Real estate in Greater Cincinnati is booming. Here at The Enquirer, we aim to bring you in-depth real estate coverage about the developments and neighborhood issues you care about the most.
That’s why our Going Up series provides details behind the design and construction of some of the region's most interesting projects. Feel free to pitch us what we should cover next.
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The basics of the Union Promenade
Address:9641 Union Promenade Drive, Union, KY 41091.
Building types:Mixed-use development that includes apartments, townhouses for rent and sale, commercial buildings, office space and other amenities – such as a dog park, pool and pickleball courts – for residents.
Developer/contractor/architect/consultants: Partnership of Thomas J. Ackermann Co. and Meierjohan Building Group; master planning and architecture by Bob Koch of FK Architecture of Winter Park, Florida.
Size: 62 acres and 93,700 square feet of lease space.
Estimated cost: More than $200 million overall investment.
Here’s what to know about each mixed-use area:
New restaurants and conveniences
The commercial spaces will run along U.S. Route 42 in Boone County, across from a Kroger and other business. The development will also be connected via walkways to a cluster of homes at the Villas of Fowler's Creek so those residents can also walk to restaurants and stores.
Bars and restaurants:Jake's Cigar and Bourbon Lounge (5,500 square feet), El Asadero Mexican Grill (6,000 square feet), McAlister’s Deli (3,450 square feet).
The Enquirer got a sneak peak into other restaurants that might come to the development, but the three above are the ones who have signed on the dotted line.
Conveniences: Elite Med Spa (3,600 square feet), Glamour Nails (3,775 square feet), United Dairy Farmers convenience store and gas station (6,000 square feet).
Nearly 350 new places to live
The residential apartments and townhomes are in one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in Kentucky and they're built to reflect that high-end market.
"We're trying to create a premier community both from a retail and a living standpoint, and the finishes in here, the square footage, the layout, the size, all kind of speak to that," developer T.J. Ackermann said.
The gated community will include 282 units in the multistory apartment building and 15 rental townhouses.
All the apartment units include large sunroom-style windows so an outside view can immediately be seen when entering an apartment. The units on the back side of the apartment buildings include balconies that look onto open fields that are part of nearby horse farms.
Apartments at 19Nineteen Promenade
Luxury apartments are being built on just over 16 acres in 13 buildings.
The apartment buildings will have one to three bedrooms and cost between $1,320 and $3,141 per month. Size will range from 600 to 1,543 square feet.
“The units were designed to take advantage of larger square footage with live-work arrangements,” Ackermann said, noting work areas or nooks that are separate from living spaces in the apartments.
Amenities include a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse, fitness center, pool, walking trail, pickleball courts, gated dog park and courtyard.
Townhomes
The Union Promenade will have 59 townhomes – 15 two-story rentals and 44 single-story townhomes for sale.
All the rentals will include a garage, three bedrooms and two and a half baths.
The townhomes for sale at Retreat at Union Promenade will be on a total of about seven acres. They range from $300,000 to $435,000, and will be 1,396 to 2,525 square feet, according to the Drees Homes website.
Cincinnati Children’s medical building, offices
Cincinnati Children's initial investment in the development was about $22.5 million. It bought the 6.4-acre lot at the Union Promenade for around $3 million.
The site will include medical offices, a pediatric primary care facility, a lab test facility and access to subspecialty care clinics.
The hospital said in a news release the combination of services is the “first of its kind in Northern Kentucky for Cincinnati Children’s.”
The first phase of the construction includes about 27,000 square feet, but there’s room for expansion up to around 80,000 square feet.
The new building is named the Brandon and Kelly Janszen Union KY Building after a Northern Kentucky couple who made the lead donation to the facility.
What else you need to know
There has been some community pushback about proposed parts of the development.
The Enquirer reported when nearby residents showed up in droves to object to a zoning variance that would have allowed an Aldi grocery store to be built at the site.
Residents felt misled about the direction of the project, which was pitched as a high-end walkable addition to the community.
The Union City Commission voted against the variance.
Ackermann told The Enquirer he'd worked hard to be a good neighborhood to the nearby community.
For instance, when residents along Sweet Harmony Lane complained about the volume of the digital ads at the gas pumps at night, developers worked with UDF to make sure those ads were turned off after hours.
Ackermann doesn't anticipate any other major changes or proposals at the site because "pretty much everything is done and approved here."
More: Here's how a proposed Aldi became controversial in Union
Here's what’s ahead
The entire project will likely wrap up in 2027 after about a decade of work, but parts of it will open by this fall.
Tenants will be able to move into the 19Nineteen Promenade apartments by September. Several units were already leased by the end of May.
The first project on the site, a UDF, opened in January. Elite Med Spa is also up and running. Glamour Nails is slated to open in July.
The restaurants and bars will likely open in the first half of 2025.
Jolene Almendarez reports on Northern Kentucky issues. You can email her at jolenea@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @jolenea1. She's on Threads @jalmendarez57.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What is Union Promenade in Northern Kentucky?
