Realm Spring 2024 - The Journal for Queen City CEOs

MORE HOMES FOR THE HOMETOWN

How new zoning reforms can grow Cincinnati’s population.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS VOL.5, NO.1

ON THE WEB: REALMCINCINNATI.COM

CINCINNATI USA REGIONAL CHAMBER 04 LETTER FROM BRENDON CULL

CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER Kate Ward

08 BY THE NUMBERS

A new ArtsWave report demonstrates how the arts sector truly boosts the region’s economy.

THE JUMP

PG. 20 PG. 32

10 FOOD &

16 EDUCATION NKU IS IN HER HEART

THE ASIAN FOOD FEST EXPANDS

Cady ShortThompson has big plans for the institution she loves.

BEVERAGE

More vendors, music stages, and activities spread along Court Street April 27-28.

12 TALENT EMPOWERING WOMEN IN TECH A new training program equips women of color with skills and connections.

14 LEADERSHIP CELEBRATING FOUR MORE GREATS Hear about dreams from the new class of Great Living Cincinnatians.

18 EDUCATION XAVIER LAUNCHES A MED SCHOOL Building a new college from scratch to tackle demand for healthcare talent.

20 FINANCE THE RAIL SALE IS ON TRACK UBS is tasked with managing $1.6 billion in sale proceeds to fund city infrastructure work.

PG. 52

Cincinnati officials propose sweeping zoning and land-use reforms to address the city’s housing shortage and to grow its population.

PUBLISHER Ivy Bayer

THE HOMETOWN NEEDS MORE HOMES

32

CONNECTING IN THE CAPITALS

Historic renovation and infill projects are attracting entrepreneurs and community partners along Gilbert and Woodburn avenue corridors.

CHAMBER OFFICE 3 E. Fourth St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 579-3100 All contents © 2024 Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. The contents cannot be reproduced in any manner, whole or in part, without written permission from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

38

52 PHOTO ESSAY: THE SEEDS OF CHANGE GROW IN WALNUT HILLS

BOARD CHAIR Candace McGraw CEO, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

24

Triversity’s CEO transition has been intentional, meticulous, and energizing.

Get to know Rickell Howard Smith of YWCA Greater Cincinnati, Nancy EigelMiller of 1N5, and Jim Downton of the Sharonville Convention Center.

TRAFFIC MANAGER Tracey Brachle

DEEP DIVES

WHEN A SUCCESSION PLAN IS SUCCESSFUL

50 ASK ME ABOUT

PRESIDENT AND CEO Brendon Cull

Regional business leaders count on unified approaches and lobbying and consulting help to navigate government relationships in Columbus and Frankfort.

44

LOCALLY-OWNED RESTAURANTS BOOST BUSINESS DISTRICTS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Fox DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Amanda Boyd Walters DESIGN DIRECTOR Brittany Dexter ART DIRECTORS Carlie Burton, Jessica Dunham, Stefanie Hadiwidjaja, Sophie Kallis, Matthew Spoleti, Emi Villavicencio SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGERS Maggie Goecke, Joe Hoffecker, Julie Poyer SENIOR MANAGER, SPONSORSHIP SALES Chris Ohmer ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE Laura Bowling PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Vu Luong EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING Email cmletters@cincinnatimagazine.com Website cincinnatimagazine.com Phone (513) 421-4300 Subscriptions (800) 846-4333

They have an almost magical power to stir economic activity and create neighborhood identity. Plus they’re delicious.

O N T H E C O V E R : I L LU S T R AT I O N BY S E A N M O R R I S / T H E J A C K Y W I N T E R G R O U P

P H O T O G R A P H S BY ( T O P ) J U S T I N S H A F E R / ( M I D D L E ) C O U R T E SY T R I V E R S I T Y C O N S T R U C T I O N / ( B O T T O M ) C AT H E R I N E V I OX

SPRING 2024 REALM 3

WELCOME

ven though winter seems to want to hang on longer than it should, it’s technically spring. There are signs of new growth everywhere: the trees in Ault Park, the daffodils in Washington Park, and even some tulips popping up around the neighborhoods I run through. And just a few weeks ago we found out that Cincinnati is growing, too. According to the latest Census Bureau data, we welcomed 13,000 new residents to our region between 2022 and 2023, putting us in the top half of absolute growth of the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas. With that growth comes the need for new housing, improved infrastructure, and pro-business policies.

This issue of Realm tackles all of those topics.

You’ll read about the Mayor and City Council’s zoning reform proposal to spur new housing developments to meet the needs of our city and to encourage even more people to make Cincinnati their home. You’ll read about how new developments in Walnut Hills are bringing a renewed sense of vitality back to that neighborhood, how restaurants can be at the forefront of new growth in communities, and how lobbying and policy efforts can encourage business growth. There’s also growth on the individual level. Triversity, one of our region’s largest construction firms, has a new CEO. Northern Kentucky University has a new President. And a number of amazing women have new career opportunities thanks to the Black Women in Tech program.

We hope you get to take advantage of one of the nicest times of the year here in our region. Go outside, enjoy the weather, and take notice of all the new growth. Things are looking bright!

BRENDON CULL BCull@cincinnatichamber.com

4 REALM SPRING 2024

P H O T O G R A P H BY C H R I S V O N H O L L E

YOURSELF

CINCY

Expand & Grow with Confidence

On the banks of the Ohio River where Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana meet, the Cincinnati region is the place where talent thrives and business success happens. Our unique combination of economic diversity, global connectivity, central location, logistical advantages, talented workforce, sustainability efforts and an excellent quality of life are propelling the region to even greater heights. REDI Cincinnati ignites the regional economy and is ready to help your business expand and grow here with confidence.

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THE JUMP

THE 13TH ANNUAL ASIAN FOOD FEST RETURNS TO COURT STREET PLAZA DOWNTOWN. P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY S T E V E N K A H U S

Get a jump on news about Black Women in Tech, Xavier University’s medical school plans, and what’s next with the city’s railroad sale. And catch up with NKU President Cady Short-Thompson and the new class of Great Living Cincinnatians.

SPRING 2024 REALM 7

THE JUMP TAXES GENERATED IN 2022 [Goods and services produced or imported by arts/culture]

$6.8 MILLION STATE TAXES: $5.7 MILLION FEDERAL TAXES: $3.2 MILLION + TOTAL: $15.7 MILLION LOCAL TAXES:

A new report commissioned by ArtsWave underscores the intrinsic connection between a thriving arts sector and a thriving economy in the 15-county Cincinnati region. The Economic Impact of Arts & Culture in the Cincinnati Region describes the tangible impact of the arts between 2019 and 2022—from job creation and tourism to the fostering of a vibrant, inclusive community that attracts talent and investment—and the sector’s post-pandemic comeback.

Statistics provided by the Cincinnati USA Chamber’s Center for Research & Data.

TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT [Direct and indirect revenue from arts/culture]

$410.7 M

2019 2020

$345.7 M

2021

$338.6 M $488.5 M

2022

$100M

LARGEST INVESTMENTS

$200M

$300M

$400M

[New arts/culture facilities built or upgraded since 2015]

CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER .............................. $228 MILLION MUSIC HALL ....................................................... $143 MILLION CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM ...................................... $65 MILLION CHILDREN’S THEATRE/EMERY THEATER ................... $55 MILLION * PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK ....................................... $49 MILLION *In progress

GROWTH IN DIVERSE ORGANIZATIONS [Arts/culture groups led by or for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)]

26%

19%

53%

7.4%

ECONOMIC IMPACT GROWTH 2019-2022 OF BIPOC ARTS

ECONOMIC IMPACT GROWTH 2019-2022 OF ALL ARTS

JOBS GROWTH 2019-2022 IN BIPOC ARTS

JOBS GROWTH 2019-2022 IN ALL ARTS

TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT IN 2022 OF BIPOC ARTS 8 REALM SPRING 2024

$15.2 Million

CAPITAL INVESTMENTS [New arts/culture facilities built or upgraded since 2015]

DIRECT SPENDING:

INDIRECT IMPACT:

$751.1

$842

MILLION

TOTAL:

MILLION

$1.6 BILLION

$500M

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THE JUMP

FOOD & BEVERAGE

THE ASIAN FOOD FEST EXPANDS Asianati, the nonprofit organization promoting Asian food and culture across the Cincinnati region, hosts the 13th annual Asian Food Fest downtown on April 27-28. Produced by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, the event’s footprint is even larger this year, with more food vendors, entertainment, and family activities.

MORE TO LOVE

Organizers have signed up 66 vendors, food trucks, and bubble tea shops to spread out along Court Street between Main and Elm streets and added two surface parking lots for music and activities.

FUN FOR ALL

Community cultural groups (pictured) will entertain throughout the Asian Food Fest. There will be main music stages at both ends of Court Street, with smaller performances and roaming entertainers scattered throughout the Court Street Plaza area.

SECRET SAUCE

This year’s festival will have even more of a taste of home, with eight amateur cooks and nonprofit groups serving home recipes at a “secret menu” booth. The pop-up format will offer lots of small-batch cooking that’s expected to sell quickly.

A GROUP OF FRIENDS

Co-founded by Koji Sado (Procter & Gamble) and Bao Nguyen (restaurant owner) in 2010, Asianati is a self-described “group of friends whose experiences as Asian Americans are as varied and unique as the foods we crave.”

The organization’s annual Asian Cuisine Week in January included more than 50 restaurants throughout the region.

10 REALM SPRING 2024

P H O T O G R A P H BY S T E V E N K A H U S

SPRING 2024 REALM 11

THE JUMP

TALENT

EMPOWERING WOMEN FOR TECH CAREERS A new training program equips women with skills, connections, and Google certification.

—SARAH M. MULLINS

PMorgan Chase and Google have joined with regional leaders to launch the new Black Women in Tech program to bridge the skills gap for women of color seeking careers in tech fields. Participants are receiving Google Coursera certifications and focusing on six different study areas: IT support, data analytics, cybersecurity, digital marketing and e-commerce, project management, and UX design.

The first class launched in November with a cohort experience in which women progress through the program together; the cohort consisted of 65 women who graduated March 15.

The curriculum itself is self-paced and doesn’t require previous tech experience or college.

JPMorgan Chase provided $500,000 in funding to launch Black Women in Tech, and Google provided 500 Career Certificate scholarships. The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati is leading the training program in collaboration with the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, the Brighton Center, Community Action Agency (CAA), and other community organizations.

