This month I was fortunate enough to celebrate 10 years as President and CEO of Uptown Consortium, Inc. (UCI). It’s been an absolute privilege to lead UCI over the past decade, and I’m tremendously excited for what’s to come in Uptown. Without question, Uptown’s greatest accomplishments still lie ahead and I’m grateful for the supportive collaborations and partnerships in place that are necessary to bring our vision for Uptown’s full potential to life.
UCI was founded on a shared ideal that more can be accomplished by working together. That’s why UCI and the Uptown anchor institutions, our community partners and stakeholders throughout the city work tirelessly together to bring investment and development to underserved areas in the five Uptown neighborhoods. We collectively believe that these changes benefit all who live in, work in and visit Uptown by bringing new retail, amenities, housing and jobs to the community. We do this by focusing on opportunities in transportation, safety, economic development, community inclusion and more.
To date, UCI has utilized $182 million in federal New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) in projects that leveraged an estimated $2 billion of additional investment in Uptown. Many of these projects transformed the area, including U Square at the Loop, the Short Vine revitalization, Hickory Townhomes, Corryville Kroger, Avondale Town Center, UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and many others.
The I-71 Interchange at Martin Luther King Drive, one of the only urban interchanges to open in several years in the United States, is becoming the gateway to the region’s first innovation district. Years ago, we took a step back and studied how to best leverage this heavily traveled interchange to benefit the residents, institutions and other businesses in Uptown. We researched and visited innovation districts across the county. This was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remake the entry way into Uptown and it’s paying off: a district where medicine, research and technology are coming together to build future innovation.
Now UCI is tackling its biggest project yet—the development of the Uptown Innovation Corridor, a world-class innovation district designed to attract small and large healthcare and digital companies to collaborate with one another and with the Uptown anchor institutions. More than 1 million square feet of new space totaling more than $1 billion of investment has been completed or is currently underway. When fully implemented, the Corridor master plan anticipates $2.5 billion of project investment, more than 3 million square feet of mixed-use development and the potential to create 7,500 jobs.
The Corridor is already attracting local, regional and national attention. UCI selected developers for all four quadrants of the Corridor, Fortune 500 companies located in the 1819 Innovation Hub, and the University of Cincinnati signed a long-term lease for its Digital Futures building in the Uptown Gateway development. With so much momentum, we believe the Corridor has the potential to revolutionize the future of Cincinnati’s economy by focusing on attracting talent, retaining talent and connecting small and large companies to collaborate and innovate with Uptown’s anchor institutions.
These monumental changes would not be possible without support from the Uptown community and countless partners. UCI is dedicated to community engagement and economic inclusion in all projects, and we would not be where we are today without our partners in the neighborhoods, such as the Avondale Development Corporation. I’m grateful for the dedication of the Uptown anchor institutions—University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, UC Health, TriHealth and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden—that make all of UCI’s work possible. There’s a never-ending list of partners that touched UCI’s work over the past 10 years to improve our neighborhoods, and we are grateful to each and every one of them.
Moving forward, I believe that Uptown will continue thriving. It’s diverse, vibrant neighborhoods, a brilliant talent pool, dedicated community, and unique business climate are the perfect combination for success.
Many thanks to the incredible UCI team and our community of supporters, partners and stakeholders. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.
Beth Robinson
President & CEO, Uptown Consortium, Inc.