Brandt Retail imagines ‘Restaurant Row’ concept at 580 Building
Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Dan Monk Senior Staff Reporter

A new leasing plan for the 580 Building would rebrand a one-block stretch of Sixth Street as Cincinnati’s Restaurant Row.

Brandt Retail Group debuted the new plan April 1, when it was hired to lease about 90,000 square feet of retail and specialty space inside the 580 building.

The 17-story office and retail complex is owned by Philadelphia’s Berwind Property Group, which declined to comment for this story.

The “Restaurant Row” concept is an attempt to take advantage of the building’s proximity to Fountain Square, the Contemporary Arts Center and the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The Sixth and Walnut corner is one of downtown’s busiest, with 3,949 pedestrians walking by the building at lunch time and 2,100 from 6 to 8 p.m., said Kathleen Norris, a Brandt Group vice president and director of its Urban Focus division.

“That building has a unique feature in that there is 12 feet between the building line and the (pedestrian) right of way,” Norris said. “It’s the only block where you can put outdoor cafés of any size. There’s a great kind of energy in being able to sit outside.”

So, the leasing plan – details of which can be found at cincinnatirestaurantrow.com – describes five separate retail spaces, all of them capable of sporting their own outdoor cafés along Sixth Street. The available spaces range in size from 2,100 to 3,600 square feet. Norris said the building already has two new retail tenants that will complement the strategy. Both were signed prior to Brandt’s new leasing assignment.

The Bartini Martini Lounge is slated to open in June, in the space formerly occupied by Oceanaire. And Mr. Sushi opened in a 2,900-square-foot space earlier this year. Norris expects other developers to add to the concept by redeveloping buildings that once held the Maisonette, LaNormandie, Barleycorn’s and the Rise and Shine café.

“I would love to create something where you say to your wife, ‘Let’s just go downtown and we’ll decide where to eat when we get there,’” she said.

Five days into the new leasing assignment, Norris said she’s already talked to a half-dozen potential tenants. She’s trying to generate excitement for the concept by inviting visitors to the Restaurant Row Facebook page to send photos of their favorite outdoor cafés.

Rebranding a property with a specific kind of marketing strategy can be risky because it limits the universe of potential tenants drawn to a space, said Chuck Ciolino, managing director in the Cincinnati office of Sperry Van Ness, a real estate investment adviser. But he thinks this particular plan will resonate with consumers and retailers.

“I like it a lot,” Ciolino said. “If you look at Tower Place, about the only thing working in that building is the food court. I think this could be the upscale food court for Sixth Street.”

Norris said the Restaurant Row concept applies only to the street-level spaces facing Sixth Street. She said Brandt Retail Group has a different concept in mind for plaza-level retail space measuring about 70,000 square feet.

“They will be specialty uses,” she said.

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A former Chicago chef with designs on fresh-made hotdogs, craft beer and other “gourmet street foods” is planning to open what will be the second full-service restaurant in the fast-emerging Gateway Quarter.

The eatery, to be called Senate, is targeted for early to mid-October at 1212 Vine St., across from the Quarter’s only restaurant, Lavomatic. Senate will be operated by Chicago native Daniel Wright, formerly of Souk and Blackbird restaurants, and his wife, Lana, who will run the front of the house.

The 60-seat Senate (with a patio for 15 to 20) is described by Wright as casual with high-end food, the kind of place where an epicurean event can be experienced in jeans and a T-shirt. Menu items will include the house-made hot dogs, bacon-wrapped oysters, Guinness-braised veal cheek and crushed pretzel silver dollar pancakes (for dessert). The couple plans on an expansive list of craft beers, including St-Ambroise of Montreal.

“I don’t want to put anything on the menu that I would not want to eat,” Wright said over coffee with his wife. “I don’t expect people to eat here five days a week, but at least there’s variety to eat here five days a week.”

Or five nights. Senate will be serving until at least 1 a.m. on weekends, and the kitchen will stay open until 11 p.m. weeknights. Menu prices will range from $4 to $20.

The Wrights met at Souk, a Middle eastern eatery, six years ago when Lana Wright moved to Chicago from Cincinnati and took a job running the front of the restaurant. They returned to Cincinnati about two years ago – she works at the Palace, and he has worked for various chefs including Jean-Robert de Cavel. They married in May and signed a lease on the Vine Street property in June. They expect to employ 10 to 12.

The Gateway Quarter, a retail and residential district north of Central Parkway, counts about 15 retail tenants, said Kathleen Norris, who handles leasing in the district and is director of Brandt Urban Retail. Norris is in negotiations to lease the space adjoining Senate to a restaurant user and said several office tenants are in the process of moving in. “Before the first of the year, I expect to have more than 20 businesses open,” she said.

Among the office tenants are Web site design firm Vine Street Interactive; Cooknee, a kitchen and bathroom designer; and Creative Housing Resources Ltd., a developer of affordable housing. Creative Housing Resources, to open in the Gateway One building, is operated by architect Roger Robinson and Bren Blaine, former CEO of Tender Mercies. Blaine said location was the selling point.

“It’s close to a lot of the housing going on in Cincinnati,” he said. “And we both live within a block or two of it. I love being close to work.”