“The program’s objective is to create equity in the tech space,” says Ebony Young, senior vice president of impact at the Urban League (pictured ). “What we’re looking to do with this program is to upskill women so they can gain direct entry to an entry-level role or, if they’re currently working in tech and looking to upskill, to provide more meaningful employment and increase their salaries.” Young says participants are eligible to receive a $500 stipend upon successful completion of the certification, based on income, and financial coaching is also provided. Graduates have access to a career fair to explore employment opportunities.

J

12 REALM SPRING 2024

JPMorgan Chase’s partnership goes beyond funding, as participants are able to engage in “fireside chats” on a variety of financial topics.

“JPMorgan Chase has demonstrated its commitment to the community, not just workforce development but financial empowerment,” says Young. “They’re actually out in the community with us serving these women, which we think is remarkable.”

A combination of the Urban League, Brighton Center, CAA, and the Gaskins Foundation offer additional services to support participants throughout their three-month cohort experience—including incentives as they progress through the program, childcare assistance, financial education workshops, access to a computer lending library, mentoring support, and case management to ensure program completion. There are also opportunities to meet in-person and network among their cohort.

“We recognize that some of our women may have barriers to successfully completing a multi-week program,” says Young. “We want to make sure we’re providing the necessary support to our participants and creating the engagement and experience that will really benefit these women.”

Applications for the second cohort of Black Women in Tech are available now, with class starting in August. Find details about the new cohort and the program in general at ulgso.org/ blackwomenintech.

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THE JUMP

LEADERSHIP

CELEBRATING 4 MORE GREATS

(From left) Delores Hargrove-Young, Sr. Sally Duffy, John Barrett, and Donna Salyers.

The new class of Great Living Cincinnatians recommends dreaming big and sharing credit.

On February 29, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber hosted its annual dinner honoring the newest class of Great Living Cincinnatians.

Recipients have been selected since 1967 on the criteria of community service, business and civic attainment, leadership, awareness of others’ needs, and distinctive accomplishments that garnered attention to their community, institution, or organization. Meet the 2024 honorees, with selected remarks from the dinner event.

John F. Barrett comes from a long legacy of Cincinnati advocates, with family roots here dating back to 1853. He graduated from St. Xavier High School and the University of Cincinnati, then spent 16 years honing financial skills on the east coast before returning to Cincinnati. He was named CEO of Western & Southern in 1994 and chairman in 2002, leading the company from $3.6 billion in assets to over $100 billion. “I feel blessed to be part of this and very blessed to be a Cincinnatian,” Barrett said. “I want to ask all of you to keep on dreaming, and dreaming big, because I think we’re just getting started.”

Sister Sally Duffy, a Sister of Charity of Cin14 REALM SPRING 2024

Orchestra and the Lindner Executive Cabinet. She’s been recog—ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD nized for her civic contributions by the YWCA, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Girls Scouts cinnati since 1977, stands at the intersection of of Western Ohio, and Boy Scouts faith and social justice, dedicating her life and of America, among others. “There was a sayministry to causes such as immigration reform, ing my grandmother used often: ‘Many hands equity, and anti-poverty policies. Her many lead- makes the work light,’ ” Hargrove-Young said. ership positions include president and CEO of “I continue her saying and add that everyone the Sisters of Charity Ministry Foundation from takes credit for the finished project because ev2004 to 2017, a founding board member of Price eryone was a part of getting it done.”

Hill Will, and TriHealth board corporate secreDonna Salyers, a Northern Kentucky native, tary. “My hope and prayer is that launched her business empire as a sewing hobby that evolved into a this award represents the impact syndicated sewing column, then a of the right relationships of the Sisters of Charity to our region,” “I accept this nationally aired television show, and, Duffy said. “Right relationship eventually, the launch of a faux-fur honor on means ensuring the God-given fashion line. Today, Fabulous-Furs is dignity of every person, their behalf of the the world’s largest faux-fur retailer, shared membership in our soci- dreamers. with products featured in Oprah’s ety, and having what they need to Dreams are Favorite Things, The Miss Universe maximize their potential and to Pageant, and the Neiman Marcus contribute back to the common free.”

Christmas Book. “Thank you to evgood.” eryone who ever bought or thought Delores Hargrove-Young about buying a Fabulous-Fur,” Samoved to Cincinnati in 1986 lyers said. “I accept this honor on and became president and COO of managed behalf of all the dreamers. Dreams are free. And service provider XLC Services. Her many board sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you can dream memberships include the Cincinnati Symphony a big dream and build something fabulous.”

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THE JUMP ady Short-Thompson was surprised in Fall 2022 when Northern Kentucky University announced that Ashish Vaidya, who had served as president since 2018, was stepping down as the school embarked on a multi-year “repositioning effort” to respond to changing market and financial pressures impacting all of higher education. Much of the speculation centered on an unexpected budget deficit of more than $20 million, as well as declining enrollment and general uncertainty resulting from the pandemic.

“I spent 14 years of my career at NKU,” says Short-Thompson, who was CEO and Executive Director of Breakthrough Cincinnati, an education nonprofit, at the time. “Like a lot of people who care about the university, I watched and read and heard quite a bit and was concerned.”

NKU chose Bonita Brown, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, as interim president in January 2023 and began the search for the seventh leader in the school’s history. Across the river, Short-Thompson started hearing from people she knew when she worked in Highland Heights from 1996 to 2010 before she became Dean of the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College and Provost at Hope College in Michigan. She returned to Cincinnati to lead Breakthrough in 2021.

“I took the role at Breakthrough with the assumption that was where I would spend the rest of my career,” says Short-Thompson, who has three degrees in communications from UC, including a PhD. “But I love Northern Kentucky University. It’s where I started my career. So this job is literally the only position I would have considered.”

She recalls that her phone blew up when the job opened, receiving texts and calls from friends and colleagues saying the job was perfect for her. “I thought about it for a long time. Then my husband Steve said, You’ve been talking about this for months, I think it’s time that you stop talking. I agreed, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to lead the institution that I love.”

NKU returned the love. In announcing the hire, Board of Regents Chair Rich Boehne said, “It’s a huge advantage that she knows our campus community and the region. She credits mission-driven NKU for building the foundation of her career in higher-ed leadership.”

Short-Thompson built on that foundation at every stop. At UC Blue Ash, she led a team to rename, rebrand, and re-envision the college while serving as chair of UC’s Council of Deans and its Diversity Council. She did more innovative work at Hope and at Breakthrough, and she brings those lessons to her institutional knowledge of NKU. “This is it for me, the grand finale,” she says, laughing when asked what she would tell her alma mater, UC, if it called. “I understand that everybody says that, but I mean it. I love the size of NKU, and I love the fact that I know so many of the people by name and by the work they do and I get to play a part in that.”

C

EDUCATION

NKU IS IN HER HEART Returning to Highland Heights as president, Cady Short-Thompson says she’s “delighted to lead the institution that I love.”

–BILL THOMPSON

16 REALM SPRING 2024

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY N O R T H E R N K E N T U C K Y U N I V E R S I T Y

THE JUMP

EDUCATION

XAVIER PLANS A MEDICAL SCHOOL

The new college will tackle growing demand for healthcare talent.

–SARAH M. MULLINS

Xavier University is breaking ground on a new College of Osteopathic Medicine this fall, aiming to attract medical students to campus and to town. Provost and Chief Academic Officer Rachel Chrastil says the state of Ohio is facing a physician shortage, with a need for 700 new physicians in the next few years.

“Xavier is interested in this particular project because of our long-standing strength in health sciences and in pre-med,” says Chrastil. “Xavier has sent students to medical schools at a rate twice the national average. The national average is that about 40 percent of applicants are accepted into medical school, but with Xavier graduates it’s more like 85 percent.” By researching the demand and supply for medical schools, she says, XU leadership discovered that there are far more qualified applicants for medical school than there are available seats.

Graduates of the new program will become osteopathic doctors (DO). Medical doctor (MD) and DO degrees have become more similar over time, says Chrastil. DOs are trained in a holistic manner to consider the musculoskeletal system and the body as a whole. Both MDs and DOs enter the same residency programs, pass the same board exams, and undergo similar training.

The program’s curriculum will include two years of classroom and labs and two years of clinical rotations. Chrastil says Xavier will work closely with health systems to iden18 REALM SPRING 2024

tify clinical placements for their students and expand existing partnerships with health systems in the Greater Cincinnati area, such as TriHealth, which operates the Health United Building on campus.

Xavier leaders project the College of Osteopathic Medicine to have strong economic and societal impacts, estimating more than $48 million in annual economic impact and more than 350 permanent jobs. “This is very much a

Cincinnati and a Southwestern Ohio regional project that happened to take place on the Xavier campus,” says Chrastil. “Xavier joined the Big East Conference about 10 years ago, and that’s been an incredible shift for our athletic program.

This new medical college is the ‘Big East moment’ for academics.”

Steven Halm, DO, started at Xavier in February as the program’s initial dean. He previously served as dean of the highly-rated Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine for four years.

Due to the complex and comprehensive accreditation process, the program won’t start accepting applications until the admission period leading up to fall 2027. An anonymous donation of $50 million to the project in December enabled planning for and construction of a new College of Osteopathic Medicine building, estimated to be 90,000110,000 square feet in size, on Dana Avenue land that’s currently vacant.

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY J E S S I C A D U N H A M / R E N D E R I N G C O U R T E SY X AV I E R U N I V E R S I T Y

THE JUMP

FINANCE

THE RAIL SALE IS ON TRACK

The Cincinnati Southern Railway, now owned by Norfolk Southern, runs from Queensgate to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Board President Paul V. Muething after Issue 22 passed.

UBS is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and has offices all over the world, including one in downtown Cincinnati and another —CARRIE BLACKMORE in Sycamore Township, which together employ around 230 people. Founded in 1862, UBS had $91 billion in managed assets under advisement, structure improvements since the 1980s, and including $17 billion in public funds, before bethat will remain the case. The railroad fund is ing selected to manage the railroad fund. expected to generate $40 million-$50 million in Now that the board no longer owns the annual returns, compared to the $26.3 million railway, its primary responsibilities will be to collected in the last year of the lease, and will oversee the trust and to preserve and grow the chip away at $500 million in deferred mainte- fund, says Lair. The board will determine how nance and infrastructure needs much to pay the city each year from identified by city leaders. the trust’s returns.

In January, the CSR board Ahead of the vote last fall, the selected UBS Financial Services city released Cincy on Track, a 10over 16 other candidates to over- Investment year plan to spend railroad fund proceeds on streets and sidewalks, see the $1.6 billion trust. Board returns are recreation facilities, police members said UBS was selected expected to parks, because it committed to the best and fire stations, and health centers. return rate and asked for one of begin flow“Funds will be appropriated each the fairest fees, between $1.46 ing in fiscal year by City Council as part of the million to $2.1 million per year. budget process,” Lair says. “Cincy year 2026.

