Monday, February 01, 1999
McAlpin's vacancy strains downtown
Three years later, site awaits firm plan
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
David Ginsburg looks at the empty McAlpin's store on Fourth Street in downtown Cincinnati and sees opportunity.
Phyllis Karp sees another dead downtown business.
Such opposing views from Mr. Ginsburg, a downtown retail advocate, and Ms. Karp, a longtime merchant, underscore problems the city faces in replacing a key piece of the downtown shopping puzzle.
The longer it takes to fill such an important piece in the city grid, the harder it is on businesses that remain.
Three years ago this week, the final sale was rung up at the downtown McAlpin's. The company said there wasn't enough business to keep the doors open after 116 years.
But for all the energy being put into downtown retail, no one knows what will be done with McAlpin's or the corner of Fifth and Race streets, where passers-by also pass empty storefronts.
“Sometimes you look at things that have been vacant for three years, and you think nothing has happened,” said Mr. Ginsburg, senior vice president of Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI). “In this particular case, all kinds of things have happened.”
But not the right things, as far as Ms. Karp is concerned. Her Main Auction Galleries sits a block west of the old building.
“The city I love so much, grew up in, has deteriorated. That beautiful Queen of the West in her garland dress on the banks of the beautiful Ohio, has become a nude place.”
|
McALPIN'S SAGA
|
• Feb. 3, 1996 — Mercantile closes its Fourth Street McAlpin's store.
• Dec. 5, 1996 — Mayor Roxanne Qualls confirms city is talking to Seattle-based Nordstrom about building a store downtown, possibly at old McAlpin's store site.
• Dec. 17, 1996 — City officials propose deal to bring Maison Blanche department store to Fifth and Race streets. Maison Blanche is owned by Mercantile.
• May 8, 1997 — Developers announce Tiffany & Co. will open a signature store next to the new Lazarus at Fountain Place downtown. Brooks Brothers will join them, moving from Fourth Street.
• Oct. 17, 1997 — The Lazarus store at Seventh and Race streets closes.
• Nov. 6, 1997 — Fountain Place opens.
• Jan. 13, 1998 — Cincinnati development officials unveil the so-called Renfro-Faison plan to bring a Nordstrom to the old McAlpin's spot on Fourth Street and a movie theater and other entertainment development to the riverfront.
• Jan. 22, 1998 — City council approves terms of a $59 million deal to bring a Maison Blanche store to Fifth and Race streets.
• April 15, 1998 — City council kills Renfro-Faison plan.
• May 18, 1998 — Arkansas-based Dillard's Inc. will buy Mercantile. Deal scraps Mercantile's plans to open Maison Blanche store.
• Jan. 25, 1999 — Cincinnati and Hamilton County leaders announce the formation of Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Commission to create plan for riverfront between the two stadiums and on Fourth Street at the old McAlpin's store.
|
Actually, Cincinnati has been dressed up a bit. Most significantly: the opening in 1997 of Fountain Place with its Lazarus department store, Tiffany & Co. and Brooks Brothers.
Ms. Karp has her own ideas about what should be built in the old McAlpin's store. After it closed, she circulated a proposal for the “McAlpin's Mausoleum,” as she called it.
She wants to turn it into a Cultural Heritage Center, with displays that show off industries that started in Cincinnati: Procter & Gamble, Baldwin Piano and Rookwood Pottery.
City and DCI officials peg their hopes on a multiscreen movie theater, surrounded by shops such as FAO Schwarz and a Disney Store.
Some merchants are skeptical that anyone will come downtown to see a movie if they have to pay to park.
Ray Gronauer, whose Gronauer Furs store sits at Fourth and Vine streets, said a better solution would be to lure more small, independent retailers to the McAlpin's site.
A private developer recently looked into buying the property, but city Economic Development Director Andi Udris opposed the sale. He said a developer might purchase the building and then do nothing with it, only to jack up the price of the real estate if the city wanted to buy it later and put it to use.
Mr. Udris said he hoped that Dillard's Inc., which owns the building after buying McAlpin's parent company, will donate it to the city.
Arn Bortz, a former mayor and a developer whose Towne Properties was part of the team that gave birth to Fountain Place, doesn't understand why officials won't let a private developer create something on the site.
