Anderson Township: Beechmont Avenue Corridor Study May, 2014 Table of Contents

For the purpose of this study, goals are community aspirations that can be achieved over an extended period of time. In an economic development context, these goals are, for the most part, ongoing. Given their long-term character, goals may be realized with the ebb and flow of economic conditions, social changes, and other cultural variables. Accordingly, such goals should be reviewed on a periodic basis to determine whether they remain achievable and beneficial to the community.

Objectives are the component actions taken toward the realization of broad goals. Often, they involve putting structural entities, activities, or programs in place. Most are achievable in one year, assuming resource capabilities are at hand and reasonable lines of access/communication exist.

Goal 1: Decrease the volume of surplus and obsolete commercial real estate in the Beechmont corridor east of Five Mile Road.

The corridor’s major impediment is its cluttered appearance and increasingly marginal real estate. The Township should focus on creating a judicious mixture of green space, multi-family residential complexes, and renovation of existing, viable retail/service properties, additional medical facilities, and mixed-use development projects.

• 
  Objective A: The local government must make a significant, long-term capital commitment to support the redevelopment activities in the target area.
  

The commitment should identify the funding sources available to engage in a property acquisition program, provide supportive infrastructure to accommodate and/or complement mixed-use projects, and capital expenditures relating to project promotion, selection process (RFP), incentives, etc.

• 
  Objective B: The Township should create a collaborative redevelopment entity, preferably a 501(C) (3) non-profit development corporation, composed of government policy and planning officials, local residents, and private sector members representing development, financial, and design sectors. The group should be the central entity for research, site assemblage activities, administering an RFQ/RFP process to solicit and select site development candidates.
  

• 
  Objective A: Concentrate on the Towne Center area as the most readily adaptable prospect for realizing new urbanism goals through additional multi-use development on-site and to its north.
  
• 
  Objective B: If not presently established, initiate an ongoing dialogue with Macy’s corporate offices to address the continuing, long-term presence at the Towne Center.
  
• 
  Objective C: Establish similar ongoing discussions with strip center’s property ownership.
  
• 
  Objective D: Continue to explore development opportunities to the north of the existing Towne Center site. Solicit interest through the development of an RFP process.
  
• 
  Objective E: Develop a collaborative approach to contemporary signage between local government and businesses interests.
  

This development format is currently viewed as a broad curative to a range of problems, issues ranging from aspiring to transition to new urbanism principles, mitigating risk in a post-recessionary economy, and adapting to the rapidly changing retail/service landscape. This inquiry actively recommends this course, with accompanying caveats to determine the subject area’s adaptability to the development format.

• 
  Objective A: Research and solicit interest in multi-use projects that combine commercial, residential, office, and possibly medical users. Township personnel and others should begin both investigating relevant examples of mixed-use development that might have transferability to the Beechmont physical environment and economic landscape. Research, networking, and other informational channels should be established within the resident, regional, and national development communities as well as the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Cincinnati and national offices, as well as local architectural and planning firms engaged in this type development. The purpose of these contacts would ideally mature and culminate in a structured forum, panel, or colloquium on the concept, size, and adaptability of mixed-use development in a suburban setting similar to Anderson’s portion of Beechmont Avenue.
  
• 
  Objective B: The Township should embark on a property survey designed to identify facilities that could be assembled and mature into new mixed-use developments. Local officials and other delegated individuals involved in this redevelopment effort should identify sites and begin making discrete contact with the respective ownership interests. The initial group of properties should begin with the properties cited in this inquiry. The list can be expanded as the survey reveals similar conditions, fluctuations in the market that may bring new properties into play, etc.
  

• 
  Objective C: Engage local ownership and development interests that are most familiar with the area. Although mixed-use projects do not currently proliferate in this area, local development interests have an intimate sense of the marketplace both locally and in the metropolitan Cincinnati area.
  

Issues regarding the basic redevelopment concept, accompanying research, local government involvement (including incentives), and related issues should be discussed thoroughly and with candor to gauge the level of owner interest in the overall effort. These discussions can yield a sense of which owners are interested in a collaborative effort to improve the area, as well as those who are neutral to indifferent.

• 
  Objective D: Explore utilizing the services and capabilities of the Hamilton County Land Bank. Despite local efforts, derelict properties manage to elude compliance with accepted community standards. In many cases, abandonment is the final stage for many structures that have been willfully neglected.
  

