hangout.

"We've made great strides in the past couple of years on Short Vine with continuous police control and increased activity of businesses and residents on Short Vine," she explained. "The bad image is starting to fade into the past as we start to have more businesses open in the area, which will help attract people back on the street and customers back to the area."

Writer: Lisa Ensminger

Cincinnati City Council and more than 100 local residents gathered in Council chambers Wednesday for a special session on one of the city's hottest political footballs: The proposed Cincinnati Streetcar.

On May 3, Mayor Mark Mallory and city manager Milton Dohoney released details on a revised streetcar plan, which adapts the original $128 million dollar plan to account for the loss of state funding earlier this year. The new plan breaks the Banks-to Uptown streetcar line into phases, and proposes a $99 million first phase that would run from Fountain Square to Findlay Market. As additional funds become available, the line would be extended to reach the Banks and Uptown via Vine Street and a to-be-planned circulator loop.

The announcement prompted streetcar opponents on Council, Republicans Charlie Winburn, Amy Murray, Leslie Ghiz and Wayne Lippert, to call for Wednesday's special session. In a press release, Winburn called the meeting a chance to hold streetcar supporters accountable for the money spent on - and planned to be used for - the project.

At the meeting's start, City Manager Dohoney presented details of the revised streetcar plan, including notes about case studies, peer reviews conducted and funding sources that would support the streetcar without touching the city's general fund. He mentioned multiple times that the original streetcar plan and route remain essentially unaltered, but have been broken into phases to adapt to the new funding situation. But funding, scope and city authority became focal points of several questions after Dohoney finished.

Councilmember Murray started with questions about appropriation of Banks Tax increment Financing District funds for the project.

"The argument put forward to justify stealing from the Banks to fund the streetcar was that the streetcar would benefit the Banks," she said. "Now that it's not going to the Banks, how do you justify this?"

Dohoney reiterated that the Banks-to-Uptown plan remains intact, but would now be built in phases. "The vision for where the streetcar's going has not changed at all," he said, adding that the initial route still comes within three blocks of the Banks, a distance research suggests would still wrap it in the streetcar's economic boost radius.

Winburn raised an array of questions, ranging from details about funding to the administration's authority to pursue the project and its associated funds. While Dohoney referred financial questions to the city's finance office, he responded, again, that 12 council ordinances and one resolution had already uthorized the work to begin.

"These authorized the administration to plan, design and construct the streetcar," Dohoney said. "The direction we were given says to avoid the general fund, and we've managed to do that. The administration has authorized us to advance the project."

Councilmember Lippert asked if council had considered 'worst-case scenarios' for a streetcar, noting Detroit's expensive and little-used People Mover system. Dohoney prompted some laughter with his response:

"I'd admit Detroit is a worst-case scenario for a lot of things," he said, adding "I can't tell you every city that does a streetcar doesn't have downsides. But we're plugged into the streetcar community, and we have not found a city that says, 'this was not worth it; there were downsides.'"

Council then opened the floor to more than two hours' worth of public comments. The vast majority of the 45 speakers expressed support for the streetcar, with many telling how they'd bought or launched businesses along the route in hopes of leveraging its projected economic boost to Over-the-Rhine.

Jean-François Flechet, owner of Taste of Belgium waffle bakery and cafes, said that his decision to open a café at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and his plans for a third location in the city are based on the streetcar route.

"I love the idea of being able to take the streetcar to my businesses, and not have to drive," he said.

Flechet also noted that the lack of parking at Findlay Market - a planned stop along the first-phase route - is a problem that could be directly solved by the streetcar.

"You see people come in, who are frustrated because they've been waiting, they don't stay as long as they might," he said.

Other streetcar proponents fired back at the Republican council members. "I'm amazed by the criticisms I hear," said resident Edward Osborne. "It's penny-wise and pound-foolish."

Only about five speakers raised opposition to the project. Rev. Doc Foster called on council to use the funds for streets, police and fire services.  "We need to put that money where it will support real jobs," he said. "We can't afford the streetcar, Mayor."  Realtor Kathleen Norris suggested the City needs to consider the bigger, national picture where other cities are currently evaluating streetcar projects.

"If we're not as future-oriented and aggressive as the 80 other cities, we will watch our status erode," said Norris.

At the end, Mallory thanked the attendees. "Every single speaker who commented here did so because they care about Cincinnati," he said. "In any public forum, that's the most you could ask for."

Winburn said he'd likely retract his call for an additional special session after this meeting, and appeared to make comments to clarify his purpose for calling the meeting. "This was really about fiscal accountability," he said. "I just want to make sure we don't bankrupt the city."

