Photo By Joe Lamb

Relying on a single developer is a sure way to make The Banks a boring neighborhood, according to City Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls, shown here with Councilman David Crowley.

With the latest plans for The Banks riverfront project calling for much larger buildings and more public subsidies to make the long-stalled project financially feasible, some prominent people are having second thoughts.

Cincinnati City Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls says The Banks shouldn't be given to a single master developer if the city wants a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood along the Ohio River.

Also, some well-heeled downtown property owners are urging city officials to rescind recent zoning changes that would allow 30-story office towers to be built on some of the blocks between the Reds and Bengals stadiums.

The high-profile criticism is an indication that patience for developing The Banks after a decade of big promises and false starts has grown thin.

'One piece at a time'
Qualls, who recently returned to city council after a break from politics, was mayor in the mid-1990s when she helped campaign to approve a Hamilton County sales tax increase to build the two new sports stadiums. As part of persuading voters to pass the plan, Qualls and others had said the stadiums would spark redevelopment along the riverfront, which then was mostly filled with produce warehouses, parking lots and a snarl of poorly designed, interconnecting roadways.

Although the stadiums have long since been completed, further development has been delayed due to funding and jurisdictional issues, particularly who will pay for up to $81 million in parking garages and other improvements needed to lift the site above the Ohio River flood plain.

County sales tax revenues were supposed to pay for the garages but have been far below initial projections, prompting Cincinnati and Hamilton County to scramble for other funding options. As such, the amount of taxpayer money officials say is needed for The Banks has steadily crept upward -- the latest figure is $110 million or about 20 percent of the project's cost.

Qualls says the most recent plan that calls for doubling the project's density -- primarily by increasing building heights to 30 stories -- to make the financial numbers work "reflect a desperation" on the part of city and county officials. Also, she believes the plan, whose broad outline is now a decade old, is out of touch with the realities of the current marketplace.

Instead, Qualls prefers dividing the 17-acre site into smaller parcels and letting different developers submit proposals for each. Apartments and condominiums should be the first phases, she adds, to create a demand for the services that could be provided by retail development later.

"If you're really looking at trying to get something out of the ground, we might actually want to break it down into manageable pieces," Qualls says. "You know, you don't build a downtown overnight. You take it one piece at a time and it's got to start with the residential."

More practically, she says allowing one developer to control the entire Banks district will lead to a sterile, mall-like project.

"You don't give it to one developer unless you want something really boring, really monolithic," Qualls says.

A county advisory panel selected Carter & Associates Commercial Services of Atlanta to serve as master developer and currently is negotiating a final contract with the firm.

Carter built the Atlantic Station project in Atlanta and several other mixed-used developments. But Qualls notes that the firm has no experience with a project of The Banks' size, meaning local officials are taking a risk.

Competing with downtown
Besides Qualls' criticism, a group of downtown office tower owners are alarmed by the size change proposed for The Banks. The owners, represented by attorney Joseph Trauth Jr., say that the new buildings -- which would be built partially with public subsidies -- would provide unfair competition for central business district properties.

Trauth recently sent two letters to Mayor Mark Mallory and city council outlining the owners' objections to zoning changes for The Banks.

"The approved modifications have completely altered the general development scheme of The Banks from a mid-rise neighborhood district to a high-rise urban core district that will compete directly with the central business district," Trauth wrote. "From its inception in 1996 until Aug. 16, 2007, the intent of the development scheme for The Banks was to develop a low- to mid-rise urban neighborhood that would create a gradual transition from the Ohio River and compliment the central business district."

The recent change "completely disregards over 10 years of planning and millions of taxpayer dollars spent on expert input from the nation's top urban design consultants," according to Trauth.

For her part, Qualls agrees that The Banks was never envisioned to compete with downtown and was supposed to fill a different function.

A finalized contract with Carter is expected sometime this fall. City council and county commissioners must decide whether to approve the document at that time, or make changes.

With plans formally unveiled in early 1999, The Banks project is a $600 million multi-use project that would be built between the Reds and Bengals stadiums. It's planned to include a mix of condos, offices, shops and a boutique hotel next to a large riverfront park.

City and county officials originally predicted that initial portions of The Banks likely would be completed in 2004 and 2007, then later revised that timetable to 2005 and 2008. Later still, officials pledged that dirt would be turned at the site beginning in spring 2006. Now construction is slated to begin in April and take about 15 years to complete. ©