After years of work, key city area blooming
BY LISA BERNARD-KUHN | LBERNARD@ENQUIRER.COM

OVER-THE-RHINE – The last year and half has marked a huge leap for business growth and development in one of the city’s formerly most troubled and now most rapidly transforming neighborhoods.

Since 2007, Over-the-Rhine has become home to nearly a dozen new businesses and more than 100 newly rehabbed condos, representing more than $100 million in private and public investment.

“There are so many people with an oar in the water now,” said Mario San Marco, president of Eagle Realty Group, a subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group.

San Marco is the outgoing chairman of the board for the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, which held its annual meeting Thursday at Music Hall Ballroom.

He recapped the neighborhood’s highlights for more than 200 city and business leaders.

“We continue to make such progress,” he said, touting the work by Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. and its development partners The Model Group, Urban Sites, B2B Equity and the Northpointe Group.

Block by block, the groups have transformed vacant and boarded-up buildings into new urban condos and street-level retail space that has become known as the Gateway Quarter.

The revitalization – which has been concentrated along Vine Street and northeast of Washington Park – has helped attract an onslaught of new retailers and restaurants, such as “green” retailer Park + Vine, the home furnishing store Metronation and Jean-Robert de Cavel’s new restaurant, Lavomatic.

Keynote speaker for the afternoon was another Western & Southern executive, John Barrett – the company’s CEO, chairman and president.

Because of a recent knee replacement, Barrett’s talk – which focused on broader issues facing Greater Cincinnati – was transmitted as a Webcast and projected on large screens for the audience.

Barrett said Cincinnatians are too hard on themselves, resulting in delayed and lackluster decisions.

“I think this city is low on vision, and our desire to execute frequently results in mediocre results rather than world-class results,” he said.

Greater Cincinnati needs “to do several things and we ought to do them quickly,” to move forward, he said. First, the region needs to expand its tax base by luring at least two to three more Fortune 500 companies to town.

“The money and talent that follow these headquarters are unbelievably huge,” he said.

He said a thriving downtown must be a priority. Specifically, he said, downtown needs “unquestioned” safety, ample parking, more office workers and more people living in the city.

“To get the last two, you need to have the first two,” he said. “Retail and entertainment will follow the people, if we do the other things first.”

Late last year, Western & Southern Financial unveiled a plan to build a 40-story skyscraper downtown that will serve as the new headquarters for Great American Insurance, a unit of American Financial Group.

In other news Thursday, the chamber voted to elect Russ Wilson of Frost Brown Todd as chairman of the board for 2008.

Elected as vice president was Robert Maly of The Model Group. Joan Kaup of Kaup Pender Associates will be secretary and Richard Daeshner of Rippe & Kingston Co. will be treasurer.

Celebrate the one-year anniversary of Cincinnati’s environmentally friendly green general store, Park + Vine, 1109 Vine Street, May 30-June 1.

Park + Vine is among a string of stores nationwide focusing on ecologically minded merchandise. With nearly one out of five consumers now actively buying “eco-friendly” products and more people supporting locally owned businesses, Park + Vine experienced sustained growth in its first year.

“Marking our one-year anniversary is cause for celebration,” said Park + Vine owner Dan Korman. “We are fortunate to have customers who believe in us and have supported our entrepreneurial spirit since day one.”

Park + Vine’s one-year anniversary kicks off with a party 6-9 p.m. May 30 featuring vegan appetizers and drinks from local businesses. At 7 p.m., Peter Adams and the Nocturnal Collective rolls in for a violin-soaked punk-folk-rock performance.

Park + Vine will open at 10 a.m. May 31 to greet runners and walkers in the GO OTR 5K Run/Walk. Product demonstrations will be offered by Green Cauldron from noon-2 p.m. and Young Living Essential Oils from 2-4 p.m. The public is invited to a shopping party for the Cincinnati Waldorf School from 7-9 p.m.

In the tradition of one-year anniversaries, Park + Vine is taking 25% off all paper goods, including recycled household products, books and cardboard vases, all weekend. Customers can enter a drawing for a Dahon Mariner folding bicycle from Reser Bicycle Outfitters and anyone who shops by bike or bears a Fringe Festival button receives 15% off their purchase.

Park + Vine recently received numerous honors:
• New Business of the Year (Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce)
• Best Buy-In at a New Store, Best New Store, Best Green-Oriented Business, Best Friend to the Environment (CityBeat)

Park + Vine’s one-year anniversary hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. May 30, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. May 31, and noon-4 p.m. June 1. Regular store hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 513-721-7275 or visit www.parkandvine.com.

