Hamilton’s historic Second National Bank to transform into COhatch in newly revealed plans

Jody Gunderson, the city’s director of economic impact, said the city has been working with COhatch for the past several months to flesh out options to get the company into the city. Ohio is already a development hub for COhatch. Gunderson and other city officials visited some of COhatch’s locations in Kenwood, Hyde Park and Dublin to get a sense of how COhatch runs its spaces.

“Having known the reputation of COhatch, we were very anxious to get them interested in that building,” Gunderson said. “We believe that it’s going to help assist some of the demand that’s in the market right now for that type of colocation office space.”

Gunderson said the city is still working with COhatch to finalize plans for the four-story building. He said there were proposals for a restaurant on the street level, along with shared “breakout” spaces for the building’s tenants. Upstairs, there will be dedicated offices and shared meeting spaces.

Getting a company like COhatch into the building was an aim of the city when it bought the building last year.

“It was a matter, from the city’s perspective, of being able to control the destiny of some of the buildings that were in the downtown,” Gunderson said.

Gunderson said COhatch’s involvement and business-building programs will help attract and keep young professionals within Hamilton and bolster the city’s capacity for startup and early-stage businesses.

“Not only that, but they have great programming for people who are small, established businesses that are looking for that cost-effective space to lease, as well as all the programming that they have to help these companies really grow and become vibrant businesses,” Gunderson said.

The total estimated cost of the project, according to the state’s release on the awarding of tax credits, is about $11.2 million.

The state’s description said the renovated space would reuse “the building’s historic vaults as private dining rooms and a dining area in the former banking hall,” along with a new roof deck and a pedestrian plaza that will be used for outdoor dining.

Gunderson said the city plans to transfer ownership of the building over to COhatch through a development agreement.