Jump to content

Cincinnati: Camp Washington: Development and News


Recommended Posts

I'm assuming that Rhinegeist will still build out their beer distribution facility on part of the land and hold on to the rest hoping for future business expansion. With as fast as they have expanded in the past several years, it wouldn't be out of the question for them to start brewing beer on that site as well. I could see them taking a similar approach to Taft's and opening a second tap room at the Kahn's site, especially if the hopes of new residential and business development in Camp Washington come true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My hope is that they rescue the Powel Valves building down the block & across from the park that is falling in to ruin and is on the demo list. Would make a spectacular tap room. Like a Queen City Garage x50 is they keep the walls and make a courtyard out of the part that is in the worst shape at the SE corner. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1423016,-84.5386786,3a,90y,247.49h,106t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdgpDsPW0_hNazXHYByvSkg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
Ultrasuede Studio, owned by John Curley of the Afghan Whigs, announced that they will be leaving their location on Spring Grove Avenue where they have been operating for the past 28 years. During that time, a number of national artists (and of course tons and tons of local bands) have recorded there. Ultrasuede says they plan to relocate elsewhere. According to the Hamilton County Auditor's site, the building was sold in December from its previous long-time owner to an LLC. Just speculating here, but it's possible someone bought the building because they wanted that studio space and are kicking Ultrasuede out so they can take it over.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Sad to hear

 

Back to square one: Old Crosley building is on the market again as apartment plans falter

Sheila Vilvens, [email protected] Published 10:12 p.m. ET

 

The broken windows of the former Crosley Radio Corp. headquarters in Camp Washington currently stand as a metaphor for the broken dreams for the building’s future.

 

Indianapolis-based Core Redevelopment, owners of the Crosley building, is not moving forward with the $45 million project to restore the building to house 238 market-rate apartments, according to Joe Gorman, executive director of the Camp Washington Business Association.

 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/05/10/back-drawing-board-historic-crosley-building/598955002/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So disappointing, such a beautiful building that has been ignored and is now an eye sore for cars driving on I-75 south. I was just at the Sign Museum 2 weeks ago and mentioned to my wife that I though something was supposed to be happening to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly the neighborhood really needs more small investment and street level businesses. There's really nothing there to attract anyone from any other neighborhood to visit except for the chili parlor and sign museum. What it comes down to is that the neighborhood just isn't a very livable place. There's a blend of industrial mixed with vacant lots and junk lots all over the place that make it an unappealing place to live. It's nestled between a highway and a train yard. Hopple street is also basically a highway, and in my opinion changed the area from a neighborhood to an off ramp pit stop and cross town fly through. People easily do 60+ at the intersection with Colerain. Oh and the only park in the neighborhood is in front of a prison.... As much as I was excited for Crosley to be rehabbed, I don't think that it would have done much for the area as a whole. It would be like Machine Flats, where the residents don't hang around in the area and would get in their cars to go elsewhere for shopping/ leisure/ entertainment. There needs to be something done about the violence, drug dealing, and prostitution, as well as the lack of amenities. And even though its a total pipe dream, Hopple needs a road diet.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Interactive skatepark art installation to open soon in Camp Washington

 

A group of artists and designers has created a new interactive skatepark installation in Camp Washington with funding from a local philanthropy.

 

SkateAble Vs Non Part II is a thematic skatepark created by Ali Calis, Jill Cleary, Scott Kincaid and Scott Licardi that showcases the creative elements of skateboarding and provides a space for the community to learn and interact. The project is based on an art show that Calis and Ryan Little of Able Projects put on 10 years ago at the now defunct Feralmade Gallery in Over-the-Rhine.

 

The SkateAble installation received a 2018 Globe Grant from People’s Liberty, which provide $15,000 in funding and enable teams or individuals to take over a storefront space for six weeks and transform into an interactive experience that engages the community.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/08/06/interactive-skatepark-art-installation-to-open.html

"You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Saw this posted by Building Cincinnati on Facebook. I'm no expert, but it definitely sounds like a positive change and I hope it goes though. 

