CINCINNATI — The completion of a new portion of Smale Riverfront Park is a huge step in the opening of a music venue at The Banks. It marks a major milestone in the decade of development along the Cincinnati side of the Ohio River.
Leaders from local, county and state governments joined various stakeholders in downtown Cincinnati Monday morning to celebrate the completion of Phase IIIB of The Banks project. That includes the Smale Riverfront Park Event Lawn as well as additional parking and roadway infrastructure to address traffic congestion in the area.
The new 2-acre event lawn is a public park but will also serve as an outdoor concert area for the neighboring ICON Music Center, which opens next month. The space can accommodate up to 8,000 guests.
The Foo Fighters will christen the ICON Festival Stage July 28. The first indoor concert will be a week earlier on July 22 featuring Kem with special guest Leela James.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley praised the new park space, saying it will highlight a "beautiful new music venue."
Cranley recalled a long history of proposals for a music venue along the riverfront but admitted candidly that for him to support a proposal it would have to be at The Banks. He credited recent leadership from Hamilton County for "not only embracing the idea, but also helping pay for it."
The Banks is a public-private partnership between the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The Banks Public Partnership evenly shares the public portion of investment in The Banks.
The extension of Smale Park cost $6.9 million. The state of Ohio contributed $1.7 million and Music and Event Management Inc. (MEMI) $1.45 million. The rest of the funding came from a combination of funds from the city of Cincinnati and private donations.
The infrastructure component of the Phase IIIB project cost an additional $29 million, which came from a combination of state, county, city and grant dollars.
“I want to thank the Mayor (John Cranley), Commissioner Denise Driehaus, Hamilton County, and the City of Cincinnati (for making this happen)," said Robert MacDonald, board chair of the CSO. "At the end of the day, we wanted to contribute to this park because we knew that a relationship between CSO and Cincinnati Parks would be synergistic and really valuable for the city."
ICON Music Center is owned by MEMI, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO).
The new event lawn is the continuation of the award-winning Smale Riverfront Park system, 45 acres of urban green space along the riverfront between Great American Ball Park and Paul Brown Stadium.
Kara Kish, director of Cincinnati Parks, said the event lawn will provide additional opportunities for programming and entertainment on non-concert days.
“We're here to celebrate the completion of this beautiful event lawn and we're incredibly excited for concerts and music that will take place here. With that said, we're not going to stop with this project. Smale Riverfront Park is not done yet," Kish said. "This is a wonderful component here today, but there’s still work to do."Kish said Parks is already evaluating the south side of the ICON Music Center as an area of possible expansion for the Smale Park system.
Jim Goetz, chair of the Cincinnati Park Board, highlighted the transformation of Smale Riverfront Park over the past 13 years. The Smale Riverfront Park includes playgrounds, splash fountains, public art and picnic areas.
He said that the park has transformed the "front door" to Cincinnati and the region.
Smale Park has served as an important connective tissue for The Banks, which first broke ground in 2008. Phase I infrastructure, including Current at The Banks apartments, was completed in 2010 followed by major openings in 2011 (The Radius apartments) and 2012 (Christian Moerlein Lager House). Smale Riverfront Park opened in 2015.
The growth has continued from there, with the opening of GE's Operations Center and a new AC Hotel. There are also several bars, restaurants and other storefronts, including many that line East Freedom Way within the new outdoor refreshment area (DORA).
"Not only did we raise the front porch of the county out of the flood plain, but we transformed a mud pit to a vibrant riverfront community," said Hamilton County Commission President Stephanie Summerow-Dumas.
Summerow-Dumas said The Banks has created thousands of jobs and has had a $2 billion economic impact during its 10-plus-year history.
There've also been infrastructure updates, including those for Phase IIIB which broke ground roughly 18 months ago. Recent additions include an extension of Race Street to create a roundabout to help with drop-offs during concerts. They also extended the Central Riverfront Garage to add 267 new parking spaces.
Digital messaging boards were also installed along Interstate 75, Interstate 71, and Route 50 to help relay traffic information to motorists and ease the flow of traffic into downtown. Digital message signs were installed at the entrances to the Central Riverfront Garage and surface lots, to indicate the number of available spaces, pricing and other parking information.
While infrastructure isn't necessarily the most exciting feature of any development project, you wouldn't see The Banks you have today without them, according to Phil Beck, The Banks Public Partnership project executive.
"If it were not for critical infrastructure investment, you wouldn’t see Freedom Way, nor the buildings and businesses and residences you see from Great American Ball Park to Paul Brown Stadium."
Beck said there are three additional lots open for development at The Banks. Currently, those spots are being used for surface parking and other mixed-use development opportunities are possible, he said.