Too Long; Didn’t Read

The developers who own the private land near the corner of Reed-Hartman Highway and Pfeiffer Road, adjacent to Summit Park have refreshed their plan from a couple of years ago.  They still propose a stadium with a nice hotel and multifamily housing and an office building but they have reduced the number of apartments, added a parking garage for events, and added plans for an indoor fieldhouse surrounded by a second hotel designed to host basketball and volleyball tournaments as well as dance and cheer competitions.  They have also realized that a stadium built for one private school can’t anchor the development and so they have expanded its uses and are looking for a professional tenant.  

The developer has indicated that they are almost ready to file a formal proposal for rezoning consideration.  They just announced an open house on March 11 from 5:30-7pm in the Council Chambers at the Blue Ash Municipal building. Read more to see how we got to this point, the strengths and weaknesses of their proposal, and what may happen next.

Project History and Update

In January 2023,  a developer made a proposal changing what would be built on the private land adjacent to Summit Park by leaking the idea to an Enquirer columnist before talking to the community.  That was a bad choice.  

The proposal, called The Summit, was also full of problems.  The Summit was built around stadium was branded for a local private high school that would only be able to use it to host games a few days in the fall.  The sideline was flanked by an apartment building with 200+ units.  Except for dedicated parking provided for the apartments and a hotel, there was only one small surface lot included – something that looked more like a designated tailgating area than a place where a majority of the 5,000 fans could put their cars during an event.

My first, strong reaction to this surprise was negative.  And if that project were to come to Council as it was first presented, I would vote against the rezoning needed for the project to go forward.  Even with its problems, the project also contained aspects that could be an asset for the City, its businesses, and most importantly the citizens of Blue Ash.

Approved 2016 Original Plan Also Problematic

The Concept Development Plan approved for this area was passed by Council in 2016.  The entire plan was called the Neighborhoods at Summit Park.  The portion yet to be started that is the focus of the current proposal was called Gateway Village.  The plan for Gateway Village anticipated five components:

• Office space: 200,000-400,000 square feet of Class A office between three and seven stories in height;
• Multi-family apartment: 220-350 units of high-end rental apartments in three to four story corridor-loaded buildings including a portion located over ground floor retail;
• Retail/restaurant: 25,000 – 60,000 square feet of specialty retail, service, restaurant, bard and entertainment space, including approximately 20,000 – 40,000 square feet of ground floor under multi-family;
• Hospitality: one to two 100-150 room national branded limited service hotels
• Possible grocery, indoor/outdoor music and performance venue

When the Developer proposed, the residents considered, and the Council approved this plan, one of the major elements of this portion of the development was a very large, very high quality, office building.  At that time, office buildings were seen as a major reason Blue Ash has thrived and the more of them we had, the better off we would be.  Office buildings bring workers, most of whom live outside of the City.  These workers pay our 1.25% income tax.  Most of them come in the morning and then most of them leave soon after their work day is done.  Office workers don’t require many City services compared to the amount of income tax they pay.  They also help provide a critical mass of people who attract restaurants to serve lunch, hotels to house guests, and ancillary businesses that employ even more people.

Covid Upends the Office Market

Since that plan was approved, we experienced the COVID pandemic that drastically affected how a large number of office workers do their jobs.  As was demonstrated during lock-downs, many people who work in offices like the one originally proposed can do their work from home.  Though I keep reading articles about companies who are requiring their employees to come back to the office, it’s not clear to me if they are in fact trying to get more employees to work in the headquarters or if the goal is to get employees, people who have grown to depend on working at least part of their week from home, to choose to leave their employer.  It’s not at all clear to me if “back to office” policies are going to refill any of our offices.

I saw the Cushman and Wakefield 2024 Third Quarter Office Marketbeat report that reported that 26.9% of the office space in the Blue Ash submarket was vacant.  That is a historically high number and, despite the City landing various new office tenants, the number is anticipated to only go higher over the next few years.

Though it may feel like it happened a long time ago, the first lockdowns didn’t happen until March of 2020.  Because commercial office leases are often written to last 3-10 years many of the existing tenants in office buildings around Blue Ash have been stuck paying for the space they needed to accommodate all of their employees even if some or all of them have been working from home for much of the last five years.  Only a portion of current tenants have had the opportunity to “right size” their office lease to match their post-covid needs.  The people who own these buildings tell us to anticipate that we will continue to see tenants reducing the amount of space they lease as their leases come due and that the last of these leases won’t be up for another five years.

We can see this market weakness even in the best buildings with some of the best locations in Blue Ash.  The former Belcan Building that consists of 100,000 square feet of space sitting on 9.2 acres of land adjacent to the Summit Park District was sold to a private school who is making it the home of its upper school.  I have nothing against this school but the fact that it was able to afford even an older office building in such a great location is an indication of how soft the office market is.  Even owners of prime, “Class A” offices are having difficulty securing tenants.  I know of one development adjacent to the Neighborhoods at Summit Park that has several floors of space that have never had a tenant.  The Cushman and Wakefield report says that there is more than 230,000 square feet of vacant office space in Blue Ash – not including space that is leased but not being used by tenants who have downsized their in office workforce since COVID.

