ABOUT THIS SERIES
The Journal-News is highlighting Hamilton’s 17 unique neighborhoods in conjunction with the city’s 17Strong Initiative. The Journal-News will highlight a different Hamilton neighborhood’s history and current community on the Thursday Hamilton page once a month. Your stories, memories, and photographs are welcome. Email items to vivienne.machi@coxinc.com.
New businesses have been trickling into Hamilton’s downtown area since the Great Recession began loosening its grip on the country, but a new kind of tenant is also slowly moving in: actual residents.
Hamilton’s downtown core has historically been storefronts, with past development possibilities including the construction of a civic center or a pedestrian mall, but after the Mercantile Lofts opened for tenants in late 2012 and with the advent of Artspace Hamilton Lofts opening later this year, some individuals have chosen to live downtown, take advantage of its amenities, and make it more of a neighborhood than a business district.
Jay Biddle moved into a two bedroom unit of the Mercantile Lofts in April 2012 after living in Mason, and calls Hamilton’s downtown “a metropolitan area in a small town.”
“You have a world-class theater at the Fitton Center (for Creative Arts) … you have Miami Hamilton Downtown across the street with lecture and bluegrass series, and a new grocery store and brewery opening up all within walking distance,” he said.
While friends ask him why he would agree to the longer commute to his job at Fifth Third Bank in Madisonville, he says he enjoys how living downtown has exposed him to new interests in the arts.
“I’ve done the four-bedroom, two-story house in the suburbs, but (moving from) suburban to urban, it’s exposed me to different things,” he said.
Most of the amenities currently located downtown are still geared toward the 9-to-5 crowd, but “I’ve seen that improving since I moved here,” Biddle said.
Christian Sheehy, 32, a fellow Mercantile Lofts resident, agreed.
“It would be nice to have a place to go with some music, a place to go get some coffee or play board games with friends (after work hours),” he said. Sheehy moved to Hamilton from northern Kentucky in 2013 to accept a position at the Lane Library Community Technology Center in Journal Square.
“It’s a catch 22,” he said. “We need people in order for business to thrive, but we need business to get people downtown.”
Vanessa Schroer moved with her husband, Bob, into the Mercantile Lofts in 2013 from West Chester Twp., saying a tour of the building led the couple to seriously consider moving to Hamilton for the first time in their lives.
Since moving, she said she appreciates the bonds formed with her downtown neighbors.
"We know our neighbors here better than we knew our neighbors in West Chester," she said, adding that safety remained a concern downtown after several attacks occurred in the George McDulin Parking Garage this past summer.
“If Hamilton can make improvements to address the safety, traffic, and dining issues, then there is a real chance it can become a thriving neighborhood once again,” she said.
Taylor Welch, 22, was born and raised in Hamilton, and moved back in 2014 to reconnect with his family and accept a position at Community Design Alliance after graduating from Ohio University in Athens.
He said a big reason he chose to move into the Mercantile Lofts this past November was to have access to downtown amenities without needing a car.
“In Athens, you can walk basically everywhere you need to go, and I like the idea of being able to walk to dinner, to see my friends and to go to work,” he said, adding that in the past summer, he’s frequented the RiversEdge Concert Series, and walked to restaurants like Richard’s Pizza and J. Austin’s Riverbank Café.
While Welch remembers the depression of downtown when the Elder Beerman department store closed in 2009, he is hopeful for downtown’s future as new businesses take steps to revitalize the corridor.
“Now that I am back and working here, and I’m seeing new things developing and opening up, I plan on staying downtown or not going any further than walking distance,” he said.
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