• 
  Objective E: Broaden the engagement with developers, academic institutions, professional urban development organizations, the financial community, brand representatives, and the commercial real estate community. Anderson should make it known within the larger development community that it is taking a progressive stand on redevelopment within the Beechmont corridor by seeking creative involvement from all corners of that sector. This effort will involve creating and distributing promotional materials, convening informational workshops, design panels, and related activities that promote the corridor’s selective redevelopment.
  

Local academic resources include the regional universities with architecture, planning, and design departments, most notably University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) and Miami University.

National organizations such as the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and The National Trust for Historic Preservation are convening and advocacy agents that can provide a forum for discussion of principles, issues, and design and development problems.

Objective F: Recruit and cultivate relationships that produce advocates for local redevelopment. Redevelopment efforts all need champions and advocates who thoroughly comprehend, endorse, and promote initiatives to their respective peers. Real estate professionals are especially effective in that they are continually aware of the relative state of the markets and issues in a broad range of commercial environments.

Developers, planning, and design interests are especially effective in conceptualizing projects in a broader context. Though the opportunities along the Beechmont corridor may appear to be isolated from one another, a long-range development perspective will evolve as long-range plans are formulated.

Local/regional representatives for retail, service, medical, and other commercial users have an ongoing sense of demographics, costs, and physical site requirements their clients consider in site selection.

• 
  Objective G: Develop and host a series of panels or other design/development sessions. UC’s DAAP, local architectural firms, developers, the Urban Land Institute, SORTA, and others might express great interest in adapting a suburban environment to mixed-use development in terms of conceptual design, financing, and integrating such projects into the local infrastructure fabric. These events offer an opportunity for articulating new ideas, developing strategies, gaining local, regional and national exposure, and possible collaborative relationships.
  
• 
  Objective H: Design a formal RFP process for site assemblages. Carefully crafted Requests for Proposals (RFP) ensure clearly articulated development concepts and public aspirations. They display a comprehensive grasp of the proposed project, articulate clearly measured expectations, and encourage respondents to best express their professional approach to the project.
  

• 
  Objective I: Consider adapting selective features of form-based code as an approach to regulating mixed-use development. Form-based codes are a new response to the modern challenges of urban sprawl, deterioration of historic neighborhoods, and neglect of pedestrian safety in new development. Many officials, planners, developers and other advocates argue that the traditional approach to zoning, code, and land use policies have in many instances discouraged compact, walkable urbanism. Form-based codes are a tool to address these deficiencies, and to provide local governments the regulatory means to achieve development objectives with greater certainty. The City of Cincinnati: City Planning staff has been able to use part of the $2.4 million grant received from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to hire a comprehensive consulting team to help in the process and development of the Cincinnati Form-Based Code.
  

Though the thrust of this inquiry has been devoted to identifying disruptive elements in the Beechmont Avenue commercial community, there are areas within the corridor that are not particularly affected by this issues. As stated earlier in this study, the full length of Bechmont Avenue is comprehensive historical chronicle of nearly six decades of suburban development.

• 
  Objective A: The Township should institute strategic design and building controls to preserve the western portion of Beechmont through to Five Mile Road. This should not, however, rule out new, infill development or bypassing opportunities to re-use large tracts of land that are under less intensive development.
  
• 
  Objective B: The area from the City of Cincinnati border east to Five Mile Road includes prime examples of residential and commercial properties that vividly chronicle the six decade history of suburban development. Accordingly, they could be afforded the protective status that accompanies historic designation. Appropriate inquiries should be made at the various certifying levels.
  
• 
  Objective C: Strengthen the concept of local shopper’s needs-oriented business in redevelopment. Use design as both a encouragement and as a control to reinforce the cohesive elements in the areas most proximate to the Towne Center
  

• 
  Objective A: Develop an aggressive incentive program supplemented by complimentary and supportive public improvements. Configure a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) to target and concentrate physical improvement.
  
• 
  Objective B: Continue to extend development of a secondary road system that can link commercial, mixed-use entities, and residential properties to one another.
  

As with many other jurisdictions in the Cincinnati region, Anderson’s population is not growing. Years of aggressive growth fueled a response in the retail/service, spurned roadway access improvements, and produced other accompanying community investments. Without a sustainable population base, further development will soon dwindle. This dynamic is made more significant in that there is a shift away from the traditional commercial development that dominates the Beechmont corridor.

