Vacant downtown office building to be converted into hotel
UC Real Estate Center director tells WCPO the project will add jobs in the city
A vacant office building in downtown Cincinnati will be converted into a 280-room hotel, creating hundreds of construction jobs and permanent jobs, WCPO reported.
Carl Goertemoeller, UC Real Estate Center executive director
The redevelopment of the former Fourth & Walnut Centre will be a $174 million project. It’s expected to create 381 new permanent jobs and 498 construction jobs.
“At the end of the day, it really boils down to job creation, not only the construction jobs used to redevelop the building, but permanent jobs,” said Carl Goertemoeller, executive director for the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Center, at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. “These projects are extraordinarily capital intensive and on virtually all of them, you need some type of tax abated assistance just to make the numbers work.”
The City of Cincinnati approved a 15-year tax abatement for the project, which will help fill the need for more hotel rooms in the city.
"My sense is that to fully utilize the soon to be redeveloped convention center, those hotel rooms are going to be necessary," Goertemoeller said.
Featured image at top: Downtown Cincinnati. Photo/Jay Yocis/UC Marketing + Brand
Impact Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
Will a gas tax help lower prices at the pump?
May 14, 2026
WCPO recently reported on Kentucky and Indiana’s steps to combat surging gas prices, cutting and suspending state gas taxes, respectively. UC economist Michael Jones explained the impact on Cincinnati.
Is a colonoscopy painful?
May 13, 2026
The University of Cincinnati's Susan Kais, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the College of Medicine and UC Health gastroenterologist, recently appeared on the ARC Cincinnati morning program on Local 12/WKRC-TV to answer common questions from viewers about colonoscopies and to dispel myths.
Telescope captures information about lonely Jupiter-like gas giant
May 13, 2026
Science outlets highlight a University of Cincinnati student's collaborative discoveries about an exoplanet 901 light years away.