City reviewing contract to land Cincy State

By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer 10:13 PM Tuesday, February 21, 2012

MIDDLETOWN — The city is ready to sell one of the buildings it purchased for a downtown Cincinnati State Technical & Community College campus — and recoup almost half of what it invested.

The city staff is reviewing a draft contract with Higher Education Partners, the developer of the proposed Cincinnati State project. The contract calls for the sale of the former CG&E building at 1 N. Main St. for $202,000.

The city had invested roughly $450,000 in the former CG&E building, as well as former Bank One, First National Bank and Masonic Lodge buildings, and the former Manchester Inn & Conference Center.

Greg Pratt, the city-contracted consultant on the Cincinnati State project, said the deal “basically makes the taxpayer whole for what they have invested in the (former) CG&E building.”

He said this “marks the beginning of the end” of the first phase of the Cincinnati State project.

The draft contract with HEP also calls for the city to donate the former city senior center at Verity and Columbia parkways, adjacent to the Middletown City Building on Donham Plaza. The senior center was built in 1978 with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and has community development block grant restrictions. Law Director Les Landen said a community college is an approved use for the building.

“Together these two buildings will encompass the initial campus of Cincinnati State here in Middletown,” Pratt said. “We know that Cincinnati State is actively working on its programming and marketing this facility.”

Cincinnati State officials could not be reached Tuesday for comment, but the school is actively looking to hire a grass roots marketing professional for the Middletown campus. School officials have said they plan to open the campus this fall.

Mayor Larry Mulligan said it has taken a while to get this first phase of the Cincinnati State project to where it is today.

“This opens the possibility for new programs offered for education,” he said of the contract, which is expected to be approved in principle on March 6 and later signed by City Manager Judy Gilleland.

It also, Mulligan said, opens up the possibility “for long-term revitalization downtown.”

The draft contract calls for the interior demolition and construction of the CG&E building and the senior center to start by May 1 and be completed by June 1, 2014. Until the work is done, HEP will take out a performance bond to ensure the project is completed, Landen said. If the contract is breached, the city will step in to ensure the work is completed, he said.

Provided no significant changes are made, Gilleland will sign the contract. But two things must happen first:

• The developer must conduct an environmental study on the senior center. Pratt said there are no known issues, but a study doesn’t exist.

• Cincinnati State and HEP officials must sign their contract first. Pratt anticipates that will be in the next few days. But the Ohio Attorney General’s Office is still reviewing the contract, spokesman Lisa Hackley said Tuesday.

Cincinnati State’s board of trustees approved its contract with HEP in November, and does not need further action — unless there are significant changes — for it to be signed by President Dr. O’dell Owens.

Mulligan said the city’s investment in downtown buildings has given it the ability to control its “destiny” in key areas of downtown. But he said Tuesday that this contract will be the start of the city “getting out of the property-ownership business and it brings in the private sector for those buildings for development.”

The contract allows the HEP to take out a Section 108 Loan of up to $1 million, which is a HUD-sponsored loan used to spur various rehabilitation projects, including economic development and public facilities rehabilitation.