Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Here Are The Commercial Tax Abatements Council Is Set To Approve Wednesday

pnc tower
Doug Kerr
/
Wikimedia Commons
The list includes plans to renovate Downtown's nearly empty PNC Tower.

Cincinnati City Council will be asked Wednesday to approve development agreements, property tax abatements, and financing help for nearly $220 million worth of projects in the city.

The biggest ones include plans to renovate the nearly empty PNC Tower in Downtown Cincinnati, and another to build apartments on a site near the Purple People Bridge.

Other projects include several residential units, many with some combination of parking or commercial space.

Projects up for consideration Wednesday:

1-9 W. Fourth Street/Downtown
Rehab PNC Tower (31-story building)

  • 250 apartments, retail space, 50 parking spaces
  • Total project cost: $103,500,000
  • City offering $2,500,000 forgivable loan and 30-year private-project tax increment financing

601 Pete Rose Way/Downtown (near Purple People Bridge)
New construction, six- or seven-story building

  • 344 apartments, commercial space, 400-car garage
  • Total project costs: $77,268,679
  • City offering 30-year tax increment financing, annual savings to developer $786,956

1902 Colerain Avenue/West End
Rehab project

  • 4 light artisan shop space
  • Total project cost: $134,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $2,870 (9-year agreement)

421 Hoge Street/Columbia Tusculum
New construction, five-story building

  • 62 apartments
  • Total project cost: $17,062,187
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $338,967 (11-year agreement)

1833 Sycamore Street/Mt. Auburn
Rehab

  • Commercial space and 2 residential units
  • Total project cost: $1,300,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $6,875 (12-year agreement)

2315 Park Avenue/Walnut Hills
Rehab former church

  • 26 residential units
  • Total project cost: $3,800,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $39,870 (14-year agreement)

722-724 E. McMillan Street/Walnut Hills
Rehab

  • Commercial space and 8 residential units
  • Total project cost: $1,500,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $12, 268 (12-year agreement)

2249 E. Seymour Avenue/Bond Hill
New construction

  • 75,000-sq. ft. advanced manufacturing space
  • Total project cost: $6,200,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $86,140 (12-year agreement)

2801-2803 Price Avenue/East Price Hill
New construction

  • Commercial and office space for expansion of Red's Deli
  • Total project cost: $1,500,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $14,948 (14-year agreement)

830 Main Street/Downtown
Rehab 13-story historic building

  • 60 residential units
  • Total project cost: $7,325,000
  • Developer's estimated annual tax savings: $195,082 (15-year agreement)

Developers in most cases will be making "payments in lieu of taxes" to Cincinnati Public Schools and be making voluntary payments to help with streetcar operations, or neighborhood projects and the affordable housing fund.
All developers' annual savings amounts are estimates until the projects are completed and can be valued by the Hamilton County Auditor's office.

Some groups have asked the city to stop granting property tax abatements to developers because they say the abatements are hurting funding for the Cincinnati Public Schools.

The city has countered that the abatements help to increase state funding for the school district because the abatements lower the district's overall property tax values, which is used to determine state funding amounts.

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.