With the 1819 Innovation Hub at the University of Cincinnati nearly full, UC has found additional space for the growing Cincinnati Innovation District.
In December, UC’s board of trustees approved the university to enter into a lease for 121 E. McMillan St. with an option to purchase the building after a 1-year term. The annual lease payment will be $400,000, with the university planning to acquire the property after a year for $5 million.
UC plans to invest another $5 million to prepare the more than 21,000-square-foot building to be ready for companies that want to partner with UC and access talent and innovation connections in the Cincinnati Innovation District.
David Adams, UC’s chief innovation officer and CEO of 1819 Innovation Hub, said as the hub has filled, UC has started looking at expansion opportunities for other facilities that can be used to build the innovation ecosystem.
“We’re virtually at capacity as we speak,” Adams told me. “We’re excited to be expanding beyond 1819. The story is we continue to grow and we’re really excited about this next facility.”
John Seibert, UC’s associate vice president of planning, design and construction, said the building at 121 E. McMillan will give the university space for additional companies faster than the under construction Digital Futures Complex, which is anchoring the Uptown Gateway development and is expected to be complete in 2022. UC is still finalizing the lease agreement for 121 E. McMillan St., but Seibert said he expects it to be signed in the next few weeks.
The building was most recently home of the Cincinnati Dental Center, which vacated the facility about a year ago. Originally the building was a church built in 1907 for Holy Name Parish at the corner of McMillan Street and Auburn Avenue. It was converted by the parish to a school, then sold to Hamilton County and renovated to offices in the 1960s. Cincinnati Dental Center acquired the building in the 1970s.
In addition to the acquisition cost, Seibert said the university will begin studying the building to see exactly what it will take to make it ready for potential tenants. Seibert expects to go out for bids for an architect on the project as soon as possible. The university will then be looking for a construction partner on the renovation.
The building needs “quite a bit of work” to get it white box ready for partner companies. The space will be converted from dental practice space to open, flexible collaborative office space.
Seibert hopes to spend no more than four to six months on design and another six months on construction to get 121 E. McMillan St. ready.
“I’m pushing for sooner rather than later,” Seibert said.
UC will have to go back to the board for funding for the renovation of the building if it is more than $4 million, as is expected.
Seibert said he is excited about the adaptive reuse of the building and believes it will create “really interesting space.”
“This investment is a really good one to take advantage of an old, historic structure and give it new life,” Seibert said.
