By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

NORWOOD - City officials took big steps this week to advance two projects that would revitalize a large piece of abandoned industrial property near the Norwood Lateral.

In an effort to entice a specialty heart hospital to locate here, City Council voted this week to offer the $60 million project an annual tax break of $188,000 for 10 years.

Council also approved a tax increment financing package for a major office project on the former American Laundry site, near the proposed hospital site. Tax increment financing will divert property tax revenue from this project to help pay for a parking garage and road work, sewer and water lines and other public improvements.

Hamilton County commissioners must give final approval to the agreement.

Council's approval of the enterprise zone agreement followed months of discussions between Norwood officials and the Ohio Heart Health Center, which wants to build Greater Cincinnati's first specialized heart hospital. Sharonville also is in the running for this hospital and has approved tax incentives for the project.

"We want to send a clear signal that we support this project," Norwood Councilman Will DeLuca said.

The hospital and a medical office building would be constructed on vacant property just west of Montgomery Road on the north side of the lateral. The project would share the site, which had been General Motors property, with a planned Kroger store.

According to the tax agreement, the four-story hospital, which would open in 2005, must create 330 full-time positions within the next three years.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com