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Mixed-Use Project in Cincinnati's Lower Price Hill Lands Tax Credits

The project will create 47 units of new housing for low and moderate-income households as well as commercial space in currently vacant buildings

By Nick Swartsell on Thu, May 21, 2020 at 11:36 am

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Photo: Nick Swartsell

Lower Price Hill

A project bringing 47 units of affordable housing and renovated commercial space to Lower Price Hill has landed federal tax credits and loans to help finance its construction.

That development will involve rehabilitation of 10 vacant and historic buildings and construction of 16 new units of housing next door.

The development is called LPH Thrives. Lower Price Hill nonprofit Community Matters is partnering with Over-the-Rhine Community Housing (OTRCH) on the project.

"We have worked really closely together as a community and we've been developing our plans as a united front with all the key stakeholders in the community," Community Matters Executive Director Mary Delaney said in February. "This launches us forward on the next step toward getting some key properties back in use."

The roughly $846,000 in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits administered by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency can be used to attract investors to finance construction on the project. In return, the property owner must promise to keep the residential units affordable and reserved for low and moderate income households. OHFA also approved the project for federal loans to help finance building.

Units will range from efficiencies renting at $343 a month to three bedrooms renting between $460 and $1,094 a month — affordable to those making between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income.

"The region is in an affordable housing crisis," OTRCH Development Project Manager Ben Eilerman said at a Feb. 19 Cincinnati City Council meeting. "This project looks to address folks at the very lowest level and also incorporates units for folks who can afford higher rent. This is only part of the work that is going on in Lower Price Hill. There are also home ownership opportunities that community council is working on with Habitat for Humanity."

The new housing and commercial space is coming to a neighborhood that hasn't seen much investment in recent decades, neighborhood leaders say.

"We are following our resurgence plan, which is to bring more vitality and energetic activity into our community," Lower Price Hill Community Council President Cynthia Ford told Cincinnati City Council in February. " This area has been somewhat neglected prior to now. This is something that is very important to us."