UBS also won the bid because on Track was a suggested plan with of its dedication to diversity department directors identifying their most critical infrastructure and equity. The board will work needs. All allocations will occur to “develop an investment policy and then, with expert fund managers, ensure annually through the budget process.” the responsible, diversified, and professional The budget process begins in March and management of this new financial asset,” said culminates each year with a June vote.

UBS is tasked with managing $1.6 billion in sale proceeds to fund city infrastructure work.

Now that the sale of Cincinnati Southern Railway is complete, $1.6 billion in sales proceeds will be invested on behalf of the city of Cincinnati by the CSR Board of Trustees, with investment returns flowing into the city’s treasury starting in fiscal year 2026. The city will collect roughly $36 million in transaction fees from the sale in the first half of this year and spend it on infrastructure projects until the fund’s investments begin to bear fruit, says Cincinnati Director of Communications Mollie Lair.

The CSR Board of Trustees officially sold the 337-mile stretch of railroad to Norfolk Southern in March, after gaining approval from a majority of Cincinnati voters last November, when Issue 22 passed with 51.7 percent of the vote. Cincinnati had been the last U.S. municipal government to own an interstate railroad, constructing the line in 1879 from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to promote economic development.

Norfolk Southern, or one of its subsidiaries, had leased the railway for 143 years before becoming its owner. Cincinnati City Council had earmarked lease proceeds solely for infra20 REALM SPRING 2024

P H O T O G R A P H BY J U S T I N S H A F E R

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DEEP DIVE

LOCALLY OWNED RESTAURANTS HAVE BECOME BIG ECONOMIC DRIVERS FOR BUSINESS DISTRICTS. P H O T O G R A P H BY A N D R E W D O E N C H

24

Building More Homes in the Hometown

32

Making Sure a Succession Plan Succeeds

38

Helping CEOs Connect in the State Capitals

44

Restaurants Bring Value to Neighborhoods

SPRING 2024 REALM 23

DEEP DIVE

The Hometown Needs

24 REALM SPRING 2024

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY C O L L E G E H I L L C U R C

More Homes

CINCINNATI’S MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL PROPOSE SWEEPING ZONING AND LAND-USE REFORMS TO ADDRESS THE CITY’S HOUSING SHORTAGE AND TO GROW ITS POPULATION. HERE ARE THE NEXT STEPS.

BY CARRIE BLACKMORE

DEEP DIVE

L

ong before Reggie Harris was a Cincinnati City Councilmember, he was a kid riding a bus to his great uncle’s dance studio on Chicago’s South Side. Harris grew up an only child, and he and his mother lived with his grandmother, a widow who had purchased her home through a federal loan program set up for individuals on fixed incomes. Through the years, her house served as a sanctuary for him, his mother, and other relatives who moved in during hard times.

Harris says he thrived on the support of his tight-knit extended fam-

26 REALM SPRING 2024

ily of aunts, uncles, and cousins. He eventually became a professional ballet dancer and later a social worker, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social work from Boston University. He was elected to council in 2021 and re-elected in 2023 and currently chairs the Budget & Finance Committee.

“It dawned on me that so much of my ability to be the person I am was because I always had access to stable housing,” Harris says in his office in City Hall. It’s a key reason he’s focused his efforts on solving the housing shortage in Cincinnati and why he’s championing a series of proposals that would greatly alter Cincinnati’s

zoning, land-use, and parking regulations.

In late January, Harris stood beside Mayor Aftab Pureval and a majority of his council colleagues to announce a series of reforms called Connected Communities. The changes would begin to address the city’s housing shortage, stabilize rents, and facilitate more equitable growth in the city, according to its supporters.

“We are getting in our way of achieving these goals through outdated housing regulations in our zoning code that cap the supply of new housing,” Harris told the room of reporters, city employees, and representatives from various local, regional, and state agencies. “If we stick with the status quo, Cincinnati will be the next city that is completely unattainable to live in for working class Americans.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development forecasted a three-year demand of 13,775 for-sale homes and 8,050 rental units in the Cincinnati Metro Area in 2019, meaning the region needed to build approximately 4,600 for-sale homes and 2,700 rental units per year to meet that demand. The Cincinnati region produced roughly 1,500 for-sale units and 3,500 rental units in 2019, but only an estimated 835 were built within the city of Cincinnati itself and development was not equal across city neighborhoods.

Cincinnati is now following the lead of other cities—including Minneapolis, Houston, and Columbus—that found success tweaking or overhauling their zoning codes to ease their own housing shortages. By allowing higher density, Columbus built four times

P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E SY C O L L E G E H I L L C U R C

more housing units in 2020 than Cincinnati, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey.

Over the last year and half, Cincinnati’s Department of City Planning and Engagement has been researching and engaging the community to create a new “people-focused” zoning and land-use code, Pureval said in January.

The reforms will be voted on by council in late June after another period of community engagement, culminating in a June 22 Housing Summit centered on the reforms.

“If we want to make wholesome, truly lasting change, we must reform our systems,” said Pureval. “Our plan allows more housing options—not just

the most expensive kinds—to be built within a quarter mile of our neighborhood business districts, and along major transit corridors. ... Buildings that don’t disrupt the feel of a neighborhood but can allow more Cincinnatians to live near their school, their grocery store, and their bus stop.”

A FOCUS ON BUSINESS DISTRICTS

C

onnected Communities isn’t simply about building more housing—it ’s about housing more people within the existing housing stock, allowing higher

density in many parts of the city, removing hurdles for developers, and incentivizing construction of affordable housing. The plan takes advantage of existing infrastructure, stabilizes businesses, and supporting transit services, Pureval said.

“Success for us would be having more housing options at different prices throughout the city, so that we are not concentrating poverty and so that our zoning does not contribute to the racial segregation that we’re seeing here today,” he said. “From a number of units perspective, we need more.”

After decades of decline, Cincinnati’s population grew 4 per-

REFORM AND REUSE

College Hill is a leading example of repurposing older buildings for new uses, including the Dixon Building (opposite page) and Mergard Lanes (below).

SPRING 2024 REALM 27

DEEP DIVE

cent between 2010 and 2020 from 296,943 to 309,317, according to the U.S. Census. But from 2017 to 2023, the city experienced a net loss of 3 percent in overall housing units, according to the American Community Survey, and during those years rents rose 24 percent, according to Apartment List rent estimates. In 2022, rents in Cincinnati rose faster than in any other U.S. city.

“Families have struggled to find an affordable, quality home that they can be proud of,” Pureval said in January.

Pete Metz, vice president of civic and regional partnerships at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, says the chamber’s own studies made recommendations consistent with the Connected Communities plan. “One of our strategic pillars is to grow population in a way that allows folks to live in the places that we know have vibrancy and access to opportunity and are connected to a growing transit system,” he says. “Creating that level of certainty and streamlining the whole regulatory process of development through zoning is really important to our members, whether they be nonprofit developers building affordable housing or for-profit developers building mixed-use projects.”

As with many communities across the country, zoning had been used “as an exclusionary tool” in the past in Cincinnati, says Kristen Baker, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. LISC is a national organization created by the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic groups in 1979 to address America’s affordable housing crisis. The Cincinnati office opened in 2000.

“We know that there is a large gap in homeownership rates among Black 28 REALM SPRING 2024

and white residents in Cincinnati,” says Baker. “Zoning changes and allowing for more density has caused a lot of friction at City Hall. It has really zeroed in on the racial injustice that zoning codes can lead to.”

Currently 44 percent of the city is zoned for single-family homes even though owning or renting a home is “riddled with barriers for many people,” Harris says.

Cincinnati City Councilmember Seth Walsh saw drawbacks in the current code first-hand when he was executive director of the College Hill Community Urban Development Corporation (CHCURC), which had taken the reigns to develop its six-block business district along Hamilton Avenue. “There’s a business district, but there was no housing there,” he says. “Businesses thrive on Thursday/Friday/Saturday crowds, when people are ready to spend money, but where businesses live or die is on the Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday crowds. Clifton is a great example: There is a lot of density there and a lot of apartments. College Hill just didn’t have that.”

CHCURC solicited opinions from College Hill residents and created a form-based code, which outlined what the neighborhood wanted. It then began to fill in empty lots along Hamilton Avenue and redevelop properties to add housing, including constructing the HaNoBe, a mixed-use development made up of 171 market-rate apartments and 10,530 feet of street-level retail on the northern corners of Hamilton and North Bend avenues. There are also 53 affordable senior housing units at Marlowe Court in the center of the business district, open and fully leased since 2018, as well as renovation projects currently hap-

DENSITY = MORE DEMAND

Mayor Aftab Pureval (top) and Councilmember Reggie Harris are in favor of more “people-focused” zoning codes.

pening at other buildings, including transforming a former bowling alley, Mergard Lanes, into 14 affordable housing units.

In all, College Hill has added 260 new housing units in the business district and an estimated 390 residents, Walsh says, but it wasn’t easy. “It’s exactly what the neighborhood wanted, but the zoning rules required density variances and parking and all the little things—it was an astronomical number of variances. One project alone required more than 200 variances.”

Every variance you seek adds time to a project, he says, and the more time added to the project results in costs going up. “We’re trying to tackle a 20,000-unit affordable housing shortfall right now throughout the city, and if we make it restrictive on the zoning, even though everybody agrees that’s what we need to do, these projects won’t happen.”

LEGALIZING THE ‘MISSING MIDDLE’

A

fter a year and a half of community meetings, surveys, and academic research into what other cities are doing, the city planning department unveiled the Connected Communities proposals in January.

First, the plan would legalize what city leaders call the “missing middle,” allowing housing types that fall between detached single-family homes and large-scale, high-density apartment complexes—which includes duplexes, triplexes, rowhouses, and smaller apartment buildings. Homeowners could utilize city programs for home repair dollars, allowing them to earn rental income on a second or third unit and build generational wealth that traditional single-family homes don’t pro-

vide, Harris says.

“We are pricing out existing residents to be able to age in place,” Pureval said in January. “It’s no secret at City Hall we are focused on trying to boost home ownership numbers, but specifically home ownership numbers in our Black community that has lagged behind the national average by providing more opportunities like row homes to be built, which are currently illegal in a majority of Cincinnati.”

The proposals are “surgical” changes, Pureval said, recommended for areas that are one-quarter of a mile from each of the city’s 30-plus neighborhood business districts and

P H O T O G R A P H BY H AT S U E

one-half of a mile from “major transit corridors,” defined as Glenway Avenue, Harrison Avenue, Hamilton Avenue, Reading Road, Gilbert Avenue, and Madison Road.