Writer: Matt Cunningham

Cincinnati City Council's Quality of Life Committee received an update Tuesday on Cincinnati Public Schools' progress on its facilities master plan. This system-wide construction and renovation project has garnered national attention, not only for its scope but also for its emphasis on green building. The project's 23 LEED certified or registered schools have CPS on track to be one of the nation's most environmentally sustainable school systems, and is playing a key role in some of Cincinnati's key goals, said council member and committee chair Laure Quinlivan.

"The most important thing [council] can do as politicians is try to get more people and businesses into the community. One of the big questions I hear again and again is, 'how are the schools?'" she said. "The better our schools, the more people we retain in our urban core."

CPS Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Michael Burson reported that the project has completed construction and renovation on 36 of its 51 planned and current schools. Ten more are under construction, and five are in various stages of the construction bidding process.

But the master plan, which was initially approved in 2002, is already showing results, he noted. The biggest change comes from 'right sizing' the system, he said.

"We were operating 80 schools, a legacy of the 90,000 students we had in the 60s," he said. "A lot of the old buildings didn't consume a lot of energy, but they were not that functional and their environment wasn't that great.

"The master plan, he explained, changed in 2007 to mandate LEED Silver certification or better, meaning that CPS would had the potential to become one of the greenest school districts in the nation. Burson reported at the meeting that CPS has already achieved a number of noteworthy marks, including the first LEED Silver certified school in the state (Pleasant Ridge Montessori). And the sustainable construction is more than a bragging point; he explained that CPS is on track to operate its upgraded facilities - complete with new technology, security features and modern air conditioning - for the same cost per square foot it spent to operate the outdated, inefficient schools with a fraction of the amenities.

"I was really surprised at all I heard CPS is doing," said Quinlivan. "They're really on the cutting edge of facilities, and it's great for students to be in buildings that are healthy as well as new."

Burson went a step further, noting that the green building features are becoming a hands-on part of curricula throughout the system. And therein, he said, lies the biggest contribution CPS is making to the city through its facility upgrades. "For us, I think we're able to influence the younger generation, and we're instituting this into the culture," he said.

Writer: Matt Cunningham

The Uptown Consortium's plans to boost growth and investment in the area around UC and the hospital-heavy 'pill hill' could soon get a big boost, in the form of a cutting-edge transit hub. Cincinnati Metro announced it will begin planning this year for an uptown transit hub that could include everything from new express routes to bike storage and connections to hospital and university transit routes.

"We want to work with the community to determine what they want to see in the facility," said Colin Groth, Metro's government relations director. He explained that the motivation to create a transit hub comes both from Metro's experience with similar projects and a desire to make the most of what public transit can offer the city's commuters.

"Like many American cities, we have a traditional hub-and-spoke transit system," Groth said, "and we've long had the vision for a neighborhood hub network."

That network, as envisioned by metro, would feature transit centers in many of Cincinnati's more populous neighborhoods and suburbs. Much like the large hub at Government Square, where 90 percent of Metro's routes converge in a few blocks, these smaller hubs would let users access much of the city and surrounding area without frequent bus changes or long waits at small stops along the way. Depending on demand, some of the hubs may offer new express routes (imagine a direct line connecting Cincinnati Children's Hospital's main and Liberty campuses, for example) and facilities such as bike lockers and showers. Metro is already developing two such hubs, in Anderson Township and Glenway Crossing in Western Hills, and Groth said the transit authority is actively seeking additional funding that could bring more such projects online in the future.

But in the meantime, the Uptown hub is at a fresh, wide-open stage: Funding through the state and OKI has already been secured, and it's time for the real planning work to begin.

"It's important to note that we're moving from that conceptual phase to becoming a real project," said Groth. "We [Metro] don't want to define what it is, we want the community to be part of that process. We want to be sure we're creating value for the community."

That's music to the ears of Beth Robinson, director of the Uptown Consortium. She said the project fits in well with the consortium's efforts to enhance and revitalize the neighborhood.

"Any time you have a link with transit access, it brings in more people," she said. "And when you're trying to attract more development, this is the kind of thing they look for."

Groth noted that Metro, the Uptown Consortium, the Corryville Revitalization Consortium and University of Cincinnati are all working together to identify what should be included in the transit hub, and where it should be located. And while those discussions are just getting started, he and Robinson both noted some tantalizing ideas that could well be part of the finished facility.

"We like the idea of a mixed-use concept," said Robinson, referring to the possibility of integrating the facility in with retail or residential space in the densely packed neighborhood. "We're thinking a bit out of the box on this."

And Groth noted that the combination of these features and multiple access routes could mean better, more affordable access for commuters and Uptown residents alike, giving better access to such community-building features as better housing and job choices.

