CINCINNATI -- A Downtown property owner filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to stop the demolition of the historic Dennison Hotel building.
Woods Real Estate Investments filed an appeal in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas appealing the Cincinnati Board of Zoning Appeals' December decision allowing the ex-hotel's owners to obtain a demolition permit.
The lawsuit names the city, the zoning appeals board and Dennison property owner Columbia REI as defendants.
Woods, which owns properties on Ninth and East Main streets a few blocks from the Dennison, states in its lawsuit that demolishing the Main Street Historic District building would diminish "the integrity and value" of properties in the district.
"The character and importance of the Main Street Historic District will be diminished by the razing of such a prominent building," the lawsuit states.
A spokesman for Columbia REI released a statement saying the company "has gone through a lengthy and exhaustive legal process" and done everything required to obtain a demolition permit.
"We plan to vigorously defend the plans to bring the building down," the company said in its statement. "The process has been followed. The time has come to move on with a project that will create economic development opportunities in the Central Business District of downtown Cincinnati."
