CINCINNATI — When OTR A.D.O.P.T. sets out to find their next building to save, the nonprofit claims to look for the worst of the worst. A place no investor would ever consider, with bricks tumbling into the street, missing walls or holes in the floor, is the perfect candidate for a restoration so long as the building has a place in the city’s history.
That’s why Ashley Feist, the group’s community liaison, said 123 E. McMicken Ave. didn’t scare her. Once stabilized, she knew she’d find the right investor to give the small building new life in a way that served the neighborhood, and Action Tank was happy to accept the challenge.
Artist rendering of Volkshaus by Jim Effler
Ionna Paraskevopoulos helped found Action Tank after years working in city government, revealed many community leaders or neighborhood organizations lacked the resources and knowledge to effectively advocate for themselves.
“Most people had other jobs,” she said. “They weren’t public policy experts because they never had to be.”
Paraskevopoulos saw Action Tank as an opportunity to provide free support and break down barriers to civic engagement. She was looking for a central headquarters from which to offer easy access to those resources, which is how she came across OTR A.D.O.P.T.’s property and offered a partnership.
She envisioned a place called “Volkshaus,” German for “the people’s house.” It would be part co-working space, part café, part library and part office space, but most importantly, a place where anyone in the community can simply come and stay awhile.
“To welcome people in to work together to work on projects to learn,” Paraskevopoulos said.
OTR A.D.O.P.T. agreed to develop the place, while Action Tank plans to lease it out for events or workspaces to cover rent.
Artist rendering of the Volkshaus patio by Jim Effler
It’s a rare move for both nonprofits. While OTR A.D.O.P.T. has a background in building, typically the group stops short of developing a place themselves, opting instead to temporarily adopt a place, fix it up, and sell it to an investor which promises to open it up within two years and maintain the historical integrity of the building.
Feist said this will be the first project OTR A.D.O.P.T. will take full ownership of from start to finish.
“The stars really aligned for this place,” she said.
Feist said she wasn’t sure any investors would be interested in taking the building on, given its relatively small size, let alone an investor interested in giving something back to the community.
“We got offers from places looking to make this part of their brewery,” she said.
Though Feist said OTR A.D.O.P.T. wanted a client willing to take the building as is, not knock down more walls Action Tank’s vision seemed a promising fit.
“It’s about creating a sense of community and capacity and really buy in to local government and where people feel like they matter,” Paraskevopoulos said.
Feist measures the walls to get dimensions for floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Before the place can open though, Feist said it needs further stabilization. The project is looking for historic bricks to rebuild the back wall, then they will install plumbing and electricity. OTR A.D.O.P.T. is relying on historic tax credits to help fund the renovations.
“Such that it’s stable for the next two hundred years,” she said.
Once that’s complete, Feist said they’ll start building floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with donations from the Cincinnati Public Library, and they’ll look for a tenant to operate an affordable in-house café.
By late spring or early summer 2023, they plan to open the place to the neighborhood.
