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New commercial development has attracted several retailers and restaurants to choose Butler County to open their first Cincinnati market location, and sometimes, open the first Ohio location here.
“There is certainly an energy,” said Chris Wunnenberg, director of development for Schumacher Dugan Construction Inc., the West Chester Twp.-based property development and management company.
“Getting somebody announcing that they’re coming with a biz project like Liberty Center who had some national reputation certainly had other people start looking … in and around the area,” Wunnenberg said. “Retailers, they like to be grouped, they like to be together.”
“One project leads to another,” especially in an up economy, he said.
New-to-Cincinnati storefronts at Liberty Center include the now-open Kendra Scott, which sells women’s accessories; Marbles: the Brain Store, an educational toy store opening next year; and Kona Grill, now serving fresh-made American fare and sushi, according to the project’s developers.
Several tenants of Easton Town Center in the Columbus area followed the primary developer Steiner + Associates south to Liberty Center to open their first Cincinnati market storefronts at Liberty Center. Among those are the restaurants BiBiBop Asian Grill, craft beer and pizza eatery Pie & Pints, and the store Celebrate Local, which sells products and services made by locally-owned small businesses.
Gourmet burger joint Flip Side will join the lineup of new-to-Cincinnati eateries when its Liberty Center restaurant also opens in 2016.
"There's a big population base (in Butler and Warren counties) that doesn't have a regional center and although there are other small places they can shop, this is the location that will have the critical mass with the combination of entertainment," Anne Mastin, executive vice president of retail real estate for Steiner, told this newspaper in July when Steiner released the list naming most of its tenants for the Liberty Twp. retail center.
The approximately $350 million Liberty Center mixed retail, office and residential complex opened in October near the intersection of Interstate 75, Ohio 129 and Liberty Way in Liberty Twp. However, not all of the first-phase tenants opened at once in October. More store openings will roll out in coming weeks.
One of the stores that did open its doors for Liberty Center’s grand opening Oct. 22 was Canadian loose leaf tea retailer DAVIDsTEA, which opened its first location in Ohio at the Butler County development, according to store associates.
Outdoor sporting goods store Cabela’s Inc. opened its second Ohio location in August in West Chester Twp. on Liberty Way. About 200 people were hired in full-time, part-time and seasonal jobs to work at the approximately 82,000-square-foot store, according to the Nebraska-based retailer.
Cabela's picked the West Chester location to open a new store based on catalog and online sales where the specialty retailer already has a strong customer base; growing population areas interested in outdoor recreation; and locations that provide easy highway access and high visibility, spokesman Nathan Borowski previously told this news outlet.
“We thought it would be a great location for our customers in the Cincinnati area as well as the Dayton area,” Borowski said at the end of last year. “There’s already a draw for customers to visit that area. We see some potential for that area to grow.”
Texas-based Main Event Entertainment plans to make its Ohio debut with a West Chester Twp. location set to open in summer 2016, according to the company. The entertainment centers are anchored by a bowling alley, and also feature laser tag, gravity ropes course, games gallery, and dining, according to the growing chain.
Main Event is part of a second-phase expansion of The Streets of West Chester, a retail development located near the intersection of Union Centre and Civic Centre boulevards.
Also opening a first-to-Ohio site at The Streets of West Chester is Topgolf International, which is building a 65,000-square-foot facility. The venue will offer competitive golf games for all ages and skill levels when it opens next year, according to the Texas-based company.
“West Chester exemplifies what Topgolf is looking for in a market – its location is convenient for both the Dayton and downtown Cincinnati markets. With a large number of employers, West Chester also offers a strong daytime population and demographics that align with our target audience,” said Zach Shor, real estate vice president for Topgolf, in a written statement released in September.
Additionally, premium burger restaurant chain Bagger Dave's Burger Tavern hopes to break into the Cincinnati market with a West Chester Twp. location planned to open early next year, according to the Michigan-based owner Diversified Restaurant Holdings Inc.
Diversified Restaurant Holdings will build the first Cincinnati-area Bagger Dave’s attached to the AMC Theatres located just off Union Centre Boulevard and Interstate 75 also at The Streets of West Chester, according to Michael Ansley, president and chief executive officer of the company. Early construction work has already started at the site for the approximately 4,600-square-foot restaurant plus extra room for outdoor patio seating, Ansley said.
It will be only the second Bagger Dave’s to open in Ohio.
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