 

"Camp Washington considering rezoning land on/around Colerain Avenue from Commercial Community Auto-Oriented (CC-A) to Urban Mix. Here's a PDF breakdown of what that would mean:"

 

http://camp-washington.org/wp-content/uploads/UM-CCA-Zoning-Comparison-11-30-18.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0YziqqzNcMI-NljcGrj9nkGejfS26uMKbU8eiaLa9HwXmbTDnqyooH-N8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a rumor earlier in the year that a developer was collecting buildings around U.S. Chili for redevelopment and that the Chili building was the last one needed to have a large plot to bring in something new at that corner. Hopefully this isnt true as that is the last intact corner of the business district there, but maybe this proposal is set up to address that?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I like Camp Washington as a neighborhood and connector from the Northside/Clifton to Downtown (i'll ride Spring Grove into Downtown over Central,  I like it way more as a bike route) but see the valid points many are making in this thread. I think a few things would need to happen for Camp Washington to become a walkable neighborhood appealing to families.

 

1. There would have to be investment from a wide range of sources into the neighborhood. This could mean the opening of small local businesses, the creation of parks and green space or other things that would give people reason to venture TO the camp rather than blow through it. It would be amazing to have more green space in the area. All the cement and cinderblock is oppressive.  

 

2. Some careful planning  would need to occur. As mentioned elsewhere, Camp Washington is pretty loud at all hours due to all of the industry in the area, and the smell can be not so great. Finding a way to blend a new neighborhood and attractions with existing industry would be critical, as the industry still in the area is not going anywhere more than likely because of proximity to railyards/Downtown/expressways. 

 

3. The history of the area would need to be recognized and made a selling point. There are plenty of buildings with plenty of history, but I only know the stories behind a handful of them. 

 

All of that being said, things are happening. There is a crossfit gym and what appears to be an art collective coming around the bend on Spring Grove at Hopple. There is a string of nice-looking townhouse style residences near Queen City Sausage. I know a few younger people who have moved to the neighborhood. Things could change, but it will take some doing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dream to address some of the above is to find an eccentric benefactor to turn the Crosley building into Cincinnati's version of the St. Louis City Museum. Daytime for kids, night time for adults. Go big on one amazing thing then let it develop naturally from there but keeping the industrial vibe of the neighborhood. Cincinnati has historic, Cincinnati has the old money and affordable areas and fine grain architecture. Make the Camp area the opposite of that with big industrial factory lofts and business for makers and artists and try to keep the new developments within that vibe as much as possible.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

City set to extend development controls in Camp Washington business district

 

campwashingtonsignmuseum*750xx1800-1013-

 

The Cincinnati City Council is expected to vote soon on extending development controls around Camp Washington’s business district while the city planning department examines whether to rezone parts of the business district and create a historic district in order to preserve buildings there.

 

In October, the planning commission recommended and council established an interim development control overlay district on Colerain Avenue from Hopple Street to Marshall Avenue, which encompasses Camp Washington’s business district on both sides of the street. Under the IDC, demolitions would have to be approved by the planning commission, an additional step for developers in the city’s building process.

 

The Camp Washington IDC affects 93 parcels, which are owned by 48 property owners. 

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/01/24/city-set-to-extend-development-controls-in-camp.html

  • Like 1

"You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

https://www.wcpo.com/news/transportation-development/move-up-cincinnati/camp-washington-will-soon-lose-one-of-two-beloved-chili-parlors

 

Not sure if this was already known, but the US Chili building was sold "to the Camp Washington Community Board, a neighborhood community development corporation, and the Camp Washington Business Association."

 

They have ambitions for a mixed-use redevelopment. So, thank God, no AutoZone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad to see there's an effort to preserve and restore the historic building. Camp Washington is slowly getting on the redevelopment train, similar to Walnut Hills. It sort of comes as a surprise to me because when I lived over in this area it seemed like Camp Washington would never really see the love that other nearby neighborhoods saw. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, oudd said:

https://www.wcpo.com/news/transportation-development/move-up-cincinnati/camp-washington-will-soon-lose-one-of-two-beloved-chili-parlors

 

Not sure if this was already known, but the US Chili building was sold "to the Camp Washington Community Board, a neighborhood community development corporation, and the Camp Washington Business Association."

 

They have ambitions for a mixed-use redevelopment. So, thank God, no AutoZone.

