By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FAIRFAX - A group of private investors will try to acquire pieces of property on the south side of Wooster Pike for the construction of retail stores and housing.

Village Council signed a two-year agreement this week designating Fairfax City East Development Co. as the preferred developer of the property, which includes the 3-acre site of American Legion Post 554 on Arrow Point Way.

"If it works, it would be a kick-start for remodeling Wooster on both sides of the street," village Administrator Jennifer Kaminer said.

Fairfax officials want to reshape its Wooster Pike business district into a more aesthetically appealing, vibrant area. "It really doesn't have its own identity now," Kaminer said.

Because Fairfax doesn't have the money to buy the property itself, the village must rely on the capital of private investors to push the project forward. Fairfax would pay for landscaping, streetscaping and new lighting.

Development plans will go before the village planning commission and, eventually, Village Council.

The retail space would front Wooster Pike with the residential section behind it. The housing could be condominiums, townhouses, apartments, single-family homes or a mix of all, Kaminer said.

The area where the housing would be built abuts woods and houses in Mariemont.

In other business, Village Council awarded a two-year trash pick-up contract to Anderson Waste of Cincinnati. The contract, which starts the first week of November, will cost Fairfax $105,000 a year, $3,000 a year higher than Anderson Waste's expiring two-year deal.

Anderson Waste's contract bid was $3,000 a year lower than Rumpke's bid.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com