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
Ticks that survive pesticides can withstand colder winters
July 17, 2026
Ticks that survive less-than-lethal doses of pesticide are able to withstand dangerous cold, which could help them expand their range farther north, according to researchers at the University of Cincinnati and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Why does it feel like so many Cincinnati restaurants close?
July 17, 2026
WLWT and the Cincinnati Enquirer cited UC research in reports on recent restaurant closures in the city.
UC has connection to city of legend behind 'Odyssey'
July 17, 2026
WVXU highlights a big connection between Cincinnati and director Christopher Nolan's new movie "The Odyssey." UC Classics Professor Carl Blegen led excavations at Troy in the 1930s. UC has a vast collection of photos and other records from the ambitious archaeological project.