Good to hear! I just noticed yesterday they repaired the damage to the stone from a car hit in the back a few years ago so I was hoping for good news. I wont miss that one broken window upstairs that has been broken ever since i was a teen, (am 45 now). Hopefully that space is utilized for more residents or just something to bring night time life to that corner other than just the gas stations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Camp Washington seems like it should be a natural extension of Northside. It appears Northside is finally getting somewhat expensive, and many of the obvious development sites have already been developed, so more investment might be shifting down towards Camp in coming years. It's got the industrial gritty vibe that should appeal to the hipster and artist set. It's flat and pretty easily bikeable to both Northside and Downtown/OTR. The freeway and heavy industry present challenges, but these things haven't prevented the Arts District in Los Angeles, for example, from becoming a hot, trendy neighborhood. I really hope someone can convert the Crosley Building to loft housing. If that one domino falls, I think so will the rest of the neighborhood. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, edale said:

Camp Washington seems like it should be a natural extension of Northside. It appears Northside is finally getting somewhat expensive, and many of the obvious development sites have already been developed, so more investment might be shifting down towards Camp in coming years. It's got the industrial gritty vibe that should appeal to the hipster and artist set. It's flat and pretty easily bikeable to both Northside and Downtown/OTR. The freeway and heavy industry present challenges, but these things haven't prevented the Arts District in Los Angeles, for example, from becoming a hot, trendy neighborhood. I really hope someone can convert the Crosley Building to loft housing. If that one domino falls, I think so will the rest of the neighborhood. 

 

this makes sense, although Northside's rep as Cincy's scruffy loveable artsy/hippie/queer neighborhood was developed over several decades before rising housing prices put an end to that in the past few years. It was a slow, organic process that didn't come from tons of outside investment; it came from individual people buying houses and fixing them up themselves. (Crazy Ladies Bookstore coming into the neighborhood in '79 probably was hugely influential in this process and I still miss it.)

 

it will be interesting to see what happens to CW. I don't know if its intact housing stock is as rich a resource as Northside's was/is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, the dream would be to revitalize Camp Washington with Colerain being a lively business district like Hamilton in Northside. I'd love to ultimately see it get better connections to both CUF and Brighton/OTR. If those vacant lots near Marshall and Central Parkway ever get developed decently that would help it feel a little less cut off, and then similarly along the long strip of Harrison that connects to the West End and is currently a light industrial dead zone. But I think those scenarios are quite a ways off.

 

I think the main challenge is the lack of decent single-family houses, which Northside has an abundance of. The street grid in Camp Washington is so chopped up by I-75 and Hopple. To increase the population of the neighborhood we'd really need to see some big apartment buildings, like the Crosely building, come online.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, oudd said:

 

I think the main challenge is the lack of decent single-family houses, which Northside has an abundance of. The street grid in Camp Washington is so chopped up by I-75 and Hopple. To increase the population of the neighborhood we'd really need to see some big apartment buildings, like the Crosely building, come online.

 

Yeah, it is going to have to be different than Northside when it comes to residential.  There is not a large amount of in-tact single-family homes, or the space for them.  There will need to be dense residential, like the US Chili project or Crosley,.

 

There's examples all over the neighborhood, but any of the vacant warehouses could be turned into lofts once the demand is there:

https://goo.gl/maps/2JtWb8uJQ5J2

https://goo.gl/maps/GdEHgJkz6fq

 

The #1 priority (outside of Crosley) should be this location, which is a vacant industrial space across from a nice park:

https://goo.gl/maps/P4cHJ5KrMPQ2

 

Or lots ready for your run-of-the-mill infill mixed-use blocks:

https://goo.gl/maps/p1twY8Hh5qC2

https://goo.gl/maps/93Pq4JkoMs12

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest jmecklenborg

Camp Washington isn't very big - less than half the size of Northside.  I personally wouldn't live within two blocks of the interstate for health reasons, and that's where many of the single-family homes sit. 

 

I have often thought about an extension of the subway as a traditional elevated line over Colerain Ave.  It could become a Brooklyn-like street with the legs of an el on either side of the street.  Stations above Marshall, Hopple, and Arlington.  Then pass over I-75 to a station at Cincinnati State. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1289977,-84.5343317,3a,75y,332.47h,94.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJ855cQZnwMESs9sHBifHjw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was last in San Francisco, I visited a friend who lived in a new building in Dogpatch and I wondered if it could be Camp Washington in some distant future. The neighborhoods have many similarities. 

