BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati planners Friday gave the go-ahead to a proposal to put apartments into the Shillito building downtown -- the final step before the city and developers work out a plan to pay for the $10.5 million project.
City Council's Finance Committee Tuesday will review a proposed funding plan, that includes a $2 million grant for site preparation and demolition inside the massive department store building on Seventh between Race and Elm streets. The city paid $11.7 million for the property in 1996 as part of a plan that moved Lazarus to Fountain Place.
The plan by Towne Properties, the proposed developer, calls for 98 to 108 apartments at Shillito Lofts. Rents would range from $430 to $1,840 a month. This first phase of the building's makeover would entail 178,000 square feet of residential space and 90,000 square feet of retail space.
Council member Charles Winburn, a member of the Finance Committee, said he will support the project.
"We're probably going to end up with a couple hundred new citizens downtown," Mr. Winburn said. "I think that by next April we ought to be able to dedicate that building and get those residents in there." Under the proposal, the city would also be responsible for a $7 million bond issue for the project. Towne would lease the property from the city for $10 a year, plus an estimated $610,400 annually to cover the city's debt service on the bonds.
The developer would cover real estate taxes and any additional expenses, invest $1.5 million from historic tax credits and deposit a $150,000 completion guarantee. Towne also would manage the property.
"I'm very interested in the project," Finance Committee chairman Dwight Tillery said Friday. "We do know that Arn Bortz (a partner in Towne Properties) and others have done a good job on downtown housing. We certainly want to look favorably on what they plan to do."
If City Council approves the administration's plans for redevelopment of the 120-year-old building, work could start as early as June and be finished in 1999.
The project is the fourth part of the Garfield Place Housing Master Plan, created with Towne Properties in 1990. The first three phases produced 254 apartments, 19,100 square feet of commercial space and 550 parking spaces in and around the Gramercy on Garfield, Groton Lofts and Greenwich on Park.
