Board to scrutinize high-rise

Among the next steps toward making Western & Southern Financial Group's proposed 40-story office tower a reality by 2011 is a review of the building's design by a special city board.

On Thursday, Western & Southern unveiled its plan for the $300 million Great American Insurance Building at Queen City Square. At 660 feet the building will be Cincinnati's tallest office tower and will house at least 2,000 American Financial Group employees on 22 floors.

By mid-2008, Western & Southern hopes to begin demolition of a 1,500-space parking garage at the northeast corner of Sycamore and Third streets. That will make way for the 825,000-square-foot tower, said Mario San Marco, president of Eagle Realty Group, Western & Southern's real estate subsidiary, on Friday.

But before that can begin, San Marco said the building's design needs to be completed and reviewed by the city's Urban Design Review Board.

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Appointed by the city manager, the four-member board is made up of a local business person as the chair and three architects. Its main focus: to review private projects - particularly those that may require city assistance or other investments - to ensure that they conform to parameters outlined in the Cincinnati 2000 plan for downtown.

The board likely will scrutinize how the tower fits in with neighboring architecture, the city's skyline and the overall environment of downtown, said Michael Moore, the city's architect and secretary of the review board.

"We're looking for design aspects that fit into the city's streetscape and examining what kinds of amenities it may have that encourage street-level activity," Moore said. "It's more about how do we make sure the building is something that contributes to making the city vibrant."

Renderings of the building show a Great American Insurance sign atop the building's "tiara."

Also on Western & Southern's short-term to-do list is finalizing a financing deal to fund the $300 million tower, San Marco said.

"The project is expected to be public-private partnership, with a significant private investment by Western & Southern," he said.

The firm also is negotiating with the city and Port Authority of Greater Cincinnati in hopes of structuring a deal similar to the one that helped pay for its 303 Broadway building.

The project was financed in part by using bonds issued by the Port Authority, which Western & Southern eventually bought.

"We're in the very beginning stages of negotiations with both the city and the port, so it's something that we wouldn't really talk about at this time," San Marco said. "We would more than hope that there'd be meetings (with the public partners) in early January."

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source: news.enquirer.com