Concerned residents and preservationists have scheduled a protest for Saturday at 11 A.M. on Euclid Avenue, near the site of a proposed 72-unit student apartment project in Corryville.
Protesters, organized by the , hope to kill a plan by Uptown Rental Properties to raze most of the block .
The block contains a mixture of multi-family and single-family residential Queen Anne Victorians built between 1885 and 1905.
"Losing these buildings would be tragic, and a wasted opportunity for Corryville," says Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA) Preservation Director Margo Warminski. "It is the last intact block of Victorian middle-class architecture in the neighborhood and was recommended for historic district designation by the Cincinnati Historic Inventory."
"Lacey Dresses", who created the Facebook group, says she believes that Corryville has some of the finest architecture in the nation.
"Cities that are renowned for their historic architecture such as Boston and San Francisco are the only places that compare," she says.
Loss of urbanity?
Uptown Rental Properties partnered with North American Properties to develop 65 West, a 129-unit apartment community currently under construction on the site of the old Friars Club building in Clifton Heights. It has also started construction on the Jefferson/Glendora Apartments, at 16-unit project at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and W Charlton Street.
Neil Clingerman, a 2007 University of Cincinnati graduate, was dismayed to see so many buildings come down before his very eyes.
He says the potential of Corryville is "slowly being sucked dry" by developers who want to turn the area into a warehouse for hospital workers and students, completely disregarding the kind of old world, intense urbanity that should make Cincinnati known on a national scale.
"This frustration with the complete disrespect by Cincinnatians for their own best asset, their built environment, was a factor in me choosing to leave Cincinnati and find work in Chicago," Clingerman says. "Part of me still wants to love Cincinnati, and with new faces in the preservation movement and new ideas things are looking brighter than ever. I hope that this protest will make an impact and help to raise awareness with Cincinnatians of just how special their city's old buildings really are."
Rezoning hearing Tuesday
To allow for the project's density, a rezoning from RMX Residential Mixed District to RM-0.7 Residential Multi-Family District will be required.
City Council's Livable Communities Committee will consider the rezoning at its meeting on March 15.
Representatives from CPA plan to attend, Warminski says.
"Imagine a different scenario: the buildings restored as graduate student or even faculty housing using historic tax credits, with appropriate, contextual, green infill on the vacant lots," she says. "Which do you think would look better in ten years?"
Dresses hopes that the protest shows the City that citizens won't continue to let historic fabric be destroyed.
"Urban renewal is not going to happen on our watch," she says. "If you have any sort of interest in making Cincinnati a unique highly desirable place to live, please attend this protest and stop the developers from ruining the character of one of Cincinnati's and this country's most beautiful neighborhoods."
Photos courtesy of Cincinnati Preservation Association
Previous reading on BC:
Uptown Rental Properties plans 72 more units (2/7/11)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Saturday protest planned for Corryville redevelopment site
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9 comments:
Could some of the houses be moved to other lots in Corryville???
I don't see that happening due to the cost involved.
So who is going to pay the enormous cost to buy that land and houses, extensively rehab and restore these homes (which have been abused by years of being rented to students over the years), get a very moderate rent because the rest of the neighborhood is still full of run down homes (as well as some known drug trafficking in the vicinity), and maintain this 'green space' that is proposed in this article? Please let me know how I can find this dream world that you live in - it sounds wonderful.
Anon 2:
You are absolutely right about the moving idea that Anon 1 proposed. Any sensible company would do a cost benefit analysis on this idea and realize that the costs would far out weight any potential profits from this venture. Anon 1 has no ideal of how the real world works.
I am a Business Major who is from a long line of entrepreneurs who go back to my family's European roots. While I see Anon 1's proposal as a pie in the sky hippie idea that doesn't take into consideration the kinds of pragmatic dollars and cents decisions that corporations have to make in order to deliver value to their owners or stakeholders, I also see Uptown as taking a way out that could ultimately hurt their own business by alienating a segment of their own customer base.
Imagine this scenario, "Uptown Properties, saviors of Corryville," "Cincinnati's historic architecture" and "providers of safe high quality student housing in a beautiful historic neighborhood". This is the kind of responsible goodwill and smart marketing that people will pay a premium for.
If Uptown decides to destroy the old housing in the neighborhood it will be a lost opportunity to develop the neighborhood into a profit center. With high quality old architecture that is restored people will be attracted to the area and pay a premium for it. If the new architecture that is built in the empty lots that surround the old in a style that is cost effective and still pays respect to the neighborhoods heritage, people will also fork out more money to live in these types of places.
Look at places like Charleston South Carolina, this is a growing city that has attracted a very wealthy clientele due to their unique old architecture that has been lovingly restored, and has a community that is so proud of it that they even work to build new buildings that are accurate to the style of the old.