"We want to do a project that really demonstrates the value of transit: these are the things we can do with a real transit project: make market rate housing a reality and develop retail in the area," he said.

Evaluation and compliance studies for the transit hub are projected to begin this summer, with the possibility that groundbreaking could take place as early as 2012.

Writer: Matt Cunningham

A new residential, retail, and office space will break ground this summer in the backyard of the University of Cincinnati's campus.  Located between Calhoun and McMillan streets, University Square at the Loop is a joint effort with developers Towne Properties and Al Neyer Inc.

"It's been a collaborative and organic effort all the way to gain community and university support and to make sure the project reflects the unique and authentic values of the neighborhood that serves the students and Uptown employees," said Gail Paul, business development at Al Neyer Inc.

The project consists of 161 residential units that will be built over 80,300 square feet of restaurant and retail space, a 100 room hotel, 716 space parking garage, and 44,000 square feet of Class A office space. The developers incorporated the opinions of UC's student body, including 1500 student participants in a survey, and met consistently with student body representatives during the planning phase. Students told the developers that they would like to see clothing stores, bookstores, electronic and supply stores, and affordable restaurants at the development.

"We will continue to go out and gain input as the project develops to make sure UC students get behind the project, shop at its stores, and eat at its restaurants and socialize at its bars," said Alan Hagerty, incoming student body president at University of Cincinnati. "We are happy to be a part of the development process."

Developers expect to attract graduate students, young professionals and UC employees with studio and one to two bedroom apartments that have nine-foot ceilings, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. The construction and buildings will be LEED certified.

"When you're building in a university setting with major institutions like the Cincinnati Zoo and Children's Hospital, you're walking among green giants in a way," Paul explained. "So you want to stand tall with the neighborhood and company, allowing residents to appreciate the green qualities while wanting to work and live in a green environment."

Writer: Lisa Ensminger

Despite the state removing $51.8 million intended for it, the Cincinnati Streetcar project is driving forward, thanks to anenvironmental assessment prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) and HDR. Backed by the City of Cincinnati and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the downtown and Blue Ash firms, respectively, presented their study at public hearings held at Cincinnati City Hall last week. They're gathering public comments through April 21 in order to comply with federal laws, offering copies of the study via the city's website and public libraries and community centers.

Councilman Cecil Thomas spoke at the 5:30 p.m. public hearing last Wednesday. He was one of two audience speakers, both of whom supported the study.

"I truly believe that we should continue to march forward with the project," he said. "Unfortunately, the state has chosen to do what they did, but that shouldn't be disappointing … we need to continue on."

After filing those comments, PB and HDR will submit the study to the FTA. Discussions of funding come later, says PB's streetcar project manager Fred Craig. "This is simply to quantify the environmental impact of the project so that the feds can actually put money into the project."

The study began soon after the FTA awarded the city approximately $25 million through an Urban Circulator Grant. It reports that the streetcar system, encompassing the riverfront, Over-the-Rhine and the University of Cincinnati area ("Uptown"), would present minimal or no impacts to the air quality, water resources, noise and visuals of the aforementioned areas. The community impact, it reports, would be limited to the displacement of Volunteers of America's halfway house, located at 115. W. McMicken Ave, one proposed site for a streetcar maintenance and storage facility.

"This is a critical turning point," Craig says, "because what it says is that the environmental impacts of the project are positive and that it shouldn't have an adverse impact on the community." 

The Cincinnati Streetcar Project timeline includes construction of a maintenance and storage facility and streetcar tracks beginning this Fall, 2011, with an opening in 2013.

Writer: Rich Shivener

A UC DAAP student has taken an innovative approach to making Cincinnati's bus system more usable and available to residents and visitors.

The motivation started when Nathan Wessel realized his friends weren't using Metro's extensive bus system, partly because they claimed they didn't understand it. It was a common enough complaint that Wessel began to wonder why other residents struggled with using Metro when Cincinnati's transportation system had extensive routes and limited wait times.

One reason, Wessel observed, was that current transit maps include too much information, leaving riders confused and perhaps unwilling to ride. So he designed a map to assuage rider concerns, allowing them to quickly and easily see which line they need to take, how to take it, and how long they will have to wait.

"I designed the map for people who don't ride transit a lot. My aim is to get more people on the bus, out of the cars, and to improve the quality of life for people who use the bus."

By using an online donation site, Kickstarter, Wessel launched his project with the goal of receiving enough funding in one month, about $1,200, to publish and print a convenient map for the transit system.

