The owners of downtown’s Dennison building bought it in 2013 at least in part because of concerns about a proposed plan to turn it into affordable housing, documents filed with Cincinnati’s Historic Conservation Board reveal.
The revelation comes as Columbia REI, LLC, the owners of the Dennison, look to move forward with controversial plans to demolish the building, constructed in 1892 from designs by noted architect Samuel Hannaford.
The documents, which are downloadable here and were first reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier, show that Dennison owners Columbia Development Corp. — run by the Joseph Auto Group family — purchased the building from an affiliate of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation in August 2013 for $744,000, a price the developer negotiated. 3CDC had purchased the property from The Model Group the month prior for $1.3 million. Model itself purchased the property in 2010 for $700,000 to develop affordable housing with Talbert House. 3CDC has made no comment about the sale.
“This acquisition was necessary to protect the family’s investment in this block of downtown Cincinnati,” the documents, filed in response to conservation board questions, reads. “As media groups have confirmed, and as the family had become aware, 3CDC engaged The Model Group for the remodeling of this building into a facility to be owned, occupied, and used by The Talbert House, a halfway house providing housing for persons who have transitioned through the criminal justice system and incarceration. Since it was believed this type of use would have a damaging effect on their investment in particular and on the neighborhood in general, the family concluded it was necessary to acquire this property. The acquisition would then be a part of the assemblage of the parcels in this block to facilitation a major redevelopment.”
Model Group and 3CDC’s plans involved redeveloping the building into 63 one bedroom, one bath units of affordable housing. Reports say the $10 million redevelopment, to which the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority pledged $3.3 million, would have been permanent supportive housing, which provides services and other support for those with disabilities or addiction issues transitioning out of homelessness.Those plans fell through, however.
Cincinnati is more affordable than many major cities, but is still experiencing the national trend of shortage in affordable housing. Rising rents and dwindling subsidized and otherwise affordable units of housing have put a squeeze on low-income individuals. A study by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless found that in order to comfortably afford a two-bedroom apartment at the $769 average monthly rate in Hamilton County, a minimum-wage worker would have to work 73 hours a week. About 24 percent of renters in Cincinnati have incomes below the poverty level.
The Dennison was the last of more than 20 single-room occupancy hotels that dotted downtown; it charged around $90 a week. Another single-room occupancy hotel once occupying the Metropole building was redeveloped into the 21c Museum Hotel in 2012.
The documents from Columbia at one point refer to the Dennison’s former use as a single-room occupancy hotel for low-income individuals as “a flophouse.”
Representatives for the Joseph family point out that the building had fallen into severe disrepair and was “disgraceful,” as the documents call it. Attorney Fran Barrett says the building is in disrepair and poses a danger to passersby, and that’s a big reason to tear it down. Columbia seeks to redevelop the property and several adjoining properties into a headquarters for an as-yet undetermined Fortune 500 company. The group envisions “an attractive, Class-A office building” to occupy the 69,000 square foot site, according to Columbia attorney Fran Barrett.
Barrett argues that, though the building was designed by the firm of the noted architect, the Dennison is not one of Hannaford’s noteworthy works. He compared Hannaford to Pete Rose and called the Dennison a “broken-bat base hit,” according to the Business Courier.
Columbia has been responsible for past demolitions of nearby buildings, and some of the sites of those former buildings are now parking lots, preservation advocates say.
The developer commissioned cost estimates for reusing the Dennison building — a part of the process of getting a demolition permit — and says that reuse of the building as apartments, condos, office space or a hotel is not economically feasible.
The city’s Historic Conservation Board will discuss Columbia’s demolition permit at its April 18 meeting.
This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2016.