The tallest peak in the
downtown mountain range is massive beyond description. From street
level, there is no way to look at it without risking a sunburn on the
roof of your mouth. You have to stop, plant your feet firmly, lean back
and stretch your neck back far enough to make a chiropractor cringe.
The
granite base occupies an entire city block, filling Fourth Street like
a fat man fills an elevator. Everything else near it shrinks to
matchbox scale, even before you get to the top floor, 665 feet above
Third Street.
"You're actually looking down on
Highland Towers on Mount Adams," says John Barrett, CEO of Western
& Southern, which is building the tower through its subsidiary
Eagle Realty Group. "Everything looks flat from up there. You can look
down and see the entire field in the Reds ballpark. It makes 30-story
buildings look old-fashioned."
It's true. The
view from the top is what hawks must see: the chocolate Ohio River
looping through rolling green hills, past Leggo-toy stadiums and
slot-car freeways.
Coming north on I-75 from
Kentucky, the Great American Tower at Queen City Square is the
Matterhorn of the skyline Alps. Blue-tinted glass reflects the sky,
creating a 41-story video of passing clouds, framed in gleaming
stainless steel.
But the biggest building
project since Carew Tower in 1930 has been overlooked, as politicos and
mediacrats chatter about streetcar fantasies and the geologic progress
on The Banks. While City Hall itches to spend more than $100 million on
trolleys, while county leaders lean on chrome shovels and declare
victory on the 14-year Banks promise, the $400 million Great American
Tower has risen from the ground like Jack's Metropolis beanstalk.
It
has created 5,000 construction jobs, with 70 percent local contracts.
It will house 6,100 office jobs in 800,000 square feet (more than 1
million including the sister 303 Broadway building). Its 11-story
parking garage will offer 2,200 spaces "” nearly three times the Western
& Southern ramp at Third and Broadway.
In
less time than it took to name The Banks or buy one streetcar, Barrett
and the Lindners at Great American Insurance have remodeled Cincinnati.
"We had the vision, but we also had the muscle and the determination,"
Barrett says. "So many talk, but don't have the muscle to get it done.
We've had enough of that."
The key, he says, is collaboration.
Ford
doesn't build factories for Toyota. But insurance giant Western &
Southern is building offices for another Cincinnati insurance giant,
Great American. "All of our guys and their guys are good friends,"
Barrett says. The companies are "parallel but different businesses."
And
that's in the tradition of Carl Lindner Jr., who has brought thousands
of jobs and company headquarters to Cincinnati. "All of this was
negotiated by Carl III and Craig Lindner. When people wonder what is
the sons' commitment to the city, it's huge," Barrett says.
They
could have moved to Mason or elsewhere, he continues. Instead, Great
American will lease 60 percent of the new building. Local law firm
Frost Brown Todd has claimed another 20 percent. With JP Morgan and
other new tenants, the offices will be 100 percent full for the opening
on Jan. 1 "” that's 1/1/11, Barrett points out.
Very
few cities can take on such a project in a down economy, says Mario San
Marco, president of Eagle Realty Group. "It's a statement of our strong
community commitment."
Keeping Great American
downtown saves 8,000 direct and indirect jobs. The new tenants are
leaving offices that are 30 to 40 years old, he says. "Every landlord
knows you have to fix up the space, and you can't do that with tenants
in place."
Once updated, that office space can be used to lure more jobs and companies.
But
let's take another look at that tower. It went up like a rocket leaving
a silo, on budget, on time, at the speed of one floor per week. Each
story was hydraulically jacked up to make room for the next. The floor
plan has no supporting columns, so offices can be rearranged easily. "I
was told that everything is going wireless, so we decided "¢let's go
with lots of glass and stainless steel' because that works best with
wireless," Barrett says.
He and the design team
visited the greatest buildings in America for ideas. San Marco says the
new tower honors landmarks such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire
State Building. And it salutes the setback-style of Carew Tower. But
when the 130-foot tiara at the top is lit from within, sparkling like
diamonds in moonlight, it will be one of a kind.
"We wanted something recognizable for Cincinnati," San Marco says. "It's a great bookend. It balances the skyline."
It's something to look at. But it takes more than a casual glance.
Hip to be Square
Not just a new office building "” a whole new neighborhood
Seen from a distance, the new Great American Tower tilts the Cincinnati skyline to the east. And that's the plan.
"When
you walk through here five years from now, you will say "¢Wow," says
Western & Southern CEO John Barrett, standing near Fourth Street
and Broadway. "This place will be hopping," he says, sweeping an arm to
take in the whole neighborhood.
He sees
more fountains, restaurants and retail. He sees weddings at the Taft
Museum, the University Club and the Queen City Club. He sees lunches on
balconies overlooking Broadway, next to Lytle Park and the historic
Guilford School, which Western & Southern turned into a free,
first-class training and fitness center for its 2,000 employees.
Barrett
is as excited as a boy playing Monopoly who just landed on Boardwalk
with Park Place in his pocket, with a hotel. Across the street on
Fourth is the Phelps apartment building, which Western & Southern
is remodeling. "It will be the very nicest hotel in the city," he says,
with 134 suites to serve executives at Western & Southern, Great
American and Procter & Gamble, a block north.
On
Broadway, Western & Southern is creating a restaurant in a historic
Cincinnati Police Station "” with a kitchen in the jail, private dining
in the paddy-wagon garage and a bar in the stable. And at Third and
Broadway, Barrett wants to replace the aging Western & Southern
parking garage with more parking and condos a block from the ballpark.
There
will also be restaurants, retail and banks in the Great American Tower,
with thousands of new office bees to keep the neighborhood humming.
Barrett
shakes his head at what could have been: Western & Southern offered
to develop Fifth and Race "” the mythical Nordstrom site "” with 300
condos and 1,100 parking spaces. Instead, the city has a parking lot.
And he wonders: "Can you imagine if we had done The Banks?"
It probably would be finished.
"But
the politics weren't right," he says. "I don't want to be pilloried in
the newspaper and on talk radio. We like collegiality. We didn't want
the strife that seems to follow so much development in the city. So we
stay under the radar and just do it."
The
city has put $5.5 million into infrastructure improvements for Queen
City Square, but Western & Southern put up nearly 10 times that
much, and has invested $500 million in city projects over the past six
years. "If the government subsidizes it, it's not going to work,"
Barrett says. "We need private money in it, our stake. That's the
entrepreneurial spirit."
That spirit of
private enterprise has created more jobs in Cincinnati than any
stimulus or subsidy. It's the spirit that built Carew Tower in a
Depression. It's the spirit that raised the Great American skyscraper
that now towers over the city, a steel and glass monument to the
business leaders who keep building Cincinnati higher while politicians
dig another crater of debt.