Bob Ludwig, Chair of the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation’s Linden Park Committee, provides this update on the development of the Shuller site. (The Linden Park committee is a diverse group of residents and business owners, partnering with the City of Cincinnati and the developer, Al Neyer, Inc., to bring College Hill a new development to be called Linden Park, a premiere residential and commercial urban village style of living.)

There is good news for all of you who live in College Hill and for those who are considering relocating to this great community.

You probably remember our announcement that the City purchased the Shuller property in February. Things are now moving very rapidly on the Linden Park mixed-use development on that site.

At this point, I'd like add a few words about the role that Marty Weldishofer has played on this project. Marty has spearheaded the development of Linden Park from its inception in 2003. I am sure most of you have heard Marty talk about the Linden Park development's progress over the past two and a half years. His enthusiasm and passion for the project is infectious.

Marty has always been ready to speak at Forum meetings, at College Hill events (from baking in the August sun at National Night Out to standing in the rain at the Pumpkin Patch Fall Festival), College Hill Summit meetings, College Hill Business Association monthly meetings and their Annual Dinner, at CHCURC board meetings and at CHCURC’s Annual Dinner Meetings. It seems that you can see Marty any time, day or night, with drawings in hand talking to anyone who asks about the development at the intersection of Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road.

You may not know that Marty was also invited in each of the last two years to make Linden Park presentations at the annual Neighborhood Summit sponsored by the City of Cincinnati, Invest in Neighborhoods and the Community Building Institute. He made this presentation in a commercial development workshop attended by representatives from the City’s 52 neighborhoods. The collaborative work he has done with the community and the City is recognized and is considered a model for other neighborhoods to follow.

Working with the selection committee, Marty was instrumental in creating a selection process that identified the best developer for Linden Park. After the committee selected Al Neyer, Inc., as the developer for the project, Marty has worked with the Neyer team over the past 16 months while they completed their due diligence and negotiated the Sale of Land Agreement with the City, which was necessary to give Neyer control of the land.

Good work, Marty.

Marty Weldishofer, CHCURC Director of Community Development, provides the following update on the Linden Park development.

We have more good news about the Linden Park project at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road.

You may recall that the Sale of Land Agreement signed last February by the City of Cincinnati and Al Neyer, Inc., stated that the City would purchase the Shuller property and the Masonic Eastern Star Retirement Home (MESH) property, which is next to the Kroger site on North Bend Road. You may also recall that the Shuller property was purchased last February.

We are now pleased to announce that the City of Cincinnati and The Ohio Masonic Home have agreed on a price for the MESH property . We expect this sale to be finalized in the next 45 days.

The 3.87 acre MESH site is an important component of the overall Linden Park mixed-use development. The site will accommodate approximately 24 single-family market-rate homes. This will provide another new residential product to be marketed along with the new condominiums and retail spaces on the Shuller and Kroger sites.

In a further development, we are also pleased to report that Al Neyer, Inc., has negotiated a price with the owner of the Kroger property. Can closing be far behind?

And to think “they” said it would never happen!

You may remember that about a year ago CHCURC’s Identity/Logo Committee distributed a survey to the community that asked, “What does College Hill mean to me?”

Your answers were used to create the College Hill logo that was unveiled at the National Night Out celebration last August under the tent in the College Hill Presbyterian parking lot. This is the logo that now appears at the top of this eNewsletter, as well as on many other College Hill flyers, posters, announcements and publications.

This logo design was the first step in answer to a challenge that was given to CHCURC by the College Hill Strategic Urban Design Plan which was approved by the City of Cincinnati in 2000. That challenge-- that our business district had no identity--was finally addressed. Given a logo, the next task was to effectively translate that logo into the design and construction of Gateways at the north and south ends of the College Hill business district to identify and announce arrival into our business district.

Two years ago the City of Cincinnati approved and funded an application written by Marty Weldishofer, now Director of Community Development for CHCURC and Elizabeth Sherwood, now the President of the Forum, requesting funding for Gateways through Cincinnati Neighborhood Business Districts United (CNBDU). The funds were approved and allocated to CHCURC to complete the design and construction of the gateway elements.

Marty, a professional interior designer, and Don Cluxton, a professional architect and College Hill resident, rallied the Identity/Logo Committee of 10 members to form the Gateway Committee. This committee created and implemented a process to guide them in the evaluation and selection of the best design team to recommend to the CHCURC Board. ArchitectsPlus, an architectural design firm, was selected, along with their design team members, GroundWorks, a landscape design firm, and Brownstone Design, a graphic design firm.

After meeting with the committee and reviewing the community input from the “What does College Hill mean to me?” logo survey, the design team then conducted two focus groups with community residents and business owners. The first session was to get a feel for the likes and dislikes of the attendees with respect to various design elements such as, plants, materials and shapes. The second session was to review and discuss design options. Everyone was excited about the options and there was definitely gravitation to one option in particular.

These Gateways will be constructed of metal and uplit at night for a spectacular and memorable experience. A preliminary rendering of the favored option is pictured above. Isn’t it fabulous?

The design team is now developing this option further with input from College Hill residents and business owners. It will be fun to see the final design unveiled at a Forum meeting this summer.

Later this year the Gateways will be constructed at the southwest corner of Hamilton & North Bend (the former CVS site) and on the northwest corner of Hamilton and Llanfair (the traditional location of the Farmer’s Market). How awesome it will be to see these beacons announce everyone's arrival in our great neighborhood.

Article contributed by Marty Weldishofer.

What a lively crowd, and I do mean crowd, attended the College Hill Urban Redevelopment Corporation fundraiser at the Clovernook Country Club in April. According to Clovernook Country Club, this was the largest crowd and the greatest amount of dollars donated of any of the Celebrity Bartending events ever held there.

Clovernook Country Club provided an extremely pleasant venue for the event and also provided complementary appetizers. Our local Celebrity Bartenders, Beth & Tom McLean and Sandy & Dave Schwartz donated their tips to CHCURC and Clovernook donated their bartender tips as well. A stay at a luxury condominium on Santa Maria Island near Tampa, donated by the Schwartz family, was raffled off and Elaine Ludwig was the lucky winner.

Even though the fundraiser had to be scheduled on the same night as the monthly Forum meeting (because of the need to seize the opportunity for this fund raiser when the Clovernook Club could accommodate it), many of the College Hill faithful managed to attend both.

Money raised at this event will go toward paying the ongoing expenses associated with planning and expediting the CHCURC development projects. Thanks go to Clovernook County Club, our College Hill Celebrity Bartenders and all of the College Hill neighborhood supporters.

Article contributed by Carolyn Royalty.

All the attention being paid to the developments at the corner of North Bend and Hamilton does not lessen the importance of business development further down the Avenue. A healthy community needs a prosperous business district. Happily, there is some good news on this front as well.

Perhaps you've wondered what's coming to the southeast corner of Hamilton and Cedar. Earlier this week, your editor saw people carrying carpeting in through the front door, so we dropped by to see what was happening.

We talked to Ramon Norris, Jr., whom we had already met at Forum and Business Association meetings, and we were pleased to hear that he will be opening his American Heritage Flooring Company on that corner any day now. His store will carry carpet, tile, hardwood, laminate and vinyl floor coverings.

You can call Ramon at 513-681-9888, or drop in at the southeast corner of Hamilton & Cedar.