Court ruling a win for city against Clifton restaurants

After months of anticipation, a Hamilton County Common Pleas judge has ruled in favor of the City of Cincinnati in an eminent domain case involving three Clifton Heights companies, putting the city in line to take the land and businesses from their owners.

The case started after the Clifton Heights Urban Redevelopment Corporation, an economic development non-profit company, began acquiring land in Clifton to revitalize the neighborhood.

In the last year, though, a heated battle between those who seek change and those who want the neighborhood to stay the same has boiled.

Judge Thomas Crush, in court documents, officially ruled that Cincinnati City Council used "sound reasoning and did not abuse adopting the blight study..." that has been the force behind a proposed demolition and rebuilding of properties along Calhoun Street.

The judge did, however, call the findings reported by city building inspectors "disputable, but not erroneous as a matter of law."

Now two blocks of area businesses south of the University of Cincinnati are fighting for the future of their restaurants.

Currently three holdouts, Acropolis Chili and Inn the Wood restaurants and Clif Cor Co., which owns two former fast food properties, are being represented by attorney Bob Manley, who now, after the loss in state court, will seek to have the case heard in federal court.

Since the Calhoun area project began in 1998 with a $50,000 grant that was matched by the University of Cincinnati for an urban renewal plan, drastic changes to the landscape have taken place.

UC continues to contribute financially to the organization.

CHCURC says these changes will promote homeownership, revitalize local markets and create a pedestrian friendly business district.

However, not everyone in the area is optimistic.

Joe Kennedy, who purchased Acropolis Chili in October of 1987, said he feels that CHCURC and its redevelopment of the area has "ruined the neighborhood," he said.

Acropolis has become just one restaurant whose future has been hanging in the balance while a standoff takes place between business owners and the city.

"I'm surprised this hasn't happened already," said Kennedy of the use of eminent domain by the city. "The construction has already hurt business."

Eminent domain is the government's right to take property without an owner's consent when it is needed for a public interest. The landowner cannot stop the taking, but does receive compensation.

However, Kennedy leases the building for Acropolis from his father-in-law Tom Mirkos. If Mirkos decides to bow to the eminent domain, Kennedy and his family get nothing.

"I've got the only parking lot that has access to both main roads," Kennedy said. "People are not going to drive from the suburbs to go to Clifton."

Kennedy's wife Kathy sees more sinister tactics taking place.

"We're being robbed, that's why we're not going anywhere," she said. "Nobody ever came to say 'what will it take to get you out?'"

Bill Wood, owner of Inn the Wood, whose restaurant is also the target of the eminent domain lawsuit said, "this thing just reeks of conflict of interest," in a Feb. 2 interview with the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Contrary to both the Kennedy's and Wood's claims, though, Dan Deering, executive director of CHCURC, paints a very different picture of what has been occurring in the long-running eminent domain case.

"It all boils down to greed," Deering said of the holdouts in the Calhoun Street area that he said are "holding the entire Clifton Heights area hostage."

Deering described the nearly two-and-a-half year process of weekly meetings that took place with a 26-person steering committee made up of area business leaders.

"We had the whole community involved," he said.

Deering said that Manley's representation of the holdouts is because he recruited them, citing past cases where Manley has fought for the use of eminent domain.

"I think this attorney is taking advantage of his clients," Deering said. "He is serving his own interest"

Kennedy, however, claims he was never invited to any planning meetings. He also spoke of the city doing anything to get him out of his building.

"Last week they sent three Health Department people to shut me down," he said.

With future tenants in the leasing process, Deering said he has been delayed by a year on breaking ground where Inn the Wood and Acropolis currently sit.

CHCURC has offered to move both restaurants into the new buildings, according to Deering, but he said they have repeatedly shown disinterest.

"I think this is all about money," Deering said.