The best way to fill these buildings and bring more workers (and their income taxes) to Blue Ash is to make living, working, and playing in Blue Ash more attractive. 

“Nobody” is Building Offices

Because of the high office vacancy rate in the Cincinnati market “nobody” is building new office buildings.  While there are some small projects being built, the same Cushman and Wakefield report said there was less than 70,000 square feet under construction in the entire Cincinnati market.  That’s barely a third the size of the smallest office anticipated for the Neighborhoods of Summit Park in the approved concept zoning plan from 2016.  

Companies don’t need new space.  Developers aren’t going to build offices if they don’t believe they can fill them with paying tenants.  Banks aren’t going to loan money to developers if the banks don’t believe they will get their money back.  Though the developers of the Neighborhood at Summit Park have been marketing this plan since 2016 and before, they still haven’t found a tenant who wants to build the office envisioned.  

If we don’t make a change, how long will we have to wait until conditions change to the point where this new office space can be built?

The Problem with Empty Land

Allowing the land to continue to sit empty is a problem.  Every year it is empty is another year that the City receives no additional income taxes.  Every year it is empty is another year that the restaurants and businesses in Summit Park and in the other areas of the Neighborhood at Summit Park don’t have the additional customers that would come from the anticipated residents and tenants.  Every year it is empty is another year that the City will continue to struggle to meet the stated desire of our residents to be a place that is “Alive after five.”

What About The Summit Proposal?

Last October The Summit developer indicated that they still felt the best use of the Gateway Village land included a mixed-use stadium project and asked Council at our public meeting our thoughts and concerns about the project.

Most of the Council did so.  I told everyone present that I had reviewed the project again and that I had five major concerns about the original proposal:

• There wasn’t enough parking in the plan to accommodate the amount of people who could be regularly drawn to events in the stadium.  While there is significant “off site” parking nearby at office buildings outside the Gateway Village area, there was no guarantee that those owners would continue to allow people to park there in the future.  I didn’t want patrons of an event at The Summit to impact parking for people who wanted to use the park itself.
• The hotel proposed in the plan couldn’t be similar to the many other hotels we have in Blue Ash.  In many ways, Blue Ash has more hotels than it needs.  However, our corporate residents have told us repeatedly that they have a need for a very nice hotel where top executives would be willing to stay when they visit.  If a hotel is included in The Summit, it must fill this need.
• The programming at The Summit needed more elements and required an experienced group to run it.  In the original proposal the developer anticipated that college, high school, and club teams from around the area would want to hold their “big games” in the stadium and that the stadium would host a busy schedule of concerts.  They offered that it could also be home to a professional organization.  The stadium can’t sit empty most of the time.  The value to our surrounding restaurants only comes when people are visiting it.  Programming such a large space must be done by a group with experience and a track record of success filling a similar space.
• I needed some sort of guarantee that, if approved, the stadium would not be built without the other elements of the project.  If there was going to be a stadium, the corporate hotel for our business travelers and the additional multifamily housing to provide customers for nearby retail and restaurants also had to be built.  To work it had to be a package deal.  All or nothing.
• Because it was being pushed to a corner of the property and because the space available for it was being squeezed by the other elements, the corporate headquarters building was being compromised.  This plan had very little room for surface parking, requiring much more expensive garage parking to be included in the building.  Further, the size of the building was at or below the minimum size anticipated in the original plan.

The Summit Stadium Project Evolves

In early February the developers presented an updated plan to the members of the Blue Ash Business Association.  One can see the original plan in this revision but the developer has addressed some of my concerns and has added elements to the project that strengthen its value to Blue Ash.

In plan as presented to the Blue Ash Business Association, the plan has three major elements:

The Summit:

• A 5,000 seat sports stadium designed to be used by schools from elementary to collegiate and even professional levels built to host everything from youth tournaments to the “big games” complete with everything a national broadcaster like ESPN would need to feature an event nationally.  The stadium would also be designed to easily accommodate concerts for as many as 12,000 people.
• One sideline of the stadium would be lined by a building for about 175 apartments with an incorporated parking garage for residents.  (This is more than 12% to 50% fewer than originally approved in the 2016 concept plan.)
• One endzone of the stadium would feature a “semi-full service” hotel with about 175 rooms plus restaurants and event space.  The hotel building would also incorporate a parking garage for customers.
• A separate 600 car parking garage.

The Fieldhouse:

• An indoor court space the size of four basketball courts that could host youth sport tournaments, dance and cheer competitions, trade conventions, business outings/events, and music/entertainment.
• The court space would be surrounded by hotel and family suite accommodations designed to meet the needs of fans and other patrons of the indoor court events.  The first floor space would also have several food or retail options.