Anderson has earned a reputation coveted by other communities for its excellent schools, recreational facilities and other public amenities. This social infrastructure will continue to be most attractive to traditional family households as it has to prior generations.

The dominant household unit in the Township is the traditional family. Suburban living has its roots in family living. Senior residents have raised families in the community. Their children may be grown and no longer residing in the family home. They have established their legacy in Anderson. Popularly referred to as “empty nesters,” seniors have strong and deep ties within Anderson’s community cultural fabric, that include social, educational, spiritual, and commercial relationships. As they may no longer need large homes in which to raise a family, they nevertheless maintain a continuing need to remain connected to the community. In a very real sense, seniors are a core component in the overall redevelopment strategy discussed in this inquiry. One can make similar statements regarding new individual residents who will form non-family households.

Though the suburban environment may be less attractive in many younger persons’ eyes, it nevertheless offers a broad range of opportunities that both emulate the more active urban environment and additionally offer greater proximity to recreation beyond the boundaries of urban areas. In addition, as businesses and office facilities choose to locate in suburban settings set apart from the urban core but also efficiently connected through an excellent network of area highways, residential options in mixed-use settings become increasingly attractive.

Seniors and younger individuals will, in all likelihood, dominate the pool of potential residential users that are fundamental to successful future mixed-use development.

• 
  Objective A: Develop and/or update promotional materials designed to attract new Township residents, familiarizing recipients with traditional demographics, community services information, and featuring planned initiatives that target new approaches to suburban development.
  
• 
  Objective B: Conduct a series of informational and promotional events for residential realtors, home builders, and apartment developers highlighting Anderson Township’s aforementioned attributes
  

Optimal access is a fundamental element for recruiting new residents. The area is currently served for commuter transportation to the urban core.

Increasing service along the Beechmont corridor is a major strategic component for reducing multiple automobile trip demands within the corridor. Multi-use facilities seek to reduce automobile trip demands by containing vehicles in on-site parking facilities. The concept can be further expanded by providing connectivity between:

• 
  Objective A: Develop, submit, and aggressively pursue a strategic transportation proposal to SORTA that articulate:
  

1. 
   The core multi-use/new urbanism principles and their relation to increased and multi-modal transit investment.
   

2. 
   The need for additional service bracketing the corridor’s two I-275 interchanges as an element for increasing muti-family and other higher density unit development
   

3. 
   Engagement, support, and advocacy for a shuttle or jitney system that provides multi-modal options for customers, residents, and workers in the Beechmont corridor.
   

Healthcare facilities in the Cincinnati region currently represent a significant majority of new, non-residential construction projects. Anderson Township hosts a sizable medical presence, ranging from individual practices to large group clinical, office, and outpatient surgical facilities. Recent projects have emerged on Beechmont Avenue and on Five Mile Road north of the Towne Center. Considering that demographics and accessibility are two of the major driving forces in medical development, it is imperative that the Township and the medical community are mutually aware of initiatives affecting both of these variables.

• 
  Objective A: Establish direct communication with medical development interests in the Cincinnati region for the purpose of providing information on Anderson Township’s demographic and development strategies as a means of promoting the area as a prime location for medical facility investment. This outreach should be expanded to include medical suite selection professionals, commercial real estate brokerage, allied medical sources, and developers specializing in such projects.
  
• 
  Objective B: A representative from the medical development sector should be included in the Township’s economic development committee.
  

Founded in 1982, HCDC has grown to become Hamilton County’s most comprehensive economic development organization. The Company’s component divisions each address and are involved with economic development in a broad range of contexts. For the purpose of this inquiry, HCDC offers the following products and services.

HCDC is a lender, certified by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), to provide guaranteed loans to businesses expanding or locating in southwestern Ohio. The 504 Program allows business owners to have a first mortgage with only 50% exposure. HCDC is one of only twenty-five development companies in the country selected by SBA for its Accredited Lender Program. HCDC provides subordinated, fixed interest rate, long-term loans for up to 40% of project costs or $750,000 ($1 million in special cases). Terms are 10 and 20 years, depending on the economic life of the asset being financed.

