Queen City Square

303 Broadway at Queen City Square Office Building

In June 2004, the Port Authority, in cooperation with the City of Cincinnati, began working with Eagle Realty Group, the development subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group, on a $45 million structured financing lease arrangement for the construction of a new office tower and parking garage.  303 Broadway at Queen City Square is located at the NW corner of Third Street and Broadway in downtown Cincinnati. The 17-story office building with parking contains 188,500 square feet of Class A office space.  When it was built, 303 Broadway represented the first new office development in downtown Cincinnati in more than a decade.

Issuance of conduit bonds was packaged with a capital lease in which the Port Authority owns both the office building and the parking garage while still generating fees for the financing.  Structuring the deal this way gave Western & Southern the benefit of ownership, and it generates taxable interest revenue by buying the conduit bonds.  With Port ownership, Western & Southern benefited from tax breaks via sales tax exemption on construction materials. In turn, their lease payments to the Port Authority fund debt service on the Lease Revenue Bonds.

Great American Tower at Queen City Square

At 41 stories, Great American Tower at Queen City Square is Cincinnati’s tallest.  The building, completed in 2011, was designed by Mr. Gyo Obata, founding partner of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK).

The development represents a cooperative effort among the Port Authority, the City of Cincinnati, Eagle Realty Group as developer, and its parent Western & Southern Financial Group (Western & Southern).  The financing plan involved a public/private partnership similar to the one utilized for the financing of 303 Broadway at Queen City Square.  The Port Authority issued TIF revenue bonds and lease revenue bonds to finance the construction of the development.  The tower, until recently, was owned by the Port Authority and leased to an affiliate of Western & Southern. In 2017, ownership was officially transferred to Eagle Realty Group. In addition to more than 800,000 square feet of office space and an 11-story parking garage, The Great American Tower at Queen City Square includes a 25,000-square-foot pedestrian promenade and retail arcade. The tower connects to 303 Broadway at the garage level.

Queen City Square’s office space is more than 91% leased, to tenants such as Great American Insurance; Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease; Frost Brown Todd law firm; and Fort Washington Investment Advisors.

How we Helped

Port Authority owns the project

Leases the project to master lessee

Issued TIF-backed and Lease-backed bonds

TIF bonds privately placed as alternative to developer reimbursement

$54 million in TIF bonds secured by PILOTS (payment in lieu of taxes); combined with $10 million of prior TIF bonds that finances, in part, the adjacent 303 Broadway

$259 million in lease revenue bonds

Project Impact

Project retains & generates over 8,600 jobs; generates $1.6 billion annual economic impact (UC Economics Center 2008)

 Project Neighborhood Description

Over the past 15 years, the Port Authority has been involved in transformative projects throughout Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. These projects have reshaped our skyline, revived historic structures for a new century, and created new regional anchors and cultural institutions.