Urban Sites creating living, working spaces in OTR

Across the street from the Emery Theatre, Urban Sites is redeveloping two buildings, located at 1123 and 1125 Walnut St. The buildings will yield 16 units—14 apartments and two commercial spaces.
 
Sixteen years ago, the city loaned money to a developer to renovate the buildings. The developer defaulted on the loan, and Urban Sites purchased the property and began construction a few weeks ago.
 
The 14 market-rate apartments will all be two-bedroom, and are slated to be completed next summer. Each is about 800 square feet, and still has the original wood floors and fireplace facades intact. A small, concrete courtyard connects the two buildings.

“There are lots of young professionals and people who work downtown here, and we want people who work down here and love OTR to live here,” says Seth Maney, vice president of development for Urban Sites.

Urban Sites was founded in the ’80s, and since then has focused much of its development south of Liberty Street in Over-the-Rhine. But the developer recently purchased the 40,000-square-foot film center building just north of Liberty.
 
“We’re currently working with Findlay Market to understand their needs, and we’ve been approached by several companies about the building too,” Maney says. “It’s still in the early stages, but it’s one of a few large office buildings like it.”

To date, Urban Sites has redeveloped 400 apartments and more than 100,000 square feet of retail and office space. Almost 100 percent of the developer’s units are occupied, but 70 more will soon be online.