“Creating more density around the business districts is going to create more demand for the businesses themselves and more housing opportunities, which in the long run should slow down the pace of rent increases,” says Joe Huber, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Development Fund, which has provided loans to community-led real estate projects in the city since 1988, filling a gap not covered by traditional lenders. “We’re not going to just finance

a transaction for a financial return for an investor. We need to make sure that anything we’re facilitating is what the community itself wants, whether you’re talking about Avondale, Walnut Hills, or Price Hill.”

Huber likes that the city’s plan is nuanced and follows best practices around the country, adding density but maintaining neighborhood character. “It’s important that the fabric of the neighborhood remains intact,” he says. “In many ways, you’re creating more of what already exists in these neighborhoods. It just hasn’t been allowed to exist for a period of time because of existing zoning restrictions.”

FOCUS ON TRANSIT CORRIDORS

Apartment construction at the old Walnut Hills Kroger is a good example of redeveloping transit corridors like Gilbert Avenue.

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DEEP DIVE

TAKEAWAYS ZONING IS KEY By introducing the Connected Communities plan, Cincinnati is hoping to follow the lead of Minneapolis, Houston, and Columbus, which found success tweaking or overhauling their zoning codes to ease housing shortages.

By allowing higher density, Columbus built four times more housing units in 2020 than Cincinnati.

AFFORDABILITY GAP NEEDS CLOSED The city’s population has grown since 2010, but there’s been a net loss in overall housing units and rents have risen 24 percent. In 2022, rents in Cincinnati rose faster than in any other U.S. city.

THE BUSINESS OF HOUSING Zoning changes would allow construction of duplexes, triplexes, rowhouses, and smaller apartment buildings in the city’s 30-plus neighborhood business districts and along “major transit corridors,” defined as Glenway Avenue, Harrison Avenue, Hamilton Avenue, Reading Road, Gilbert Avenue, and Madison Road.

Connected Communities also automatically awards regulatory bonuses to affordable housing projects and creates “places for people not cars” by eliminating or relaxing parking

“STUDY AFTER STUDY AFTER STUDY HAS SHOWN THAT CINCINNATI HAS ENOUGH PARKING,” SAYS MAYOR AFTAB PUREVAL. “WHAT WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH OF IS HOUSING.”

minimums for new construction and redevelopments across the city. “Study after study after study has shown that Cincinnati has enough parking,” Pureval said. “What we don’t have enough of is housing, and often parking is the obstacle to bringing more housing to our community.”

Huber hopes these changes will be a signal to developers not currently operating in the city that Cincinnati is a development-friendly place.

“That can help competition among developers and ultimately create more units,” he says. “We love our local developers, and we will always continue to work with them. But I think there’s something to be said for having some more investment come from the outside.”

Connected Communities was also designed to dovetail with the city’s Green Cincinnati Plan sustainability plan to combat climate change and

with the Reinventing Metro plan, initiated after Hamilton County voters approved a sales tax in 2020 to expand transit service and transit-related infrastructure in the region.

“One of the things we know is that transportation is the great equalizer,” Metro CEO Daryl Haley said at the press conference in January. “If you’ve got great transportation in a region, people can live anywhere. They can work anywhere. They have access to healthcare and education and to not just more jobs but higher paying jobs.”

Huber and others say they were impressed by the city’s coordination with other big regional plans as well as the planning department’s effort to listen to residents. “I’m just impressed with the level of transparency,” says Huber.

“This is not something that is being shoved down the community’s throat but built around community input.”

Anyone interested in seeing how the new reforms would impact a specific property can enter an address into the Connected Communities website (cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/connected-communities) and find out.

BUILDING CINCINNATI FOR THE FUTURE

P

ureval sees these potential reforms as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to completely change the face of Cincinnati and make the biggest impact possible for current residents. We will continue to make sure that equity and engagement are front and center. What will come out of this work is a policy that

allows more Cincinnatians to live near the places where they live, work, and play.” He encourages anyone who is interested in the details to attend the June 22 Housing Summit.

Metz believes that if you build something that works people will use it, whether it’s the transit system or a more people-focused and equitable zoning code. “We are now building a transit system that works, and I think the same is true about neighborhoods,” he says. “That has borne itself out with all the hard work that community development corporations have done in Madisonville, College Hill, Northside, Price Hill, and Walnut Hills. Connected

think about the workforce side of this. How do employers step forward and think about their compensation and what they’re doing to help support their workforce?”

Thinking back on his upbringing, Harris says he will continue to push for home ownership reforms so that Cincinnati residents get a fair shake, like he did. “My family really reflects the American Dream generationally because of my grandmother and her home,” he says. “I had the opportunity to grow up in a dense, walkable neighborhood with access to public transit. That’s one part of my origin story and why I recognize the power of housing.”

Communities makes it easier to build those places, and that’s good policy.”

Baker at LISC hopes that, if the reforms pass and the city sees early demonstrations of their efficacy, the changes will be expanded to include higher income areas on the East Side not included in this plan.

“The other piece of it, frankly, is wages,” says Baker. Cincinnati region median home value rose from $132,000 in 2016 to $229,000 in 2023, a 73 percent increase, while wages increased just 37 percent over the same time, according to the Zillow Home Value Index. “Prices go up, but our wages don’t keep pace.

There’s more opportunity for us to

TARGET GEOGRAPHIES

CITYWIDE REFORMS

Neighborhood business districts and transit corridors in every part of the city will participate in the new zoning plan.

Hartwell

Neighborhood Business Districts

Carthage Roselawn

College Hill Winton Hills

1/4 Mile around Neighborhood Business Districts

Kennedy Heights Bond Hill

1/2 Mile around Tier 1 Major Corridors

Pleasant Ridge

Mt. Airy Northside

Block Face of Tier 2 Major Corridors

Winton Place Paddock Hills

South Cumminsville East Westwood

Westwood

North Fairmont

Madisonville

North Avondale

Clifton

Camp Washington

Oakley

Avondale Evanston Hyde Park Heights

South Fairmont OTR Queensgate

Sayler Park

Mt. Auburn

Walnut Hills Mt. Adams

West Price Hill East Price Hill

Mt. Lookout

Corryville

Linwood ColumbiaTusculum

Lower Price Hill Central Business District

East End

Sedamsville Mt. Washington Riverside

California

M A P BY C A R L I E B U R T O N

SPRING 2024 REALM 31

DEEP DIVE

When a Succession Plan Is Successful

TRIVERSITY’S CEO TRANSITION HAS BEEN INTENTIONAL, METICULOUS, AND ENERGIZING.

BY LEYLA SHOKOOHE AND JOHN FOX

32 REALM SPRING 2024

W

hen Mel Gravely, the long-time CEO of Triversity, stepped down as leader of the minority-owned construction company in January, he was fulfilling the next move in a long career built on intentional moves. “I’m not going to just talk about it,” he says. “If it’s going to be a thing, let’s make it a thing. That’s why we spend our time the way we do, which is why Triversity is the company it is—a high-performing company with the intention to be diverse because

we know diverse is better.”

One of the key components of Gravely’s vision for the company is laid out in the multigenerational ownership model he’s researched, espoused, and advocated for throughout his career. Jim Watkins came to Cincinnati to serve as Triversity’s chief operating officer in 2012, and five years later he became president. He is now CEO. P H O T O G R A P H BY A N D R E W D O E N C H

“The vision that we have in wanting to become an evergreen company, a company that’s looking at the next 100 years, is really what fueled the transition plan,” says Watkins. “Mel and I tag-teamed together over the course of my 11 years here getting that foundation in place. And then he felt like it was time for him to move on to that next phase of business, which gives me the opportunity to step into the next phase for myself as well. That collective mindset, if you will, is what spirited the transition for both of us.”

Gravely says that talking about being a multigenerational business is one thing, but demonstrating that a company can actually transition to

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY T R I V E R S I T Y C O N S T R U C T I O N

new leadership is what counts. “I had a CEO-in-waiting that I believe is going to be better at that job than I am,” he says of Watkins. “I didn’t have a construction background. He intuitively knows what he’s looking at and what to move around to improve margin and capabilities and set priorities.”

In addition to a construction background, Watkins also has a deep understanding of design, studying architecture and construction management at Purdue University. “I am very passionate about the built environment,” he says. “I started my career wanting to be an architect, and I realized I had an interest in it, but I had a bigger passion in being a builder. The triangle

of it all—the creation, the building, and possession of the finished space— is what inspires me.”

Watkins, originally from Chicago, is passionate about the power of cities and their growth. In fact, his license plate is a mashed up version of “City Builder,” identifying both who he is and what he aspires to do at Triversity.

Like Gravely, Watkins has prioritized community engagement, which he believes is good for business and an important part of leadership and mentorship. Watkins is currently the first vice chair of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and will be the chair beginning in 2025. He’s on the executive committee of REDI Cin-

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Triversity Construction’s work for Bethany House Services in Bond Hill.

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DEEP DIVE

“THE TRIANGLE OF IT ALL— THE CREATION, THE BUILDING, AND POSSESSION OF THE FINISHED SPACE—IS WHAT INSPIRES ME,” SAYS TRIVERSITY CEO JIM WATKINS.

cinnati and has served on the city of Cincinnati’s Housing Advisory Board for the past two years.

He’s stepped up to push for the Fort Washington Way “caps” project with business and civic leaders, stressing they will bring growth and vibrancy to downtown and the region overall. He’s a leading voice on the development of housing in the region and is using his Triversity pulpit to push for housing policies that urge growth. (Read more about the city’s changing zoning and housing policies on page 24.)

Chamber CEO Brendon Cull says Watkins is “destined to be a bigtime leader in the region. Because the Triversity transition has been intentional, the company’s success will be exponential.”

G

RAVELY IS ORIGINALLY from Canton, and shortly after he and his wife moved to Cincinnati in 1993 he left his position with IBM to join two partners running a civil and structural engineering firm they founded together. His first exposure to the region’s business community was when he volunteered to help organize a small business conference here. That’s where he met Clifford Bailey, founder and CEO of TechSoft Systems, who introduced

34 REALM SPRING 2024

Gravely to several businesspeople and invited him to join Downtown Cincinnati, Inc. “It just set me up for exposure and getting to know people,” says Gravely. “When people say, How did you get so connected? I can point back to the person who put me on that path.

Clifford was very connected, and because of that I’m super sensitive to people who move here, because I know what one person’s help and support can do for you.”

