Tuesday, February 16, 1999
Ky. gives funds for riverfront purchase
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BELLEVUE — It's full speed ahead for riverfront development of at least two restaurants and office space at the old Southern Ohio Marina site on the Newport border, thanks to a $1 million state grant.
Bellevue Mayor Tom Wiethorn said Monday the city had been awarded a Community Development Block Grant, which provides money to cover land acquisition and infrastructure upgrades at the Fairfield Avenue site near the Comfort Suites hotel in Newport.
Companies that have committed to the project are Landry's, a seafood specialty restaurant chain based in Houston that will build a Joe's Crab Shack, and Brandicorp, a Cincinnati developer that will build a three-to-four-story office structure anchored by a Burger King fast-food restaurant.
“We're really elated,” Bellevue City Administrator Don Martin said Monday. “We hope to be on the fast track and begin demolition of the structures on the site in about three months.” The old, one-level buildings won't require much time to remove.
Mr. Wiethorn emphasized that Bellevue is backing the project with more than $1 million of its own.
“One of the things that made our (grant) application so attractive was that the city was bringing a lot of its own resources to the project,” he said.
Dayton gets $405,000
In addition to the Bellevue grant, neighboring Dayton received $405,000 to aid in expansion of the Willow Green Co. in the city's industrial park. Bellevue and Dayton were the only Northern Kentucky cities under consideration by the state in this round of grants.
Dayton Councilman Miles Vaught said a lot of credit goes to State Rep. Jim Callahan,
D-Wilder, who worked to obtain the grants.
The Bellevue project eventually will include three restaurants, but the city is still negotiating with several prospective developers for the other.
Mr. Martin said the Burger King restaurant “won't look like the normal Burger King. We insisted that Brandicorp build it to fit with Bellevue's historic look. There will be two or possibly three levels of office space above the restaurant.”
Brandicorp plans to move its corporate headquarters to the new building from Beechmont Avenue in Anderson Township.
Landry's — which has 30 seafood restaurants along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida — operates two Joe's Crab Shack restaurants, in Louisville and Lexington.
A spur to more? “They like to be on the waterfront when possible,” Mr. Martin said of Landry's. “The restaurant will probably be built on piers to sit out partially over the water, like Don Pablo's in Newport. We think we'll have multi-tiered parking, which will be above the 100-year flood plain.”
Mayor Wiethorn said the grant award will also help in attracting developers for about 8 acres to the east.
Mr. Martin said that while the riverfront area of that location is not particularly attractive as a building site, the city hopes to see offices, commercial property and possibly a hotel closer to Fairfield Avenue.
Dennis Elrod, a consultant and grant expert who has worked with most of the cities in Campbell and Kenton counties, said the $1 million grant was an absolute necessity for the marina property development.
“This is a big day for Bellevue,” he said. “They had to have that grant to make this work. I think one of the things that is important about this project is that Bellevue has taken a risk and is putting its money where its mouth is. There's not much doubt that the development will be successful.”
One of the conditions in applying for a $1 million CDBG grant is that the development be able to create at least 100 jobs. Mr. Martin said that would not be a problem with the prospective tenants expected to build on the site.
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