2019 Non-Residential Development that Best Exemplifies Major Community Impact
Jobs Café at Findlay Market
Developer: The Model Group
Location: Cincinnati
Jobs Cafe at Findlay Market is part of a substantial rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of eight noncontiguous historic buildings in a three-block area of the Over-the-Rhine (OTR) neighborhood in Cincinnati. The property contains 68 mixed-income units and 22,687 square feet of commercial space inclusive of ground-level retail and an office building.
The Model Group developed the property in OTR, which lost half of its historic buildings since 1930 and was named one of the most endangered historic places in America by the National Trust for Historic Places. Jobs Café is the second of a multiphase redevelopment with a goal of creating a vibrant, mixed-income neighborhood. The Jobs Café operates as a restaurant, but also as a workforce development platform, training participants for employment in the local restaurant industry.
“The project is not only part of a neighborhood revitalization, by coupling it with hands-on training, social services and affordable income-restricted housing, it is a wonderful project that clearly is having a very positive impact on the community,” said Thomas Morton, HTC awards judge and partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. “This is right in the sweet spot of how a project can contribute to the surrounding community and its residents.”