As Gravely’s connections grew and strengthened, so did his resume. He was a founder of the African-American CEO Roundtable, part of Leadership Cincinnati Class 19, and earned his PhD from the Union Institute and University.

His dissertation, in a sign of things to come, was on the topic of African-American entrepreneurship.

“The most transformational part to me is the ability to grow private enterprises that are multigenerational for Black people,” says Gravely.

“Until we do that, we’re not going to solve a lot of deep social problems, because those problems are being solved in rooms that cost money to be in. I believe we’ve got to grow scalable multigenerational Black businesses in this country or we’re going to continue to replicate the challenges we face now.”

After four years teaching at Thomas More University, Gravely founded a consulting practice focused on minority business development, the Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking, and wrote several books. In the early 2000s, at Bailey’s recommendation, he was hired by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber to write the business plan for what

P H O T O G R A P H BY A N D R E W D O E N C H

would later become the Minority Business Accelerator (MBA). That idea was first proposed by the Cincinnati Action Now Commission, an initiative formed in the wake of the April 2001 death of Timothy Thomas and subsequent riots.

Major business and nonprofit leaders across all sectors joined Gravely on the MBA steering committee to develop metrics and structure for an initiative that would accelerate the growth of existing minority-owned businesses. “It didn’t take very long for people to see the opportunity this program would create,” he says. “Cincinnati still today is one of the leading cities for scaled Black businesses in the nation.”

According to data gathered by the Alpaugh Family Economics Center at UC on behalf of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce, Black-owned businesses in the region generated $1.44 billion in total economic output in 2021. In February, USA Today published an article compiling the largest Black-owned businesses in the country. Number eight on that list was Hightowers Petroleum, owned by Stephen Hightower and based in Middletown, generating $450 million in revenue.

“When you look at the size of Black-owned companies in our city compared to cities around the country, we do pretty well,” says Gravely.

In fact, Triversity is one of Cincinnati’s largest minority-owned businesses, with $107 million in revenue in 2022, according to Cincinnati Business Courier. Gravely bought two-thirds of the company in 2009, with the other third owned by Messer Construction. He took ownership right as the Great Recession battered the economy, an especially difficult

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY T R I V E R S I T Y C O N S T R U C T I O N

time for construction, but Triversity was the perfect case study for him to realize his vision for minority-owned businesses.

“It provided me the opportunity to stop talking about minority-owned businesses and go grow one,” says Gravely. “We focused on private sector, big customers with complex needs, because I understood that business from having worked at IBM with big customers. I understood how they bought from suppliers. There was no other secret to it than that.”

Triversity won a major contract from Procter & Gamble its second year in business, and the company still works with P&G. It also continues to partner with Messer Construction on projects, including upcoming

renovations to the Duke Energy Convention Center downtown, and to manage projects for 3CDC. “Our reputation kept building and we kept building our staff, but we really wanted to build this culture and be intentional about Why,” says Gravely.

“Our mission statement of creating a model of what a diverse and inclusive organization can be continues to permeate the organization today. We have a vision of being in business for the next 100 years.”

T

R I V E RS I T Y M OV E D its headquarters and 100plus employees from Norwood to Walnut Hills a couple of years ago. The $4 million project saw Triversity join several other business-

WORK HABITS

High-profile Triversity projects include LoVe nightclub downtown on Fourth Street.

SPRING 2024 REALM 35

DEEP DIVE

TAKEAWAYS INTENTIONAL MOVES Mel Gravely stepped down as Triversity CEO in January after working alongside new CEO Jim Watkins for 11 years. “The vision that we have in wanting to become an evergreen company, a company that’s looking at the next 100 years, is really what fueled the transition plan,” says Watkins.

es as a corporate anchor for the neighborhood, a move that symbolized its dedication to community. The building, empty since 1973, is on a twoblock-long one-way street, a prospect Gravely says didn’t necessarily sound “appealing” but was intentional nonetheless. The renovation project was awarded to the Sanders Development Group, led by Robert Sanders.

“We do everything we can to provide opportunity to folks we think are really trying to move the needle,” says Gravely. “We did it because of what we could do in the community by bring-

ing jobs there. But we also intentionally worked with an African-American developer who at the time hadn’t had a big break. We thought he was a good person to try to lift.”

A self-proclaimed Cincinnati kid, Sanders grew up in Over-the-Rhine attending Taft High School, Rothenberg School, and Lafayette Bloom School. “I’m actually trying to redevelop the Bloom property now,” he says. “It would be really cool if we can pull that off.”

Sanders attended Ohio State University before moving back to Cin-

ANOTHER 100 YEARS

Jim Watkins (standing) and his leadership team at Triversity: (from left) Jenny Roose, vice president of human resources; Chris Schildmeyer, vice president of operations; and Ryan Dunlap, chief financial officer.

BOOSTING OTHER BUSINESSES Gravely wrote the business plan for what became the Minority Business Accelerator to boost growth of the region’s minority-owned companies. “It didn’t take very long for people to see the opportunity this program would create,” he says, noting that Cincinnati is one of the leading cities for scaled Black businesses in the U.S. A NEIGHBORHOOD CORNERSTONE Triversity moved its headquarters to Walnut Hills to become a cornerstone business for the neighborhood.

“It’s more than an office building,” says Watkins. “We also thought about being a good corporate neighbor.”

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY T R I V E R S I T Y C O N S T R U C T I O N

“I DON’T WANT LIFE TO JUST HAPPEN,” SAYS MEL GRAVELY OF HIS INTENTIONAL BUSINESS DECISIONS. “I WANT TO DO WHAT I CAN TO STEER IT.”

cinnati to work in commercial real estate and business banking. Most recently he worked for the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority as director of commercial development before hanging out his own shingle in October 2019. Sanders Development Group focuses on large-scale, mixed-use, multi-family and community development projects in the urban core.

P H O T O G R A P H BY A N D R E W D O E N C H

“You have a company wanting to hire a minority developer to do a high-profile project of relocating its headquarters,” says Sanders. “That’s a decent amount of risk, right? I would argue there aren’t a lot of people just generally speaking willing to give someone that type of opportunity.

But Mel and Jim trusted my experience, and I had the resume to back up real estate development, so we ended

up getting the opportunity to be the main developer. It’s opened a lot of doors for us as a company.”

Watkins sees Triversity’s Walnut Hills headquarters as a crucial cornerstone for the neighborhood.

The company’s presence represents an economic commitment that also spans community engagement. “It’s more than an office building,” he says. “We also thought about being a good corporate neighbor, so we have shared spaces. We wanted to participate in community events, which is something that’s always been fun to do, and also support neighborhood businesses. We’re hoping those kinds of things bring value to the neighbors who live here.”

Even after stepping down as CEO, Gravely stays busy. He remains on Triversity’s board as chair and still owns the same shares of company stock. He is a member of the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, serving as the Triversity representative. He continues to provide business development assistance to Watkins and work on existing business relationships at P&G and elsewhere.

Gravely will chair the ArtsWave Annual Campaign in 2025.

“I truly think we’re better together, and, again, I believe in being intentional,” says Gravely. “I told my wife that if I was going to have a tombstone, which I’m not, I’d want it say something like, This was an intentional dude. I don’t want life to just happen—I want to do what I can to steer it.”

Watkins agrees with the sentiment. “I’m most excited about growth opportunities and building new and deeper relationships with customers and the Cincinnati community at large. It all aligns with our vision to build a company that will stand and sustain itself for the next 100 years.”

SPRING 2024 REALM 37

DEEP DIVE

Connecting in the Capitals REGIONAL BUSINESS LEADERS COUNT ON UNIFIED APPROACHES AND LOBBYING AND CONSULTING HELP TO NAVIGATE STATE GOVERNMENT RELATIONSHIPS. B Y D A V I D H O L T H A U S

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he life sciences sector in Northern Kentucky has been a growing source of jobs and investment, driven by expansions of young tech startups in the biomedical research and gene therapy space as well as by big companies like St. Elizabeth Healthcare.

The growth in jobs was exponential, doubling between 2015 and 2020. But overall employment in the sector is still relatively small compared to more traditional NKY employers such as logistics and manufacturing.

So a couple years ago leaders of three life sciences companies agreed on an idea to

38 REALM SPRING 2024

catalyze growth in the sector and attract more high-paying jobs and investment: Develop a large, shared laboratory that would serve as a life science research and development center and could accelerate momentum in the field locally by attracting more startups, entrepreneurs, and research to the region.

Today, less than three years after that idea was first hatched, a 10,000-squarefoot laboratory is under construction in Covington, launched with the help of $15 million in state funding. The responses from Covington’s leadership, the region’s state legislative delegation, and

P H O T O G R A P H BY C H R I S V O N H O L L E

the governor have been credited with moving the project from idea to action in that relatively short period of time.

“It’s had the involvement of corporate leaders both inside and outside the life sciences sector in Northern Kentucky,” says Tom West, Covington’s economic development director.

The research facility is an example of why learning to navigate the halls of power, or getting help to do so, is an essential part of doing business. “It’s extremely important,” says Karen Finan, president and CEO of OneNKY Alliance, an organization of CEOs and other Northern Kentucky business leaders who work toward a shared regional agenda. “There’s the community will to have these initiatives accomplished, but the people who can make it happen are the legislators, the policy makers, and the elected officials.”

People who live, work, and run businesses in Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio sometimes consider themselves to occupy forgotten corners of their states, removed from the legislative action hundreds of miles away in Frankfort and Columbus. But they can get help maneuvering through the sometimes confounding legislative arena from organizations like OneNKY Alliance.

In Northern Kentucky, Finan says, “You can talk all day long about being the stepchild in the Commonwealth, but at the end of the day we have wonderful assets right in our backyard that we are responsible as a community to leverage and to grow. We’re responsible for being the best version of ourselves.”

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HE LIFE SCIENCES lab concept came about when three key Covington-based

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companies began brainstorming how to expand momentum in the region’s growing biotech and health care sectors. CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services is a 25-year-old contract research organization that manages clinical trials and other research needed to bring new drugs to the market.

Its global headquarters is in the RiverCenter II tower on the Covington riverfront, and it employs people in more than 60 countries. Bexion Pharmaceuticals is developing a drug that’s shown promise in destroying brain tumors and other cancers. Gravity Diagnostics started in 2015 as a small lab, then grew fast as it responded to the urgent need for processing COVID-19 tests.