Business Courier of Cincinnati – by Lisa Biank Fasig Staff Reporter

A shop catering only to the joys of outdoor living is opening in Over-the-Rhine, complementing the area’s clutch of recently arrived stores that feature contemporary furniture and household items.

Called Outside, the store will sell furniture, decor and entertaining items for the patio and yard, from chaise lounges to acrylic drinkware and contemporary grills and accessories. It is scheduled to open at 16 E. 12th St., at the corner of 12th and Jackson, on April 5 at 11 a.m.

Terry Lee, a former director of visual merchandising at the late McAlpin’s department store chain, is opening Outside following years of serving as a consultant in product design and development. His store in fact will feature products from one of the companies he still works with, Dayton-based Sticks + Stones.

“The whole store is very contemporary,” Lee aid. “There’s so many people who do outdoor traditional very well and I didn’t think in this area the more contemporary consumer is being served.”

The 1,500-square-foot store will carry a “good, better, best” range of products, with items ranging from fairly inexpensive up to a chaise lounge that sells for $1,000. It joins several other trendy shops and eateries in the area, such as Metronation, Mica, Park + Vine and Lavomatic Café.

In the last year to 18 months about 20 businesses opened in the community along Vine Street to Main Street and along Central Parkway, said Brian Tiffany, president of the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce. In addition, about 90 condos and 21,000-square-feet of commercial space have become available on and near Vine.

What’s unusual, he said, is that the commercial space is filling up faster than the residential space. Normally the opposite occurs. “That’s a clear indication that people see the potential,” he said.

The timing of the opening of Outside is significant, since residents are now turning their thoughts to spring and the pleasures of outdoor leisure. Lee will open April 5, he said, come hell or high water.

“This spring period will probably be my Christmas.”

BY LISA BERNARD-KUHN | LBERNARD@ENQUIRER.COM

OVER-THE-RHINE – Grand plans are in store for an 80,000 square foot building near Findley Market that is expected to be the new headquarters for The Rookwood Pottery Co.

Martin Wade, owner of the recently reopened Grammer’s restaurant in Over-the-Rhine and financial partner of Cincinnati restaurateur and chef Jean-Robert de Cavel, finalized a more roughly $500,000 deal Monday to purchase the 106-year-old building at 1920 Race St.

Wade said he’s been inspired by the work and plans of Cincinnati artist Chris Rose, who purchased the remaining assets of the original Rookwood Pottery from Michigan collector Art Townley in July 2006.

“It’s one of the gratuitous things. He was looking for bigger space, and he’s passionate about Over-the-Rhine,” said Wade, who owns more than a dozen pieces of property in the downtown neighborhood. “We perceive this to be something that will be good for the city and great for Rookwood.”

The building, which is about one block north of Findley Market, once housed the food service company of Frank J. Catanzaro Sons & Daughters.

The Catanzaro business to Lockland in 2000, and the property has sat vacant since then.

Rookwood, which has worked from building on Glendora Avenue in Corryville for the last two years, hopes to move into the building by July, Wade said.

George Verkamp and Christine Schoonover of Huff Realty represented Wade and the Catanzaro family in Monday’s sale.

Verkamp said he’s been working with Rose for two years to find the right property for the pottery company.

“It’s proximity to Findley Market, and the street car line that we’re all banking on, makes this an absolutely magnificent location for Rookwood,” Verkamp said.

BY STEPFANIE ROMINE | SROMINE@ENQUIRER.COM

Outside, an outdoor décor store, opens Saturday at 16 E. 12th St. in Over-the-Rhine’s Gateway Quarter.

Terry Lee, who spent 18 years in corporate retail jobs, said he hopes the store will “really be a regional destination because of the unusual product mix.”

He said the store is not just for urban dwellers, though he expects the influx of condo buyers in the area to boost sales.

Outside will carry unique outdoor furniture and decorations, including a line called Sticks+Stones that he designed for a Dayton company.

“Nothing I have is immediately available in the Tristate area,” said Lee.

Lee is also a product designer and developer, and after a couple of years of working from his Burlington home, he wanted to get back into retail.

He was set to open in Covington, but then a chance encounter with some Gateway Quarter business owners changed his mind.

Last winter, Lee rented a booth at a home décor convention, where he met George Crawford and Jerry Schmidt of Metronation, the gift and furniture store in Over-the-Rhine.

Crawford told him about Gateway Quarter, and Lee started researching the area.

