Friday, February 05, 1999
Riverfront leader used to egos, differing ideas
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Jack Rouse gets some of the best referrals in his business — Tony the Tiger, Barney, Batman and, he says with a laugh, God.
With a resume like that, the irreverent chief executive officer of Jack Rouse Associates seems the logical choice to lead the group charged with defining a vision for Cincinnati's central riverfront.
In fact, like the organization that hired him to plan a biblical theme park, some who have worked with Mr. Rouse in creating tourist attractions worldwide think his appointment is an inspired decision.
“That is unbelievable that the city made that smart of a move,” said Jim Verdin, president of Cincinnati's Verdin Co., whose bells grace buildings and monuments around the world. “If anybody can make a difference, that will be the guy.”
Mr. Rouse will need his share of miracles. For more than two years, the prized central riverfront has been the subject of nasty battles between Cincinnati and Hamilton County politicians.
There have been fights about whether to put both new stadiums there. Fights about how much land the new Bengals stadium should consume. Fights about who should control other development and what kind of development it should be. And fights about the size of a proposed riverfront park.
Mr. Rouse and the other 15 members of the Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Commission have six months to recommend what to build atop parking garages that will
stretch between new stadiums for the Bengals and Reds. The group's first meeting is Wednesday.
Mr. Rouse, a cowboy who was raised in Montana and rides a Harley-Davidson, doesn't seem a bit worried about presenting a plan.
“I think you have to be aware of different points of view,” said Mr. Rouse, a worn boot propped on the coffee table in his office at Vine and Court streets downtown. “Is everybody going to agree with it? Of course not.”
His confidence is born, in part, from faith that everyone wants the same thing: success.
“Everyone wants what's good for the community for the long haul,” he said. “We don't want to redo this again in 30 years.”
That confidence also comes from being good at his job.
Since he and his partners formed Jack Rouse Associates in 1987, it has grown from three people to an internationally known creative firm with 67 employees.
The firm has designed attractions, museums and corporate shows for clients around the world.
Credits include LEGOLAND Windsor, just outside London A Day in the Park with Barney at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.; the Warner Bros. Backlot at Six Flags St. Louis; and Turner Field's Braves Plaza and Scouts Alley in Atlanta.
Working with such projects, Mr. Rouse spends his days dealing with big egos, listening to competing ideas and making sure projects come in on budget.
It doesn't take much imagination to see the similarities between that work and the task he faces as chairman of the riverfront commission.
“It's always complex and difficult to work with corporate clients, because this is big business,” said Oliver Kipp, a senior consultant with Wenzel and Partners consulting firm in Hamburg, Germany.
Mr. Kipp has worked closely with Mr. Rouse on Volkswagen's Autostadt, a 30-acre corporate visitor center at Volkswagen's world headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, and on a media theme park being developed by a German public broadcaster.
“If you see our clients, they're all very different people,” Mr. Kipp said. “Some are conservative. He could handle them. Some are more open like in the U.S. He could handle them.
“He really has a feeling for tak ing the people and leading them toward the design process and the result.”
Likewise, Mr. Rouse knows how to navigate the complex workings of Hollywood movie studios, said Roberta Perry, vice president for themed entertainment for 20th Century Fox.
“He has done that brilliantly,” said Ms. Perry, who is working with Mr. Rouse to design a regional theme park for Fox. “He has put together one of the best teams, with such incredible interpersonal skills. They leave their egos outside the door.”
Mr. Rouse brings that same attention to smaller projects, too. For example, he insisted on writing the script for a Harley-Davidson tourist attraction in Wilmington, Del., because of his passion for the motorcycles.
Mike Schwartz, the owner of the attraction dubbed Mike's Famous Roadside Rest, credits Mr. Rouse as the “imagination” that brought to life the vision of creating a place to celebrate the famous motorcycles.
“He will listen, but certainly Jack has ideas, and he's not afraid to voice them,” Mr. Schwartz said. “They've never, ever let us down, period. They're good at making things special.”
That's just what Mr. Rouse is charged to do with the riverfront. His company will not be designing the final development. But city and county officials think his business skills and experience make him the right person to drive the riverfront plan.
“It will be a piece of cake. It will because he's just so good,” said Moe Getz Rouse, a professor at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music and Mr. Rouse's wife of 31 years.
She ticks off the elements she thinks a successful riverfront plan will need: Vision? Check. Political savvy? Check. An understanding of the economics? Check. An understanding of what appeals to the public? Check.
Jack Rouse, she said plainly, has it all.
“I'm not one to fawn all over and say all sorts of giddy, gushy things,” she added. “He's just the right choice.”
Mr. Rouse is excited about the challenge. And he said, with the confidence of a successful businessman, that he thinks he's right for the job, too.
It will be time-consuming, and he's a very busy man. But for Mr. Rouse, 59, it's “give-back time” for a community that he feels has given him so much.
He knows city and county leaders asked others to lead the group before they asked him. Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who suggested him for the group, said that's only because everyone assumed he wouldn't have the time to be chairman.
Mr. Rouse isn't worried about who was asked before he was or why.
“I think maybe if I were more high-profile in the city, I would have been the most obvious choice for everyone,” he said. “I'm glad I won.”
ABOUT JACK ROUSE ASSOCIATES
Created in 1987, the Cincinnati-based communications firm provides design and production services. Projects include:
Theme parks
• LEGOLAND in Windsor, United Kingdom
• A Day in the Park with Barney, Universal Studios, Orlando.
• Warner Bros. Backlot, Six Flags St. Louis.
Museums, exhibits
• Cincinnati History Museum
• Washington Monument Visitor Center, Washington, D.C.
• Kellogg's Cereal City USA, Battle Creek, Mich.
• University of Kentucky Basketball Museum, Lexington, Ky.
• Kentucky Derby Museum, Churchill Downs, Louisville.
ROUSE FILE
• Age: 59
• Cincinnati start: After completing a doctorate in film history at the University of Michigan, Mr. Rouse was hired by the University of Cincinnati to teach at the College-Conservatory of Music. He founded the department of broadcasting, opera and musical theater in 1969.
• Professional: Chief executive officer of Jack Rouse Associates, formed in 1987. Before that, he was a senior executive with Taft Broadcasting Co. and one of the management investors responsible for the establishment of Kings Entertainment Co., which ran Kings Island.
• Local projects: Dedication of Sawyer Point Pavilion, the American Red Cross National Convention, the Cincinnati History Museum and the Bicentennial Commission's “Salute to Our Stars.”
• Personal: Married 31 years to Moe Getz Rouse, a professor of communications and broadcasting at CCM. The couple live in North Avondale with their two dogs.
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