ULI Case Studies Sponsored By
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April 2015 ULI Case Studies Sponsored by 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati QUICK FACTS Location Cincinnati, Ohio Project type Hotel Site size 0.346 acres Land uses Hotel, museum, retail, restaurant, meeting space Keywords/special features Historic preservation, mixed-use development, public/private partnership, renovation, new markets tax credits Website www.21cmuseumhotels.com/cincinnati Project address 609 Walnut Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Master developer 21C MUSEUM HOTELS MUSEUM 21C 21c Museum Hotels Louisville, Kentucky Originally constructed in 1912 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the ten-story 21c Museum www.21cmuseumhotels.com Hotel Cincinnati is built of steel and concrete and faced with brick and terra-cotta. Development partner PROJECT SUMMARY Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) The 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati is an innovative hybrid of a vibrant Cincinnati, Ohio www.3cdc.org contemporary art museum and a 156-room boutique hotel that is at the Design architect/interior design hub of a growing arts and entertainment district and has contributed to the Deborah Berke Partners New York, New York revitalization of Cincinnati’s downtown. A masterful orchestration of century- www.dberke.com old historic details and clean modern design characterizes the project. The Executive architect Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel building was redeveloped from a property that originally hosted a hotel built Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1912. Visitors to the hotel can enjoy the 3,082-square-foot fine-dining www.pwwgarch.com restaurant and 8,000 square feet of gallery, meeting, and event space dedicated to exhibiting art of the 21st century. Open to the public free of charge, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the 21c Museum Hotel features rotating curated exhibitions of the work of living artists, including site-specific multimedia installations. A distinctively different hotel, the 21c Museum public/private partnership. To succeed, the Hotel Cincinnati features not only historic developer and the partnership had to overcome architecture but also fine art in a museum- substantial market challenges; in fact, the hotel quality setting. The project is also an exemplary was the first full-service hotel to be developed www.uli.org/casestudies 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati 1 in Cincinnati in 28 years. Opened in November city’s 21c Museum Hotel is very much in the center lobby, a formal dining room, a grand ballroom, a 2012 in the city’s central business district, the of the downtown and at the hub of the Sixth and semicircular staircase from the basement to sec- $57.4 million redevelopment is in the fortunate Walnut arts and entertainment district, with the ond floor, and decorative plaster ceilings. A 1924 position of being both a major contributor to—as Aronoff Center for the Arts right across the street addition to the hotel added another 222 guest well as benefiting from—the recent economic and the Zaha Hadid–designed Lois & Richard rooms and a penthouse. The hotel stayed in oper- and cultural resurgence in the city’s downtown. Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art next door. ation until 1971, when the property underwent a Major redevelopments, such as the Banks on the Looking back just a dozen years, Cincinnati’s $3.55 million remodeling and conversion to low- nearby riverfront, and the Over-the-Rhine neigh- recent past—and the history of the 21c Museum and moderate-income subsidized apartments, borhood (just north) have stimulated new retail, Hotel Cincinnati building itself—offers the story consisting of 220 one-bedroom units and ten restaurant, and residential activity downtown that of many an urban downtown, with a fresh trend of efficiencies. However, in the following decades, attracts locals and tourists. economic revitalization after a period of disinvest- the property faced deteriorating living conditions ment and suburban migration. and increasing crime issues. The Site and Development In 1912, the building housing the current In 2009, a local development organiza- 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati—now listed on tion, the Cincinnati Center City Development Background the National Register of Historic Places—opened Corporation (3CDC), acquired the building for Cincinnati’s central business district, with more as the ten-story Metropole Hotel, built of steel the purposes of revitalization and over the next than 18 million square feet of office space and and concrete and faced with brick and terra- 18 months worked with remaining tenants 61,000 full-time employees, hosts the head- cotta. The neoclassical revival building originally to provide them with counseling and reloca- quarters of seven Fortune 500 companies. The featured 178 guest rooms, an expansive hotel tion services. Observes Stephen G. Leeper, 21C MUSEUM21C HOTELS Located in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, the development emerged from a public/private partnership with 21c Museum Hotels, the city of Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, a nonprofit real estate development and finance organization also known as 3CDC. 2 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati www.uli.org/casestudies president and chief executive officer (CEO) of 3CDC, “Acquiring the old Metropole Hotel was partly based on intuition. We said, ‘Why wait?’ We saw it as a special building that could be a success as a hotel.” In 2011, 3CDC entered into a development agreement with 21c Museum Hotel Group and helped facilitate the purchase of the property by 21c Museum Hotels. The Idea and Concept The creative force behind 21c Museum Hotels is Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, wife- and-husband art collectors and entrepreneurs based in Louisville, Kentucky. Brown is the great-granddaughter of the founder of liquor company Brown-Forman, whose brands include Jack Daniel’s and Southern Comfort. Wilson is a former public relations officer for four Kentucky governors. Born of a passion to integrate con- temporary art into everyday life, the original 21c Museum Hotel opened in 2006 in Louisville. The inaugural 21c Museum Hotel in Lou- isville has since bred seven more 21c Museum Hotels that are open or under development in Cincinnati, Ohio; Bentonville, Arkansas; Durham, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; Kansas City, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; 21C MUSEUM21C HOTELS and Indianapolis, Indiana. Each is its own dis- The 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati offers a wide range of arts events, including rotating curated exhibitions, tinctive blend of community restoration project, interactive site-specific installations, and a full roster of cultural programming. cultural institution, and social hub. In merging a hotel and a museum, this novel approach is grounded in the founders’ belief that art can drive commerce. Curated by a staff of ten in 21c’s museum department, each hotel displays selections from the couple’s modern art collec- tion throughout the property, in guest rooms, lobbies, restaurants, and extensive on-site galleries that host rotating shows and double as event and meeting spaces. The Cincinnati hotel’s location in the central business district is ideal; when it opened in November 2012, the property sought to advance 21c’s mission of engaging the public with contem- porary art and supporting the revitalization of urban areas. It’s a recipe that has proved highly popular: 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati was ranked as the number-one hotel in the United States by readers of Condé Nast Traveler in 2013. Visitors and residents of Cincinnati alike can enjoy 8,000 square feet of gallery, meeting, and event space dedicated to exhibiting art of the 21st century. Open to the public free of charge, MUSEUM21C HOTELS 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the hotel Art is even located on the floor in passageways. www.uli.org/casestudies 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati 3 21C MUSEUM21C HOTELS A signature at all 21c museum hotels is a flock of movable, larger-than-life penguin sculptures by artist collective Cracking Art Group. museum features rotating curated exhibitions of credit (NMTC) allocations from three com- with the original owner, eventually acquiring the the work of living artists, including site-specific munity development entities (CDEs): Cincin- property for $6.25 million with the intention of multimedia installations. Other cultural program- nati New Markets Fund (operated by 3CDC), seeking a partner for the redevelopment. ming, such as poetry readings, film screenings, Cincinnati Development Fund, and Fifth Third The first item of business was to take control artist lectures, and live performances, are also Community Development Corporation. of the property while fairly and equitably relocat- regular offerings. The organization collaborates 3CDC was formed in 2003 by Cincinnati’s ing the 208 low-income apartment tenants— on arts initiatives with artists and cultural or- corporate leaders, in partnership with the city, to many of whom were elderly, had mental health ganizations worldwide, including lending works address the declining urban core in the city’s central issues, or both—to affordable housing units with of art to major museums—among them the business district and the Over-the-Rhine neighbor- necessary services elsewhere in the community. Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art hood. It seeks to create great civic spaces, support This rehousing effort, involving the services of a (MASS MoCA), the Contemporary Art Museum high-density mixed-use development, preserve professional firm, became an 18-month process Houston, and the National Gallery of Canada. historic structures, improve streetscapes, and es- that concluded in 2011. tablish diverse, mixed-income neighborhoods sup- Then, the big question: an end user was not The Development Team and the ported by local businesses and institutions. 3CDC yet lined up. Due diligence on the site made the Approval Process manages over $250 million in investment funds, prospect of the property’s reconversion to a ho- The development of the 21c Museum Hotel which provide essential financial capital for down- tel seem promising, but 3CDC needed to attract in Cincinnati emerged from a public/private town development activities.