WCPO: UC's Digital Futures Building bringing promise of innovation district to life

WCPO reporter Lisa Smith checked in on the progress of the construction of UC's new 180,000-square-foot research facility near the southeast corner of Reading Road and Martin Luther King Drive.

"It appears the Uptown Innovation Corridor will live up to its innovative theme once the first phase of the first corner is completed," Smith wrote. "Developers are meeting several of the needs of the University of Cincinnati's Digital Futures Building, even if it means including indoor space to fly drones."

Planned in collaboration with the UC Office of Research, the Digital Futures Building will house and develop academic and research programs conducting use-inspired, use-driven sponsored research that has the potential to scale and positively impact people's lives. The Digital Futures Building will serve as the headquarters for UC's Urban Futures efforts, a key component of Next Lives Here, the university's strategic direction.

The Uptown Gateway development will feature a second building of similar size that will contain more office and research space, as well as a 1,300-spot, underground parking structure. The Uptown Gateway development is expected to be completed in 2022. 

The Uptown Gateway is just north of UC's 1819 Innovation Hub, the home of UC's Office of Innovation and anchor of the innovation district. Since it opened just more than a year ago, 1819 has attracted a portfolio of co-located corporate partners that include four Fortune 500 companies, as well as several small and mid-sized local businesses. It also is now home to CincyTech, the largest seed investment fund in Southwest Ohio.