Demand for property in Over-the-Rhine is growing quickly, and the neighborhood’s biggest developer is ramping up its renovations to keep up.
Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation (3CDC), the public-private partnership that has spent the past decade and hundreds of millions of dollars renovating properties in OTR, has announced that it will be investing more than $14 million in 24 condominiums and 12 townhomes in the neighborhood.
So far in 2014, the developer says it has sold 51 properties in OTR. It has 21 remaining and says at the current rate supply will last until spring at best. Though exact prices haven’t been set on the latest round of units for sale, 3CDC says there will be a range of price points. The most upscale condos will be in a redeveloped building on Race Street across from Washington Park. The townhomes, which will contain three bedrooms, will be part of Mercer III, a development just off Vine Street.
The rising demand has caused concerns that the area is getting too expensive and that the rising costs are pushing low-income renters out of the neighborhood and even keeping middle-income renters and buyers from moving in. Rental prices in OTR have increased heavily in the past five years.
While 3CDC is ramping up renovations, the developer is rethinking its plans for one of its biggest developments yet — a project that would have added 57 new residential units, a 300-space parking garage and 22,000 square feet of retail space. After some in the community balked at the size of the project, especially its parking garage, 3CDC has said it will reign in the plan. It expects to release new designs responding to feedback next month.