“When I hear there are highly qualified developers interested in the old McAlpin's, my discouragement grows even greater,” he said. “I have to wonder if anything's been learned from the Fountain Square West experience, when the city wants to control the McAlpin's building with no credible plan.”
(Fountain Place used to be called Fountain Square West. The land was taken by the city, and businesses there were relocated before a deal was in place to build anything. It sat empty for 13 years before Fountain Place finally opened in 1997.)
|
LAZARUS SITE RISES FROM DEAD
|
The closed McAlpin's store on Fourth Street sits empty, but the old Lazarus building on Seventh Street will soon be reborn as Shillito Lofts.
The 814,000-square-foot building, which was home to Shillito's department store long before the name changed to Lazarus, is being transformed into a modernized residential development, with either office or retail space in addition.
The 97 apartments that make up the residential part of the project will be finished in June or July, said Arn Bortz, whose Towne Properties is developing the site.
Mr. Bortz predicts the first floor eventually will be offices for a design firm. Whatever goes there, Mr. Bortz said, his goal is to add vitality to that end of Race Street.
|
Mr. Udris doesn't want another Fountain Square West, and he knows the delay in finding new life for the McAlpin's site has hurt downtown.
“It doesn't add any value,” he said. “All the businesses there have suffered.”
Whatever happens will be determined as part of a new riverfront planning process.
The Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Committee — formed to decide what should be built between the new stadiums — will study proposals for the block on Fourth Street.
For all their interest in McAlpin's, city and DCI officials are concentrating first on Fifth and Race streets.
The two spots were once inextricably linked.
Mercantile Stores Co. — parent company of McAlpin's — had negotiated a deal with the city to build an upscale Maison Blanche store at Fifth and Race streets on property owned by Western-Southern Life Insurance's real estate division.
In exchange, Mercantile would yield its McAlpin's store for a different development.
When Dillard's announced in May it was acquiring Mercantile, the plans for a Maison Blanche died.
Mr. Udris said Dillard's hasn't ruled out building a new store downtown, but the chain is known for favoring suburban spots.
Assuming Dillard's won't build downtown, the next step is finding a tenant for Fifth and Race, where demolition is scheduled to begin Feb. 15. Mr. Udris estimates demolition will take about six months, and he hopes the city will know what will be built on that spot by that time.
Western-Southern's real estate executives are negotiating with possible tenants, but spokesman Herb Brown would not name names.
City and DCI officials aren't shy about saying they hope to lure a Nordstrom to the site.
That Seattle-based upscale store is seen as a prize for any city, and Mr. Udris and others said Nordstrom could be just the thing to restore downtown retailing to its former glory.
Nordstrom executives, however, haven't committed anything publicly.
Downtown used to be a magnet for shoppers.
Mr. Gronauer sold fur coats at Gidding-Jenny, the classy women's retailer whose building will soon be home to a T.J. Maxx store. He remembers customers coming from West Virginia, Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville.
He recalls women coming downtown for a salad at the Netherland and a day of shopping. “Those are the customers we're not seeing as much anymore.”
You can put your stamp on the quarter
McAlpin's vacancy strains downtown
Drugs bedevil Lebanon prison
Census officials can't find any takers
Ditch collapse victim in serious condition
Heart attack likely caused inmate's death
Black history still ignored in school
Hopewell third-graders imitate King's dream
Indian Hill students set Black History events
Mason classes fight intolerance with mosaic
Mount Healthy school group promotes diversity
Other school events for Black History Month
Underground Railroad museum has $25M toward its goal
Cincinnati's Century of Change: February
Gov. Patton sitting pretty
High-speed train proposal excites rail buffs
Newport native enters presidential race
Online college virtually ready
Rookwood Pavilion to expand
State rep seeks more money for libraries
Blink may help identify gunman
Critics back off opposition to school tax hike
Drug sweep sends warning
'98 tax breaks land 9 companies
Big plans riding on school tax vote
Catholic schools celebrate tradition
Money woes dull Corwin's rural charms
More on death row want to die
Retail hopes fading into quaint notion
Students discover new kind of class
Super Bowl coach amazes bypass patient
TRISTATE DIGEST head,14,11p8 Man killed, two hurt in Butler Co. crashes