A meeting among the three companies in 2021 with Covington Mayor Joe Meyer focused on what was needed to build on the growing energy of the life sciences sector in Covington and the broader region. The group landed on the need for equipped lab space that new and emerging companies could rent, a “wet lab” equipped with plumbing and ventilation for hand-on scientific research that could also serve

as a place where scientific minds might meet and collaborate. As discussions evolved, a meeting between Gov. Andy Beshear and CTI Chairman and CEO Tim Schroeder sparked the governor’s interest, and he promised his support.

“For Kentucky to remain competitive for the jobs and industries of the future, we need a new research facility in Northern Kentucky that can support the many life sciences and biotech companies already in the region,” Beshear said in announcing the state’s intention to back the project. “It would also draw new innovators and startup companies, creating more high-wage jobs and cutting-edge treatments right here in the Commonwealth.”

In early 2022, Beshear included $10 million for the project in his recommended budget, and Covington hired a lobbyist and joined the three companies and other partners in advocating for the project with Northern Kentucky’s statehouse delegation and all of Kentucky General Assembly’s 138 members. In the end, the Legislature actually added $5 million to the governor’s request for a total of $15

SPEAKING AS ONE

Karen Finan (opposite page) and OneNKY Alliance help local business leaders make connections in Frankfort, where the organization opened an office in 2020 (above).

SPRING 2024 REALM 39

DEEP DIVE

MATCHING UP THE PLAYERS

When state leaders in Columbus (above) are needed to help close large deals like keeping the Cincinnati Open in Mason (opposite page), relationships matter.

40 REALM SPRING 2024

45,000-square-foot Class A office building now under construction at the foot of the Roebling Suspension Bridge in Covington. It will house several organizations focused on the growth of the region, including OneNKY Alliance, Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the convention and visitors agency meetNKY, economic development organization BE NKY Growth Partnership, the financing organization Catalytic Fund of Northern Kentucky, the philathropic Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky, and the Northern Kentucky Bar Association. It will also house the life sciences lab and Covington Life Sciences Partners, the organization that will oversee it.

Beshear and local officials conducted a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project in August 2023.

“The OneNKY Center represents a tremendous amount of collaboration among the Kentucky General Assembly, the governor, and the business and elected leaders within the Northern Kentucky community,” state Senator Chris McDaniel said at the time.

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NUMBER OF SOUTHwest Ohio organizations deal with the state legislature regularly, including the Cincinnati Business Committee, the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, and REDI Cincinnati. Business leaders can tap into the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, which has organized a government affairs and advocacy group that works with members to annually set priorities for a policy agenda, says Liz Keating, a former Cincin-

nati City Councilmember who was hired in February as the Chamber’s vice president of government affairs and advocacy.

The Chamber’s 2023 policy agenda included protecting funding for small-business programs, workforce programs, public transit and local infrastructure, and advocating for legislation to help Ohio build its population and its future workforce.

“Our businesses and our leaders are focused on running their organizations and don’t necessarily have all the time in the world to read every single policy that is coming out of the state,” says Keating. “That’s where we come in to keep everybody engaged and up to date on what’s happening.”

Private consulting firms also make it their business to know the legislative environment and stay current on what’s happening.

P H O T O G R A P H BY S E A N . R E I D / S T O C K . A D O B E . C O M

One is DSD Advisors, an affiliate of Dinsmore law firm. Matt Davis, who’d served in government affairs roles in both the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky chambers, started the office in 2014. “Folks who do what we do understand the process,” he says.

“We can help set the strategy for how to get there. We understand and have relationships with policy makers.”

In some ways, he says, lobbyists and consultants are like the Himalayan mountain people who guide others to the summits. “We’re kind of like Sherpas,” says Davis. “We start at the mountain’s base camp, and we want a strategy that’s hopefully a straight line up to the top. It’s always going to zigzag, and sometimes we’re going to go backwards, but we’ve traveled that road before and we can help

people through it.”

That isn’t a bad way to describe Davis’s work with Beemok Capital, the private company that bought the Western & Southern tennis tournament in 2022. Davis represented the Charleston, S.C.-based firm as it sought financial support from local and state governments in Ohio to help realize its plans to expand the Masters-level tournament and the tennis center in Mason that hosts it.

Mason, Warren County, and Ohio were in competition with political and business leaders in Charlotte, N.C., which was thought to have the inside track on landing the internationally known tournament under its new owner.

“It became a competitive situation and we worked to bring everybody

R E N D E R I N G C O U R T E SY C I N C I N N AT I O P E N / B E E M O K S P O R T S A N D E N T E R TA I N M E N T

together—state government, local government, county government, the business community—to try to put together a proposal and a set of conditions that would keep them here in Cincinnati,” says Davis.

Cincinnati corporate leaders worked with local officials in Mason and Warren County, with local economic development offices, and with state legislators, including Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, to put together an economic package to compete with what local and state leaders were proposing in North Carolina. After the city of Mason and Warren County agreed to significant financial contributions, the state’s participation became critical as the clock ticked for Beemok Capital to make a final decision.

Husted met with Beemok’s prin-

ZIGGING AND ZAGGING

Consultant Matt Davis says the problems that keep business leaders up at night usually “have a public policy solution to them.”

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DEEP DIVE

TAKEAWAYS SPEAK FOR OURSELVES Business leaders in Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio often feel disconnected from state officials in Frankfort and Columbus, but growing relationships there is a critical step when trying to grow the local economy.

FACE TIME Regional leaders formed the OneNKY Alliance in 2017 to identify a lobbying agenda and act with a unified voice to achieve it. The organization established a physical presence in the state capital when it opened its OneNKY Frankfort building in 2020, featuring meeting space and conference rooms to help interact with legislators and other state officials.

LOOKING UP In some ways, lobbyists and consultants are like Sherpas who guide climbers in the Himalayan mountains, says Matt Davis. “We start at the mountain’s base camp, and we want a strategy up to the top. We’ve traveled that road before, and we can help people through it.”

cipals and local leaders at the Mason tennis center to hear about plans for tournament and facility expansion.

State Rep. Adam Mathews, a freshman legislator from Warren County, worked the corridors of the Statehouse to get funding for the tournament included in the state budget. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, state funding there was held up in legislative fights over other issues and ultimately fell short.

Ohio, Greater Cincinnati, Warren County, and Mason were able to secure the tournament with a 25year deal.

A process like that can be complicated, even though everyone agrees on the goal. “How you get there is often where things get bogged down,” says Davis. “So you have to know the players and understand the motivations and then chart the best path forward, bringing as many people along as you can.”

He also worked on the sale to Norfolk Southern of 337 miles of rail line owned by the city of Cincinnati (read more about the sale on page 20). Representing the Atlanta-based railroad in that effort was a complicated process that involved negotiations with the Cincinnati railway board that oversees leasing the key rail line, Cincinnati’s mayor, and City Council, lobbying for a change in the 19th century state law governing the rail line, and ultimately a campaign to win over Cincinnati voters, who had the final say. They approved the sale in November. The overall process took well over two years.

“Trust had to be built among the city of Cincinnati and the state legislature to come up with something that not only works for the citizens of Cincinnati but also harmonizes with Ohio law and makes sense,” Davis says.

Davis has worked with large and small businesses on matters large and small and says most will need government relations expertise at some point.

“People sometimes view the need for being involved in the public policy process as something that kind of exists on the side until it hits them right in the face and they’ve got to deal with it,” he says. “And they’re left scrambling with a set of factors that they probably haven’t thought of and dealt with before.”

“YOU’VE GOT TO GET ENGAGED, AND YOU’VE GOT TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. YOU CAN’T JUST SIT INSIDE OF I-275 AND NOT TELL YOUR STORY.”

He often asks clients and prospective clients about the two or three issues that keep them awake at night.

“Usually, the majority of the things that keep them up at night have a public policy solution to them,” he says.

Those can be tax or regulatory issues or something as seemingly small as requesting a new curb cut for a retailer.

In more than a dozen years working on issues at the Ohio Capitol, Davis has heard the complaint that Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio don’t get enough love from Columbus. But he doesn’t see it that way. “I do hear that,” he says. “But you’ve got to get engaged, you’ve got to be involved, you’ve got to build relationships. You can’t just sit inside of I-275 and not tell your story.”

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DEEP DIVE

Restaurants Boost Business Districts THEY HAVE AN ALMOST MAGICAL POWER TO STIR ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND CREATE NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY. AND THEY’RE DELICIOUS.

BY JOHN STOWELL

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he slapped another stream of fresh paint on the tired wall.

Her back hurt, and she felt a pop in her ribs—a reminder that her twins were due in just a few weeks. But Emily Wolff and her husband, Paul Weckman, had fully embraced the chaos in their lives back in 2003. Just out of college with their first- and second-born on the way, they were converting a shuttered deli into what would become a critical piece in the revitalization of Covington’s MainStrasse neighborhood: Otto’s.

“This was like our third child,” Weckman recalls as he munches on a plate of green fried tomatoes. “We were all in. We had the mindset that we were going to live here, raise our kids here, work here, and volunteer here to help make a community.

That’s what it takes to succeed.”

Brothers Paul and Neil Barraco opened their dream eatery, The Governor, in downtown Milford just five weeks before COVID shut down the world. The classic diner with a modern twist wasn’t the first restaurant to grace this charming Main Street, but the long lines for Saturday and

44 REALM SPRING 2024

Emily Wolff and Paul Weckman at Otto’s in Covington

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Sunday brunch tell you a table there is now the place to see and be seen.

“Truthfully, it was the community that kept us going through COVID,” says Paul Barraco, pointing to a window that served as the restaurant’s take-out portal. “We had to lay off 90 percent of our staff, but our customers came up to the window for their lunch and dinner, and, even though we had no seating for a year, we didn’t lose any money.”

Frank Eversole acknowledges that when he and his partner, Rick Pouliat, decided to open Ivory House in Westwood there were probably a few eyebrows raised around town. A fine dining establishment with white tablecloths, a sophisticated wine list, authentic Japanese Wagyu A5 steak, and triple-digit priced entrees on the west side? The duo had no doubts.

They didn’t want just another casual dining experience—they wanted to create a destination.

“Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy,” Eversole says with a shake of his head. “We think we’re not good enough. We think it’s too hard, and so it doesn’t happen. We said, No, we are good enough and it’s going to work because this community will support it.”

A restaurant is a neighborhood’s front porch, a place where friends meet for lunch, business deals are sealed, and family traditions are born and nurtured. It’s often where teenagers earn their first paycheck, where a forlorn street can spring to life with new activity, and where friends and family members can realize the dream of business ownership.

And, if a restaurant is successful for even a short period of time, it can inject a neighborhood with the sort of identity and energy few other businesses are able to do.