Early this year, he started readying the 12th Street space, cramming six months of work into two, he said.

He invested $130,000 in loans and his own money to open the 1,500-square-foot store.

Lee said his store will compliment others in the Gateway Quarter, especially City Roots urban garden shop, at 1133 Vine St.

Hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, call 513-744-9344.

BY LISA BIANK FASIG | CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER

OVER-THE-RHINE – The historic Findlay Market has always relied on the energy of merchants and supporters to keep it humming; soon it might rely on energy from the sun.

The Over-the-Rhine marketplace is awaiting approval of a federal grant, as well as engineering clearance, to have 112 solar panels installed on the east and west wings of its roof. The panels, valued at roughly $100,000, would be donated by Duke Energy and require an added grant from the state to help underwrite related costs.

If installed, the solar units would generate about 2,000 kilowatt hours of power a month – about twice the amount used by the average household. That would offset electrical use at Findlay by only a small percentage, since it uses so many refrigerators, but the panels would demonstrate the 155-year-old market’s progress over the years, said Robert Pickford, president and CEO of the Corporation for Findlay Market.

“It’s a great way of connecting our 19th century historic market to the 21st century,” Pickford said, estimating the panels would generate 4 percent of the market’s total electric consumption.

The panels would be installed by Third Sun Solar and Wind Power, based in Athens, Ohio. Third Sun also had installed panels at Eden Park on behalf of Duke.

John Fanselow, project developer at Third Sun, said the Findlay installation would be a part of a broader Cincinnati effort under the Solar America Initiative, a U.S. Department of Energy program to make such energy cost-competitive by 2015. If approved, the Department of Energy would provide a $200,000 matching grant for a number of solar-related projects in Cincinnati.

In addition, Findlay is applying for a state grant of $64,000 to help cover system costs.

But a series of other approvals is also required: The city and state historic conservation offices must OK the panels. (Pickford said Findlay so far has gotten a “warm response” from the local office.)

Lastly, installation would require the go-ahead from engineers. Dean Mathew, manager of investments at Duke and a board member of the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, said that could be a week or two.

“We’re taking a very conservative approach right now,” he said. But, he added: “Our goal is to get it sooner than later.”

If all passes muster, Fanselow said the expectation is to have the panels installed before October.

“This is a living historic building, and this is just an evolution,” he said “We’re really moving more toward solar as a solution to our energy demands.”

Park + Vine neighbor Art Academy of Cincinnati recently became the seventh LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified property in Cincinnati. Here’s the news release with all the details:

For Immediate Release
Information: (513) 562-8743

Feb. 25, 2008 (Cincinnati, Ohio) – The Art Academy of Cincinnati announced today that it has been awarded LEED Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is the USGBC’s leading rating system for designing and constructing the world’s greenest, most energy efficient, and high performing buildings. The Art Academy’s new facility at 1212 Jackson Street in the revitalized section of Over-the-Rhine is the seventh LEED Certified building in Cincinnati, following three at the University of Cincinnati, two commercial structures, and the Cincinnati Zoo’s Harold C. Schott Education Center.

“We are extremely proud of the recognition of our collective effort by the USGCB,” said Art Academy President Gregory Allgire Smith, “especially as it began five years ago through the advocacy of our Professors Kim Krause and Christy Carr Schellhas, was supported by our undergraduate students, was endorsed by our Board’s Facilities Committee and the Board of Trustees, and then realized by our Design-Build team led by Miller Valentine Group and Architectural team led by Design Collective Inc.”

The new home of the Art Academy is composed of two adjacent structures, which date to 1906 and 1927 and were designed to produce 120,000 sq. ft. of educational space, to achieve LEED certification for energy use, lighting, water and material use, and to secure Federal Historic Tax Credits. The LEED program verifies environmental performance, occupant health and financial return. LEED was established by USGBC for market leaders to design and construct buildings that protect and save precious resources while also making good economic sense.

The Art Academy of Cincinnati is to be congratulated for achieving LEED Certification,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO, and Funding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “The certification of its new home at 1212 Jackson Street sends a message that the Art Academy cares about the health of the building’s users – whether students, Faculty and instructors, or administrators. Everyone’s comfort, safety and well-being will benefit for the fresh air and natural daylight.”

Additionally, this project’s Historic Tax Credits provided over $1.8 million to the $13 million project, the most significant capital improvement project in the college’s 139-year history, which allowed the Art Academy to consolidate into one facility, double its space, provide one hundred undergraduate students with on-campus studio space, and become part of the current revitalization of the historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

Besides LEED Certification the Art Academy building has received eleven other awards for Design (6), Historic Preservation (3), Economic Impact on Neighborhood Development (1), and Construction (1).

