City to sell land, provide loan for Linden Park

Preliminary site plan from Al Neyer, Inc.

Cincinnati City Council voted unanimously to approve two ordinances that will allow the Linden Park project to move forward.

The ordinances allow the City to sell to Neyer College Hill LLC (Al Neyer, Inc.) the former Shuller's Wigwam property at Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road (BIRD'S EYE) in College Hill and will provide the developers with a $1.8 million forgivable loan to finance a funding gap.

The College Hill Urban Redevelopment Corporation selected Al Neyer to build a three-story, mixed-use building for the site with 19 condominium units (with an average price of $234,000), 14,294 square feet of street-level retail and surface parking.

The site will also include building pads for 22 additional three-story townhome units priced between $206,000 and $310,000, which is a future phase to be developed by M/I Homes.

The forgivable loan will come from City capital funds. The remainder of the funding for the $8.7 million project comes from the Cincinnati Development Fund and from owner equity.

The 2.3-acre Shuller's Wigwam property, which has been valued at $600,000, will be sold to Al Neyer for $1. The City believes that an increase in its housing stock and the required creation of 25 new jobs will more than offset this loss.

As a condition of the property sales agreement, Al Neyer must furnish the Department of Community Development with a concept development plan for the site within 120 days.

Buildout of the site should be completed by the end of 2010.

The developer had also been waiting for the City gap financing to be approved before opening a sales office on the site, which should now occur in February.

Future phases, which include properties on the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection, are still in the planning stages.


Preliminary elevations from Al Neyer, Inc.

Previous reading on BC:
New rendering, townhome developer for Linden Park (9/24/07)
Community support of Linden Park decisive (9/6/07)
Linden Park meeting tonight (9/4/07)
Linden Park project to break ground in 2008 (7/24/07)
College Hill: Linden Park Commons update (4/24/07)

Community support of Linden Park decisive

In front of a standing-room-only crowd, the College Hill community voted 224-1 in support of the Linden Park concept plan.

The concept plan will now begin its movement through the City Planning Commission and City Council. The College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation and developer Al Neyer, Inc. are seeking $1.8 million in project gap funding from the City.

The project at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road will include a three-story mixed-use building on the former site of Shuller's Wigwam. Included within the building will be 13,000 square feet of retail space and 19 market-rate condominiums with an attached parking garage.

A second phase will include 24-30 detached single-family homes to be built to the east of the mixed-use building.

More specific design details will be established if the City approves the concept plan and the budgeting of funds.

An updated site plan was not available at the time of this post. It will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

Further reading on BC:
Linden Park meeting tonight (9/4/07)
Linden Park project to break ground in 2008 (7/24/07)
College Hill: Linden Park Commons update (4/24/07)

Linden Park meeting tonight

Artist's concept

A community meeting will be held tonight to present the conceptual design of Linden Park Commons.

A review of schematic design by neighborhood residents is considered crucial in getting the plans approved by City Council.

The $8 million project, which is to be built at Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road, also has a funding gap of $1.8 million and is seeking City funding.

Due to the current housing market, the scaled-down project now includes a three-story mixed-use building on the former site of Shuller's Wigwam. Included within the building will be 13,000 square feet of retail space and 19 market-rate condominiums with an attached parking garage.

A second phase will include 24-28 detached single-family homes to the east.

Dropped from the project is the vacant Kroger store on the northwest corner of the intersection. That property is still privately held and the College Hill Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHURC) is working to acquire it.

Bloomfield, Schon & Partners has agreed to develop the Masonic Eastern Star site to the west of Kroger. Those plans should be available early next year.

The meeting will be held at 7 PM at the College Hill Recreation Center, 5545 Belmont Avenue.

The meeting is being sponsored by the CHURC and College Hill Forum. Staff from Neyer as well as members of the Linden Park Committee will be available to answer questions.

Further reading on BC:
Linden Park project to break ground in 2008 (7/24/07)
College Hill: Linden Park Commons update (4/24/07)

Linden Park project to break ground in 2008

Sketch from the MLS of Greater Cincinnati

College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation president Bob Ludwig reports that the Linden Park Commons project will break ground in 2008.

The two-phase project at Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road will start with the northeast block, the former home of Shuller's Wigwam.

Pre-sales of condominiums for that phase began last October. Ludwig has said that groundbreaking would occur once 40 percent of the units were pre-sold or pre-leased.

Linden Park Commons will be a mixed-use development featuring retail, office space, 28 condos/townhomes and single-family homes.

The development also includes the site of a vacant Kroger and the Masonic Eastern Star Home.

The $25 million project is being developed by Neyer.

Building Cincinnati: College Hill: Linden Park Commons update (4/24/07)

College Hill: Linden Park Commons update

Here are a few tidbits via the College Hill Forum:

Sales for Phase One, which covers the former Shuller's Wigwam property, have begun.

The sale of land agreement for the former Kroger property is in the works and should come through within the next few months.

On the southwest corner of the intersection, land is now under CHCURC control which will become the site of a metal gateway sculpture. This should be installed by the end of the year.

A similar sculpture will go on the south side of the business district at Hamilton and Llanfair avenues. This sculpture will be installed after the City completes its new fire station on the site.

Linden Park Commons will be a mixed-use development featuring retail, office and 28 condos/townhomes. The $25 million development is being done by Neyer.

WINDOWS LIVE BIRD'S EYE VIEW (looking north)
Urban Ohio: Linden Park Commons

(NOTE: This is the first post regarding this project on the blog. The Urban Ohio link above will take you to the Urban Ohio discussion forums for background on this project. The link will open a new browser window.)