Turning Around Ohio in Cincinnati
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| A special session held on Tuesday at Cincinnati Music Hall, Business Planning for Historic Theatres, gathered nearly forty people from across Ohio who are involved with historic theatre restoration and operations. |
The setting was historic Cincinnati for Heritage Ohio’s recent annual preservation & revitalization conference. During the conference’s three days, over 200 attendees participated in more than 20 educational sessions, three tours, special field sessions, and receptions. Additionally, vendors and exhibitors were on hand during the conference to answer questions and provide information to attendees about their products and services.
Tuesday, May 14th, over 20 Heritage Ohio Main Street managers from all across the state gathered in Over-The-Rhine to aid the neighborhood in their efforts to launch a Main Street program. Managers were separated into three groups; design, promotion, and economic restructuring and were joined by volunteers from various Over-The-Rhine organizations and businesses. The three groups were led by Jeff Siegler; Main Street Lancaster, Darrin Wasniewski; Main Street Orrville, and John Lippus; Sandusky Main Street. Participants toured various projects and businesses in the district and used the time to ask questions about previous revitalization efforts. Hosts for the day were Jeremy and Collette Thompson, owners of Kaldi’s.
Tuesday evening concluded with the Legacy Circle Reception, our annual
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| Jim Verdin of the Verdin Company, pictured here with Heritage Ohio Board Chair W. Kevin Pape, was the guest of honor at the Legacy Circle Reception. Margo Warminski of the Cincinnati Preservation Association provided a 360 degree “tour” of the Cincinnati skyline from the top of the Millennium Hotel. |
opportunity to give a special thanks to our Legacy Circle members. This year, Cincinnati’s own Jim Verdin of the Verdin Company was the guest of honor at the Legacy Circle Reception. Jim related his personal efforts at revitalizing Over-the-Rhine, and also provided a fascinating story on casting the world’s largest bell. At dusk, Legacy Circle members enjoyed a 360 degree “rooftop” tour of the Cincinnati skyline given by Cincinnati Preservation Association staff member Margo Warminski.
Ohio’s Historic Theaters met on Wednesday, May 15th to learn more about the ten-steps to effective business planning for historic theaters. Thirty-five participants from around the state met at Cincinnati’s historic Music Hall to learn about appropriate planning sequence for historic theaters from League of Historic American Theaters’ representatives Dulcie Gilmore and Janis Barlow. The participants also learned about Ohio funding programs from the Ohio Cultural Commission and the Ohio Arts Council. This program was sponsored in part by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council.
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| Melody Borchers of Bremen proudly displays the Best Marketing Program award received for the Promotion Committee’s efforts to undertake an image development campaign. |
Keynote speaker, Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino, provided an inspiring account of how the Boston Main Streets Program has used the Four-Point Approach to achieve significant revitalization progress. Mayor Menino also led a standing-room-only session, The Mayor’s Roundtable, Wednesday morning, discussing urban revitalization and Main Street issues.
Tours included a special look at downtown Cincinnati offered by Architreks, a tour of historic churches and breweries in Over-the-Rhine, and a tour of newly redeveloped residential and commercial spaces in Over-the-Rhine.
The conference closed with the Annual Awards Luncheon on Thursday, honoring the best preservation & revitalization efforts over the course of the last year.
Conference sponsors and local partners provided critical support to make the conference a success, and included Conference Hosts KeyBank and Middle Earth Developers and Conference Supporters Gray & Pape and the Ohio Arts Council. Local preservation partner Cincinnati Preservation Association provided planning assistance and logistical support.
While our 2007 Heritage Ohio’s Annual Statewide Preservation & Revitalization Conference may be history, we’ve already begun planning next year’s conference in Bowling Green May 6-8. We hope you will plan to join us as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the statewide Main Street program in Ohio!
Learn how to become an Ohio Main Street Program at one of these three workshops.
Heritage Ohio’s highly successful Main
Street program fits this vision. Across 32 communities,
the program has created 382 new
businesses, nearly 1,936 full-time jobs, 1,364
rehabilitation projects, as has led to $315 million
in total investment in Main Street communities
since the program’s inception in 1996.
To apply for the Ohio Main Street Program a representative must attend one of the three workshops. Click here for more information.
June 19, 2007
Springfield, Ohio
June 21, 2007
Orrville, Ohio
June 22, 2007
Bowling Green, Ohio |
Heritage Ohio announced its Top Ten Opportunities List at the statewide preservation and revitalization conference last in Cincinnati.
Ten buildings were chosen across the state representing a variety of building types and a variety of opportunities to investors and communities.
Heritage Ohio’s Top Ten Opportunities List, new in 2007, is intended to draw attention to buildings that may be under-utilized or await redevelopment. It also seeks to show the public that what may appear as a vacant building today, may be tomorrow’s hot spot: offering a location that may provide loft housing, the latest restaurant or retail establishment or a new center of commerce. Communities should look at their historic assets as opportunities to create individualized local destinations as opposed to the generic America of contemporary strip centers, shopping malls, and office parks.
The criteria for selection includes the historic significance; the potential impact for the community; and the readiness and availability of community support
The Top Ten Ohio Opportunities List includes: Marietta’s Ohio National Guard Building; Bowling Green’s Cla-Zel Theater; Norwalk’s Old County Jail; Toledo’s Stewart Building; Zanesville’s Federal Building; Cincinnati’s St. Paul’s Evangelical Church, Van Wert’s Home Guard Building; Mariemont’s Resthaven Barn; Bellefontaine’s Canby Building and Warren’s Robins Theater. Click here for more information.
Hear from Ohio's top funding sources at one of Heritage Ohio's most popluar trainings.
The training will be held August 15, 2007 in Bellefontaine at the Presbyterian Church,
117 North Main Street between 9am and 4pm.
