The future of the Kahn's facility in Camp Washington

Published June 30, 2009 at 12:00 a.m.
Itwas just two years ago when Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnatiwere discussing how to deal with the county’s jail capacity and crimemanagement needs.  During this time, the county's need for a new jailfacility came up time and time again and was the focus of the November2007 referendum on a sales tax increase to pay for such a facility.

The15-year tax increase would have raised Hamilton County’s sales tax 0.5percent to 7 percent for eight years which would then fall back 0.25percent for the next seven years costing the average county resident anextra 10 cents more per day in sales taxes.

The result wouldhave been a host of new social programs geared towards keeping peopleout of jail long-term and a new 1,800 bed jail in Camp Washington.

Thenew $198 million jail was to be built on the land of the former Kahn’splant owned by the Sara Lee Corporation.  The site operated as ameat-packing plant from 1883 (during the Porkopolis days of Cincinnati)until late 2006.

The 15-acre site was donated to Hamilton Countyduring the time when political leaders were searching for a jail.  Thedonated land was estimated to save the county $7.5 million off the costof a new jail, but still sits unused in the heart of Camp Washingtonand an area that was recommended for “green industrial” redevelopmentin the Growth and Opportunities (GO) Study for Cincinnati.

TheGO Study identified a potential of up to 9,000 NRA of office, 485,000gross square feet of freestanding industrial, 30,000 square feet ofFlex/R&D Industrial, and 12,000 square feet of local-serving retailfor the Queensgate/South Mill Creek economic opportunity area.

Thereport goes on to stress the importance of “reclaiming older industrialbuildings because of the unique market opportunity to catalyze therehabilitation of the buildings in the Queensgate/South Mill Creekarea.”  The report then suggests that the end use could be boutiqueR&D space that is often found in these types of spaces.

InFebruary of this year, Schweitzer Enterprises offered Hamilton County$1 million for the Kahn’s facility that is valued at $7.5 million withthe plans of demolishing about half of the buildings on the site andconverting the rest into an indoor sorting facility that could processsome 300,000 tons of construction material annually that would haveotherwise been sent to a local landfill.

The future of the siteis still to be determined, but if community leaders are to follow theGO Study's advice, then something that preserves the structures on thesite and capitalizes the location's unique structures in what couldbecome one of the nation’s largest “green” industrial districts isstill yet to be identified.

Writer: Randy Simes
Source: Hamilton County; GO Study for Cincinnati
Image Source: Archives of the History of American Psychology, and E.C.Kropp Co


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