Terrace Plaza flooding causes thousands of dollars of damage to Downtown retailers

The cleanup continued today at two Downtown retailers in the old Terrace Plaza Hotel building after a water main burst there earlier this week.

Batsakes Hat Shop and Wendell's mens store, located on the ground floor of the building on Sixth Street, between Vine and Race streets, both sustained significant damage.

Wendell's was temporarily closed Wednesday while workers replaced ceiling tiles and finished other repairs.

Batsakes remained open, but the carpet and much of the store's ceiling will have to be replaced because of the water damage, Owner Gus Miller said.

It could take months to fully recoup lost sales and inventory, estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars, Miller said.

That includes the loss of about 175 Kangol-brand hats that were ruined when water spilled from the upper floors of the building into a display case near Batsakes' front door.

"This didn't have to happen,'' Miller said. "How could they let this happen?''

Miller was referring to the building's owner, who has been hit with numerous fines and citations from the City of Cincinnati for not properly maintaining the mostly vacant building, according to a story Wednesday from The Cincinnati Business Courier.

According to the story, Cincinnati Terrace Associates LLC, an affiliate of JNY Capital, purchased the Terrace Plaza from Cincinnati Terrace Plaza LLC, an affiliate of Platinum Capital Partners Inc., in August 2018.

Since then, the owner has been fined repeatedly and the building has been deemed a public nuisance for such near-disasters as a chunk of the building falling off and striking a car last fall, the Business Courier reported.

The building's state of disrepair stands in stark contrast to its celebrated status decades ago.

Completed in 1948, the hotel was considered one of the earliest examples of modernist architecture.

Today, preservationists - with the support of Cincinnati City Councilman David Mann - are seeking to have the building listed as a state historic landmark to prevent developers from making radical changes.

The 20-story building is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but that doesn't protect the building from changes that may be proposed by a developer.