Map of downtown Hamilton investments
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DOWNTOWN HAMILTON UPDATES
Several commercial and residential projects will be completed in downtown Hamilton in 2015 and hopes are more business openings than the ones already announced will follow. Here are the latest updates on the biggest projects on or near High Street:
Artspace Hamilton Lofts
Artspace Lofts, at 222 High St., is being co-developed by Minneapolis-based nonprofit Artspace and Neighborhood Housing Services of Hamilton. The $11.8 million project will convert the former Hamilton Center into 42 apartments for artist living. Rental applications are currently being accepted and reviewed ahead of a target April 2015 opening.
Three new businesses — Almond Sisters Bakery, Unsung Salvage Design Co. and Renaissance Fine Art Supplies Ltd. — and a gallery will fill the 3,000-square-feet of total commercial space in the building, according to Artspace spokeswoman Melodie Bahan.
Community First Solutions
Construction is ongoing for the new downtown headquarters of Community First Solutions. The Hamilton nonprofit, which offers various health and wellness services, is investing $5.8 million in renovations of the former Ringel’s furniture building at 223 S. Third St., where it will relocate its headquarters once the project is complete next year.
It’s expected nearly 50 employees will move in by August, said Community First President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Thurman.
“It shows that if some people are willing to take the leap, others will follow,” said Thurman about the organization’s downtown investment, which was announced last year.
“There is a different culture and the culture right now is let’s get it done,” Thurman said.
Former Elder-Beerman building
City officials announced Monday that StarTek — which provides business process services such as customer care, sales support and order processing in the United States, the Philippines, Canada, Costa Rica and Honduras — would open a call center in the former Elder-Beerman building at 150 High St.
Plans by StarTek to hire about 682 people for opening, and the center is expected to open by end of July or early August.
Other tenants opening in the same building this year are Joslin Diabetes Center at Fort Hamilton Hospital, Jackson Market and Deli, and Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities art initiative InsideOut Studio.
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View videos and an online interactive map of downtown development efforts online only at www.journal-news.com.
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View videos and an online interactive map of downtown development efforts online only at www.journal-news.com.
In 2010, a stroll down High Street in downtown Hamilton would mean passing vacant storefront after vacant storefront; walking the streets after 5 p.m. would give the impression of a ghost town.
But now, city officials think they may finally be hitting their stride with revitalizing Hamilton’s downtown area, with multiple businesses expected to open this year, and especially after an announcement that multinational call center StarTek Inc. would set up shop in one of the biggest eyesores, the former Elder-Beerman building at 150 High St.
“Three, four years ago, if you looked down High Street, Sara’s House (at 254 High St.) was vacant, the Mercantile Lofts, Artspace, none of that had really been started,” said Tim Werdmann, deputy city manager. “By the end of 2015, almost that entire side of High Street’s going to be full and have restaurants and specialty stores and retail and people living downtown.”
This year alone will see the opening in downtown Hamilton of the call center by Colorado-based StarTek with 682 new jobs — the biggest win yet for downtown redevelopment; the new corporate headquarters of nonprofit Community First Solutions; and 42 apartments and street-level commercial storefronts at Artspace Hamilton Lofts.
City leaders hope more foot traffic on High Street sidewalks as a result of these projects will result in more restaurant, retail and entertainment openings to serve workers.
“The speed at which we’re turning things around is remarkable,” said Mike Dingeldein, executive director of the CORE Fund, a nonprofit created to invest in downtown Hamilton redevelopment.
“We’re going to have more people calling us about projects and space,” Dingeldein said.
City officials announced Monday that StarTek — which provides business process services such as customer care, sales support and order processing in the United States, the Philippines, Canada, Costa Rica and Honduras — would open a call center in the former Elder-Beerman building at 150 High St., which is owned by CORE Fund.
Plans by StarTek to hire about 682 people is believed to be the city’s single biggest announcement for new job creation in at least a decade, according to the city. StarTek’s planned opening is by the end of July or early August, after renovations, according to Dingeldein.
StarTek will join these other tenants opening in the currently vacant building at 150 High St.: Joslin Diabetes Center at Fort Hamilton Hospital, Jackson's Market and Deli, and Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities art initiative InsideOut Studio.
Additionally, StarTek will operate 24 hours, providing an extra boost to downtown nightlife, Dingeldein said.
There is strong demand in downtowns across Ohio for residential and commercial space, said Jeff Siegler, director of revitalization for Heritage Ohio, a statewide nonprofit organization that focuses on community revitalization efforts and coordinates the national Main Street program in Ohio.
The demand is driven by generational and cultural changes that are pushing back on suburban sprawl and seeing more people concerned about the environmental impact sprawl can have, Siegler said. Also, the housing bust and recession of late 2007-2009 caused less of a desire for homeownership. Now more people are interested in renting, Siegler said.
“You have a high quality of life when you’re not paying so much to own a home, pay so much to own a car and spend less time commuting,” Siegler said.
