Wednesday, February 03, 1999
West Chester searches for new identity
Consultant enthused by potential
BY AMY HIGGINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP — When Stan Eichelbaum walks along Cincinnati-Dayton Road, he sees dilapidated 100-year-old buildings. He sees cars and trucks zooming past. And he sees former retail buildings turning into professional offices.
But when he thinks about the future of the 1-mile strip known as Olde West Chester, he sees purity.
“What this can really be is the purest setting in Union Township,” said Mr. Eichelbaum, founder and president of Marketing Developments Inc.
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EYE ON WEST CHESTER
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Union Township's Olde West Chester is at a crossroads. Some residents and officials want the mile-long corridor along Cincinnati-Dayton Road to become a hub of specialty shops and other retail outlets. Others encourage a path toward office development.
In a three-part series starting today, reporter Amy Higgins looks at what has happened in Olde West Chester's business district and how its struggles today could lead to future opportunities.
• Monday: A lack of unity among local residents, businesses and officials has hurt Olde West Chester's chances of becoming what some hoped would be its destiny: an enclave of small, successful retail shops and boutiques.
• • Tuesday: Professional offices are taking over Olde West Chester. But business owners are looking nervously at the emerging Union Centre Boulevard development and wonder if it will help or hurt their community.
• Today: A national development expert offers his vision of what Olde West Chester could become.
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Olde West Chester stands in stark contrast to the newness surrounding it, Mr. Eichelbaum said. To be “pure,” the area needs to take advantage of that history and capitalize on the increasing popularity of authentic historic districts.
Marketing Developments is a downtown Cincinnatiretail, research and development consulting firm. Cities and towns across the country hire Mr. Eichelbaum to help them find their identity and form a future.
The Cincinnati Enquirer asked Mr. Eichelbaum to tour Olde West Chester and give his thoughts on what the area is, what it could become and the best way to make that happen.
Olde West Chester is the oldest settlement in Union Township. Once surrounded by farmland, the cluster of century-old buildings now sits in the middle of cul-de-sac suburbia and cookie-cutter homes.
As homes become the newest cash crop in the surrounding fields, Olde West Chester is suffering an identity crisis. Craft, antiques and gift stores are slowly being converted into professional offices, and merchants who had dreamed of making Olde West Chester a miniature version of Waynesville or Nashville, Ind., are watching their dreams pass by with the traffic.
Several factors — from its geography to character — are prohibiting the area from succeeding as a retail center, Mr. Eichelbaum said.
He said stores are too far apart and too similar to each other to draw shoppers. He called for “linkages,” stores closer together and complementary, not identical or similar.
He also suggested stores with more substantive purposes, such as dry cleaners and video rentals, to draw nearby residents for everyday shopping. The area's antiques and quaint gift stores aren't enough to ensure success.
“Retailers like this have zero dependable endurance,” Mr. Eichelbaum said. “They are special, fun and great — but highly vulnerable.”
Mr. Eichelbaum suggested placing stores across the street from each other, what he called “double loading.” Making shoppers drive from store to store doesn't encourage a quaint walking district.
“Retail needs the support of continuity in order to work — that's what is missing here, very, very much,” Mr. Eichelbaum said.
But even if the layout of stores were different, walking in Olde West Chester still isn't easy. Despite the open ing of the Union Centre Boulevard interchange with Interstate 75, traffic along Cincinnati-Dayton Road remains heavy and fast.
Finding solutions to the traffic and other problems is a task undertaken by Jose Castrejon, consultant and architect with McGill Smith Punshon in Sharonville. Union Township is paying the firm $16,500 to figure out how to beautify Olde West Chester and entice shoppers.
Mr. Castrejon said his final report, due in April, will include recommendations on new pavement, curbing and sidewalks — all intended to facilitate pedestrian shopping.
But Mr. Castrejon also said the 35 mph speed limit on Cincinnati-Dayton Road was probably too high, and drivers don't adhere to it.
“It's a factor that makes people uncomfortable, and there's a significant amount of truck traffic,” Mr. Castrejon said, suggesting Union Township and Butler County take steps to lower the speed limit and better patrol the area.
“With all of the other elements, we feel that's a better environment for people to shop, for people to have offices there.”
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