Downtown Cincinnati has been making a comeback in recent years, on many fronts. Five years ago, the Downtown Cincy office market scored a centerpiece story in the region’s major metropolitan daily, The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Fountain Square is once again the recognized epicenter of the populus; nightlife has returned in many sub-districts; and the office market is holding its own.
Formerly known as The Convergys Center, one of the largest buildings in the Downtown District is The Center at 600 Vine (www.Center600Vine.com)
Five years ago today, The Center at 600 Vine began landing a string of tenants, starting with Protective Insurance of Alabama, a deal inked by David Ottenjohn with Jones Lang LaSalle.
Ottenjohn recently merged his commercial real estate brokerage company, Cincinnati Capital Properties, with the Cincinnati office of JLL.
The Protective lease, and a host of improvements at The Center at 600 Vine, resulted in a major, centerpiece feature in The Cincinnati Enquirer on Jan. 20, 2006.
Upgrades at The Center at 600 Vine included:
– a renovated, 455-car parking garage that cost $1 million;
– a life safety systems replacement estimated at $450,000;
– interior finishes featuring wooden wall panels and ceiling details in the lobby and elevator facilities;
– all new restrooms and built-out tenant spaces.
The building is currently 70 percent leased.
The largest tenant at The Center at 600 Vine is FirstGroup; it’s also home to Advantage IQ, Bartlett, Santen & Hughes; CR architecture + design, Wood & Lamping and Ulmer & Berne.
Back when Protective made the move from The Federated Building to The Center at 600 Vine, the company’s office was prodigious. The lease measured just over 15,000 square feet.
The office was comprised of a 25-person call center catering to stockbrokers, and 20 sales and management personnel coordinating a field force of about 130 sales reps.
The field reps spent their time canvassing the country, marketing Protective products.
Here’s the press release from Protective, Ottenjohn and the building’s owner, the Hertz Investment Group (www.hertzgroup.com) of Los Angeles:
Cincinnati PR 
Leave a comment