A successful downtown recovery is “not that hard, but it does take leadership and collaboration for it to come together and you have to change your thinking,” he said.
Werdmann said that while the city has made “a lot of progress” on downtown Hamilton, they are “probably about midway through what needs to be done.”
“There’s been years of decline just because of the loss of industry, and you can’t turn that around in the space of three years,” he said.
But this latest win is a prime example of how Hamilton’s strategic plan can bring about economic success, he continued.
“All of the things that we’ve been doing to make Hamilton a better place to live, work and play are all coming together, and in this instance, it made us very competitive from a jobs standpoint, and we were able to land a major employer in our downtown area,” he said.
The addition of residential units downtown is seen to be the beginning point for Hamilton's downtown recovery, Dingeldein said. Prior to that, Hamilton's downtown suffered multiple setbacks including the closing of insurer Ohio Casualty after its headquarters was relocated to Fairfield; the relocation of First Financial Bancorp's headquarters; and the closing of Fifth Third Bank's downtown branch and offices.
After the Mercantile Lofts first opened in 2010, the former Journal-News building on Court Street was redeveloped and the first phase of the RiversEdge Amphitheatre was opened.
“I think one thing that burdens both Hamilton and Middletown are property values. We haven’t seen any uptick there,” said Larry Mulligan Jr., the Butler-Warren market president of First Financial Bank and Middletown mayor.
Property values in Hamilton including residential, commercial and other properties declined 8.5 percent between 2011 and 2014 to approximately $758 million, according to the Butler County Auditor’s Office. In Middletown property values sank further, more than 9 percent during the same time, to about $572 million.
“Interest in the area will drive up demand and drive prices back up,” Mulligan said. “I think that’s one area where we need to be vigilant.”
The StarTek news is also a win for Hamilton’s CORE Fund.
Launched in December 2012, the Consortium for Ongoing Reinvestment Efforts (CORE) Fund is a private nonprofit that has raised more than $6 million to acquire blighted properties and make non-traditional loans to developers for projects in the area of High and Main streets.
Investors in CORE’s Investment Fund, Strategic Acquisition Fund and Residential Redevelopment Fund are U.S. Bank, First Financial Bank, Hamilton Community Foundation and the city of Hamilton.
“I thin the CORE Fund was established to be a a catalytic driver for change in downtown Hamilton and I think (StarTek) really exemplifies some of the execution of that,” said Mulligan, who is also a member of the CORE Fund’s board.
Since CORE Fund was formed, seven commercial and residential properties have been purchased. These properties are being readied for development — cleaned-up, with some restoration work, liens settled and environmental studies completed.
Developer EMD Holdings LLC of Cincinnati previously had an agreement to buy the former Elder-Beerman building pending a due diligence period. That contract expired, Dingeldein said.
But Dingeldein said because the CORE Fund had control over the former Elder-Beerman site, the nonprofit along with the city was able to act quicker to respond to StarTek’s property needs than if the building had been in private hands.
“When we launched the CORE Fund in 2012, I told people we had a 10-year window to pull this off,” Dingeldein said about downtown redevelopment.
“I think not only have we hit the ground running, I think we’re going to be looking back in 2020 and say we’ve done it. ‘We’ve made an amazing turnaround in Hamilton.’”
The following investments have been made in recent years in the city’s core:
• The Courtyard by Marriott opened in March 2009 on Riverfront Plaza. The six-floor hotel has 120 rooms, 7,000-square-feet of flexible banquet and meeting space, and the restaurant Plaza One Grille. Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co. purchased and renovated the former Hamiltonian property at a total cost of approximately $12 million.
• Historic Mercantile Lofts, at 236 High Street, was an $8.6 million project by Canton-based Historic Developers to convert three buildings into 29 residential units and five commercial spaces. Commercial tenants include Community Design Alliance, Art Off Symmes, Millikin and Fitton Law Firm, and ACS Title and Closing Services.
• The former Journal-News building at 228 Court Street was renovated in a $2.5 million project by Historic Developers into the Butler Tech School of the Arts, Miami Valley Ballet Theatre and the Hamilton City Schools ABLE program. The project finished in mid-2013.
• RiversEdge Amphitheatre, at 200 Riverfront Plaza, opened in 2013, along the east bank of the Great Miami River between downtown and German Village. The city recently received a $3.5 million donation from the Marcum family to create Marcum Park on the former Mercy Hospital lot, with construction expected to begin in summer 2015.
• Artspace Lofts, at 222 High St., is being co-developed by Minneapolis-based nonprofit Artspace and Neighborhood Housing Services of Hamilton. The $11.8 million project will convert the former Hamilton Center into 42 apartments for artist living, with rental applications currently being accepted and reviewed ahead of a target April 2015 opening.
• Construction is ongoing for the new downtown headquarters of Community First Solutions. The Hamilton nonprofit is investing $5.8 million in renovations of the former Ringel's furniture building at 223 S. Third St., where it will relocate its headquarters once the project is complete by August.
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