“That was probably one of the first buildings that was rehabilitated to allow for some good downtown living,” Holbrock said. “Before that, if you want to say German Village, there were people living in those pockets, but there really wasn’t a finished product until Historic Developers finished the Mercantile building.”
Having people in the downtown area means businesses will follow, Holbrock said, because they cannot rely entirely on the workforce crowd to make a living.
“Businesses can’t go there if there aren’t people to purchase and stop and do things,” he said. “I think we’ve seen that in Cincinnati. Now that they’re getting the people downtown, it’s amazing what’s going in down there.”
Much like The Banks in downtown Cincinnati, downtown Hamilton is building excitement with its new influx of residents, Holbrock said.
“They’ll be downtown, they’ll make it vibrant and things will happen,” he said.
Tiffany Johnson, 26, signed a 3-year lease in January for a 1,200-square-foot apartment in the Historic Mercantile Lofts.
Johnson, who shares her two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with her 3-year-old daughter, said Hamilton offers a better price and more safety than downtown Cincinnati and more appeal than downtown Lebanon, which she deemed “too old-fashioned.”
“There’s no noises, the police station is just minutes away from where we live and everything is convenient with this location,” she said. “It’s not congested and the traffic is always flowing.”
Johnson, who previously lived in Tampa, Fla., said Hamilton’s “downtown vibe” reminds her of home but isn’t like a typical downtown.
“It’s more urban and up-to-date,” she said. “The history of the building and the refurbishing of the building kind of sparked my interest, as well.”
Downtown now a 'Catch 22'
Alfred Hall and Patty Burbacher have shared a High Street apartment for two years now
Hall, 61, said he left Hamilton in 1969 when it had a lot of manufacturing and “had a vitality to it, still.”
He returned to the area in 2008 to find “a lot of boarded-up buildings” and a city that seemed to be in decline, one hardly recognizable from the place he knew as one of seven children of a single mother.
“We walked everywhere,” he said of his youth. “You could get literally anything you ever would want in your neighborhood and I felt I owed, as a citizen, something to the city that helped raise me.”
Instead of living in downtown Cincinnati, as Burbacher initially wanted, the couple opted to give downtown Hamilton a try, opting for a four-year lease on a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-balcony apartment in the Mercantile Lofts.
Hall, who co-founded non-profit Hamilton Urban Garden Systems with Burbacher, said he enjoys being close to city and government buildings to be able to connect with leaders and decision makers. He also values being in a central location that allows him to walk to many different neighborhoods.
While downtown Hamilton is a good place to live, doing so means “you’re sort of stuck in a Catch 22,” Hall said.
“You have to have the people to have the grocery store, boutiques, restaurants and all that stuff,” he said. “If you don’t have the people, you’re not going to get the businesses. But if you’re one of the first people to move in, then you have to be willing to accept that you don’t have the boutiques and the grocery stores and the businesses and the eateries that you would like to have.”
Johnson, who enrolled her daughter in the Miami Valley Ballet Theatre on Court Street, also loves that downtown means quick delivery from a variety of area eateries and being close to downtown events and activities, such as Operation Pumpkin and the upcoming summer concert series at RiversEdge.
“When they had IceFest, it was so convenient because we could just come out on the main street and just walk to everything,” she said. “I love the convenience of it.”
The opening of the Artspace mixed-use project will be a “huge shot in the arm” for the downtown area, as will RiversEdge Park & Amphitheater, Hall said.
Still, more remains to be done, including occupancy of buildings formerly used by Ohio Casualty and Elder-Beerman, Holbrock said.
Many downtown residents enjoy not only the lifestyle downtown living offers, but the proximity to their place of employment, he said.
“I mean, your alternatives here are: do you want to drive an hour to Dayton or Cincinnati in rush hour or, if you can get a job in the area, do you want to be close to where you work?” Holbrock said.
Downtown living ‘very rewarding’
Residents also value the diversity of downtown living. In the Mercantile Lofts, the mix of tenants includes young couples, single men and women of various ages, school teachers, city employees, doctors, lawyers and people in town on long-term business, to name a few.
Johnson, who is stationed with the Army in Warren County until at least 2016, said she hopes to be able to find some kind of home station for her 28-year-old fiancé, who is away on deployment with the Navy. She’s hoping that place will be downtown Hamilton.
“We’ll most likely try to stay here,” she said. “Hopefully it works out that way. We’re kind of fighting for it now.”
Jody Gunderson, the city’s director of economic development, said Hamilton’s downtown scene is cross-generational.
“People of all ages have grabbed hold of urban living,” Gunderson said. “I often say that it’s kind of ‘what’s old is new again.’ ”
Downtowns don’t typically rebound without a very concerted effort, and public-private partnerships are an important part of the core districts making a rebound, Gunderson said.
Hall said living in downtown Hamilton is “very rewarding.”
“I like walking the streets and seeing people on the streets. I like the vibe that it gives off. I’ve enjoyed it very much, it’s just I don’t have the conveniences here now that will be here in three or five years. It’s just a little inconvenient right now, but no more inconvenient than if I lived out in the township somewhere and had to jump in my car and had to go everywhere I needed to go to get what I needed to get.”
In the mean time, Hall said he’s making the most of downtown life, enjoying the quality of the area’s art, sculpture, green space, bike paths, river and historic buildings, as well as the live entertainment, book reviews and art shows at Miami Hamilton Downtown.
“I have all the entertainment that I need,” he said. “The framework, the foundation, is here. We’re just building the bricks and mortar around it now.”
The amenities, atmosphere, people and surrounding communities all contribute to a quality lifestyle, Hall said.
“You literally can learn, work, play or live in downtown Hamilton and not be inconvenienced any more than if you lived anywhere else and in a lot of ways, have a lot of conveniences other people don’t have,” he said.
Hall likes that he can walk into the atrium of the Mercantile Lofts and experience not only diversity in neighbors, but an environment that routinely switches between various events, including fashion shows, community group meetings, yoga classes or slideshows on historic buildings.
“You don’t get that in an apartment building in Liberty Twp.,” he said.
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