Medical building rising in Uptown's Corryville neighborhood

A new 25,000 square-foot medical office building is rising in Uptown's Corryville neighborhood in between Rochelle and Donahue streets on Highland Avenue.  The $8 million project is on-track to be completed in October 2010 and will be filled by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VA) who has signed a 10-year lease on the building.

The VA intends to use the space for their ophthalmology group, a sleep lab, and their engineering group which will be moved from their current medical space nearby.  The move will come at a time when the VA is looking to free up space at their current location, and could lead to the creation of additional jobs once development is complete.

The project is being developed by Cincinnati-based Uptown Rental Properties which has its offices just a block away from the site in a building that served as the company's first new commercial development project - the VA medical building is their second.

"I've been in Uptown for 25 years, and I first got interested in the area because I felt there was a lack of quality housing options," explained Dan Schimberg, principle of Uptown Rental Properties.  "With all of the growing institutions in Uptown there is a real market for quality urban living options."

The site of the new medical office building was originally purchased by Uptown Rental Properties several years ago when a condemned apartment building occupied the site.  Cincinnati-based Turnbull-Walhert Construction is serving as the general contractor for the project and has applied for LEED Certification and will add 105 parking spaces in addition to the new office space.

Schimberg credits growing institutions like Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Cincinnati Zoo, and the University of Cincinnati for fueling the growth in the area.  With over a thousand rental properties in the Uptown area, and a growing commercial real estate portfolio, Schimberg believes that the "demand is extraordinary" for Uptown living and working space.

Writer: Randy A. Simes
Photography by Tiffani Fisher
Stay connected by following Randy on Twitter @UrbanCincy