Monday news roundup

The BIG! news

The major news of the week was the announcement of the $300 million Great American Insurance Building at Queen City Square.

The 660-foot, 40-story tower will be developed by Western & Southern Financial Group and should be completed by 2011. American Financial Group (AFG) will occupy 22 floors.

The building's design still must be completed and then approved by the City's Urban Design Review Board.

A reader of BC commented on my survey that I had not posted about this huge news and that my omission causes this site to lose credibility, so I thought I'd go ahead and address that here for the benefit of all of you.

Given the limited amount of posts I can produce in a day, I typically will not cover things that are already being well-covered in every other major media outlet in the City, unless I have some other piece of information that you can't find anywhere else.

For example, I did not post when the agreements for the Banks were signed, except to refer to an Enquirer article. I did, however, have several other posts about the Banks in the days before and the days after the announcement, including information about height restrictions and one post where I broke down the master development agreement block-by-block.

And you can bet that when the Banks and Queen City Square break ground, I will be posting more construction photos than you'll be able to find anywhere else.

So I should ask (and readers, feel free to comment): Would you have liked to see BC cover the Queen City Square announcement, even if was just regurgitated information from another news article?

As for my personal feelings on the project itself, I think it will be fantastic. I'm all for the consolidation of AFG employees and the freeing of smaller blocks of Downtown office space for new users. I like the fact that these employees will be downtown for many years, and I like the fact that a fantastically hideous parking garage is going to bite the dust.

Aesthetically, the building is not my favorite, but I'll temper my judgement because I've been tricked by renderings before. Remember that a building is three-dimensional and alive - it interacts with its environment. Perhaps it's the peculiar way that light strikes it, or its interplay with the street and surrounding structures, or the way it looks in the skyline from an angle you've never seen before. These charms cannot be conveyed on paper.


Other stories

The Business Courier of Cincinnati reports that times are hard at the Bartlett Building. The building's owner and manager is having trouble due to bankruptcy, and the tenants are working with Duke Energy to keep the gas and electric on.

The Enquirer reports that the City of Fort Thomas next month will be making a decision on how to proceed with a $2 million streetscape for the Midway District. The city hopes that beautification of the district, which is along South Fort Thomas Avenue, will help to lure investors to fill in the storefronts.

The Enquirer reports that Notre Dame Academy is planning a $10 million upgrade of its Park Hills campus. The project will break ground in the spring and the centerpiece will be a new 8,450-square-foot performing arts center.

The Enquirer reports that the City of Loveland is still pursuing its three-acre downtown redevelopment project. Two developers have walked away from the project because they didn't think it made financial sense.

All Saints Church reports that the $3 million renovtion of their Kenwood worship space has been completed. Consecrated by Archbishop Pilarczyk on Saturday, the project is the third and final phase of the church's master plan.