Wednesday, October 06, 1999
Mixed use weighed for former McAlpin's
Developer: Plan fits with riverfront
BY LUCY MAY and LISA BIANK FASIG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Madison Marquette is negotiating to buy the old McAlpin's store on Fourth Street downtown.
(Josh Biggs photos)
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The empty McAlpin's store on Fourth Street could be home to 150,000 square feet of retail space and 200 apartments or condos under a preliminary plan by Madison Marquette Realty Services.
Madison Marquette, the local firm that helped develop Fountain Place mall, is continuing to negotiate to buy the old McAlpin's store from owner Dillard's Inc., so all its plans should be considered works in progress, said John Boorn, the firm's chairman and chief executive.
“We do feel excited about it,” Mr. Boorn said, acknowledging his firm's interest for the first time. “If we are able to successfully conclude arrangements, we think it's potentially very complementary to what's going on on the riverfront.”
Until Tuesday, Mr. Boorn had been unwilling to talk about plans for the site. But details of the firm's preliminary plans were included in an appendix to the Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Commission's central riverfront report unveiled last week.
McAlpin's closed its store in February 1996. Downtown
planners view the McAlpin's block — bounded by Race and Vine streets and Third and Fourth streets — as a critical connection to the riverfront.
A new development there could provide a front door for Third Street, where most buildings turn their backs to the river.
“That particular block is very important because it relates both to the riverfront as well as to the core,” said David Ginsburg, executive vice president of Downtown Cincinnati Inc., the downtown advocacy group known as DCI.
The site is owned by Dillard's, the Little Rock, Ark.-based retailer that acquired Mercantile Stores Co. Inc. in August 1998 and closed the Fairfield headquarters of McAlpin's parent company in November that year.
Wes Cherry, vice president of real estate at Dillard's, confirmed the retailer is talking to Madison Marquette, but stopped short of calling their negotiations an agreement or contract to sell.
“I just don't comment on pending deals,” he said.
Mr. Boorn said the right mix of housing, retail and office space on the McAlpin's block could make a strong “gateway” to the riverfront advisory group's recommendation to build a riverfront neighborhood between the new Bengals stadium and Reds ballpark.
“If it just sits dead,” he said of the block, “it provides more of a barrier” to the connection between downtown and the central riverfront.
But parking remains a big hurdle for both the riverfront recommendations and any plans for the McAlpin's site.
The riverfront advisory panel recommended that Hamilton County build about 1,750 parking spaces on three Third Street sites instead of the river front. One of those sites is the block where the old McAlpin's store sits, and the riverfront panel's report estimates 650 spaces would be needed there.
Shifting any of that parking off the riverfront won't be easy, though. Hamilton County has been planning to build $135 million worth of garages on the riverfront to meet its obligations to the Bengals, the Reds and Firstar Center.
Moving that parking would mean changing those agreements, county officials have said.
Mr. Boorn acknowledged that parking would be important for his company's development — if it moves forward — but said it would be more important for downtown as a whole.
“The healthier the area gets, the more crowded the parking gets,” Mr. Boorn said. “The project wouldn't fill it all up.”
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