"I didn't know what to expect because my first thought was to go to major institutions and see if I could get a chunk of money from them," Wessel said. "I tried a few places like corporations and universities, but it didn't go anywhere fast."

By using Kickstarter, Wessel has already received a great response and more money than his initial goal. To keep the project moving forward he issued the map under a Creative Commons attribution share-alike license, which allows anyone to distribute or modify the maps after initial printing.

Dave Etienne, Metro's Marketing Director, has no problem with Wessel's DIY approach.

"I support anything that increases access to information on how to use transit. Especially during these budgetary times, it's great that citizens are actively involved with trying to improve and help the transit system," Etienne said.

Although the economic recession slowed down enhancements for local transit, SORTA does plan to move forward with improvements for Metro including actively working to make information and maps suitable for Google, updating a system map, creating a new website, and implementing a new communications system on buses.

In the meantime, Wessel believes his map will help businesses and homeowners identify neighborhoods where they want to settle. His map will show the most traveled places in Cincinnati, making it ideal for businesses to locate without doing a lot of research.

"I would really like for this map to help businesses. A good transit system should structure the city around it. If there's a bus going 75 trips in each direction, that's probably a good place to look for a business or own a home. This is the first step into thinking how we can rebuild the city," Wessel said.

Writer: Lisa Ensminger

While Americans continue to talk about the unhealthy side effects of conventional food systems, hundreds of people in Cincinnati are working to create a homegrown alternative in their communities.

Some of them are farmers and ecological food advocates who bring healthy, sustainably produced food to consumers. Others hope to bring fresh food to people in urban areas who don't have access to it at all, regardless of how it was grown. Though they often share common goals, many of these entities and individuals are too busy to even know the other exists.

In a continued effort to bring the different cogs of Cincinnati's food network together, the Food Congress is hosting its third annual conference on Saturday April 9th. There, dozens of Cincinnati food advocates, farmers, processors and distributors will gather to talk about the economic costs and benefits of building a regional food economy here, and serving the under served in the process.

"The food congress provides the opportunity for different organizations to capitalize on one another's efforts," the event's organizer Clare Norwood said. "It is networking but it's also info sharing, because most organizations are often too busy to focus on what everyone else is doing."

Norwood said she hopes the conference will be able to provide food policy recommendations for City Council that are backed by evidence of the social and economic benefits that different food initiatives could bring to neighborhoods.

This year's conference will explore the costs and benefits of urban agriculture, the potential for a local value-added food processing industry, and opportunities to expand the region's composting industry as well. It will also present major endeavors recently launched to bring healthy food to people in Cincinnati's low-income corridors who have little or no access to it.

National food justice expert Mari Gallagher will present a food balance study, commissioned by the Hamilton County Health Department and the Nutrition Council, that compares levels of food access in Cincinnati's different neighborhoods. Tiffany McDowell, a programs director from the Center for Closing the Health Gap, will talk about a partnership her organization has undertaken with the National Food Trust aimed at solving food access problems in Cincinnati's urban neighborhoods.

Representatives from Marvin's Organic Gardens and the US EPA will participate on a panel about composting. The owners of Green B.E.A.N Delivery and Sustain Brands will discuss food distribution models and value-added food processing. And farmers from Carriage House Farms, Wooden Shoe Gardens and Permaganic will talk about supporting local food producers.

The conference is $10 to attend, which helps to pay for lunch provided by Picnic and Pantry. It will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Community Design Center at the Niehoff Urban Studio in Corryville, an arm of UC's DAAP program.

Find more information here.

Writer: Henry Sweets
Photography by Scott Beseler
Picnic and Pantry

What can $28 million in tax credits do in revitalizing Cincinnati's urban core? That's a good question to ask the Cincinnati Development Fund (CDF), which just learned that it is one of two organizations in Greater Cincinnati being awarded this amount in New Markets Tax Credits for the year 2010.

The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), established by Congress in 2000, allows individuals and corporate taxpayers to receive a 39% credit against federal income taxes in exchange for making qualified equity investments into community development enterprises. The projects must happen in qualified low income neighborhoods and benefit those neighborhoods through job growth and community revitalization.

"In most cases, the NMTCs are used in larger scale development projects that are challenging to do and require large amounts of equity. These tax credits make these projects affordable," particularly in neighborhoods that need renewal, and often serve as a catalyst to jump start new development, according to Alicia Townsend, CDF loan officer and consultant.

CDF has funded ten NMTR projects in the last five years, since receiving its first award of $52 million in 2005. Working then with the Uptown Consortium, CDF set up a loan fund that supported projects like the Cincinnati Herald office building and the Hampton Inn hotel and helped to fund the land banking of underdeveloped property for future use.

