A new city-commissioned survey is throwing cold water on arena talk at the Town Center Garage site in the West End, with Cincinnati residents clearly lining up behind housing instead. Out of 2,163 responses, including 244 from West End residents, an arena finished dead last among eight development options floated for the property. That split, with broad support for housing but a bit more openness to an arena among immediate neighbors, leaves planners staring at a familiar Cincinnati puzzle of competing priorities.
According to Local 12, the public engagement was run by Voice of Your Customer, a research firm led by Crystal Kendrick. The process mixed an online survey with focus groups and one-on-one stakeholder interviews and was paid for by the city. Participants were asked to react to eight different development scenarios for the garage site, which sits just south of TQL Stadium.
Chamber Study Keeps Arena On The Table
The survey lands on top of a separate Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber feasibility study that keeps the Town Center Garage in the mix as a high-potential location for a new arena, while also circling several big red flags. The chamber’s report says any arena there would require finding a new home for WCET, plus a serious parking strategy that can handle Music Hall, TQL Stadium and the surrounding neighborhoods. It also notes that the site may simply be too tight for a modern arena footprint in the first place (Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber).
What The Survey Found
In the results from Voice of Your Customer, housing rose to the top, both income-restricted units and market-rate options, while an arena landed in last place among the eight choices. West End residents broke from the overall pattern somewhat, showing more willingness to consider an arena than the broader sample. The research team also sat down with downtown development organizations, neighborhood groups and cultural institutions as part of its outreach, layering qualitative feedback on top of the survey data (Local 12).
WCET And Parking Complicate Redevelopment
One of the biggest wild cards is WCET, the public television station based in the Crosley Telecommunications Center that literally sits on top of the garage. Local media outlets and station leaders have warned that a major overhaul of the site could force WCET out. The survey’s preset options did not offer a clear, explicit choice to preserve WCET in place, which has only heightened anxiety among people watching the process. WVXU reports that station officials and neighborhood advocates are pushing the city to spell out whether WCET would stay put or be relocated under any redevelopment plan.
What’s Next For The West End Site
City leaders now have to square the public’s strong preference for housing with the chamber’s arena analysis and the thorny realities of parking and cultural anchors like WCET. The broader arena debate is not wrapping up anytime soon, and local reporting suggests that any concrete proposal for the Town Center Garage site will only come after another round of in-depth community engagement and negotiation (WLWT).
