Matt Bourgeois, director of the Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC), is excited about the activity in Clifton Heights, University Heights, and Fairview (CUF) that his organization has been a part of for about 20 years.
CHCURC is a non-profit community development corporation created by the University of Cincinnati, the Clifton Heights Business Association, and CUF Neighborhood Association, and has worked along UC’s south and west border to redevelop the business district along with Calhoun and McMillan.
“[The partners] saw opportunities to make the area surrounding campus better,” Bourgeois said, noting that it “would help with recruitment and would benefit the quality of life of the people living and working outside of campus.”
Initially, Bourgeois explained, the neighborhood was hesitant about the changes and a corporation moving in and making the decisions. So, the three partners created CHCURC, so everyone, including community members, had representation and a voice on what happened in the redevelopment efforts.
In the beginning, CHCURC’s priority was the Calhoun and McMillan corridor. It was not pedestrian-friendly and consisted of primarily fast-food chains. They focused on the redevelopment of that area and then development of U Square at the Loop, a 251,000 square foot, mixed-use development, which has transformed the area into a vibrant district featuring many restaurants serving those who live in, work and visit Uptown. The project was developed through financing secured from multiple public and private sources, including NMTCs from three allocatees. Uptown Consortium, Inc.’s NMTC allocation was $24 million.
In recent years, CHCURC has begun to take a more active role in stabilizing and renovating vacant nuisance properties around campus with 26 completed or in progress to date.
During this redevelopment, CHCURC has also had the opportunity to help with smaller projects in the community. They’ve helped oversee façade improvements with small businesses around the business district by writing grants. The goal is to ensure the small businesses looked just as good as the larger development projects and businesses moving into the area.
Most recently, the pandemic was front of mind for Bourgeois and CHCURC. “[The pandemic] hit the university business community exceptionally hard because the residential population is largely students and the university staff,” Bourgeois said. “A lot of communities might have lost one or the other, they either lost their resident base, or they lost their employee base, we kind of lost both at one time.”
That isn’t to say new businesses didn’t open during the past year. One new business that opened during the pandemic that Bourgeois is excited about is Good Plates Eatery. “I feel like it’s the best new restaurant we’ve had in years,” Bourgeois said. “They opened right in the middle of the pandemic. It couldn’t have been worse timing.” Good Plates Eatery persisted and continues to serve sandwiches and bowls, both vegetarian and meat-lover friendly, from its West Mcmillan location.
CHCURC’s most significant concern during the pandemic was the uncertainty of not knowing when the pandemic was going to end. Bourgeois described a snowball effect could have hurt the area. If students and faculty didn’t ever return to campus, they wouldn’t go to the new businesses. The businesses, in turn, wouldn’t survive and would likely close, leading to lost jobs and vacant spaces, which would prohibit CHCURC from reinvesting in the community.
CHCURC is continuing to focus on the community at large. They hope to start having weekly events over the summer around CUF. They are also looking for ways to activate the parks in the area and create meaningful gatherings that draw residents out to enjoy the neighborhood. These gatherings were put on hold because of the pandemic, but as of mid-May, things are looking up.
Bourgeois is optimistic about the future and is excited for the coming months. “Normal is what I look forward to because normal is exciting,” he said. “This has been an abnormal year, and that is not exciting; it’s not fun. Normal up here is fun.”
Ultimately, Bourgeois envisions some type of event happening around UC every day of the week and he’s talking with community and neighborhood leaders to make it happen. "It’s ambitious, but that’s the goal. We want people to say, ‘I live up here, I work up here, I know there's something fun to do,” he said.
To learn more about businesses in the area that you can support and event programming, visit cliftonheights.org