Bowdeya Tweh

btweh@enquirer.com

College Hill's old, empty Kroger store finally is coming down, part of a plan to reshape and add life to the neighborhood's business district, Cincinnati officials and community leaders said Thursday.

The city is asking developers for their ideas to create a mixed-use development near Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road. Developers could have 7.5 acres to work with, including the Kroger site and two nearby parcels, Interim City Manager Scott Stiles said.

The Kroger store has been vacant for more than 10 years, to the dismay of many residents. It closed when the Cincinnati-based supermarket operator built a larger store less than two miles away. Kroger held onto its lease for several years, and it took several more for the property's owner to decide to sell. The city bought the site last year.

City Councilman Wendell Young said that since then, the shuttered building has been "a constant, nagging" reminder of opportunities lost in the neighborhood. Young entered the cab of an excavator Thursday and operated the machine's claw to dig a small chunk out of the vacant structure.

Full-scale demolition is expected to begin later this month.

Mike Cappel, president of the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Coalition, said support from residents and Cincinnati officials helped make the development possible. Over the past decade, Cappel said, the neighborhood has secured city funds to make improvements to its business district.

Two days earlier, city officials celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony for new homes that will be built in a subdivision less than a mile away from the old store.

"The decline of the 1990s and early 2000s is now behind us," Cappel said.

About 70 people gave boisterous applause in the store's parking lot during Thursday's announcement about the store's future.

"It means we're moving on, and we're able to get rid of this piece of property as it stands," said resident Kym Terrel, a retiree and secretary of community group College Hill Forum. "We're on the precipice of reshaping what College Hill is now and what it can become."