BY JACKIE DEMALINE | JDEMALINE@ENQUIRER.COM

Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati will break ground this summer on an expansion of and renovations to its Over-the-Rhine headquarters for a complex that will include four properties in the 1100 block of Vine Street.

A $6.5 million capital campaign will begin after the Fine Arts Fund completes its fundraising drive in April. The two-year project will include a renovated performance space and seating, an outside courtyard, an on-site scene shop, office space, renovated box office and lobby space and a meeting room.

Producing artistic director Lynn Meyers says the three priorities are making needed repairs, audience services and expanding capacity without increasing the size of the theater.

Roof repairs have long been on the to-do list; the renovation will also provide a much-needed catwalk.

Theatergoers will find new, larger seats in the 190-seat theater. “That’s the biggest reason to change the (theater) house,” says Meyers. “To make it more comfortable. There will also be more handicapped seating and a less-steep incline.

With the scene shop, it’s expected that Ensemble can schedule productions for four weeks instead of its current three-week runs. The theater has an average attendance of 80 percent this season, with a 50 percent subscriber base. Meyers believes it’s past time to introduce new audiences to the theater.

The renovations will not interfere with the theater’s six-play subscription series.

The completed renovation is expected to debut with the opening of the 2010-11 season. Ensemble has been in its current location at 1127 Vine St. since 1988.

A snazzy renovated Ensemble should also be a focal point of the growing performing arts presence along 12th Street, with School for Creative and Performing Arts being built at Race, Know Theatre and Art Academy of Cincinnati at Jackson and New Stage Collective at Main.

GBBN’s Joe Power is lead architect for the project, which will have 200 feet of street frontage.

Ensemble’s capital campaign begins with $1.5 in pledges from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, the City of Cincinnati, and board members.

Visit www.CinStages.com for Cincinnati theater news and reviews.

BY LUCY MAY | CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER

OVER-THE-RHINE – Four local arts organizations are working with the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. to create a new headquarters in Over-the-Rhine, tentatively named “Project Beacon.”

The Fine Arts Fund, Enjoy the Arts, Art Works and Learning Through Art want to move to Race and Liberty streets, the northern gateway into the historic neighborhood. The more than 40,000 square feet of space would comprise several properties, but the main structure is the old Elm Industries building at 1539 Race St. All the property is owned by the nonprofit Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., known as 3CDC, which is working with the arts organizations to develop the project.

With leases set to expire in the next couple of years, the groups realized their collective need for bigger and better space, said Lori Wellinghoff, who chairs Enjoy the Arts board and is leading the Project Beacon effort.

The organizations decided they could operate better in a communal setting and realize efficiencies that would help stretch their dollars farther. But they also wanted to find a location that would make them “better contributors” to the community, she said.

“Arts and culture tend to be tipping-point contributors to our community. That birthed the idea of Beacon,” said Wellinghoff, president of Digs, a real estate, design and renovation firm in Hyde Park Square. “How can we be a beacon to our community?”

The organizations approached 3CDC and pitched the idea, pointing out how many people they would bring to a new location on a monthly basis. While the four groups have only 40 full-time employees currently, they have a combined 102 board members and an average of 250 volunteers each week. In addition, Learning Through the Arts works with 2,500 students, teachers and parents during the school year and a whopping 15,000 during the summer, Wellinghoff said.

Project seeks state, Federal funding
The project still is in early stages of development. 3CDC estimates it would cost roughly $9.7 million to renovate. That number is preliminary, however, and is subject to change as the project’s design evolves.

The development corporation and the arts organizations are seeking state and federal grants and state capital funds for the project. They are requesting $2.4 million in state capital funds, $1.2 million in Ohio Historic Tax Credits and $970,000 in federal historic tax credits. The balance would be funded by the Cincinnati Equity Fund and the Cincinnati New Markets Fund operated by 3CDC, said Kelly Leon, 3CDC’s vice president of communications and community relations.

“It’s not a done deal, but we’re really hoping,” Leon said. “This could be a great, great project if it works out.”

The project wouldn’t be completed until late 2009 or early 2010, Wellinghoff said, but she is encouraged by the response so far from state officials and other funders. She noted that many board members of the various arts organizations also serve on the board of 3CDC, which is working to revitalize Over-the-Rhine and downtown.

