By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PROPOSALS AT A GLANCE

Daniels Homes, $450,000 for the property; public improvement, including parking to be funded with tax increment financing; retail/office with two-level underground garage for up to 96 cars and seven outside spaces, plaza.  Core Resources: No property bid until an appraisal is done; retail/office, 61 underground parking spaces, a park and tower.  Bear Creek Capital, $600,000 property bid with tax increment financing for parking and public improvements; would relocate offices from 9549 Montgomery Road; first-floor retail, second- and third-floor offices, 39 underground parking spaces, 28 outside spaces, a park.  Sibcy Cline: $250,000 property bid with $1.24 million in tax increment financing for landscaping and parking; would relocate existing Montgomery office; park with bell tower, plaza at northwest corner, 27 underground parking spaces and 28 surface parking spots.  Myers Y. Cooper Co.: $490,000 property bid with requirement that city pays to build and maintain the park; retail and offices, 47 underground parking spaces, 17 outside spaces, park.  Great Traditions: Up to $500,000 property bid with tax increment financing for public areas; street level retail, upper-level condos, office, 74 underground parking spaces, nine outside spaces.

MONTGOMERY - Six developers are competing for a $1 million piece of city-owned land at the southern edge of the historic business district.

But none is willing to pay what the city shelled out to buy the 33/4-acre triangle at Main Street and Cooper and Montgomery roads in 2002. Even the top bid came in $400,000 short.

City officials said they weren't bothered by the low offers and consider them a tradeoff for a prominent and difficult development needed to enhance the appearance of Montgomery's signature area.

City Manager Cheryl Hilvert said the heritage district stands to gain public parking from the project and Montgomery will keep a small wedge of the land - worth about $250,000 - for a small gateway park when the development is finished.

"Those things added together certainly make a monetary difference, and taxes that come from the development will make a monetary difference over time," Hilvert said.

The city bought the property in November 2002 to transform the former site of an aging bank building and two gas stations into something more useful and attractive. It is at the southernmost point in a four-block area that is home to about 120 small shops and restaurants surrounded by historic landmarks.

"It's a small piece of property, and I guess everyone's looking at it as, Can we get our money back,?" Greg Scheper of Bear Creek Capital LLC gave his opinion of the bids. The Montgomery company wants the property and has the highest offer at $600,000.

"That's a great piece of property, but it's small," Scheper said. "There are limits to what you can do there. You can't go eight stories to try to recoup your investment."

An ad hoc committee began reviewing the proposals this week with a goal to recommend one of them to council in March.

Five developers - Daniels Homes, Core Resources, Bear Creek Capital, Sibcy Cline and Myers Y. Cooper Co. - have submitted ideas that include a mix of retail and offices along with underground parking and the gateway park.

Sibcy Cline, Bear Creek Capital and Great Traditions want to relocate their offices to the site. Great Traditions is the lone company that suggested housing there, with loft condos proposed above storefronts and an office.

Economic development director Frank Davis said council envisioned a 25,000- to 30,000-square-foot, two-story building that would include retail or a restaurant at street level, offices upstairs and a small public park or plaza. On-site parking is important, he said.

Karen Kotsovos, who owns a number of properties in the heritage district and opened Kotsovos Furs and Fine Apparel with her husband there 14 years ago, is eager for development at the triangle.

She thinks an office would be the city's best bet, and suggested that officials be wary about development that creates a traffic hazard.

"Look what happened to downtown Cincinnati," she said. "If you don't protect your downtown, everything else in the area is going to go downhill."

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com