Developers in Cincinnati are getting a subsidy to build a housing and shopping project, called “The Banks”, along Cincinnati’s waterfront . The project has not progressed as planned, and the developers have recently proposed expanding the project in return for more public funds. The expansion would increase the size of the construction project but not increase the land area on which it sits. The change is to make the project 30 stories high rather than the previously planned 16.
Here’s where the Cincinnati stadium subsidy comes in. Under the lease with the Bengals on Paul Brown Stadium, “the team controls building heights for structures built near the football stadium, in an effort to preserve view corridors. County officials will have to persuade team executives to allow changes there.”
County Commissioner David Pepper “says he believes the team will be more amenable (to allowing the taller buildings in The Banks) now that the county’s anti-trust lawsuit against the Bengals is dropped.”
So, what we have here is a stadium led development project that may be stalled because of the concessions made to the franchise when giving them that very stadium.
The full article is here.
