Committee advances 30-year tax exemption for Crew Tower conversion to 375 apartments

The Cincinnati Budget and Finance Committee on Monday advanced a development agreement that would convert the downtown Crew Tower into 375 market-rate rental units and 10 units of corporate housing and grant the project a 30-year property tax exemption tied to service payments in lieu of taxes.

The project would also include a small amount of commercial space and a 2% contribution to the city as part of the agreement. Committee members described the conversion as a major downtown investment supported largely by private financing.

"Since I've been here, this is one of the most exciting votes and exciting projects," the chair said, calling Crew Tower "an iconic project" and praising the developer's prior downtown work. Councilmember Walsh highlighted the financing package, saying, "the private financing is $97,000,000. The developer equity is almost $55,000,000 and the tax credits are $10,000,000. For a $161,000,000 project, it is fantastic." Councilmember Jeffries said big projects like this are necessary to meet the city's housing goals: "We're not gonna get there unless we have big bets like this, and this is gonna be a huge contributor to the vibrancy downtown."

City staff told the committee the rebate would be paid as a portion of service payments in lieu of taxes for 30 years, subject to the terms of the development agreement. Developers and the city did not provide additional conditions tied to occupancy or affordability in the committee presentation.

Committee members repeatedly noted the developer's prior conversion work downtown and said the agreement does not include tax-increment financing (TIF) or other incentives beyond the 30-year property tax exemption discussed in the presentation.

The committee voted to put the ordinance and development agreement on for passage and advance the item to the next stage of review.