The former Manchester Inn on Manchester Avenue, just steps ways from the city building, was once a vibrant landmark in the region and has been vacant for years and is now owned by the city. Next door to the hotel is the also-vacant and city-owned Sonshine Building 101 N. Main St.
In October 2022, the city spent $112,000 for a company to clean out the two properties in hopes of making them more attractive to potential developers and less attractive to people seeking shelter.
The five-story Manchester Inn, which closed in January 2011, is included on the National Register of Historic Places and has 119 rooms and is approximately 60,000 square feet. It was 102 years old in November.
The future of the Manchester has been a contentious topic for years with former owners and developers unable to follow through with plans for renovation, most recently Weyland Ventures of Louisville, Ky. that terminated a pre-development plan with the city in September. Weyland’s assignment was to revitalize the six city-owned properties in and around downtown.
Morlan told council the challenge for Weyland and others is, “There is no place-making. So to just repurpose one building, it doesn’t bring people there, the experience isn’t there so it needs to be a phased strategy to bring people there for multiple reasons.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The economic development department is now “re-shopping” the projects and the downtown corridor.
Morlan asked council for input on doing the refresh as a package or stand alone and is there a “willingness” to consider demolishing any structures.
Vice mayor Steven West II said, “We need a dose of reality. What are we going to do downtown regionally? Not just one particular building, not just one particular intersection or one block. It’s being cohesive.”
He added, “If downtown is going to turn itself around it has to be beneficial for most and to the detriment of some … We have got to stop focusing on this one little lot or this one little area. The whole area. That is what Hamilton did and (Over-the-Rhine) in Cincinnati.”
Councilman Paul Horn said the decision has to be made to bring people downtown for business and work. That means micro-apartments and storefront businesses that might include chains, he said, pointing to Oxford.
“We have great buildings, great structures with great history, but some of them just might have to go to make it where people want to live and come downtown,” Horn said. “At times you have to do things that are not popular.”
Horn agreed “piecemealing” the plan is not going to work.
No one can take away the memories of going to a movie or shopping for school shoes downtown or going to prom, or a wedding or first date at the Manchester Inn, “but that was last century. The realization is we have watched other cities do the right thing and succeed,” he said.
Horn said when someone talks to him about the Manchester Inn rehab, he tries to scare them away with the reality of a multi-million dollar price tag and a 100-year-old building with an 100-year-old building code.
Councilman Paul Lolli said a successful downtown revitalization, “Is a package deal and I am willing to consider demolishing whatever structures we have to.”
Lolli suggested holding a town hall meeting to get feedback from business owners, organizations and residents.
“This is going to be a sore subject, tearing down the Manchester, but it is a decision that has to be made. At the end of the day it’s all about money and some of the things I have heard on that it would take to rehab the Manchester is nearly $18 million. That is what we are going to have to seriously look at as part of a whole plan,” Lolli said.
Mayor Elizabeth Slamka said it makes sense to develop a plan for the whole area and that getting feedback through a town hall “is a good idea.”
Councilwoman Jennifer Carter did not attend the work session.
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