The developers proposing to build a mixed-use stadium project on private land next to Summit Park have submitted their formal proposal to the city. It will be (that’s a link to the agenda) considered at the Thursday, April 3 meeting in Council Chambers at the Municipal & Safety Center. The meeting will begin at 6:30 PM.
Note: The Planning Commission meetings are not a public hearing. Everyone is welcome to attend but there will not be an opportunity for residents to make statements. One reason that I will be attending is to see the full presentation by the developer and hear the questions asked by commissioners.
The Commission can recommend Council approve or deny the proposed plan. They can also table it or ask for modifications. Once the Commission sends its recommendation to Council, it will be considered at two City Council meetings. There will be a public hearing before at the second meeting where anyone who would like to will be invited to share their thoughts with Council.
By Ann Scranton
Questions I would like to know are:
Who will use this stadium? How does this use benefit the community? How will additional stadium parking impact Summit Park parking? Is this an appropriate use in keeping with the development plan for such a high profile location? What impact will this development have on roadway congestion, park use and hotels and local businesses?
By Brian Gath
Hi Ann. Sorry for the delayed response. I’ve messed something up and am no longer receiving notifications when a messages is posted. I’ll work on that but in the meantime here are some answers:
Who will use it? The developers have told the city that the stadium will be owned by a new non-profit organization. The stadium is expected to havel have a variety of tenants including Moeller High School. Other schools mentioned include The Classical Academy and St. Ursula Academy. They also plan to host youth sports organizations. The developers have also talked to minor league professional teams who might be interested in using the stadium.
Parking sufficient? Yes, mostly. Not always. The developer estimates that all but 10-20 events a year will be for 1000 or fewer people at a time. Traffic engineers say that for stadium events, a good plan is to expect each car to accommodate 2.88 people. With that assumption, most events at the stadium will need 348 spaces.
Though the first presentation of this plan only included a small surface lot, after I raised it as an issue, many changes have been made. The developers now propose a 600+ car parking garage. Together with expanded surface lots there are more than 1500 spots for the stadium and fieldhouse. There are additional spots under the apartment building for residents.
The problem comes when there are the biggest events. To accommodate guests without impacting park visitors, the developers/operators will need to make agreements with surrounding property owners who own lots that are largely empty at night and on the weekends. Adjacent to the stadium is the Classical Academy lot, a lot at the Belcan building, and across Glendale Milford Road there is a very large lot. I personally want to know more about what discussions have happened and what agreements will be in place before I would be willing to approve a final development plan.
Appropriate use? Million dollar question. You can read about the previously approved concept plan from 2016 here: https://gathforblueash.com/private-developers-stadium-proposal-evolves/. This area has always been intended to be the most urban, most dense part of the development.
Roadways/Traffic? The City has received a preliminary technical memorandum from American Structurepoint, the organization hired to complete the traffic study for this proposal. You can read it here. The report concludes, “The analysis results indicate that the existing roadway network can accommodate the proposed development without the need for additional improvements.” Also of interest might be the statement that, during large events, “The owner intends to hire a law enforcement officer to direct traffic at the site driveways, at a minimum, to help with the safe and efficient flow of traffic.” The final Traffic Impact Study was scheduled for completion and submission to the City on April 18. I haven’t seen it yet.
The other thing that applies to traffic is that this area of the private land adjacent to the park has always been intended to be the densest, most urban, of the private development. Whatever is bult here will generate significant traffic. In the existing, approved Concept Development Plan from 2016 there are as much as 350 apartments, 400,000 square feet of office space, and 300 hotel rooms. Under that plan, one could anticipate as many as 4,000 trips a day just from the office buildings. The traffic generated by the current proposal will be far less than this.
Park use? We all know how busy the north end of the park is on beautiful days. On less beautiful days and throughout the winter, the park receives much less use. This makes things hard for the businesses and restaurants who depend on park visitors. The idea of this development is to provide a more steady stream of visitors across the seasons. In my opinion, The Fieldhouse will do a better job of this than the stadium element of The Summit will. The local businesses have expressed strong support for the project.
Hotels: At the beginning of 2025 there were 2,087 hotel rooms in Blue Ash. That is the largest number of rooms in any area of the county outside of downtown Cincinnati.
Hotels are used by our local businesses to provide accommodations for out of town customers and associates. On the weekends, most of the guests in our hotels are associated with youth sports. Some of our “extended stay” hotels now serve as the least expensive housing option that allows students to be enrolled in Sycamore Schools.
The Red Roof Inn on Pfeiffer Road has been closed to allow for the development of a Wawa gas station and Mike’s Car wash. This results in a loss of 109 rooms. The Quality Inn of Pfeiffer Road is the subject of a PUD request that proposes replacing the 200 room hotel with apartments. If both of these projects come to pass, there will be 1776 room remaining in Blue Ash.
One of our local hoteliers spoke at the early April Council Meeting and said that they were still struggling with occupancy averaging 55%. That sounds awful but several sources from the internet suggest that a good occupancy rate is between sixty and seventy percent. The reduction of rooms should help this. However, it may not as the customers of the Red Roof Inn and the Quality Inn may be at a different price point than the remaining hotels.
Our local businesses have told the City Administration and Council that they need a more “full-service” hotel that would meet the needs of their visiting executives and customers with higher requirements. The hotel proposed for “The Summit” is represented by the developer as one that would meet that need.
The proposal overall proposes more than 400 hotel rooms. That represents a more than 20% increase in rooms over the beginning of year number. This is a move in the wrong direction. If the proposal is to receive my support I want to see it reduced significantly.