Avondale
Neighborhood of Focus since 2018
Avondale became a neighborhood of focus for The Port in 2018 after receiving significant support from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), the City of Cincinnati and Greater Cincinnati Neighborhoods Housing Revitalization Loan Fund (Greater Cincinnati Foundation). The Port has been working in the neighborhood for many years with the community development corporation, Avondale Development Corporation (ADC), as well as the Avondale Community Council. Our goal, in partnership with CCHMC and our community partners, is to improve children’s health and housing in the neighborhood.
Because Avondale was named a pilot Place Matters neighborhood in 2007, LISC Greater Cincinnati and the Community Building Institute led engagement with ADC, as the lead organization, and residents to develop community-based goals, identify assets and challenges.
The Port’s planning for new, infill and rehabbed residential housing surrounding Rockdale and South Avondale schools began in 2018 with outreach to ADC and within the community. These new housing opportunities will help to bring stability and new life to the areas surrounding the schools. Over the course of the next three years, REACH will either rehab or build 20 homes in the focus area.
A – Colonial Village
3641 Irving Street | Public Finance | 2015
Issuance and sale of conduit revenue bonds to finance the costs of acquiring, rehabbing, installing and equipping two housing developments in cooperation with the Athens County Port Authority. The multi-family housing development in Avondale has 66 units and was developed by Affordable Housing America (AHA), a non-profit housing corporation.
B – REACH Avondale
Neighborhood Revitalization | 2018
REACH (Rehab Across Cincinnati and Hamilton County) program. The Port has worked with neighborhood leadership, including Avondale Development Corporation, to determine how the REACH program can best be used to eliminate blight and create new market rate housing.
Initial phase focuses on six lots on Wilson Avenue, identified by Avondale Development Corporation and The Port, and three new construction homes on Haven.
To Date: 2 Rehabs on Wilson and 3 New-Builds on Haven underway
C – Remediation
3443 & 3449 Burnet Avenue | 2018
These sites of former gas stations in Avondale were remediated by The Port in order to prepare the properties for redevelopment. The Port is leading the demolition, tank system removal and soil remediation of 3449 Burnet with grant funding from the Ohio Development Services Agency – Ohio Abandoned Gas Station Cleanup Grant. We utilized funding from the Ohio Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Release Compensation Board (PUSTRCB) for 3443 Burnet.
D – Uptown Gateway
MLK and Reading | 2019
Part of the Uptown Innovation Corridor, 5.8 acres on the Southeast corner of Reading Road and Martin Luther King Drive will become a mixed-use development including office buildings, parking, hospitality, retail, and associated site and infrastructure improvements. The Port will be providing a capital lease wrapped with a bank bond and issuing TIF Bonds for this approximately $200MM development.
Impact:
- 15 Single-Family Homes Completed or underway
- 29 properties sold or disposed
- Two former, vacant commercial/industrial sites remediated
- $2.4MM in home values preserved through demolition
- $2.9MM total investment through 2018