Mercer Garage Delivers 340 Parking Spaces to Cincinnati’s OTR

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

A new parking facility is now open in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.(3CDC) opened the Mercer Garage to the public on May 9. The new addition arrives just in ,time as hundreds of new residential units in the area are getting ready to come online.

The Mercer Garage has 340 parking spaces on five levels, with entrances on the east side of Vine Street between 13th and 14th streets and on Mercer Street between Vine and Walnut streets. Parking rates will be $1 an hour up to an $8 maximum on weekdays, or a $3 maximum after 4 p.m. and on weekends. Monthly parking is also available, at $85 per month. The 3CDC will manage the garage, which will be staffed 24 hours a day and monitored by surveillance cameras placed throughout the parking levels, elevators and stairs.

The building is part of the Mercer Commons development, a project that encompasses 19 buildings and 26 vacant parcels on 2.7 acres of land. When finished, it will deliver 96 apartments, 28 condos, 17,600 square feet of commercial space and 359 parking spaces.

The $62 million project is divided into three phases. Phase 1 was financed through the 3CDC-managed Cincinnati Equity Fund, New Markets Tax Credit equity, a JobsOhio loan and a $1.5 million grant from the city of Cincinnati. It also calls for 11 condos in four historic rehabs on Mercer Street, a mixed-use new-construction building on Vine Street with 12 condos and 3,900 square feet of commercial space, and five new-construction townhomes on Mercer.

The Mercer Garage is included in the first phase. It is large enough to serve the entire development. Right now, the structure is exposed to viewing. It will, however, soon be hidden behind new construction on Vine and Mercer streets.

UrbanCincy recently reported that the developers were making preparations for the second phase of the project. The 3CDC will break ground on Phase 2 on May 31. It includes 67 apartments and 10,600 square feet of commercial space.

Photo credits: 3CDC

Miller-Valentine Group’s Summit Pointe Apartments Reopens in Lawrenceburg

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

The Miller-Valentine Group held a ceremony on May 8 to celebrate the grand re-opening of the Summit Pointe Apartments, an affordable housing community in Lawrenceburg, Ind. Alan Rakowski, tax credit manager for the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority; Tim Bete, president of St. Mary Development Corp.; and Adrian Colosimo, development risk manager for RBC Capital Markets were among those present at the ceremony.

Summit Pointe Apartments is located at 600 Deer Run. The community features 70 two-bedroom and 14 three-bedroom homes. Its affordable rates are made possible through an efficient financing package including Section 42 Housing Tax Credits provided by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

“Summit Pointe Apartments preserves a local affordable housing option. We are enthusiastic and privileged to serve the families in the city of Lawrenceburg and prove to them that our passion is to positively impact their lives,” Jim Fenwick, president of Miller-Valentine Residential Property Management, said in a statement for the press.

The Miller-Valentine Group invested $10 million to fully renovate the property. The renovation included adding a second bathroom to all two- and three-bedroom apartments as well as a new state-of-the-art fitness center and playground. The Dayton-based developer worked on the project together with St. Mary Development, RBC Capital Markets, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, Community Housing Capital and the city of Lawrenceburg.

The $10 million renovation project also helped boost the local economy, creating 128 new jobs for  local contractors and sub-contractors. Jim Fenwick said that “the company is excited to reinvest in Lawrenceburg, a city that we’ve been involved with for almost 20 years. Preserving high-quality apartment homes marketable to moderate-income families is critical.”

Photo courtesy of Miller-Valentine Group.

Wright State Breaks Ground on $37M Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Wright State University broke ground on April 25 on a state-of-the-art facility within the biomedical and engineering research hub on the Wright State campus. The Fairborn-based public research university is developing the project in partnership with Premier Health Partners, the largest healthcare network in Dayton. Wright State president David Hopkins, provost Sudaram Narayanan, Neuroscience Institute director Timothy Cope and Premier president & CEO Jim Pancoast were among those present at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The new facility will be located in the heart of the campus and will be named the Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building. It will have four floors and 90,000 square feet of laboratory and office space for scientists, physicians, students and post-doctoral researchers. In all, 125 people will be employed at the facility. A 105-seat auditorium will provide space for seminars, workshops and advanced teaching sessions.