Future Office

• This plan leaves room in the future to a 100,000 to 175,000 square foot office building if and when market conditions allow.

My Current Thoughts on the Proposal

First, The Summit has come a long way in the last two years.  The developers have addressed some of the concerns I shared last fall.

• With the addition of a 600 car parking garage and additional surface lots, there are now 1500 spaces for event patrons on site in addition to dedicated parking for the apartments and stadium hotel.  The internet says that for every 2-4 seats in a stadium you will need one parking space.  With this many spaces on site, it seems that most events (not everything will be a sellout) will be able to be accommodated on-site.  The developer stated that the “really big” 10,000-12,000 attendance events will be rather infrequent.  These will need agreements with surrounding available off-site parking.  It’s actually better to have parking for what you need “most of the time” and thus avoid the sprawling parking lots like those that surround a mall for the one or two shopping days a year that they are needed.
• The developers say that the hotel planned for The Summit will be similar to a Hyatt or Hilton Hotel.  That’s not a boutique hotel but I’m told it’s much nicer than anything we currently have in Blue Ash.  I want to hear from the local corporate residents who have identified this need to see if this will meet their requirements.
• The programming piece is still nebulous.  I’m glad to see the branding for a single school has been removed from the field.  I can’t see other area schools lining up to play games on someone else’s field no matter how nice it is.  I still haven’t heard who will own the stadium and who will program it.  Having the right management will be a key factor to making this project successful.  Most other successful stadium projects of this size have some sort of a professional team as an anchor.  More needs to be known about this topic if the project rezoning is to go through.
• The Fieldhouse concept extends the impact of this project throughout a slow winter season when fewer people are drawn to Summit Park and the surrounding restaurants and hotels.  I know personally how much can be spent taking a family to a dance competition or a weekend sports tournament.  I know if our family had the opportunity to come to an event located in a hotel, close to many great restaurants, and across the street from a beautiful park, we would want to come.  I bet other families would too.
• I’ve yet to hear about phasing.  While I’ve been told that the stadium/hotel/multifamily structure can’t be separated and has to be built at the same time, I want to know more about the severability and timing of the other elements.  A big box on a plan doesn’t change anything on the ground.  Without the parking garage and surrounding surface parking in the current design, the parking issue again becomes a problem.
• With the addition of The Fieldhouse hotel there are a lot of hotel rooms in this proposal. Blue Ash has already identified that we have too many hotel rooms in the city. This oversupply forces some to lower prices to the point where they have become long-term residences rather than short-term travel lodging. The City Administration reports that Blue Ash currently has 2,087 hotel rooms. If this project is built as currently proposed, it would add about 20% to that number. That’s significant. Without removing rooms somewhere else in the City, that’s too many.
• The corner corporate pad hasn’t been fixed.  The size keeps shrinking and the space available for dedicated parking will require a more expensive garage.  Would it be better to put something else in that spot that would attract tenants to the empty space around the park than it would be to leave it vacant in the hopes that, sometime in the future, someone will want to build an office there?  It doesn’t matter to City finances, where in Blue Ash employees work.  Filling 200,000 square feet with a tenant in existing offices off this land is just as valuable as doing so at the corner of Glendale Milford Road and Reed Hartman Highway.

Comparison of Approved Concept and New Proposal

What happens next?

While I expect there may be further changes taking into account comments heard from the Blue Ash Business Association members and others, I suspect that the plan will have few major changes.  The timing of this project is dependent on the developer.  In their presentation to the Blue Ash Business Association, they shared that the following timeline:

• Resident Open House – TBD February
• Blue Ash Planning Commission on March 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM  (You can watch here the week of the meeting to see the agenda.)
• City Council Meeting First Reading – March 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM (Agenda here. Watch live here.)

Already their timeline has slipped. I learned today that they will host an open house at the City Council Chambers inside the Blue Ash Municipal Building on March 11, from 5:30-7:00 PM. In any case, here are the steps that will have to happen.

• Open house(s) – this isn’t required by our City ordinances, but there needs to be some if the citizens are going to have a chance to understand the project. (Come to the Open House in the City Council Chambers inside the Blue Ash Municipal Building on March 11, from 5:30-7:00 PM to learn more, ask your questions, and share your thoughts.)
• Blue Ash Planning Commission – The commission and reject the proposal, accept the proposal, request changes, or recommend it to Council. (You can watch here the week of the meeting to see the agenda.)
• Once it comes to Council there will be a first reading and a public hearing will be scheduled.  In all likelihood, the night of the public hearing, at the second Council meeting, the Council will vote on the plan. (Find meeting agendas on Tuesdays before the second and fourth Thursday of the month to see the agenda here. Watch live here.)

Your feedback:

What do you think?  Will this be an asset to our community?  How does the decrease in apartments influence your opinion?  What do you think about The Fieldhouse?  Would you like to see more outdoor concerts in Blue Ash?  Leave your comments below or reach out to me directly.