“As jobs have returned to downtown Hamilton, parking has become an increased issue,” City Manager Joshua Smith said via email, adding later: “Each property acquired is done for a very strategic purpose, and to assist us in moving the community forward.”
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The combined purchase price for properties approved last week was $956,999 and included:
- 421 Dayton St., from Horn Properties LLC, for $179,000;
- 6 N. 10th St., from Fred H. Hibbs Jr. and Cynthia Hibbs, for $57,000;
- 1019 Stewart St., from Shelly C. Davis, for $55,000;
- 1020 High St., from Judy McNally and Burdette Eugene McNally, for $125,000;
- 1021 Stewart St., from Joseph Wood, for $35,000;
- 328 Ludlow St., from Mark and Jennifer Conese, for $75,000;
- 140 Warwick Ave., from Mechanical Coatings Inc., for $150,000;
- 100 North B St., from Daniel C. and Jennifer C. Wells doing business as CJW Properties, for $261,000;
- 128 South C Street, from Fannie Mae), for $19,999; and
- the equipment owned by Duke Energy Ohio Inc. at the St. Clair Electrical Substation at Warwick Avenue and North B St., at no cost, because the city already owned the land that came with purchase of the former paper mill, and Duke already took the electric transformers it needed, but that Hamilton may be able to use.
Why the purchases?
“The simple answer is we continue to execute our strategic plan,” Smith said. That plan charts the course for improving quality of life in the city.
One such purchase is the land at 421 Dayton St.
The land at “421 Dayton Street was acquired to assist with our goal to bring more jobs downtown,” Smith said, via email. “With a primary goal to re-establish thousands of jobs at the former Ohio Casualty complex, we wanted to remove parking as an obstacle to a potential business or businesses. The large, empty parking lot at 421 Dayton Street has immediate proximity to this campus.”
Transactions on High, 10th and Stewart streets “are a continuation of what we have been working on in regards to the East High Corridor project for the past several years,” Smith said. “Specifically, we are looking at improving off-street parking and traffic improvements in this general area, similar to how we acquired property on the south side of High Street for additional turn lanes and the access road which connects East Avenue to 7th Street.”
The purchases on Warwick Avenue and at 100 South B Street properties were in preparation for the redevelopment of the former Champion Paper property into the mammoth "Spooky Nook at Champion Mill" sports complex.
Meanwhile, a conveyance of a vacant lot at 415 N. Second St. for $100 to the nonprofit CORE Fund will provide an off-street parking area, where a garage will be constructed for the new owners of the adjacent house, as part of Hamilton’s plan to remove barriers to repopulate empty or under-used houses in historic neighborhoods.
Also, another property at 862 N. 2nd Street was acquired for $6,000 in October by the city’s electric utilities for their strategic purposes, Smith said.
“It has been their policy since approximately 2005 to acquire properties in that general area to provide flexibility for their operations across from the idled Power Plant, as they continue their planning process of how to best use that property.”
Smith summarized the city’s strategies: “One of the most highlighted objectives we have is to grow jobs. Acquiring real estate for a variety of reasons is a strategy. We measure our results, and if the strategies we employ do not work, then we change strategies. To-date, our strategies have been working very well (by measuring income tax collections, new jobs created, vacancy rates, etc) with respect to creating jobs.”
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