Long-delayed Rookwood now back to ‘ground zero’
Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Lisa Biank Fasig Staff Reporter
| |
In the end, Rookwood Exchange – that long-planned development that fought for a place in Norwood since 2003 – might better be called Rookwood’s Changed.
The developers might have acquired the last property on the site, after losing a legal battle to purchase it through eminent domain, but Rookwood Exchange will emerge as a much different project than originally planned. For starters, it has lost some of its most promising tenants, including Crate & Barrel and Arhaus Furniture. Worse, its developers are faced with an economy that has nose-dived since they launched this endeavor, with a declining housing market and very tight financing opportunities.
After years of planning, the roughly 12-acre project now begins from scratch and will require government assistance, such as through tax increment financing (TIF), community reinvestment dollars and other incentives, said J.R. Anderson, director of development at Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate. Though plans are vague, Anderson said he still wants to build a hotel and is working on a partnership with locally based Brandicorp and Janus Hotels. He wants housing, too, but now has to consider going with rentals.
And retail? Who knows. Even tearing down the final property on the site, once owned by Joe Horney, will take time for environmental evaluation and clearance first.
“We’re at ground zero,” Anderson said. “A bunch of uses have been proposed in the past, but I’m going to need the various governments to participate in order for everybody to benefit.”
Restaurant chain interested
Sources at Brandicorp and Janus could not be reached. But Fred Mayerson, managing general partner of downtown investment firm Walnut Group and an owner of Asian restaurant chain Stir Crazy, would like to put his first local restaurant at the Exchange. Jeffrey Anderson is an investor in Stir Crazy.
“We have a very keen interest in it,” Mayerson said. “And we are now moving in discussions with Jeff.”
The long, convoluted history of Rookwood Exchange was seeded in the opening of Rookwood Commons, a neighboring project of popular eateries and specialty stores that – after opening in 2000 – quickly became one of the most successful local shopping centers. Plans were to add another phase, west of the project, on about three blocks occupied by middle-income homeowners and a clutch of business operators.
While most sold willingly, five held out and launched a protracted, and historic, eminent domain battle. Three owned businesses along Edmondson Road. The fourth, a retired couple by the name of Gamble, owned a home in the center of the planned project. The last building was a rental home owned by Horney who – after a 2006 Ohio Supreme Court victory that assured his ownership of the home – agreed in early September to sell for $1.3 million.
Whole new ballgame
In 2004, Anderson planned a $125 million project (the price is expected to go up) with two nine-story office towers, two eight-story residential buildings with parking, and a large site for stores. Now he is back to the drawing board. As recently as last April, Anderson declined to discuss it with brokers because he didn’t have anything to share, said Scott Saddlemire, senior vice president at Brandt Retail Group in Sycamore Township. “They were contemplating building around Joe Horney, but now that he’s out of the way I suspect they’ve thrown out all of those plans,” he said.
Smudging the ink on those new plans is the economy. Dozens of retailers, not to mention restaurant chains, have canceled plans to expand and have shuttered stores this year. Further, the tight credit market has led to a short list of potential lenders and higher financing costs, while global demand for steel and raw materials has contributed to climbing construction bills, said Brian Copfer, partner at Miller-Valentine Group in Deerfield Township, and a former partner in Rookwood. “Some lenders just won’t lend in certain product types,” he said.
Richard Dettmer, Norwood’s economic development director, said the city and Rookwood’s developers had discussed a TIF, but for the original project.
“There are ongoing discussions, obviously there have been since day one,” he said.
