| Issue 1, Vol. 3 | January 2011 |
Greetings!
Productive Year for Economic Development
We close the books on 2010 with this edition and the Economic Development Division (EDD) is happy to report it was a productive year for economic development in the City of Cincinnati! This issue provides updates on some of the projects at or near completion but, I'd like to give you a brief summary of our success this year.
EDD assisted private developers and businesses in 2010 to retain 3,621 jobs and to create 1,775 net new jobs to the City. Those developments will yield a total of $132,110,000 in property investment including: real estate, equipment, machinery, furniture and fixtures. The City's tax base will increase by $5,122,653 as a result of those investments and jobs.
Like our partners in the private sector and other City departments, EDD is determined to continually improve efficiencies moving forward in 2011 and beyond. We are dedicated to taking innovative approaches to financing and implementation of the GO Cincinnati economic development strategy adopted by City Council. We are finding new ways to do more with less and still yielding results in terms of retaining and creating job opportunities for the people of Cincinnati. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how we might make those improvements in the coming year.
We sincerely hope that 2010 has been productive for you and we look forward to helping your business grow in 2011. Brighter days are on the horizon as we are starting to see some deferred projects moving out of the mothballs and toward implementation. We look forward to sharing your success stories in future editions of our newsletter.
Until next time,
Patrick Ewing
Interim Director
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| LEED Projects Turning Cincinnati Green | Over the past several years Cincinnati has focused on bringing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings to the city. LEED was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as an internationally recognized green building certification system. According to the U.S. Green Building Council's website, the LEED certification system uses a third-party verification process to ensure "that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts."
Currently the City of Cincinnati Economic Development Division has 4 projects that are projected to be remodeled or built using LEED certified standards:
- Sky Lofts, (The Edge), a warehouse conversion of 94,535 sq. ft. into office space in Downtown Cincinnati.
- Medpace, Inc. is building a new corporate campus that will include three separate office buildings of between 110,000 to 130,000 sq. ft. each.
- American Red Cross 50,000 sq. ft. headquarters and disaster operations center at Keystone Parke.
- Links Unlimited is constructing their new 72,000 sq. ft. headquarters in the Roselawn neighborhood.
- Great American Tower at Queen City Square office building will rise 41-stories and contain 800,000 sq. ft. of office space and a more than 2,000 space car parking garage.
There are 2 more projects that the City of Cincinnati Economic Development Division assisted on that were recently awarded LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council: - Burke, Inc. was awarded LEED Gold as established by the U.S. Green Building Council for their renovation of the former ADP building located at 500 W. 7th Street in Downtown Cincinnati. Replacement of equipment such as chillers, boilers and the HVAC system will save the company 25% per year on energy costs. During construction, Burke recycled 75% of the materials that were removed.
- KZF renovated a three-story reinforced concrete structure that was originally the home of the US Shoe Machinery Company. The KZF headquarters was awarded LEED Gold Certification for their 36,000 sq. ft. building.
The City of Cincinnati Economic Development division would like to take the time and acknowledge these companies and thank them for their desire to "Choose Cincy."
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City Partners to Bring New Mixed-Use Project to Oakley
| Late last month, City Council approved plans to demolish and redevelop 74 acres in Oakley which was once the home of Cincinnati Milacron. The project will include at least 200 apartments, a 250,000 square foot office campus, a 55,000 square foot movie theater and 350,000 square feet of retail space. Once completed, over 1,700 people will work on the redevelopment site and those employees will generate nearly $800,000 in earnings tax each year. The developer anticipates that most, if not all, of the buildings will be LEED certified. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $120 million.
The City will provide up to $9.9 million in tax increment financing to build a new road, improve existing roads, and for related improvements. The City is also partnering with the developer on a $3 million grant for environmental remediation and demolition from the Ohio Department of Development's Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund.
"This is another example of how the City is partnering with companies and developers to implement GO Cincinnati, our strategic plan for economic development, said City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr., "This is about two things. First, revitalizing our neighborhoods by cleaning up underutilized property, and second, it is about growing our tax base so that we can provide basic services for our citizens."
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U.S. Bank Growing in Linwood
| U.S. Bank, already the second largest bank in the region, is growing in Cincinnati. After considering multiple facilities in the Midwest, the bank has decided to expand its 24-hour banking center in Linwood. It is adding 70 new employees and investing $200,000 to upgrade its facilities. Both the City and the State of Ohio provided tax incentives to U.S. Bank to ensure that the Wooster facility was cost competitive. As part of the agreement, the bank has committed to maintaining in excess of 2,500 employees in the city through 2022. Between the new jobs and the retained jobs, the City expects to net over $7 million in earnings tax over the term of the agreement.
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Links Unlimited to Expand Their Business in Roselawn
| Links Unlimited will construct a new warehouse and office facility at a former City-owned property located in the Roselawn neighborhood. The company will be expanding within the City of Cincinnati when it relocates from its current home in Queensgate to a new 72,000 sq. ft. LEED Certified building at 1460 Seymour Ave.
Links Unlimited will be investing approximately $4 million in the project as well as retaining 29 jobs and creating a minimum of 10 new jobs within 5 years.
The State of Ohio and the City of Cincinnati provided Links Unlimited with a Job Creation Tax Credit on the new jobs it will create. In addition, The City of Cincinnati approved a LEED CRA for the new building.
Links Unlimited provides corporate incentives from branding premium products and apparel to developing and implementing comprehensive incentive programs.
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Sky Lofts to Renovate 94,000 Sq. Ft. Warehouse to LEED Certification Standards
| Sky Lofts will renovate and reuse a 94,535 sq. ft. five-story warehouse/industrial building ("The Edge") at 310 Culvert Street in Downtown Cincinnati. The renovation will result in new flex-style office space and will be built to LEED Certified standards.
Sky Lofts received a 12 year LEED CRA tax abatement from the City of Cincinnati for the $3.4 million dollar project. |
Award-winning Choosecincy.com gets Google Integration
| Did you know? In 2010 we were awarded the Excellence in Economic Development Award for the City of Cincinnati EDD Website in the category of General Purpose Website for communities with populations of 200,000 - 500,000 from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). Additionally, ChooseCincy.com was also nominated for an Ohio Economic Development Association (OEDA) Excellence in Economic Development Award.
These were great accomplishments for the City of Cincinnati Economic Development Division. However, not being one to rest on our laurels, we are always looking at ways to improve our delivery of services via website. With this in mind we decided to take our mapping capabilities a step further and allow the user to have more interaction with our maps. To that end, we have integrated Google mapping technology into our site, allowing users the ability to view selected information on a Google interactive map.
To see the mapping function in action please follow the link: http://www.choosecincy.com/maps
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Choosecincy.com website survey
| It is hard to believe that Choosecincy.com is already 1 year old. We think Choosecincy.com has been a great resource to us and our users. However, we can never truly measure our success without your input. So, let your voice be heard by following the link below to take our brief survey about the Choosecincy.com website:
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e37pvwagght8hjlj/start
Thank you in advance!
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| Did you know? | |
If Ohio was a separate country, it would have the 26th largest economy in the world.
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