Three notable projects using NMTCs are currently underway in Cincinnati's urban core. The historic Vernon Manor's renovation into office space is one such project. Group Health Associates' new medical office building on Good Samaritan Hospital's campus will benefit the local residents of Clifton Heights with better access to medical care and job creation. And Washington Park's rejuvenation as a modern outdoor playground and community gathering space is funded in part with $16 million in NMTCs.

This year, out of the 250 applicants for this tax credit program, only 99 received funding, and two of those organizations are local: CDF and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), which received $18 million for 2010. 3CDC and CDF recently partnered on the Washington Park garage and redevelopment and are exploring other opportunities to work together in leveraging tax credits for much needed equity in deserving development projects.

Because of the good these tax credits do, CDF's president and CEO Jeanne Golliher wishes for more. "We had asked for $75 million [this year] so we have to scale back" in funding projects.

Still, with a five year total of $110 million in tax credit investments, Cincinnati's at-risk neighborhoods have benefitted from the program already. Because the CDF is among only three non-bank community development financial institutions to be approved for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, it has greater access to capital to support their housing development financing. This, in combination with its NMTC loans, will give CDF even greater resources in revitalizing Cincinnati's urban core communities.

Writer: Becky Johnson

The Uptown Consortium is working with a local recycling and job training program to demolish a building at 3500 Burnet in Avondale and make way for a new mixed use project that will play a key role in the group's master plan to revitalize Burnet Avenue in Avondale.

This past weekend the Partnership for Green Building worked to remove decorative sandstone features, fans and other fixtures from the building at 3500 Burnet. The brick and concrete will be ground up and used for gravel and underlay, and the wood will be shredded and composted. Lisa Doxsee, communications manager for Building Value, said that up to 90 percent of the mass of the building would be recycled or repurposed during the project.

The Uptown Consortium is currently working with two developers on potential development plans for a mixed use building on the site, and the developers will be encouraged to aim for LEED certification, Uptown's executive director Beth Robinson said.

The building was purchased by the Uptown Consortium three years ago during an $11 million campaign to purchase land and buildings on or near Burnet Ave, with the intent of attracting new development to the area. Other projects built on that land include a new medical center and parking garage for Children's hospital and a low income housing project built by Model Group.

"We've redeveloped a lot of the street and now [3500 Burnet] is a major corner, a major site that's really underutilized." Robinson said. "We're trying to get some commercial activity on Burnet and that's a logical site for it."

She said working with the Partnership will help them achieve two of their goals, to be more sustainable and provide better employment opportunities for residents of the Uptown neighborhoods.

Building Value, ACT Recycling and Rumpke Recycling created A Partnership for Greener Building about two years ago as an extension of job training programs Building Value had already implemented. In the partnership, Building Value trains unemployed or underemployed residents to deconstruct buildings and salvage usable materials like lumber and fixtures to be sold in Building Value's retail store. Rumpke and ACT recycle the materials that can't be salvaged.

Most of the program's graduates receive employment upon graduation, and any building constructed on the site can earn points toward LEED certification.

Writer: Henry Sweets

A partnership between Uptown Rental Properties and North American Properties will add 237 apartment units near the UC campus in the next two years.

The largest project, called 65 West, will open late this summer. Construction on the second project, which consists of two buildings in Corryville, will begin in 45 days. All three buildings are expected to receive LEED silver certification, Uptown Rentals' owner Dan Schimberg said.

Schimberg said there is a growing demand for new, safe, energy efficient housing within walking distance to the UC Campus. 65 West is almost 50 percent leased several months before its completion.

The success of 65 West led the partners to pursue the second project in Corryville. It will include one five-story mixed-use building on Short Vine at the old Benchmark site, and a larger residential complex facing Euclid Avenue and Van Street nearby. Those two buildings will add housing for 150-200 people in the Short Vine area, Schimberg said.

"Short Vine has had twenty years of decline, and we think the time has come for Short Vine to come back," Schimberg said. "And in order to build the vitality of the Short Vine business district, you need a critical mass of people living around it."

A new hotel, a city-funded streetscape project, and new Kroger and Walgreens stores are also on the horizon for Short Vine.

Schimberg began rehabbing buildings in the Uptown district in the mid-1980s, after graduating from the University of Cincinnati. Since then his business has grown to manage over 2,000 rental units.

The most recent partnership began when North American Properties purchased the old Friars Club building, which was adjacent to properties that Uptown owned. The two groups decided to work together to redevelop the block, and conceived the 129-unit apartment complex called 65 West. Schimberg said the partnership will continue to look for land in the Uptown area for similar projects.

Writer: Henry Sweets