Avondale Town Center offers model for Cincinnati's economic growth

Tina Brown wasn’t sure she’d ever see a day when residential and business vibrancy returned to Avondale.

“To see all this stuff come back is just so wonderful,” said Brown, a community health worker through the nonprofit The Community Builders. “It’s like a dream come true.”

Community leaders celebrated the private-public partnership that created the Avondale Town Center on Tuesday morning.

The 11-acre complex spans three buildings. Among other amenities, the mixed-used development created more than 300 mixed-income apartments, a health center with a pharmacy, restaurants, a laundromat and a much-awaited grocery store.

“These new businesses have helped create an oasis in what was for too long a desert,” said Bart Mitchell, president and CEO of The Community Builders.

The project was more than 10 years in the making, following a 2012 Housing and Urban Development grant.

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said the complex is a reflection of the city’s commitment to tackling the intersectionality of poverty, public health and economic development.

“This is a reflection of the comprehensive approach that we’re taking,” he said.

Just hours later, the mayor joined council members at City Hall for a presentation from city administration on the “ Connected Communities ” initiative, a series of proposed zoning policy changes.

The changes are especially focused along transit corridors through the city of Cincinnati.

Council member Reggie Harris said that by adding more housing units in the business districts along those corridors, “we are helping to ensure the support and the growth of our entire city.”

City planners told council members Tuesday that while housing prices are rising rapidly, construction is lagging. They said the current zoning code is capping the supply of housing.

Avondale Town Center can be replicated throughout the city by “thinking about a comprehensive plan that adds new housing units to a community so that you can support the neighborhood business district,” Harris said.

The proposed changes are a result of two years of community input and refinement. Community members will have an opportunity to discuss the changes at the following meetings:

Public Staff Conferences (Zoom)

• Thurs. April 25 at 5:30 p.m.
• Tues. April 30 at noon

City Planning Commission

• Fri. May 17 at 9 a.m.