CINCINNATI -- Demolition of the Pogue parking garage on the corner of Fourth and Race streets is well under way and has already slowed traffic along Fourth Street.
But by early 2019, Cincinnati residents can expect to see apartments, retail spaces and a sleeker garage design in the Pogue garage's place.
Demolition of the Pogue parking garage on the corner of Fourth and Race streets is well under way and has already slowed traffic along Fourth Street.
Plans for the $80 million mixed-use project include a garage with 700 spaces, 25,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground level and 225 luxury apartments on the top level.
Residents of the apartments can look forward to a terrace with views of Downtown Cincinnati and the Ohio River, garden and grilling areas, a swimming pool, fitness areas, a pet walk and a club room. A portion of the terrace will be covered by the apartment towers, which will be designed in a C shape.
"We call it resort-style living," said Jim Crossin, vice president of development at Flaherty & Collins. "You get the benefit of living in a very high-end project with great fitness (amenities), a swimming pool and a sky deck that you wouldn't have in a suburban location."
The Indianapolis-based company Flaherty & Collins is developing the project along with Cincinnati City Center Development Corp, also known as 3CDC. Flaherty & Collins is developing the residential portion while 3CDC is developing the garage and commercial space.
Plans for the $80 million mixed-use project include a garage with 700 spaces, 25,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground level and 225 luxury apartments on the top level.
The apartment tower will have a variety of studio apartments, one- and two-bedroom units, as well as a few penthouse units. Crossin said the estimated monthly rent for the apartments ranges from $1,300 to over $3,000.
Other residential amenities include a sky deck on the top floor, granite and quartz countertops in kitchens, stainless-steel appliances and a lobby on Race Street.
The apartments could help make this portion of Downtown safer and more vibrant.
"To bring that many residents into that part of the Downtown will really help enhance not just the activity during the day, but the activity on a 24/7 basis," said Richard Kilpatrick, architect on The Preston Partnership team that designed the high-rise.
The Preston Partnership architects also designed Radius at the Banks apartments on West Freedom Way.
The increased activity the project could bring will be an improvement from the Pogue garage, which created a break in commercial activity along Fourth Street because it did not have ground-floor retail space, said Anastasia Mileham, 3CDC vice president of marketing and communications. The entrance ramp to the garage also covered the sidewalk, where pedestrians had to walk through tunnels instead.
"The design of the existing garage has long been a detriment to Downtown street traffic," Mileham said. "This new mixed-use project will add even more vitality to an already vibrant Downtown street by increasing the number of residents and complementing the existing businesses."
The new designs call for access to parking garages to be located on Race and Elm streets in order to maximize the amount of storefront on the more-prominent corner of Fourth and Race.
"To have that interactivity between the pedestrian activity on the sidewalk and what's going on inside the building helps activate the street and helps to create and contribute much more to the entire urban atmosphere," Kilpatrick said.
