A long-discussed apartment project on Cincinnati's riverfront is back in play. Towne Properties has revived plans for a seven-story apartment building with roughly 100 rental units on a parcel just east of downtown, tucked along Riverside Drive beside the Captain’s Watch condos and facing the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. The site has lingered in planning conversations for more than two decades, and it looks like it is finally getting another serious look.
As reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier, the latest version calls for a mid-rise structure on the vacant lot at 975 Adams Xing, adding market-rate housing within walking distance of downtown amenities. The building would sit directly next to Captain’s Watch and across Riverside Drive from the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, filling in one of the more conspicuous gaps on that stretch of the riverfront.
Rezoning and past filings
City planning records show that 975 Adams Xing comes with a long paper trail. Towne filed a coordinated site review in 2020 and later sought to change the zoning from Planned Development No. 17 to a downtown residential category, according to the City of Cincinnati. Those documents note that PD-17 was created by ordinance in 2004 under an Adams Landing development agreement and that formal approvals are still required before any construction can begin.
Towne's long game
Towne Properties has been chipping away at Adams Landing for years, assembling and building on multiple parcels along this slice of Riverside Drive. The company previously developed Captain’s Watch and Foster’s Point here, setting up a small cluster of riverfront housing that this latest project would extend. Coverage of Towne’s work in the neighborhood has tracked how plans for this particular site have been adjusted, shelved, and revived as market conditions shifted. Soapbox Media details that long cycle of proposals and pauses.
What happens next
Before any shovels hit the ground, Towne will need to clear several procedural hurdles. An updated concept plan, coordinated site review results, and likely a formal rezoning or map amendment still have to move through City Council, according to municipal filings. That process brings public hearings and staff reports, and city records do not list a construction start date, leaving the project timeline very much to be determined.
Why it matters
If it moves forward, adding roughly 100 new apartments at Adams Landing would boost market-rate housing on a riverfront that has already seen a mix of conversions and infill projects in recent years. Local planning coverage has flagged several downtown design and development shifts that could make riverfront parcels more appealing to both renters and investors, including recent updates to the Banks area design plan, as reported by WVXU.
