Cincinnati to sell streets for Columbia Square

Plat of vacated streets (CLICK)

The City of Cincinnati has agreed to sell two vacated streets to Al Neyer, Inc. to accommodate the retail portion of the Columbia Square development in Columbia Tusculum.

The sale will include 0.46 acres of Broughton Street and 0.11 acres of Butterfield Alley, which will allow for the planned second phase, a retail center along Columbia Parkway, across from Hoge and McDowell streets.

The City will receive a permanent traffic easement to keep Butterfield Alley accessible from Columbia Parkway.

Phase I, a 50,000-square-foot office building, is currently under construction on the southeast corner of Columbia Parkway and Delta Avenue.

At buildout, Columbia Square will include the office and retail buildings as well as an additional 34,000-square-foot office building on the northwest corner of Columbia and Delta.

Previous reading on BC:
Columbia Square photo update, 1/9/08 (1/14/08)
Columbia Square photo update, 10/4/07 (10/12/07)
Service agreement, funds for Columbia Square (8/7/07)

Keystone Parke photo update, 2/3/08

Workers were idle for Super Bowl Sunday, but will soon be back to their cladding work at the Keystone Parke site in Evanston.

Pictured here is a four-story, 69,000-square-foot office building being built by Neyer Properties at the corner of Dana and Realistic avenues, adjacent to I-71.

At buildout, Keystone Park will also include a 10-story, 240,000-square-foot office building with restaurant and/or retail space; a 7-story, 160,000-square-foot office building; a restaurant outlot and improvements to Evanston Playfield.

Please click on each image to enlarge to 640 x 480. Photos will open in a new browser window.








Previous reading on BC:
Keystone Parke tweaked (1/22/08)
AndyHemmer.com: Green building and Keystone Parke (1/2/08)
Keystone Parke photo update (11/6/07)
City authorizes $71.1 million in bonds for projects (8/6/07)
Keystone Parke TIF agreements established (7/5/07)

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)

Keystone Parke tweaked

Due to a change in the bond market and some unanticipated streetscape improvements, bonds have been re-approved for the Keystone Parke project in Evanston.

City Council unanimously approved the issuance of $4.2 million in economic development bonds for the first phase of the $100 million project.

The bulk of the project's first phase, a 60,000-square-foot office building that will house up to 250 employees, is currently under construction.

Developer Neyer Properties has also added to the first phase a 0.79-acre site at the southwest corner of Dana and Realistic avenues (BIRD'S EYE), which will be developed as a restaurant.

The restaurant was originally scheduled for the project's second phase.

Debt on the bonds will be serviced by tax increment financing (TIF) revenues generated by the development site.

The new arrangement will not change the City's plans to issue $21.5 million in bonds for the entire campus.

At buildout, Keystone Parke will also include a 10-story, 240,000-square-foot office building with restaurant and retail space; a 7-story, 160,000-square-foot office building; a 4-story, 69,000-square-foot office building; and improvements to Evanston Playfield.

Previous reading on BC:
AndyHemmer.com: Green building and Keystone Parke (1/2/08)
Keystone Parke photo update (11/6/07)
City authorizes $71.1 million in bonds for projects (8/6/07)
Keystone Parke TIF agreements established (7/5/07)

Columbia Square photo update, 1/9/08

The structural steel skeleton is being erected at the Columbia Square project, with the "topping out" tree already installed at the top.

This structure will be a three-story office building with a first-floor restaurant. No tenants have been named.

The building is expected to be completed in early 2008.

At buildout, developer Al Neyer, Inc. plans two office buildings and an assortment of smaller retail and restaurant structures.

Please click on each image to enlarge to 640 x 480. Photos will open in a new browser window.










Previous reading on BC:
Columbia Square photo update, 10/4/07 (10/12/07)
Service agreement, funds for Columbia Square (8/7/07)