With many new developments coming to the Uptown Innovation Corridor in Avondale, the Uptown Consortium (UCI) is continuing its community engagement initiatives to ensure that residents and community members have a voice in the future of their neighborhood. UCI is dedicated to engaging neighborhood residents and stakeholders in all phases of the development process.

The Uptown Community Network (UCN), an initiative created to benefit current and future Uptown residents, is launching a free educational planning series for people with disabilities and their families.

For more than a century, Anchor Districts—the clusters of universities, hospitals, and research and tourist institutions—have provided a relative stability to their regions even during times of changing economic conditions and evolving financial policies.

The same week a crowd gathered at the University of Cincinnati’s much-anticipated digital futures press conference, the Federal Register announced its official decision to purchase a 14-acre site for NIOSH in the Uptown Innovation Corridor. A design build contract for the $110 million federal research facility at the northwest corner of Martin Luther King (MLK) Drive and Reading Road will be up for bid in early 2019, while Terrex and Messer begin the neighboring 180,000-square-foot, $165 million UC digital futures complex in the Uptown Gateway Development. And, Kroger Co. announced its collaboration with UC to run a 2,500-square-foot incubation lab at UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub.

On Wednesday, August 22, the University of Cincinnati announced its intention to sign a long-term, build-to-suit lease in the Uptown Gateway development in the Uptown Innovation Corridor. Terrex Development & Construction and Messer Construction will develop a 180,000 square foot building that will serve UC’s “digital futures” building, where companies can openly innovate and collaborate with UC, the community and each other. The digital futures building will be located at the highly sought out corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Reading Road by the I-71 interchange and will be in close proximity to the 1819 Innovation Hub.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced that it is moving forward with NIOSH’s consolidated research facility in the Uptown Innovation Corridor. Previously, the CDC selected the Corridor as the preferred site for the development, but plans had not been finalized and approved. On Wednesday, August 23, the Senate passed a spending package including funding for the new NIOSH site.

Uptown Consortium, Inc. was founded on the belief that by teaming up with other vital anchor institutions in the community, they could accomplish more for themselves and their neighborhood—together.

The new federal program known as Opportunity Fund Investing provides an important emerging resource for economic development in underserved communities.

The UC 1819 Innovation Hub is a state-of-the-art facility that connects external organizations with UC’s students and faculty. Located in the Uptown Innovation Corridor, it provides a multi-disciplinary, collaborative environment to create real-world solutions and products while producing a talent pipeline from the university to companies.

Uptown is unique—and valuable—for its convergence of community, education, research and healthcare in one prime location. As the Uptown Innovation Corridor enters its next phase of development, the Uptown Consortium has enlisted the services of global planning and design firm Sasaki to guide the project to success.