The University of Cincinnati announced that it plans to lease a new building in the Uptown Innovation Corridor to promote the "digital future of tech innovation." This is definitely a great news for Innovation in Cincinnati, bringing us closer to remaking our city as a "City of Innovation" UC President, Neville G. Pinto, shared this:
"Building on our Next Lives Here vision, the University of Cincinnati has signed an agreement to lease a 180,000 square-foot building to be constructed within Uptown Cincinnati’s Innovation Corridor. The building is part of a development on 5.8 acres on the southeast corner of the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Reading Road, adjacent to our 1819 innovation hub at 2900 Reading Road. Our multi-year commitment will anchor this development, which is planned as a major mixed-use project by the joint team of Terrex Development & Construction and the Messer Construction Company. Conceived as an environment for innovation, education and technological advancement, the entire project consists of a hotel with a potential residential component, two parking garages and three office buildings. Our agreement addresses the first of these office buildings, which we have, for now, dubbed the “digital futures” building. As you may recall, the Innovation Corridor has been a decade in the making — a vision growing out of a strategic partnership of Uptown institutions, the City of Cincinnati, the OKI Regional Council of Governments, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the surrounding neighborhoods. Following the opening of the new I-71/Martin Luther King Boulevard interchange, the assembly of over 100 parcels of land, and the renovation of the historic old Sears building into the anchor tenant of the district (our 1819 hub), it is exciting to see this vision is now becoming a reality. We feel that logistically the proximity of this additional space to the 1819 hub – our front door for industry and community to access UC talent – is critically important. The digital futures building will enable industry and the community to further connect with us through a digital research commons and will provide space for UC faculty and students to work with them to address opportunities and challenges in a digital future. Amplifying and accelerating our Next Lives Here vision, it will be interdisciplinary in form and forward-leaning in function. It will empower diverse teams of thinkers and doers to push the boundaries of what’s possible – to bend the future in Cincinnati’s direction. Vice President for Research Patrick Limbach will be leading the work to define the programs for this new interdisciplinary building and will be engaging the campus community in this discussion. I want to add my thanks to the Uptown Consortium and its President and CEO, Beth Robinson, for their tremendous efforts in spearheading investment in Uptown for more than 15 years."
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