Spring Grove Village seeking City funds for business district, restaurant

The Spring Grove Village neighborhood is seeking $350,000 in City funds to help rejuvenate its business district.

The traditional business district, centered around the intersection of North Edgewood and East Epworth avenues (BIRD'S EYE), is plagued by mostly vacant storefronts.

The Winton Place Development Corporation (WPDC) plans to purchase a few of the buildings and tenant them with non-profit businesses that will benefit the neighborhood.

One of their ideas is to open a restaurant that will employ cooperative education students from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

Students would be recruited from the entrepreneurially-minded and would be responsible for all aspects of the operation, including inventory, food preparation, promotion and budgeting.

Cincinnati State has expressed interest in the idea, and the WPDC hopes to add the local business Restaurant Depot as a project partner.

A motion was introduced before City Council by Councilmember and Spring Grove Village resident Chris Monzel identifying eight different surplus capital accounts from which the City Administration could draw the funds.

"With the help of the City, Cincinnati State, and the Restaurant Depot, Spring Grove Village can pioneer a new era of collaborative revitalization within the City that can be utilized and leveraged to other neighborhoods," Monzel wrote in a statement accompanying the motion.

The motion, which was also signed by councilmembers Cole, Cranley, Qualls and Thomas, is currently in City Council's Finance Committee.

The Winton Place Development Committee has been purchasing and rehabilitating properties in Spring Grove Village for 27 years.