Port Authority quietly making $2.1B impact

Though it has been reported that the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority has a $2.1 billion annual impact on the region, many Cincinnatians remain unaware of the group's activities.

But when you look at the Park Place at Lytle, Red Bank Village or the new parking lot for the Cincinnati Zoo, you are seeing part of the 155 acres that the Port has helped put into productive re-use.

Created by the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County in 2000 with the additional mission of coordinating the development of the Banks, it continues its work on redeveloping vacant industrial sites by assembling creative financing packages.

The Port is currently using Clean Ohio Fund grants for three vacant industrial sites:

• $2.9 million for the demolition and cleanup of the former 28-acre site of the Celotex roofing company in Lockland, which will become the home to the Hamilton County Regional Business Park.
• $750,000 to clean up the former General Motors plant site in Norwood, which is being developed by Al Neyer, Inc. into a 600,000-square-foot office and retail project called Linden Pointe on the Lateral.
• $750,000 for environmental remediation of a former can factory and machine shop in Northside, which will converted into 96 market-rate apartments and 27,000 square feet of commercial space by Bloomfield/Schon + Partners as part of the Factory Square project.

"Through experience, we've amassed expertise not readily available to municipalities and developers, especially those who have never been through this before," director of brownfield development Christine Russell says.

"Our goal is to make things easy on the private sector," president Kim Satzger says.  "We're a single point of contact, and we're happy to help."

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Sources: Kim Satzger, president, Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority; Christine Russell, director of brownfield development, Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority

Photo one courtesy of Park Place

Photo two by Scott Beseler