Entrance to the new student apartments above the Calhoun Marketplace and UC's Calhoun Garage. Photo/Andrew Higley

Calhoun Street, that favorite UC student hangout, is looking very different these days. McDonald's, Wendy's, the old Arby's site and many other structures are gone. New student apartments fill a sleek brick building between Calhoun dorm and the local elementary school, while shops like Potbelly Sandwich Works are opening their doors at street level. It's just the beginning of a transformation occurring thanks to a partnership between UC and the Clifton Heights community.

Hundreds of students, most of them freshmen and sophomores, are settling into fully furnished and air-conditioned UC-affiliated apartments that overlook Clifton Heights and West Campus. Long before school opened, nearly all the upscale housing had been grabbed up, partly because rent includes all utilities, phone, cable, high-speed Internet access, full carpeting and dishwasher-equipped kitchens. Built atop UC's new Calhoun parking garage, the 750-bed complex is the first project completed by the Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC), in which UC is a major partner.

Below student apartments along Calhoun are the freshly built retail spaces of the "Calhoun Street Marketplace," which have begun to fill up with restaurants, shops and service centers. The first to open its doors was Fifth Third Bank. Office manager Maher Kaddoura says that among the center's full-service options are free, student-friendly online banking accounts and a variety of student loan options.

A fully equipped apartment kitchen Courtesy of University Park

The first restaurant, Chicago-based Potbelly Sandwich Works, is an eatery that markets specifically to college students, offering inexpensive quick-serve favorites: meatball subs, toasted sandwiches, hand-dipped milkshakes and fresh bakery goods. Matt Bourgeois, CHCURC interim director, says that the next businesses most likely to move in are Salsarita's Fresh Cantina, FedEx Kinko's, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Panera Bread.

Arby's, one of the former fast-food mainstays of the neighborhood, will have a new location at McMillan and West Clifton, across from Chipotle Mexican Grill. Meanwhile, in spite of many months in the shadow of the construction zone on Calhoun, Myra's Dionysus continues to serve low-cost vegetarian delights, including hummus appetizers, Thai pumpkin gazpacho and Zapata pitas.

The Fifth Third Bank in the Calhoun Marketplace is just down the street from Old St. George Church. Photo/Andrew Higley

Long-time Clifton Heights merchants have not been left behind in the rush for customer attention; a matching-grant program has helped more than 20 of them to upgrade the appearance of their stores, from decorative flower boxes to complete storefront renovations. Since 2001, this improvement program has received $579,000 from the City of Cincinnati's Neighborhood Business Districts United.

Administered by CHCURC, on behalf of the Clifton Heights Business Association, the program assists business owners with paperwork and advice about effective signs, lights and paint colors that also complement the "Old Town" district as a whole. An architectural review board composed of local business and property owners, bankers, retailers, architects, designers and planners has guided the process.

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