Eleven years after Cincinnati first set out to build a boat dock on its downtown riverfront, the city still has no contract, no confirmed location and no construction date. The latest twist came when officials quietly ended their partnership with the developer once expected to build it, H. Hafner & Sons Inc., even after the company had never actually signed a contract to do the work.
The saga stretches back to 2015, when Cincinnati picked a stretch of Smale Park near the Main Street steps for a dock and received a first $1.5 million grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, according to WCPO 9 News. The city designed a $3.6 million dock plan that year, but as reported by WCPO, estimated costs rose to $5 million and the plan was scrapped, eventually leading Cincinnati to return that identical $1.5 million ODNR grant after the project failed to advance.
A New Developer, A New Design, Still No Deal
The Cincinnati Park Board launched a new effort to revive the project in 2019, and that same year Queen City Riverboats offered to build and operate a dock in exchange for city funds already set aside for the project. The Park Board unanimously approved that idea in November 2020, with the proposal reported to cost $1.7 million and return $32,000 annually to the city, per the station's reporting. By 2021, though, the city had moved the proposed marina location to the public landing and, in December of that year, the Park Board instead selected H. Hafner & Sons following a bidding competition.
The Hafner version of the project, later branded The Reef, grew to include a bar, restaurant, rooftop deck and docking space for dozens of boats. Capacity figures have varied between accounts: one description put it at 42 boats plus two public safety vessels, while a 2023 rendering described in Cincinnati.com put the dock at 700 feet long with room for up to 44 watercraft, sited in the river between Heritage Bank Center and Great American Ball Park. The proposal could have cost the city up to $2.2 million while generating up to $143,000 in shared annual revenue, the same WCPO investigation found.
Permits, Missing Paperwork, and a Withdrawn Application
Trouble with federal permitting dogged the project for years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told Cincinnati in 2022 that a new permit would be required, and Hafner filed that application on February 28, 2023. By March 2023, Cincinnati Parks Director Jason Barron was telling the Park Board that cost increases needed to be resolved before any final contract negotiations with Hafner could move forward. That May, Hafner released a new design featuring the rooftop deck atop a floating restaurant, and company CEO Justin Cooper said at the time he expected the Army Corps permit by June 2023 and considered construction highly likely.
That optimism didn't hold. The Army Corps reviewed Ohio River navigability impacts, including possible environmental and endangered species evaluations, then suspended its review pending additional details from Hafner. The agency requested final engineer-stamped construction plans and specifications on July 2, 2024, and when those were not submitted, the application was administratively withdrawn in September 2024 — leaving the project well past the Park Board's own 2024 completion goal. The dossier of city correspondence makes clear that Cincinnati Parks never actually signed a contract with Hafner to build the dock, according to Cincinnati Parks spokesperson Rocky Merz.
Back to Smale Park, and a Fresh Grant
By May 2026, city staffer Travis Miller was emailing the Army Corps asking how to restart the permitting process, attaching the original 2019 dock design that had been planned for Smale Park. Miller wrote that the design's general location and dock size were expected to remain largely constant, though refinements were possible. Army Corps representative Cody Thayer replied that the plan would likely require a full application and review process, including a public notice period, and asked Miller to provide dates to schedule a meeting.
Cincinnati Parks submitted plans to the Army Corps that same month for a simpler dock at Smale Park in an attempt to restart the permitting process. The following month, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources awarded the city a new $1.5 million boat dock grant. But as of September 22, 2026, Army Corps spokesperson Abby Korfhage said the agency had received no further communications or documents from Cincinnati Parks since that May exchange.
Mayor Aftab Pureval said in September that the city changed developers because it was dissatisfied with the lack of progress, while still intending for a boat dock to eventually activate the riverfront. Merz, for his part, said the Hafner concept had not advanced quickly enough and that project conditions had changed over five years. He added that Cincinnati Parks remains committed to bringing a boat dock downtown if it proves to be a suitable fit, location and has the backing of city leadership — while acknowledging that the city has not decided on the dock's location, details, dimensions or cost. Parks is examining its options and says it will share details when available, per the same spokesperson.
Why Boaters and Officials Say It Matters
BB Riverboats owner Alan Bernstein has said Cincinnati needs a marina to serve visitors attending festivals, ballgames and riverfront restaurants, and that he prefers the Smale Park site over the public landing, arguing the latter sits in the path of barge traffic and would take up space used by visiting and local riverboats. Downtown boaters have already lost one docking option after the Hooters and Beer Sellar dock was removed, which, per Local 12, had previously provided the only docking spot between I-471 and the Brent Spence Bridge.
Events like Riverfest, Paddlefest, America's River Roots Festival and the Red Bull Flugtag continue to draw thousands of visitors to the downtown Ohio River, and both Pureval and Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus want the riverfront to become more of a sustained destination. Driehaus has said the riverfront needs more intentional development beyond one-off events. Elsewhere along the river, Ohio communities including Gallipolis, Ironton and Portsmouth have used the state's Appalachian Community Grant Program to transform their own waterfronts, a program that supports upgrades such as docks, parks, restaurants, trails, playgrounds and amphitheaters.
Separately, Cincinnati City Council's Budget and Finance Committee approved a plan on September 29, 2025, for the city to apply for a grant to build a boat dock at the Serpentine Wall, according to Local 12's reporting. That effort is distinct from the Smale Park permitting restart and from the Hafner-era Reef proposal, which was never built.
