By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The upstart private development group 3CDC on Thursday announced a new committee designed to guarantee that small minority- and women-owned businesses get a fair shot at participating in downtown projects in coming years.

3CDC, formally known as the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., approved a seven-member "economic inclusion committee" this month that is co-chaired by the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce president De Asa Brown and Calvin Buford, a lawyer with Dinsmore & Shohl.

A formal inclusion plan should be adopted in March, Brown said. A preliminary draft calls for "meaningful and substantial" participation levels for small and minority- and women-owned businesses on 3CDC-led projects.

Several recent local projects funded with government dollars have required that a minimum share of contracts be awarded to small businesses or firms owned by minorities or women.

Contractors surpassed Hamilton County's goal of hiring such firms for at least 15 percent of all construction work at Great American Ball Park. Cinergy Corp., which agreed to contribute $9 million for naming rights on the $160 million downtown convention center expansion, established an even loftier goal of 30 percent of all construction contracts awarded for the center.

Brown said her committee is "talking about percentages," but no minimums have been adopted.

"We will have some minimum goals in place," Brown said. "We're going to be able to do some real breakthrough things that other entities won't be able to do."

Other committee members: Darraugh Butler, president of D. Butler Management Consulting; Marty Dunn, partner of Baker & Hostetler LLP; Rick Hughes, manager of corporate purchases for Procter & Gamble; Janet Reid, partner of Global Lead Management Consulting; and Mario San Marco, president of Eagle Realty Group.

3CDC formed in July to spark development from the riverfront through Over-the-Rhine.

So far, the group has hired retail developer Williams Jackson Ewing to recharge Fountain Square's retail scene with new shops and restaurants. It also named Des Bracey as project manager for Over-the-Rhine. The private group's third area of focus is the planned Banks riverfront development between the new Bengals and Reds stadiums.

Another goal is to hire a full-time executive director by the end of January, a position filled in the interim by retired Procter & Gamble executive Tom Blinn.

The group's ambitious agenda is expected to be funded with up to $100 million from city of Cincinnati funds and $50 million from private and corporate sources.

In September, 3CDC submitted applications for$90 million in city projects to a federal government program that offers tax breaks to developers that invest in distressed communities. The government's New Markets Tax Credit initiative is a competitive program. Winning projects should be selected this spring.

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com