Cincinnati Ohio Economic Development

Parking garage, streets ok'ed for Banks

By Jessica Brown • Cincinnati.com
Hamilton County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a $52.2 million construction budget for the next phase of The Banks riverfront project - a parking garage and some new streets. They also got an update on the apparent rosy financial picture of the project so far.

Things have been going so well financially that the more than $800 million mixed-use project appears to be tracking more than $10 million under budget so far, according to commissioners and John Deatrick, the project manager.

Most of the bids have come in below estimates because the economy is forcing construction companies to compete harder for work, forcing them to lower their prices. The largest bid package, which is expected to be awarded next week, came in around $8 million under the roughly $30 million estimate, Deatrick said.

The extra money belongs to the state. County commissioners said they will work with those officials to figure out how to use it. They hope it might be spent to accelerate other “shovel-ready” portions of The Banks, said Commissioner David Pepper.

Commissioners Todd Portune suggested it could be put toward the cost of capping Fort Washington Way, similar to the way Lytle Park caps Interstate 71 downtown. The idea of capping the highway to connect The Banks to downtown has always been a long-term goal of the city and county. But it is prohibitively expensive. The four decks were estimated in 2007 to cost about $17.8 million each and was not funded as part of The Banks project. Commissioner Greg Hartmann agreed the county needs to keep that idea on its radar screen.

“It really does present some excellent opportunities for Cincinnati,” he said.

Since the extra money is state dollars rather than county funds, it cannot be used to offset a coming deficit in the county’s stadium fund - the fund that pays construction debt on the Reds and Bengals stadiums and part of The Banks construction.

Wednesday’s $52.2 million budget for Phase IIA of The Banks includes building a parking garage west of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, relocating Mehring Way slightly north to make room for a riverfront park and additional street grid construction.

The city and county will each contribute between $2.9 million to $4.2 million in public money for Phase IIA. The rest is expected to be funded with cash from the state and federal government and the developer. This phase of the project originally wasn’t expected to begin for a few years, but the receipt of federal stimulus money last year allows the city and county to begin work early.

The $92 million first phase of the project is currently under construction. It includes a new parking garage next to Great American Ball Park and south of Second Street atop which private developers, Atlanta-based Carter and The Dawson Company, are building apartments and retail shops. The public parking garage is scheduled to open in June. The private development is scheduled to be finished in the spring of 2011.

The entire Banks project will ultimately span 18 acres on Cincinnati’s central riverfront.

For more information on The Banks progress, visit www.thebankspublicpartnership.com; TheBanksCincy.com and CRPark.org

Read the Cincinnati.com article here.