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ERHAPS NO ONE INdustry suffered more from the COVID pandemic than the hospitality sector. Restaurants nationwide saw their business come to a screeching halt on that fateful day we all remember—March 11, 2020—as governors across the country issued emergency orders and restaurant owners laid off staff and scrambled to figure out how to survive.

Over the months America remained shuttered, the National Restaurant Association reported that more than 90,000 eateries—nine out of 10 of them family-owned, slim-margin establishments employing fewer than 50—had gone out of business. That ’s roughly 15 percent of the entire industry. Some have come back, the association says, but many continue to suffer and even close in a failed attempt to rebound.

Profit margins are small in the restaurant business, and so is the margin of error.

As Americans retreated into their homes or ventured out masked into a muffled world with plenty of parking spots but no place to go, Neil Barraco says, the key to The Governor’s survival was family and friends. “We grew up here in Milford, so we know a lot of people,” he notes, mentioning pre-Governor working stints at nearby Padrino’s and 20 Brix. “When we opened five weeks before COVID hit, it was a madhouse in here. Just jampacked. We were rockin’ and rollin’ because people not only loved the food, they loved the atmosphere.”

Barraco thinks that’s why many customers came back as soon as The Governor was able to shift to a takeout business model with a window onto the sidewalk in effect serving as

a portal into what The Governor had been. “The community support was there from the beginning, and when word-of-mouth spread that you could get out and grab a good dinner to take home? That saved us,” he says. A supportive family helped, as well—Mom, Dad, and two of Neil’s kids went to work keeping the orders filled.

It’s not that take-out was invented during the pandemic, but when COVID forced restaurants to completely convert to that model, it did two things. As Barraco notes, it saved those willing to embrace the to-go

“WE HAD THE MINDSET THAT WE WERE GOING TO LIVE HERE, RAISE OUR KIDS HERE, WORK HERE, AND VOLUNTEER HERE TO HELP MAKE A COMMUNITY.”

model to survive. But, perhaps as importantly, it also preserved fragments of a community that grows up organically around restaurants anchoring important retail districts across the region.

“We’re fueled by regulars,” says Barraco. Familiar faces grace the tables and countertops two or three times a week thanks, in part, to Milford’s walkability and a nearby upscale apartment complex. As he speaks, a few customers wander in for an early lunch and are greeted by the bartender by name.

That walkability and The Governor’s popularity help fuel the rest of SPRING 2024 REALM 45

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Main Street commerce. When the restaurant reaches capacity and customers go on a wait list, the staff encourages them to wander the street.

Often, Barraco observes, they return with a bag under their arm from boutique retailer LeiMarie Limited or a record album from Spiral Groove.

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ESTWOOD IS CINcinnati’s largest neighborhood with more than 35,000 residents, known as the home of Madcap Puppets and Westwood Town Hall. But it’s Ivory House and nearby Muse Café, Nation, and West Side Brewing that have introduced a lively after-dark buzz to the community.

While West Side boasts 30 beer taps, Muse offers a sandwich and salad experience, and Nation slings its signature burgers in a renovated firehouse, Ivory House has curated a sophisticated vibe that boosts the redevelopment and rebranding of Westwood’s commercial district. “When Frank and Rick went out on a limb to create a fine dining restaurant that became a destination for people outside Westwood, that was transformative,” says Stephanie Collins, executive director of the community development nonprofit Westwood Works. “It’s not just Ivory House, but WB Grill and Aubrey + Zach’s ice cream shop also bring people together and promote development of the neighborhood.”

Eversole and Pouliat own all three and are planning at least two more restaurants there in the years to come.

Eversole agrees that Ivory House in particular has come to the attention of a loyal and affluent set of customers who may never have ventured to Westwood but for the cuisine he offers. “We draw from Montgomery, In46 REALM SPRING 2024

dian Hill, Mason, Loveland, and other east side places,” he says. “A lot of it is the cuisine and special service we offer, but some of the loyalty comes because many of our customers from the east side have west side roots and really enjoy the opportunity to come home.”

Eversole and Pouliat are corporate expats who aren’t from Westwood originally but, 20 years ago, fell in love with and saw opportunity in a neighborhood that Eversole described “feeling like a stepchild” back then.

Neighborhood pride was evident, he says, but community energy wasn’t.

So the two founded a development group, EP Investments, in 2004 and for almost 15 years purchased and restored dozens of the community’s time-worn housing stock. “We drew a circle about a mile out from the Town Hall and said, We’re going to focus on developing market rate housing within that circle,” he says. “We wanted to make a noticeable difference, and we knew people would come if there was affordable housing.”

When Eversole’s employer restructured and he took a buyout, he moved into commercial real estate.

EP Investments acquired the former Huntington Bank building south of Harrison and Montana avenues, and Ivory House was born. The building also houses the Gingerbread House daycare center. “These gathering places are important to the life of the neighborhood, but you have to be sure what you’re doing fits the community,” he says. “Great food is important, but you’ve got to be sure people feel welcome and comfortable too.”

Comfort and familiarity, he says, bring people back to Westwood’s Town Hall district, whether they live down the street or on the other side of town. That relaxed lifestyle, he be-

lieves, will be the catalyst for continued economic growth.

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OUTH OF THE RIVER, it ’s lunchtime on a sunny late February afternoon, and Otto’s is packed. There are tables of silver-haired ladies enjoying salads.

A young couple occupies a spot near the kitchen. There’s a fussy toddler who looks like he’d rather explore the kitchen than eat what’s on his plate. Every stool at the bar is filled and, outside on a day that hints the

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Brothers Paul (left) and Neil Barraco are grateful that the Milford community carried them through the pandemic.

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groundhog might have been right after all, the sidewalks are bustling. MainStrasse feels alive.

“This revitalization didn’t happen right away,” Wolff recalls over the din of mealtime conversations. She notes that MainStrasse was a noted bar district as the century dawned and the crowds showing up on a Friday night could be rough and rowdy. When you walked into a MainStrasse restaurant, you weren’t hit with aromas of fine cuisine—you were hit with an eye-watering blast of cigarette smoke.

“So here we were, just out of college, and we said, Let’s create a casual dining atmosphere with white tablecloths, art on the walls, and an experience for everyone as soon as they came in the door,” she says, laughing. “We were really a novelty. We had pictures on the wall!”

One more novelty: Weckman and Wolff opened Otto’s as a non-smoking restaurant. In Kentucky. Before it was chic. Before it was the law. And yet people came.

While Wolff is the creative force behind the atmosphere in their Cov-

ington restaurant group (which includes Frida’s, The Standard, Mama’s on Main, and Larry’s), Weckman is the food guru and business mind—the former born of a passion for cooking he picked up in college and the latter from his business degree from the University of Kentucky and a short stint at Morgan Stanley.

Wolff sees the beauty in an old building with good bones, and Weckman looks for new opportunities to broaden the neighborhood’s appeal.

They’re developers, but not the kind you might think. There’s an innate charm to MainStrasse, Wolff notes, and Weckman echoes that sentiment.

New businesses, he says—especially restaurants and other social gathering places—need to reflect that charm. And they can’t be faked.

“It’s got be organic,” he says. “A young chef comes into a cool neighborhood that no one knows about and fixes up an old building, gives it life, and makes the best food. That still works.”

With a pinch of disdain and a dash of dismissiveness, Weckman says he’s skeptical about the formulaic assumptions of some commercial real estate developers that restaurants are a quick fix for any empty building space. “That’s not the kind of soulful development we’re all about,” he says. You only need look a block north of Otto’s to find a ground floor “For Lease” sign where a generic restaurant adjacent to a soulless modern parking garage failed.

“Soulful development” doesn’t sound like anything he learned in business school, and Weckman is OK with that.

He says he’s helping to create “a whole community experience” in MainStrasse that will bring in business from all over the region with a variety of cuisines and dining options that appeal to young and old.

Wolff is working to create a community that emulates the German vilSPRING 2024 REALM 47

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TAKEAWAYS WALK THE WALK Situating a popular restaurant in a walkable business district can help fuel commerce throughout the neighborhood.

Paul Barraco says that when customers go on a wait list at The Governor, his staff encourages them to wander Milford’s Main Street.

THE REAL DEALS The charm and authenticity of neighborhood business districts can’t be faked, say Emily Wolff and Paul Weckman, who own several restaurants in Covington’s MainStrasse. “A young chef comes into a cool neighborhood and fixes up an old building, gives it life, and makes the best food,” he says. “That still works.”

SERVING SMILES Frank Eversole, who owns Ivory House in Westwood and Gilligan’s on the Green in Wyoming, says neighborhood restaurants are unique. “I love it when it takes 10 minutes just to get seated because you’re stopping to see everyone who’s there before finally sitting down with a big smile on your face.”

lage streetscape the neighborhood is known for. The architecture is key, she says, noting she and Weckman saved the building that now houses Frida’s from the wrecking ball just days before it was scheduled to be demolished.

“That would have been like losing our two front teeth,” she says.

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ACK IN WESTWOOD, A building is actually being demolished, and it ’s OK. Eversole, whose investment group purchased the old Bolton & Lunsford Funeral Home building in 2021, has decided to invest up to $15 million to replace the 100-year-old Renaissance Revival structure with a modern five-story multi-use building. He sees the site, which is across from Westwood Town Hall, as key to continuing the business district’s momentum. While he would have liked to save the original structure, its design and multiple building styles from different eras made it impractical.

Specific plans for the new building are still on the drawing board, but EP Investments is allin on two culinary concepts: Paloma (Mexican cuisine) and Terraza Trattoria (Italian). Home for both is likely to be on this site.

In Milford, there is more coming from the Barraco brothers. The entrepreneurial spirit behind these community developers—who reside in their communities and not in boardrooms— isn’t satisfied by success; it’s infectious.

Next door, the high pitch of a band saw is barely perceptible through the wall but come summer the Barrocos will open a Cuban restaurant and cocktail lounge there called Flamingo Drive. Look for live bands, island cocktails, salsa dancing lessons, and

maybe the ghost of Ricky Ricardo.

“It’s all a part of keeping downtown Milford alive into the night,” says Paul Barraco. “The DORA district (designated open refreshment area) helps tremendously, and now we’ll keep it going at least until midnight. So we’ll be the early openers on this side and the late closers on the other side.”

In MainStrasse, Weckman and Wolff are focusing on a couple of unique projects. A community garden is being developed on a vacant lot in

FRANK EVERSOLE’S EYES GLANCE DOWN THE STREET TO THE VILLAGE OF LOCKLAND, WHICH IS LITERALLY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAILROAD TRACKS FROM WYOMING. “I SEE OPPORTUNITY,” HE SAYS.

nearby Goebel Park, where some of the food they’ll serve will be grown.

