June 5, 2014

Former Grocery Store Demolished To Make Way For New Development In College Hill

City, College Hill Leaders Announce Request For Qualifications

This morning in College Hill, City leaders and College Hill community stakeholders celebrated two major milestones in an ongoing community revitalization process. 

Cincinnati Councilmember Wendell Young pulled the first lever to kick off the demolition of a former Kroger grocery store at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road. This blighted building once provided an excellent source of fresh food within walking distance for many families in the neighborhood, but eventually became obsolete and vacant.

More recently, the building has stood as a nagging reminder of the work needing to be done to complete College Hill’s revitalization.

Using Focus52 program funding implemented by the City's Department of Trade and Development, the City and the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) partnered to acquire the property last year, which began a process of demolishing, clearing and grading the 2-acre site make it "shovel ready" before the end of the summer.

This site combines with two other large, adjacent parcels of land also owned by the City to create a 7.5-acre development site occupying two of the four corners at Hamilton and North Bend.

This morning, the City and CHCURC also jointly announced the release of a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), seeking expressions of interest in the 7.5 acres from experienced developers of quality, mixed-use projects that utilize urban design principles.

"The property that we have assembled represents an unusual, and perhaps unprecedented, opportunity in Cincinnati to completely re-create the heart of one of our neighborhoods," said Jeff McElravy, Interim Director of Trade and Development.

College Hill residents and stakeholders actively participated in a collaborative planning and design process over the last couple of years to come up with a vision for their business district.

The community decided to opt in to a form-based zoning code that was approved in 2013, which is designed to facilitate diverse, urban and mixed-use environments that provide a sense of place and contribute to a sense of community. 

CHCURC President Mike Cappel expressed optimism that the vision will become reality, noting, “It would be transformational if we attract the right sort of development at our key corner, and it's no longer a stretch to think it will happen in the near future. College Hill is a compact, walkable community with excellent housing stock, great local businesses and institutions, and actively engaged residents, so we offer a very solid foundation on which to build."