The SBA 504 program is primarily for the financing of real estate. Interest rates for the 40% HCDC portion of the loan will always be competitive with, and usually slightly below, current market rates. The rate for the 504 portion will be fixed for the term of the loan. Loan funds may be used to finance land acquisition, building acquisition, construction, renovation, or expansion. It can also be used to finance machinery and equipment with a useful life of 10 years or more, and the cost for appraisals, general surveying, architectural work, and installation.

Speculation, non-profit institutions, lending or investment ventures, and rental property held primarily for sale or investment are all uses that are ineligible for SBA 504 funds. Eligible business entities include for-profit corporations, partnerships, and proprietorships. However, these businesses cannot have a net worth that exceeds $6,000,000. In addition, the company’s net profit after taxes must average less than $2,000,000 during the previous two years.

Other conditions include that at least one job must be created or retained for each $35,000 in 504 funds loaned and that all owners of 20% or more of the company stock will be required to personally guarantee the loan.

This program is restricted to owner-occupied business facilities. In theory, an end user such as a medical facility, legal firm, accountancy group, or other professional organization/business purchasing a freestanding building in a “build to suit” arrangement could pursue this financing.

Hamilton County Development Company

Attn: Andrew Young

(513) 631-8292

www.hcdc.com

Economic Development Office: Incentive Initiatives

Enterprise Zone Program

The enterprise zone (EZ) tax incentive program allows a growing non-retail company to receive an exemption on a percentage of the new real investment it makes. Incentives in excess of 10 years or 60% require formal approval by the affected school board. Due to Ohio tax law changes, tangible personal property tax has been phased out, which leaves the EZ program essentially a real property tax incentive program. The amount of tax exemption is negotiated on an individual project basis and varies according to the size of the investment, jobs created, and other factors. An agreement must be in place between the company and Hamilton County before a project commences.

A project will fall into one of three categories: renovate, expand, or occupy. “Expand” means to make expenditures to add land, buildings, machinery, equipment, or other materials, except inventory, to a facility that equals at least 10% of the market value of the facility prior to such expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation. “Renovate” means to make expenditures to alter or repair a facility that equals at least 50% of the market value of the facility prior to such expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation. “Occupy” means to make expenditures to alter or repair a vacant facility equal to at least 20% of the market value of the facility prior to such expenditures, as determined for the purposes of local property taxation. The value of existing buildings and land cannot be abated.

Community Reinvestment Area Program

The Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) program is similar to the Enterprise Zone Program. It is a real property tax exemption on new investment (new building construction or major renovation). The difference being a CRA is eligible to commercial and industrial companies as well as retail and housing developments. A recent example of this program’s potential is showcased in the recently organized CRA for Montgomery, Columbia Township, and Loveland-Madeira Roads in Symmes Township. The amount of tax exemption for commercial and industrial users is negotiated on an individual project basis and varies according to the size of the investment, jobs created, and other factors. Like the Enterprise Zone program, an agreement must be in place between the company and the jurisdiction before a project commences.

A Special Improvement District (SID) is a district where an assessment is made on every property and the collected funds are used in one, or combination of several of the following areas: marketing, landscaping and streetscape, business recruitment and retention, special community events, general maintenance, parking, or security and other public works improvements. An example of a SID is the Backstage District near the Aronoff Performing Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati.

A SID differs from most other economic development programs in that a petition of local property owners and not the local unit of government create it. A SID can be created by a petition of: A minimum of 60% of the frontage property owners (for example, 60% of the land owners on Winton Rd.) or 75% of the total land owners in a proposed district (for example, 75% of property owners in the downtown area, regardless of whether they own frontage property).

All of the property owners within the SID are included in the assessment (excluding religious institutions and municipal/county governmental properties, unless they request to be included in the SID). The law excludes federal or state government properties from being included in a SID. All the properties are subsequently assessed a fixed amount of money based on individual front footage, assessed valuation, a proportion of the benefits resulting from the district or a combination of all three factors. The SID funds are then used on improvements and programs that will benefit the entire district. A non-profit board of trustees governs the SID with a minimum of five members; one of those members must be a resident of the community.

This economic development and marketing program may be applicable for Beechmont Avenue. It is typically used to maintain and promote areas after significant investments have been made in streetscape and infrastructure. The SID is a highly desirable tool when businesses make the decision to essentially tax themselves for their mutual benefit.