“When you get $28 million of investment in one block, things are just going to radiate out from there,” he said. “It’s just going to bring a lot of people, a lot more foot traffic, you’re just going to see a lot of development in that whole area.”
This project has been under consideration for a few years, and on Monday, Bloomfield Schon submitted its paperwork to the State Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, which provides up to a 25% of qualified rehabilitation expenditures incurred during a rehabilitation project. Hamilton has seen success in projects receiving historic tax credits from the state of Ohio, including $1.6 million for the $16 million The Well House Hotel project and $6 million for the $61.6 million hotel project which will redevelop the former Hamilton city building.
Bloomfield Schon won’t be notified until the end of December, likely after the Christmas holiday, and Hufford said if they receive it, “it’ll be under construction next year.” Through a capital budget bill, Ohio Rep. Sara Carruthers, a Republican from Hamilton, helped secure the funding for the the Shuler Benninghofen project, as well as other Hamilton initiatives.
“I think it’s terribly important to bring some jobs back to Hamilton,” said Carruthers. “I really hope that what it’s going to do is enliven the Lindenwald district, and it’s really near and dear to my heart. I want it to thrive there.”
Housing has been a focus for Hamilton in recent years, and it will be for the next few years. It was one of the themes for Hamilton City Manager Craig Bucheit’s first State of the City address. It’s also been a concerted effort in the city for the past few years with developers either renovating old buildings, like Third+Dayton, or constructing new apartments, like Rossville Flats and the Marcum Apartments.
And there will be housing planned for the city after the proposed Shuler Benninghofen project, including at Crawford Hoying’s redevelopment of the former Cohen Recycling Plant. The Dublin-based developer has plans for apartments and townhomes, in addition to at least one hotel and a few thousand square feet of retail space in the first of three planned phases.
Lindenwald should experience the same type of redevelopment success other corners of the city has seen, including what Rossville Flats has done for the look and activity of the 300 block of Main Street in the city’s urban core.
“Rossville Flats is huge in its own right, but (Shuler Benninghofen) is even more so,” said Hufford. “This is such a big project, right on the Pleasant Avenue corridor ― that whole area is going to see redevelopment once this is built. This will be huge for the city and for Lindenwald.”
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