A Northside project that's been held up for five years due to environmental contamination and financing issues is set to begin within the next few days.

Factory Square, an $18 million mixed-use development by Bloomfield/Schon + Partners at , will include 110 loft apartments and approximately 12,000 square feet of commercial office space.

Environmental remediation on the 180,000-square-foot building, which once housed the American Can factory, is about 95 percent complete, and contractors are expected soon to begin façade restoration and planned site work.

Interior work should begin by mid-September and take 10-12 months to complete, says Bloomfield/Schon + Partners principal Steven Bloomfield.

"So, if all goes well, we should be marketing the first units by August 2011," he says.

Additional development surrounding the factory building is still on the table, Bloomfield says.

"The renovation and occupancy of the American Can Building will greatly improve the surrounding real estate market," he says. "We have planned on additional commercial development and townhouses for the property between the building and Hamilton Avenue and on surrounding parcels that we own."


City helps out

Just last week, Cincinnati City Council approved an eight-year, 75 percent Community Reinvestment Area tax exemption agreement with the developer that will save the developer nearly $2.1 million in property tax liability over the life of the agreement.

Additional funding is expected to come through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loan, federal and state historic tax credits, federal economic stimulus funds, Community Development Block Grant funds, and developer equity.

Council also approved of a lease agreement and a grant of driveway encroachment onto City-owned land that will allow the developer to provide driveway access to on-site parking.

Under terms of the agreements, the City will vacate Fergus Street between Spring Grove Avenue and Knowlton Street and enter into a 70-year lease with the developer at a rate of $1 per year. The developer will also gain access to the easement for $1.

Appraised fair market values of the street and the easement are $1,400 per year and $11,000, respectively.

Both agreements were approved by the City Planning Commission in December 2006.

Previous reading on BC:
Factory Square photo update, 4/4/09 (4/22/09)
ODOD: Forcing tax credit approvals would 'offend constitutional separation of powers' (5/16/08)
Ohio developers file writ with Supreme Court over tax credit program (4/11/08)
Inside American Can (3/25/08)
American Can applies for brownfields funds (10/10/07)