OpPORTunity – The Port Annual Impact Report

July 01, 2019

2018 Report and Event Highlights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2019 Annual Meeting:

The Port annual meeting will take place Tuesday, June 25 at 4:30 PM at Memorial Hall. The event highlights the organization’s accomplishments and impact in 2018 – through both data & storytelling.

Attendees expected:

300 representing The Port’s partners, funders, community & economic development leadership, government and municipal leadership, and development finance and project lending communities.
Speakers will include Mayor John Cranley, Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners President Denise Driehaus, Port Board Chair Charles Luken and Port CEO Laura Brunner. The program will also feature a panel discussion on expanding real estate equity within the African American community.

The full report will be available for download at bit.ly/2018PortImpact – After 10 AM on June 26, 2019 – and will be emailed to event attendees.

2018 Impact Report

The report’s theme is “Opportunity” because repurposing underutilized real estate and reinvesting in neighborhoods and in industrial sites can support sustainable redevelopment that brings jobs and creates vibrant communities. Within The Port’s strategy, Opportunity shows up in a number of ways:

  • Local individuals are buying vacant properties owned by the Hamilton County Landbank at affordable rates to rehab and sell or rent. This year’s report features Milton Davis, a Cumminsville resident who has made restoring properties on his street that he acquires through the Landbank his second job. Roost Builders principals William Groth and Sarah Kleiner quit corporate jobs to create custom homes from vacant homes and empty lots in Evanston, following The Port’s five-year investment in home rehabs and blight removal in that neighborhood.
  • Minority contractors like Hunn’s Construction are adding employees and building capacity through The Port’s predictable stream of projects and commitment to pay smaller contractors every two weeks to maintain cash flow. In Evanston, Hunn’s hired a long-time Jonathon Street resident as a full-time employee to work on properties on the street and nearby.
  • Acquiring and repurposing underutilized industrial land to develop sites that fit modern manufacturing is a long-term strategy that holds and markets the properties until an end user that meets job creation numbers and wage goals expresses interest.

Report Summary Highlights

  • Since 2012, The Port has positively affected more than 1,000 acres of vacant or abandoned property in Hamilton County and improved 1,388; redeveloped 75 acres of industrial land; and issued more than $784MM in bonds for development projects that include housing, corporate headquarters, urban mixed use, parking, and the MLS soccer stadium under way in the West End.
  • In 2018, The Port finished the redevelopment of the former Cincinnati Gardens site in Bond Hill and worked throughout the year with private development partners on a plan to build on the first parcel of the 19-acre site. In August 2019, Messer Construction and Terrex will break ground on a 75,000-square-foot industrial building on five acres at the Gardens site in Bond Hill;
  • The Port added three new Cincinnati neighborhoods – Avondale, Price Hill and West End — for focused investment within new funding partnerships to accomplish the work;
  • The Port acquired a surface parking lot downtown located near the Duke Energy Convention Center and participates in the public-private partnership assessing the region’s needs around a modern convention facility;
  • The Port rebranded to clarify our mission and business line operations;
  • The Port created two neighborhood-serving revolving loan funds to accelerate the stabilization and rehab of vacant homes;
  • The Port broke ground on retail project in the Bond Hill business district along Reading Road.

Contact:

Gail Paul, VP Communication Strategy

(513) 379-8153

(513) 621-3000