The L-shaped Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building will be home to the research arm of the Premier Health Partners—Wright State University Neuroscience Institute, a recognized Center of Excellence by the state of Ohio. The 53,000 square feet will also provide a place for engineering and associated faculty to advance their work in medical imaging and sensors.

The $37 million project is made possible by a direct partnership between the public and private sectors and will be funded through $20 million in bonds issued by Wright State, $12 million granted from the state of Ohio and $5 million in donations.  Cincinnati-based Messer Construction is building the center. Chicago’s Perkins+Will architecture and design firm was the project’s architect. Officials hope to finish the project  by February 2015.

Premier Health Partners is also involved in another construction project in southwest Ohio. The Atrium Medical Center, one of the hospitals included in the healthcare network, recently partnered with Edgewood City Schools to bring a new medical office building to Butler County. The 14,000-square-foot building will be located at 5005 Trenton Oxford Road in Trenton, on the school campus. It will house the school’s central registration offices and will bring more convenient medical services to the Edgewood community. The building is expected to open during the 2013-14 school year. It will be owned by Edgewood and financed by leasing space to Atrium.

Photo credits: Wright State University

Florence’s Village at the Mall Sold to Private Investor

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

The Village at the Mall, a retail center in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky metropolitan area, was sold to a private investor this month. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Village at the Mall, located at 7606 Mall Road in Florence, Ky., was developed in 1991 at the corner of Kentucky Route 18 and Mall Road, just off interstates 71 and 75. The property includes three pad sites totaling more than 10,000 square feet and has two access points, one of them a signalized intersection that also serves the 856,000-square-foot Florence Mall.

The shopping center has 92,764 square feet of space and is fully leased. Its tenant roster includes Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a brand-new Aspen Dental, a new freestanding Vitamin Shoppe, a ground-leased Chipotle, Party City, The Tile Shop, Pier 1 Imports, Dollar Tree, Casual Male and HoneyBaked Ham.

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services arranged the sale. Vice president of investments Joel Dumes and associate Charles Bulger of the Cincinnati office represented the seller, a private investment group from New Jersey.

“Well-performing multi-tenant retail properties in the Cincinnati area are being targeted by investors, as household formation and income growth drive retail sales,” Joel Dumes said in a statement for the press. “Northern Kentucky has been outperforming other areas of the metro as tight vacancy gives owners the leverage to raise rents,” he added.

Marcus & Millichap expects demand for retail space in the Cincinnati metro area to pick up this year. Vacancy will fall to 11.9 percent, while asking rents will rise by 1.3 percent to $14.31 per square foot and effective rents will experience an increase of 1.7 percent to $12.13 per square foot.

Charts courtesy of Marcus & Millichap.

Balluff Breaks Ground on $6M Expansion Project in Independence, Adding 24 Jobs

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Balluff Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Balluff GmbH, based in Neuhausen, Germany, started construction last week on a  $6 million expansion of its U.S. headquarters in Northern Kentucky. Gov. Steve Beshear joined local and company officials in the city of Independence on Thursday, April 11, for the project’s  groundbreaking ceremony.

Balluff is one of the world’s leading automation suppliers, specializing in products for industrial sensing, networking and identification devices. The company’s U.S. headquarters currently employs more than 150 people. It has been located in Independence since 1983, and has expanded twice, in 1994 and 2001. The facility on Holton Drive is the final assembly, distribution and training site for Balluff in the United States.

The new 48,000-square-foot building is expected to be completed next year, in March. It will be a state-of-the-art customer support, training, and sales and marketing center with “green concepts” and worker-friendly features, such as 100 percent employee access to daylight from workspaces. The $6 million expansion will add 24 new, full-time Kentucky resident jobs.

As an incentive to encourage the investment and job growth in northern Kentucky, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) has approved Balluff for as much as $450,000 in tax incentives under two economic development programs. The company will receive as much as $300,000 through the Kentucky Business Investment program and as much as $150,000 through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act.

“Balluff has found a successful home in northern Kentucky, with steady growth here over the past 30 years,” said Gov. Beshear in a statement to the press. “We’re proud to have the company’s U.S. headquarters in Kentucky and especially happy to see the company continue to expand, adding 24 new jobs and investing $6 million in the Commonwealth.”

Photo credits: Balluff Inc.