“We are four of Cincinnati’s blue chip arts and culture organizations. And with 3CDC and all the bandwidth that group has, good luck stopping this,” she said.

Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce President Brian Tiffany said he sees the project as an important anchor for the northern end of the neighborhood.

“We’ve got a lot of things happening at the south end of Washington Park with the school for performing arts, and this just kind of pushes that development further north of the park,” he said.” I just think it’s going to be a perfect place to revitalize that area.”

Eclectic store spreads its wings with new location, window-display finesse
BY LISA BIANK FASIG | CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER

OVER-THE-RHINE – The way George Crawford sees it, a stack of vases in a shop window does not stop traffic. But 60 butterflies against a snow-white landscape? That is something that will capture a pedestrian’s curiosity.

So the co-owner of Metronation, the eclectic gift shop on Vine Street, is taking a page from the old-school retail playbook when it comes to marketing: He’s reverting to the dramatic window display, those stylized, story-telling exhibits that were once a staple of department stores and small shops. The kind of displays that went well beyond a mannequin in a cardigan and might use ornamental trees and frosted dishes to create an emotional connection with passers-by.

“In a city the size of Cincinnati, when you’ve been around for six years and you advertise and advertise and advertise, you’re kind of beating a dead horse,” Crawford said. “If you have this window and it’s outrageous, then people come back to the office and say, ‘You’ve got to see the new window at Metronation.’”

It is one of many shifts occurring at Metronation, nine months after Crawford and his partners, Jerry Schmidt and Melissa Waters, relocated from Elm Street to this stretch of Vine called the Gateway Quarter. And their strategy goes beyond the growth of their own store. As part of a fast-emerging neighborhood, Metronation – as well as its retail neighbors – is adjusting to change as much as contributing to the success of a district.

The owners have had to adjust their merchandising for their new market, for instance, and sales are stronger. They’ve launched a line of private-label soaps featuring fragrances with input from their new customers. And they are earmarking part of their advertising budget for their own in-house marketing efforts: the window display.

Consider it a revival of sorts. Such store presentations have faded over the past two or three decades, said Steve Kaufman, editor of VMSD magazine, which focuses on visual merchandising. Retailers have moved from the streets to the malls, expanded to include hundreds of stores and cut back on the training needed to create such elaborate displays, he said.

“The retail window, going back to the early part of the last century, was really designed for the walker, the passer-by. You were trying to entice her to step into your store,” he said.

In a neighborhood like the Gateway Quarter, where 103 condominiums have been constructed in the past two years and an additional 107 are planned, such foot traffic is likely. “My advice would be do it and then try to measure the effects,” Kaufman said.

Not that Metronation is doing away with its advertising. It is dedicating just 10 percent to 20 percent of its total marketing budget to window displays, Crawford said. That number is hard to peg since, after the move from Elm Street, Metronation’s ad spending itself has declined. The neighborhood has gotten so much publicity – the local media covers many of the store, restaurant and condo construction developments. Crawford doesn’t see the need to advertise as much, for now.

At the same time monthly sales are up, about 25 percent to 35 percent on average. The crowd is different, and the store is much bigger – 2,700 square feet compared with 900 square feet. Crawford is finding that purses or lamps that sold briskly at his former location on Elm Street sit still on Vine, and vice versa. So Crawford and his partners are tailoring their merchandise to meet local demands, and in the process becoming an important part of the transforming neighborhood.

All this led him to rethink the window display. Crawford’s background is in visual merchandising with Woolworth Corp., the former owner of the San Francisco Music Co., Northern Reflections and Claire’s Boutique stores. He could make the store eye-catching, feed an urge and help distinguish the Gateway Quarter.

Other retailers in the Quarter are doing the same.

“It literally is our window to the street and how we convey who we are,” said Dan Korman, owner of Park + Vine, the earth-friendly store on the corner of Central Parkway and Vine, which is basically the entrance to the Gateway Quarter. Korman said he has used his wide bank of windows for themed displays since opening in June.

At Metronation, the winter window features three ornamental trees, all dead and spray-painted white, against a background of white silky fabric and below low-hanging branches. All are adorned with five dozen brightly colored butterflies. On display: sets of colorful frosted glass dishware. The theme: “The Warmth of Color.”

Crawford plans to change the display every five to six weeks. The next, for spring, will display umbrellas upon a yet-to-be revealed stage.

“Yes, the sales are up. To me that’s not the big success of the move,” he said. “But having the sense of the neighborhood that we’re helping create here, that’s been the best part of the move.”