1) Sandwiched by a large highway (I-75 and Southern Embarcadaro) and no man's land (railyards and the bay)

2) That highway separates the neighborhood from a hilly neighborhood (CUF and Protrero Hill)

3) Both have histories of being heavily industrial (railyards vs shipping yards)

 

I'm sure there are more similarities. And perhaps even bigger differences that don't make this a very worthwhile comparison. In any case, I saw how the development there could be a model for the development in Camp Washington. Streetcar extension from Rhinegeist, to Colerain, to Spring Grove, to Northside. Boom baby.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/VhSmfescJv32

Edited by Chas Wiederhold
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think finishing the subway from Vine street to 75, then exiting the tunnels to Marshall Ave, going under 75 to Colerain, Colerain to Monmouth, then either go up Spring Grove (more opportunity for development) or cross 75 back to Central (to touch Cincy State), and finally terminating the rail line at the new transit center in Northside.  

 

Connecting light rail to UC and the hospitals is more urgent, and connecting to Covington/Newport is more regionally symbolic, but I think getting the monkey off our back by finishing the subway would be a huge win in and of itself. Not to mention you would be hitting CBD, OTR, West End, CUF, Camp Washington, Clifton or Cumminsville and finally Northside which along with a new Western Hills Viaduct project could really start to change the Mill Creek valley and throw a major bone to the "neighborhoods" voters. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest jmecklenborg

The "altitude" of the subway at its portals (and actually the entire thing) is very high relative to I-75 and Camp Washington.  The 2-mile tunnel is basically completely level (no more than five feet of elevation change).  Remember that the ROW continued at grade but then passed over Marshall Ave., right where I-75 crosses Marshall.  So it'll be pretty complicated to get the track to go under I-75 and serve Hopple St. at Colerain underground.  The track would have to swerve in a broad S-shape underground, which would force the trains to slow down. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Group buys gateway Camp Washington building with restaurant, redevelopment plans

 

us-chili-pic*750xx640-360-0-60.jpg

 

A neighborhood group purchased the U.S. Chili building, a gateway to Camp Washington, with an eye on redeveloping it and adding a restaurant to the area's busiest corridor.

 

The Camp Washington Community Board purchased the U.S. Chili building at 2965 Colerain Ave. for $250,000. The deal closed on March 19. The group plans to invest another $45,000 on stabilizing the windows and roof.

 

The chili parlor, owned by John Storgion and named for "Uncle" Steve Andon, who started Camp Washington Chili across the street, will stay open until June.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/03/21/group-buys-gateway-camp-washington-building-with.html

  • Like 1

"You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/22/2019 at 2:09 PM, 10albersa said:

This huge piece of news fell under the radar. According to WCPO, the Crosley building renovation is back on and a contractor has been secured...

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/camp-washington/redevelopment-coming-to-camp-washington

I coluld be wrong, but i think this may be incorrect. That was the latest plan under the former owners but last i looked it is still for sale. I'll have to keep my ears out.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/22/2019 at 3:34 PM, ryanlammi said:

I think it's been discussed here before. I heard they were trying to do micro apartments, which seems odd for Camp Washington. 

 

Yea, if I move to Camp Washington it would be so I could get more bang for my buck in an urban location. Micro apartments are for downtown, OTR, Mt. Adams.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/22/2019 at 2:09 PM, 10albersa said:

This huge piece of news fell under the radar. According to WCPO, the Crosley building renovation is back on and a contractor has been secured...

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/camp-washington/redevelopment-coming-to-camp-washington

 

The article says "there isn't a start date for construction"... which is a sign that something is still holding things up (probably due to financing). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
9 minutes ago, taestell said:

I don't know how a giant self storage facility with an attached office that looks like a Drees home gets approved right next to the Crosley Building, but it appears that is what happened.

 

I use a similar storage facility out in Springdale with the little house and all. The guy who manages the place was telling me that before him (and before the facility was under Life Storage), the facility manager used to actually live in the house, on site. Nowadays, the guy running the place is just there at normal business hours and the first floor is an office, but I wonder what's going on with this one. Will someone live on site in that random house?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest jmecklenborg
5 minutes ago, Gordon Bombay said:

 Will someone live on site in that random house?

 

 

It's an Airbnb.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...