After hitting it off, Trinitas and Crawford Hoying now form a 50-50 joint venture as the master developers of the District at Clifton Heights. And this isn’t just any mixed-use project. Along both sides of Straight Street just west of UC’s Uptown campus, Trinitas and Crawford Hoying plan to build more than 850 student housing beds, over 150 hotel rooms, 170 senior housing units, and up to 400 apartments, combined with about 30,000 square feet of commercial space and more than 600 new parking spaces. The total investment over the next five years likely will be more than $420 million.
News of the partnership and plans to move forward come when economic recovery from the pandemic has slowed. September was the third straight month of slowing job growth, according to the Labor Department. Since February, Greater Cincinnati has lost 41,300 jobs during the pandemic. The District at Clifton Heights should create more than 800 permanent jobs. Construction alone would create 1,200 jobs. Trinitas and Crawford Hoying plowing ahead on the District is another shot of confidence in Cincinnati’s rebound. In recent weeks, developers have announced their intentions to move forward on several large-scale developments, including Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.’s $50 million redevelopment of the former Macy’s store downtown and Kean Ventures and Buckingham Cos.’ $80 million mixed-use project at Liberty and Elm streets in Over-the-Rhine. Only Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s $650 million Critical Care Building is larger than the District at Clifton Heights in terms of the total amount invested. Before Cushman & Wakefield started to search for various developers, King questioned if now was the right time to move forward with the project. “We wondered if there was an appetite, an ability to execute, given how senior housing is being impacted by Covid-19,” King said. “We wondered if we needed to change the use of the hospitality pad since it was being so hammered by the change in travel behavior.” The interest in both components of the project was so high that Trinitas had the confidence to move forward. “Business owners, including real estate developers, believe the impacts of Covid will be short-lived,” King said. “You’re looking at what the economy and what the environment are going to look like when the project opens.” Crawford Hoying is one of those developers, like Uptown Rental Properties, Corporex and Kean Ventures, which sees the slow down as an opportunity. “It’s times like these when you’ve got to be bold, a little bit; you can’t be afraid,” Crawford said. “This isn’t opening next month. We want to be the ones opening in two years and in three years. We think it’s the exact right time to start developing.” Aaron Bartles, senior vice president of development with Trinitas, said now is an ideal time to be moving forward. “We’re bringing a transformation to the community that will truly take shape over the next several years,” Bartles said. The joint venture brings together two active, fully integrated commercial real estate developers that completed hundreds of millions of dollars in development in recent years (see sidebar, page 6). Crawford said the two firms are very similar in work ethic and culture on this a project of this size and scope. “You better be able to get along well, you better be aligned in your belief systems, how you should treat each other, and we knew we both felt the same thing pretty much right away,” Crawford said. Trinitas’ and Crawford Hoying’s areas of expertise don’t overlap, which is seen as crucial to King. They will self-perform the majority of the build-out of the District at Clifton Heights between the two firms.
Crawford Hoying is expected to do the work on the District’s multifamily, retail and hotel portions. Trinitas will self-perform on the student housing piece, and another partner is expected to be selected to handle the senior housing component. “We’re both committed to making the District be the transformational project that Clifton Heights deserves,” King said. The developers are working on plans to make the District a vibrant, mixed-use destination that draws university students and others who may be visiting the campus area. To achieve this goal, the team is looking at ways to activate the street-level and curate the right mix of commercial tenants. “You have to create the energy and the ‘there’ there that we talk about,” Crawford said. “That’s more than just bricks, glass, stone. It’s the spaces that people interact in.” Bartles said the mix of housing types and uses are critical to the development. The streetscape will be accessible for cars, but it will be designed to be pedestrian-friendly. The investment includes about $40 million in public infrastructure improvements, including streets, sidewalks, lighting and landscaping. “It’s the space between the building that means a lot to us,” Bartles said. The developers plan to put the hotel on the corner of Straight Street and Clifton Avenue, across from UC. The next portion of student housing will sit on the east side of Stratford Avenue, and the team plans to build the apartments and senior housing on the south side of Straight Street. When fully built out, the District could be home to about 3,200 residents when complete. “That’s 3,000 customers of local bars and restaurants, grocery stores, businesses in the area,” Bartles said. If Trinitas and Crawford Hoying successfully make it a destination, the District will bring even more people to the area. “This is not just about replacing a long-vacant property,” Bartles said. “This is about bringing economic vitality to local residents.” Bartles said all indications from the last several years show Cincinnati will continue to be a healthy place to invest over the next couple of years. Investments by the university, local developers and out-of-state developers are expected to continue. UC is investing more than $80 million for a total renovation of one of its dorms, Calhoun Hall, with plans to then renovate neighboring Siddall Hall. The university also is building the $86 million Clifton Court Hall, a 180,000-square-foot classroom building. Uptown Rental Properties and North American Properties are building the Eden, a $30 million apartment development with 207 units on the other side of campus. Plus, Uptown recently started construction on two Short Vine buildings with a total investment of $8 million.
The next phase of the District will start this fall with the construction of a new Delta Delta Delta sorority house. This will free up the property at 2609 Clifton Ave. for redevelopment. Trinitas will then begin work on 850 beds of student housing, adding to the more than 1,000 beds it has already developed at the Deacon, the $120 million first phase of the development. The next three to six months are critical for the District. The developers are now working on drafting a development agreement with the city of Cincinnati for public financing. They will then need to get approval for the next phase from City Planning Commission with a goal to start construction on the next step by early summer 2021. The team is expecting a full build-out of the site by the end of 2025. Cincinnati City Councilmember P.G. Sittenfeld said this project moving forward is a massive win for Cincinnati. In a year that has included a pandemic, a recession, social unrest and a rise in violence, the project is “exactly what the city needs,” he said. “In what has been a brutal 2020, it’s a sign Cincinnati remains a hot, desirable market,” Sittenfeld said. DSD Advisors LLC, the government relations arm of Dinsmore, has been working with the developers on community and government relations. For Crawford Hoying, the District will be large enough for the firm to have Cincinnati staff to help oversee the project. It gives the firm a launching point to further expand into the market. Just as the firm uses Bridge Park to show what it can do, Crawford said they want to have the same result with the District. “The next time we go to do something in Cincinnati, we won’t be an unknown … we can point and say we were part of the District at Clifton Heights,” Crawford said. For King, he’s looking forward to seeing the incremental improvements Crawford Hoying will make on Trinitas’ initial vision and then comparing the completed development with what was on the roughly 5 acres of land, including the long-dormant Deaconess Hospital. “The contrast, I am confident, will be astounding,” he said.