Coming to Fifth & Race: A Theater Complex Starring the Playhouse?

With Eagle Realty’s legal rights set to expire this summer for building a project on the long-vacant parcel at Fifth and Race streets downtown, some prominent figures in town are quietly moving behind the scenes to craft an alternate plan for the site that could involve moving Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park there.

Eagle Realty, the real estate unit of Western & Southern Financial Group, had planned to break ground in summer 2003 on a two-story retail complex and a parking garage on the property; the project was estimated to cost at least $50 million. Since that time, however, no development has occurred. City officials already extended Eagle’s option to develop the site once, in 2004, but that term expires Aug. 9.

With the deadline looming again, Eagle switched course and in November announced preliminary plans to build a $100 million high-rise condominium project at the two-acre site. That building, up to 20 stories tall, would be marketed to young professionals, the firm said. But in the four months since, Eagle hasn’t provided the city with any further details such as a market study or debt financing.

“Right now, we’re waiting on Race Street Development (an Eagle-affiliated firm) to give us details about the project to determine if they are feasible,” said Meg Olberding, the city of Cincinnati’s spokeswoman. “They have to show us more than the concept drawings. They have to give us a market study, price points and material like that.”

Sources tell CityBeat that local businessman Jack Rouse, who also heads the regional Port Authority, is floating a plan to build a new theater complex at Fifth and Race that would become the new home for Playhouse in the Park and Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. Under the concept, there could be multiple theaters at the site for the Playhouse and for Children’s Theatre, which now performs at the Taft Theatre. The plan envisions renting out theater space when not in use, and Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Opera board members have been contacted to gauge their interest.

Also, the project envisions the theaters located on the lower floors of the structure, topped by either office or condo space.

When contacted by CityBeat, Rouse declined to comment, adding, “I may have something to talk about next week.”

In 2005, Playhouse in the Park said it was considering building a new $70 million theater as part of The Banks, a shopping and housing district planned along Cincinnati’s riverfront. With no progress made along the riverfront, though, Playhouse representatives said last June that they would launch a new fundraising campaign to build a facility at its current site in Eden Park.

The block at Fifth and Race is the site of Eagle’s failed plan to lure a Nordstrom department store here in the late 1990s. In June 2000, Cincinnati officials approved $36 million in public subsides to attract Nordstrom, but the firm canceled the deal that winter amid financial problems.

Later, the city spent more than $1 million to fill in the parcel and use it as a parking lot until another project is found. Including $10 million spent to raze the site and move several businesses and another $3.7 million to help settle a lawsuit involving Eagle’s relocating a Walgreen’s across the street, the city has spent about $15 million on the canceled projects during the past seven years.

— Kevin Osborne

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