They plan to give employees the option to spend a shift outdoors in the garden rather than waiting tables. It’s a foodto-table concept spanning just a few hundred yards from seed to plate.

“The neighborhood is going to see our workers actually transporting raw produce on carts walking up the sidewalk from the garden and into our restaurants,” Wolff says excitedly. “Just like in Europe.”

The couple, to complement their commercial success, has remained in the residential development business with a focus on small living spaces. The

vibe in MainStrasse, says Weckman, is fueled by young creatives who work in the community but need affordable housing. Affordability is key, he says, but so are comfortable, modern units that fit today’s lifestyle. He hopes that young creatives will fuel existing businesses and encourage the establishment of new enterprises.

“When we do home rehabs now, we can do one house with one tenant or we can do micro units and charge a lesser amount to get these cool, hip kids in our community,” says Weckman. “A lot of these young residents are our employees, so we want to take care of them.”

He doesn’t seem to worry about gentrification. His residential small unit strategy includes, in his words, “pricing that’s less aggressive than most developers” and a belief that his more modest income goals will result in MainStrasse retaining its identity.

“Look,” he says, “we spend 97 percent of our lives on this block, we’ve raised five kids here, and we live just around the corner. We want it to stay nice.”

Meanwhile, a van full of ladies from a local senior center pulls up to the newest restaurant in Wyoming, Gilligan’s on the Green, Eversole’s latest venture. It’s an American Irish restaurant and pub located in an old firehouse in the Village Green district.

The restaurant on this President’s Day afternoon is soon filled with locals from young to old.

“This is why I love neighborhood restaurants,” Eversole says. “I love it when it takes 10 minutes just to get seated because you’re stopping to see everyone who’s there and you’re visiting with them at their tables before finally sitting down with a big smile on your face.”

Unlike Ivory House, Gilligan’s is nestled in a mixed residential and

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small business neighborhood. Wyoming is a wealthy community with a less defined “downtown” district than Westwood, Milford, or MainStrasse.

Eversole partnered with West Side Brewing’s Joe Mumper on Gilligan’s, and it’s likely St. Patrick’s Day in Wyoming will never be the same again.

Eversole has plans to ramp up the energy with live bands and cornhole tournaments on the restaurant’s large patio and lawn. No doubt it’s a boon to Wyoming’s economy. More than 70 people work there, most of them Wyoming residents.

Eversole’s eyes glance down the street to the village of Lockland, which is literally on the other side of the railroad tracks—a town that’s never recovered from its dismemberment decades ago by the construction of I-75. Could Gilligan’s inspire development and better days ahead just a few blocks to the east?

“I think so,” says Eversole. “They have some cool buildings on their strip, many of them not being used

at all. I see opportunity. It’s there for somebody to take that first step, but it’s going to require somebody with a passion for the neighborhood.”

Back in Covington, Wolff recalls a rap on the plate glass window while she was painting the walls of what would become Otto’s. Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was chivalry, maybe it was just wanting, in her words, “to help these crazy kids out,” but the man soon had a paint brush in his hands and happily helped convert the empty storefront into what would become a neighborhood jewel. Others came and have kept coming as loyal customers. Some of their kids have waited on customers or helped in the kitchen.

“We employ a lot of people, we pay taxes, and we promote our community and give it a sense of pride,” Weckman says of economic catalyst restaurants like Otto’s, The Governor, and Ivory House. “You’ll succeed if you keep it unique and make sure you stay connected to your neighborhood.”

WELCOME IN

Frank Eversole (right) and Rick Pouliat say the secret to Ivory House in Westwood and Gilligan’s on the Green in Wyoming, besides good food, is making sure people feel welcome and comfortable.

SPRING 2024 REALM 49

ASK ME ABOUT

NANCY EIGELMILLER FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR 1N5 The ASK ME ABOUT mission of 1N5 in light of May being Mental Health Awareness Month.

RICKELL HOWARD SMITH

WHY WAS THE $24 MILLION EXPANSION NECESSARY?

PRESIDENT AND CEO YWCA GREATER CINCINNATI

WHAT HAS BEEN MOST REWARDING ABOUT YOUR FIRST YEAR AS CEO? The

most rewarding aspect was working with our amazing staff, volunteers, community partners, and supporters.

My entire career has been focused on positively impacting our community, and at YWCA it’s inspiring to collaborate with others who

believe in our bold mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

HOW DO YOU HOPE YOUR RECENT CHANGES ON THE EXECUTIVE TEAM DRIVE PROGRESS FOR THE YWCA’S MISSION? I’ve had the privilege of building a talented, diverse, and

50 REALM SPRING 2024

ASK ME ABOUT My first year with the organization and our plans for the future.

action-focused executive team to lead YWCA into our next chapter. In just one year, this team and staff have expanded our racial and gender equity work, services to domestic violence survivors, and violence prevention programming in schools as well as attracted local and national funders to invest in advance-

ment of our bold mission.

This is only the beginning.

HOW WILL A NEW $600,000 GRANT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HELP ADVANCE YOUR SERVICES AND PROGRAMMING?

We were grateful to receive this award to reach survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and

stalking in underserved populations and provide them with safe, effective, and accessible victim services.

This funding will expand and deepen our work to serve domestic violence survivors living with disabilities and special needs, as well as their families.

—ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD

Before our expansion, there existed a “gap” within Hamilton County for event space. Our exhibit hall was 20,000 square feet, and the Duke Energy Convention Center’s smallest exhibit hall was 40,000 square feet. If someone needed more than 20,000 but less than 40,000 square feet, there was no facility that could satisfy them. We were losing business due to lack of availability. The expansion was necessary to maximize our market share, allowing us to satisfy nearly 70 percent of the available events that meet in the Midwest.

WHAT FEATURES OF THE EXPANSION ARE MOST NOTEWORTHY? Our current

facility offers more than 90,000 total square feet, and it’s the largest flexible meeting space in Hamilton

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY Y W C A

HOW DOES 1N5 REACH THE COMMUNITY WITH ITS MESSAGE TO “STOP THE STIGMA, START THE CONVERSATION?” We offer

customized evidence-based training to schools and organizations.

We also have a strong social media presence and release a weekly newsletter and self-care blog, and we attend hundreds of community events across Southwest Ohio. Since our inception,

County. We put premium carpet in Todd Portune Hall to satisfy the high-end community galas that seat up to 2,000 people for dinner. We also added a one-of-a-kind full bar and restaurant named Northern Lights Café as well as the “grab-and-go” Aurora Marketplace. The days of “concession food” at our convention center are over.

WHAT DOES THE TODD PORTUNE HALL EXPANSION MEAN FOR THE REGION? Our timing couldn’t

be more perfect. With the Duke Energy Convention Center closing down July 1 for 18 months of renovations, the Sharonville Convention Center can help maintain the region’s many annual community events and conventions.

we have seen a 738 percent increase our school partnerships. In 2023, this education work impacted 186,000 students.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS? Stigma

can be defined as public stigma, self stigma, and institutional stigma. On average it takes 11 years for individuals with mental health challenges to begin to receive treatment. We

believe stigma plays a role in this delay of care. There is no other health condition that we can imagine delaying treatment for years.

WHAT ARE THE BASICS OF STARTING THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS? We

can approach mental health like we would any aspect of health. We all have a brain that controls everything in our body, so we need to take care

of it. Talking about mental health is as simple as being vulnerable to ask questions and to share our personal experiences with mental health. The more we talk about mental health in a way that normalizes it, the easier it becomes to start future conversations.

The key is to listen without judgment and ask questions with curiosity.

—E.M.W.

JIM DOWNTON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SHARONVILLE CONVENTION CENTER ASK ME ABOUT Sharonville Convention Center’s new 40,000square-foot Todd Portune Hall.

—E.M.W.

PH HE AO DT OS GH RO AT PCHOSU CR OT EUSY R T ETSY K T (KT O P ) 1 N 5 / ( B O T T O M ) S H A R O N V I L L E C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R

SPRING 2024 REALM 51

PHOTO ESSAY

THE SEEDS OF CHANGE GROW IN WALNUT HILLS

Historic renovations and infill projects are attracting entrepreneurs and community partners.

–JOHN FOX

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HATSUE 52 REALM SPRING 2024

ArtWorks is renovating an empty 1909 building on Gilbert Avenue that housed a paint store and an appliance store.

ArtWorks is keeping as many historical features as possible, including the front signage and this vintage cabinet.

SPRING 2024 REALM 53

PHOTO ESSAY

NOW OPEN

The Paramount Building was always a high-profile anchor at the corner of Gilbert Avenue and McMillan Street when Walnut Hills was once considered Cincinnati’s “second downtown.” The corner is humming again, now that The Aperture restaurant (this page) has joined Esoteric Brewing and upstairs apartment dwellers.

BUILDING UP

The Gilbert/McMillan corridor is also seeing empty buildings renovated to serve as offices and work spaces for ArtWorks (previous pages), MORTAR, DanceFix, and other cultural businesses. Construction at the old Kroger site, led by Model Group, will bring more than 100 new housing units online starting this summer. The nearby Thatcher Flats project, developed by Pennrose, will open 50 housing units this summer as well.

AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS

Chef Jordan Anthony-Brown opened The Aperture in January after years of pandemic delays. It was recently named one of the Top 10 New Restaurants in the region by Cincinnati Magazine.

54 REALM SPRING 2024

ON THE MARCH

Woodburn Brewing (left and below it) opened in Walnut Hills in 2016 and, like a number of hospitality businesses, closed during the early pandemic. Blue Ash-based March First Brewing reopened it in 2021 with the Woodburn name and beers intact, and it continues to help anchor the Woodburn Avenue business district.

ROSIER DAYS AHEAD

The new breakfast/lunch restaurant Rose Garden (below and bottom) is the latest Black-owned small business on McMillan Street.

Developers working with the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation on housing and retail projects have had success recruiting entrepreneurs to invest in the neighborhood.

PHOTO ESSAY

THE ART OF RENOVATION

On Gilbert Avenue, ArtWorks is creating studios on the third floor (top) to house work space for visual and video artists in the same building as administrative staff for the first time. The studios, as well as a new “art park” across the street, will welcome community participation.

STEPPING UP

The Walnut Hills public library is the city’s oldest neighborhood branch, opening in 1906. The original Carnegie Library building (bottom) was renovated and expanded to 20,000 square feet total with a new addition (middle) opening in 2022. Located just behind the Model Group housing development, the facility has seven meeting rooms and a large community space.

56 REALM SPRING 2024

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