If Uptown continues its plan of demolishing entire blocks of unique houses in Cincinnati to build the kind of houses that students can find in their own suburban backyard, this will hurt Uptown's reputation. Word will get out, some of the people opposed to all the demolition are students and they will talk to their friends and tell them not to rent from Uptown Properties because they are "evil" and tear down some beautiful homes that are hard to come by in this country. As pictures of theses houses are already posted on the Internet all it will take is a quick email or Facebook message to convey this bad will and ultimately could mean a lot of lost renters and profits.
Google made its entire fortune on the philosophy of not being evil. They were the ones that made search simple and used customers brand loyalty to build market share. They have a good repuatation and leverage this good relationship with their customers to generate tremendous profits. That is exactly how they came out on top. Uptown can do the same, but because they aren't, they are loosing out on a big opportunity for money.
While the neighborhood has its fair share of problems, Uptown has a lot of clout in the community as a whole and could work to encourage those kinds of problems to leave the neighborhood by not destorying but restoring the housing stock that exists and building new housing stock in tamdem with it. The old historic housing stock will be a tremendous selling point to people who are tired of the suburbs and like old buildings for their unique brand, and the new housing stock could appeal to people who want all modern amenities built in and a contemoporary interior layout that has an exterior design that is compatable with this increadibly marketable neighborhood.
Ultimately, with its current business practices, Uptown will lose very large amount of potential profit and will have a reputation that will repel potential customers and hurt the bottom line.
Anon II Here.
I understand what you are saying. I happen to work at the University of Cincinnati and I am in Uptown every day. I see Uptown Rental Property signs everywhere. Less than a handful of those are new buildings. Most of them are restored older buildings. There is a gorgeous building that they rehabbed on the corner of Taft and Auburn as well as several gorgeous old homes near Christ Hospital on Auburn. That is just two of many, many examples.
I also have seen the owner of Uptown Properties around Clifton and Corryville often. He is a friend to the University and to Corryville. Corryville has been a craphole (to put it bluntly) as long as I have been there. I guess I disagree with your notion that because someone tears down a few buildings they are somehow an "evil developer". That is not the case here. There is a lot of talk about the "cheap construction" that Uptown uses. Did you know that their new construction is all LEED certified (to be green and highly efficient). Did you know that they use sustainable materials such as granite counters and high quality wood flooring? These building are "not found in their backyard". They are actually quite progressive in their design and construction.
It's easy to look at a headline and think that you know what is really going on. I would encourage you to go on Uptown's website and look at their properties. Many of them are just the old buildings that you are talking about. Drive around the gaslight district and see all the buildings that they have restored. I understand what everyone is talking about - I just think that you should judge a company by one block. As someone who has worked in Uptown for almost 20 years, I can see that Uptown Rental Properties has done a tremendous amount for the area.
Haha - that should be "not judge" a company by one block in the last paragraph above?
Lovely Charlotte NC was moving small bungalows and giant brick mansions left and right way back in the 80's -it's do-able.
From the drawings this Corryville building is the same building as what has been crammed as many times as they can fit it into the Friars site therefore qualifying as cookie cutter design. Laurel homes was that. Galbreath Point is that.
To their credit, they do maintain their buildings and make a good attempt at landscaping which the majority of big companies don't (the latter). A big company is exactly what they are becoming which if you think about it - is scary. It lets them do what they are doing in Corryville. What are they aiming for? To rename Clifton and Corryville: "Shimburg 1 and Shimburg 2"?
Why is it scary to become a big company? They are becoming a big company because they have nice, well maintained properties and have been successful at reading the marketplace. Why is success a bad thing? Why isn't anyone concerned about the real problems in Corryville - there are run down buildings on almost every street (including at least one owned by former City Council member Minette Cooper), Short Vine retail is disaster and crime continues to be a big problem. Why don't we worry about these issues?
^Obviously because they can dictate what they want on you.
Wait until it is something that directly affects YOU then you will be all vocal if you are smart enough. There are many projects in the works in Corryville and U.P. has their greedy hands all over it. Not an innovator but a... what's the word for something that eats the pray that something else caught?
It's true many of U.P. properties are nice historic properties just like these in Corryville what's to say they won't be torn down also? Someone there used to care very much for historic properties I wonder what happened.
The other problems of Corryville are being worked on. He is just catching the wave first for the quickest profit. Think about it - at least four large projects all in the works at the same time.Do you really think he has the good of Corryville in mind? It is his own good. Bottom line is profit and the more profit the better. It's called greed. Someone who had Corryville at heart would capitalize on the assets it has and not tear them down. They wouldn't try ti fit a gazillion apts. into the Friars site. Buildings that size in that location (Corryville and Friars) is extremely out of context.Is there a housing shortage? They are leaching off the wealthy baby boomer kids which in time the wave will pass then what? Keep the mega buildings in the suburbs. At least design appropriately. The bigger buildings belong along short Vine not among a bunch of houses.
Too bad there is not a good honest partnership between all parties concerned for the benefit of all.
No, it's me, me, me that matters.
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