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Mold, pigeons, potential: An exclusive look inside the iconic Terrace Plaza Hotel

Wonder what the once-famous Terrace Plaza Hotel looks like inside?
Terrace Plaza Hotel
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CINCINNATI — The Terrace Plaza Hotel opened in 1948 as a modernist wonder with a rooftop French restaurant where celebrities and Cincinnatians mingled.

But years of neglect stripped away its glamour. The high-rise in the heart of downtown sat mostly empty for 15 years except for a few street-level stores such as Batsakes Hat Shop.

In 2019, city officials filed a public nuisance complaint after a chunk of plaster fell from the hotel and onto a passing car, smashing the windshield with a child inside. City leaders called it a menace to public health, structurally unsafe and dangerous to human life.

But Indianapolis-based developer Anthony Birkla only saw potential.

“It’s all about location,” said Birkla, who owns Birkla Investment Group. “You’re across the street from Fountain Square … You’ve got Fifth Third Bank. You’re right in the middle of everything.”

The 600,000-square-foot hotel spans the entire length of Sixth Street from Vine to Race on a key corner of the central business district.

Birkla began trying to acquire the neglected property in 2018. After a four-year court battle over ownership with New York real estate investment firm JNY Capital, Birkla was finally able to buy the building last September for $10 million.

“We have mold and mildew and we’ve got to clean up asbestos and lead,” Birkla said. “But when we looked at the building, we knew it had good bones.”

Developer Tony Birkla talks to WCPO about Terrace Plaza Hotel renovation from eighth floor terrace, that was once an ice rink on Aug. 23, 2023.
Developer Tony Birkla talks to WCPO about Terrace Plaza Hotel renovation from eighth floor terrace, that was once an ice rink on Aug. 23, 2023.

Over the past year, Birkla worked with the city to make the building safe. City Council approved a loan from a downtown development fund for $2.9 million last December to stabilize it and help abate hazardous conditions.

Birkla’s crew tore out the crumbling hotel awning and giant rooftop cooling tower. They removed broken glass windows from the rooftop Gourmet Room and cleared out debris from rooms and hallways.

Now that one elevator is finally operational, Birkla’s construction and design team gave WCPO an exclusive tour of the 19-story building last week.

“We want to be a good steward of the building,” Birkla said. “We wanted the community to know that finally somebody is doing something to improve this.”

One of the worst parts of the building is the Gourmet Room, which is now inhabited by live pigeons and carcasses, with feathers and excrement covering the floor. The windows in the hallmark circular room are now covered in plywood.

“All of the windows have either been taken out or secured … unfortunately we had to take some of those windows out because they were falling out,” Birkla said.

Past owners have stripped nearly all historical features and valuable copper plumbing from the building. But the hotel’s signature rooster logo remains etched into glass bookshelves in the library of the Gourmet Room where patrons once enjoyed cocktails before dinner.

The Terrace Plaza Hotel on a key block in downtown Cincinnati will reopen in 2026 as apartments geared toward young professionals.
The Terrace Plaza Hotel on a key block in downtown Cincinnati will reopen in 2026 as apartments geared toward young professionals.

Birkla promised to restore the iconic restaurant.

“It’s in tough shape now. So, the idea … is to bring the Gourmet Room back, but on the roof to create something special whether it’s for conventions or weddings or meetings,” Birkla said. “To have an outdoor area where people can come and be part of this great building.”

With the cooling tower gone, the rooftop space is open to unobstructed views from City Hall to TQL Stadium.

“Most of the best views are looking out to the north and the west. And the views up there are phenomenal,” Birkla said.

Just below the rooftop where the massive steel cooling tower once sat, many hotel rooms on the 19th floor have been ravaged by water damage from roof leaks.

Water-soaked plaster from ceilings and walls sits in crumbled piles on floors.

“When we first started coming up here it was active water leaks,” said Tim Hill, director of design and development at Novo Development Group, which is part of the Birkla company. “You almost couldn’t go on this floor because of the mold. The smell of the mold was so bad; we all had masks on, and it was awful.”

Walking down long dimly-lit hallways can feel unnerving, especially since contractors early on unexpectedly ran into homeless people living in certain rooms. Hill is still unsure how someone moved a full-sized pool table into a ninth-floor room where a portable heater was also discovered.

The small hotel rooms will be converted to roughly 185 apartments geared toward young professionals. Hill hopes to expand the existing windows to let in more natural light and make the 600- to 800-foot apartments feel more spacious.

“There’s going to be lots of other space to utilize in the building so you can get out of your unit and use the other space for amenities,” Hill said, with plans for a pool, dog park, private patios, and public terraces.

Birkla’s team is still deciding how to redesign the massive eighth-floor space that was once the hotel lobby, where a huge kitchen is hidden behind a bank of elevators. Fabric-covered chairs are still lined up inside banquet rooms.

An open-air plaza with seating for the Terrace Garden Restaurant is overgrown with trees and weeds. That outside terrace once held an ice rink and has views of Fountain Square.

“The intent on the first floor is to create a small museum … that’s open to the public,” said Hill, who plans to include information about the architects who designed the Terrace Plaza, historic artifacts and possibly original artwork.

 Glass-clad street-level stores and restaurants are planned, along with several floors dedicated to 500 parking spaces.

terrace plaza renderings

“This building is going to be lit beautifully at night and part of the challenge is trying to figure out the right facade … that allows us to light it and make it look beautiful at night,” Birkla said.

City Council denied historic landmark status for the building in 2022 because the strict preservation guidelines would have made developing the project too expensive. It also would have prohibited changes such as adding windows on floors two through seven, which currently have no natural light from the brick façade.

The current design, by Cincinnati architecture firm Reztark Design Studio, transformed the windowless brick levels, that once housed department stores, into a contemporary design that still pays tribute to the original facade.

“We want to make sure we’re respectful of the history of the building as we move forward,” Birkla said.

Now Birkla’s team is preparing for inside demolition which could take 10 to 12 months. They expect to open a portion of the building in 2026.

“Now we’re moving forward with our next request from the city. Part of moving forward is bringing our plans together and showing the city what we’re planning to do and then to move forward with our financing,” said Birkla, who admits that securing financing has gotten harder and construction costs have risen recently.

Birkla has a track record of high-profile projects in downtown Cincinnati, such as the AT580 building, which is an upscale mixed-use residential and office space with street-level Prime Restaurant, and 830 Main St. once the Second National Bank Building, which will reopen as a 60-unit residential complex with a new restaurant on the ground floor.

He also owns the parking lot adjacent to 830 Main Street, where he plans to build a new 13-story residential building in the coming years.

Birkla said he believes that enough people want to live downtown to support the residential real estate boom.

“I think most of the market downtown is full,” said Birkla, who notes the AT580 building has been fully rented since opening in 2016, with the exception of a few months during the COVID pandemic. He’s even expanding the dog park at the building because so many tenants own dogs.

“There’s just so much downtown activity, restaurants popping up everywhere, great sports teams, the Aronoff, there’s great things to do downtown,” said Birkla. “This is becoming more and more the center of the universe.”

Terrace Plaza Hotel renderings by WCPO 9 News on Scribd