By Ken Alltucker
Enquirer staff writer

Greg Badger, co-owner of City Lofts, says he's worried that developers interested in rehabbing properties near Findlay Market will be disheartened by the suspension of the housing plan. The Enquirer/MEGGAN BOOKER

Developers are angry over City Hall's decision to suspend a plan to revitalize 19 abandoned or vacant properties near Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine.

The Cincinnati Department of Community Development and Planning last summer solicited and received bids from about two dozen developers to rebuild housing in one of Over-the-Rhine's most troubled spots west of McMicken Avenue and north of West Liberty Street. But last week, the city told developers it will suspend the housing program indefinitely.

"They've effectively killed any development on these buildings for six months and maybe as long as one year," said Greg Badger, an Over-the-Rhine developer.

"The saddest thing is this begins to kill people's spirits."

Oren Henry, acting director of community development and planning, said the department's standards were too lax when it solicited proposals last July. Two ensuing scandals involving city-funded housing projects prompted a widespread review of department policies.

"The department put the whole process on hold," Henry said.

Still, some developers say they wasted valuable time and effort.

Jennifer LeMasters and partner Matthew Wirtz logged more than 220 hours drawing plans, securing financing and preparing to renovate a building at 1720 Pleasant St. into five condos. They planned to buy one unit and sell four others at prices ranging from $115,000 to $180,000.

The LeMasters-Wirtz proposal received a preliminary nod from the community development's review board last year. The developerswere awaiting a formal contract when they learned last week the city halted the entire plan.

"It's amazing the amount of work that went into the plan," LeMasters said. "It was just obliterated."

Even non-city employees who sat on the city's review board that judged the projects were surprised.

"I don't think they are doing development any favors by delaying this further," said Cincinnati Development Fund chief Jeanne Golliher, who sat on the review board. "You could lose these eager, young developers."

Henry, a member of the review board, said a handful of proposals had a good chance of success and gained the review board's approval to proceed to a more formal contract.

"Many we knew wouldn't move forward," Henry said. "They didn't seem fitting with the neighborhood."

The community development department's new standards require more information such as bank financing commitments and detailed cost breakdowns before awarding contracts to private developers. The city will seek builders that meet these tougher standards when it resumes the Findlay Market-area housing program later this summer, Henry said.

Henry said community development's decision was prompted in part by two recent Over-the-Rhine housing debacles.

Findlay Market's housing renaissance was supposed to be triggered by Brenda Case Scheer and David Ross Scheer, but the husband-and-wife architecture team failed to renovate eight buildings into condos near the market - the oldest such facility west of the Allegheny Mountains - after securing a $1.1 million city contract. The city paid the couple about $340,000 before discovering a squabble between the developer and a contractor led to the project's ruin. An investigation by the Cincinnati Police Department and city auditors found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The city foreclosed on the Scheer buildings and agreed to pay another contractor nearly $400,000 to complete the roofs, repair the masonry and board up the eight buildings. The Scheers left Cincinnati to take faculty positions at the University of Utah's school of architecture.

The Scheer buildings on West Elder and Elm streets - along with the properties offered in the latest round - will be offered to developers selected at a later date. The city's plan includes first offering one dozen "high-priority" properties on West Elder, Elm, Pleasant and Race streets.

In an unrelated case, LaShawn Pettus-Brown was indicted in February on criminal charges that he took city money to pay for watches, shoes and rap concerts instead of converting Vine Street's Empire Theater into a nightclub. Cost to taxpayers: $184,000.

Yet many say suspending the plan sends the wrong message to developers seeking to improve the city's home ownership rate of 38.9 percent and stem a half-century of population loss.

Badger, who co-owns the private development firm City Lofts, is renovating a building at 100 W. Elder St. at the edge of Findlay Market. His plans call for building commercial space at Findlay Market and adding three condos that would sell in the $300,000-plus range.

Although Badger's building wasn't one of the city's properties, he said other successful projects in the neighborhood would help his effort.

"It's just frustrating if you are a developer here in Findlay Market," Badger said.

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com