More than a year ago, Maureen Mello, director of Corryville Economic Development Corp., looked at the “seen better days” reality of Short Vine, the neighborhood's main business street, and decided that a turn-around could happen with three magic words: hip entertainment district.

        On the eastern edge of the University of Cincinnati campus, she envisioned a half mile of music, theater, shopping and dining.

        “I'm not unrealistic,” she said at the time. “I know it's a stretch.”

        But Ms. Mello, an urban planner, looked at UC and College-Conservatory of Music and the School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning and wondered, “What about getting graduates to stay in the area?”

Maureen Wood is turning the former Hoffner Lodge into the Maitri Center (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Her question consistently got the same answer: an eclectic, quality mix of residential, retail and entertainment.

        Her timing looked good: University of Cincinnati had begun its University Village project, a multi year effort to revitalize neighborhoods surrounding the campus.

        K. Scott Enns, UC's coordinator of community development, enthusiastically reeled off some impressive numbers: “CCM has 800-plus events a year, Bogart's (a club on Short Vine) has 200-plus. In summer 2000, the Enquirer reported the UC Medical complex is the No. 2 economic engine in the region.”

        Residential construction plans list at least four new apartment and condo projects, including a high ise, that will add hundreds of new housing units within walking distance of the campus and Short Vine.

        “Where is there an urban renaissance?” Mr. Enns asks. “It's already here.”

        To Ms. Mello, Short Vine had an ideal anchor in Turner Hall at Vine and Daniels streets, former home of Contemporary Dance Theater.

        “It's the biggest building and most architecturally significant in Corryville,” Ms. Mello said. She put together a package for a $2 million renovation that would turn the one-time athletic club (designed in part by Samuel Hannaford and built in 1885) into an arts space housing a 150- to 300-seat theater.
        The first phase was a snap. The Corryville Economic Development Corp. (CEDC) bought the building last summer. Along with the theater, architectural plans have included rehearsal rooms, a shop, administrative offices and an elevator.

        Her goal was to open it March 2003. A year later,she hoped, Short Vine would be the place to be for folks with disposable income and an inclination for something beyond the mainstream.

        But her search for an anchor tenant has stalled. Corryville most recently wooed Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, but that brief romance fizzled in early winter when the company decided to stay downtown. Construction was initially planned to start in March, then in June.

        Ground-breaking is on hold until there's a solid plan for Turner Hall, but Ms. Mello continues to work on an extravagant dream that encompasses not just a building but turning a neighborhood into an arts district.
       A few months ago, she presented a 29-page report to the CEDC board outlining plans for four retail blocks along Short Vine. It identifies the most significant properties for new development, many of them on upper floors above street level. Each block would have an “attraction.” There is 35,000 square feet of vacant space.

        She eyes Schiel School at Daniels Street, diagonally across Short Vine from Turner Hall. The student body is expected to be folded into the new School for Creative and Performing Arts, the building becoming available in 2006. The large schoolyard could become a parking lot.

        Ms. Mello has plenty of ideas. Loft apartments, a community arts center, “either or a combination of the two. There's a great view from the top floor.”

        She wants an African-American presence. She wants Short Vine to be the home base for Arts for All, the Empowerment Zone community arts program overseen by Cincinnati Recreation Commission. Arts for All works with community centers, senior centers and recreation centers and partners with social agencies to bring cultural enrichment programs to neighborhoods.

        She doesn't talk about “if” but “when” she finds the ideal anchor tenant for Turner Hall.

        When that happens, there's plenty more work. She talks about the necessary “combination of investment and persuasion” as she targets midrange arts groups including dance schools, design firms and art galleries.

        Her eye remains on the prize. “The main goal is a quality theater,” she says.

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