CINCINNATI — It has taken a small army of people more than two years to restore the iconic Union Central Life tower downtown back to a modern marvel. Now, residents are about to start moving into the nearly 300 apartments that occupy the longtime office building.
"I'm local so I've been here a long time," Supervisor of Cleveland Construction, Dustin Blevins said. "Seeing the building and being a part of it, this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime project."
Blevins has worked on-site on the daunting construction project for about two years. When WCPO 9 met him, he was standing on a newly constructed series of decks, 19 stories above street level. It was built over top of HVAC systems and a pitched roof, which will soon hold an infinity pool, hot tub and amenity deck.
"It's one of the things that made me want this project," Blevins said. "It's definitely something you don't see much. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I really looked forward to the process of being here to do it. It's amazing."
It is part of City Club Apartments, which already occupies the tower's former annex building directly south of it at 3rd and Vine Streets.
It's dramatic new life for the 1913 Garber and Woodward, Cass Gilbert-designed building. At one time, it was the fifth tallest building in the world — the second outside New York City.
Its prominent pyramid top and dramatic white color always stood out against the skyline, prominently featured in the open to 1970s and 80s sitcom, "WKRP in Cincinnati."
"It's always been the thing that you see on the riverfront," Doug Richards, GBBN architecture associate principal said. Richards is the point person for the project, which is in the final stretch of major work.
"We've had to figure out what's here first and that was the hardest part because we had tenants in the building," Richards said. "We had to find old drawings, we had to measure some floors, we couldn't get on other floors, so we had to kind of guess and hope things were repeated."
Crews discovered gems inside the building. There is original and detailed trim work throughout, most noticeably around the elevators on several floors and around some windows. One former office has a gold ceiling, which will remain as part of a penthouse apartment living room. The terrazzo floors are also being restored.
Windows that once looked out more than 30 stories over the city from the signature pitched roof are being reopened.
The process of painting that roof, and trim around historic windows, has required crews from Baynum Solutions to work for several months, including through winter weather conditions. They said the process to get to the rigged platform can take more than one hour on days when the construction site is busiest.
"First you get on the elevator and take it to the 21st floor, then you go to the stairs and you go up 12 flights of stairs and then you have to go up another set of stairs to get up to the top," Perry Sellers, the Baynum foreman on site said.
You could say Sellers and his team's rig has been the most unique workplace in Cincinnati over the past few months.
"[People] either think you're cool, or it's crazy," he laughed.
Residents start moving into the completed apartments at the end of May. Plenty remains to be completed, including several floors of apartments and the first floor retail spaces, which include the two-story Eleven Fitness Club.
Combined with the current City Club building, now called The Annex, there will be nearly 600 apartments, several restaurant spaces, two pools, several sky decks and multiple club rooms.
The renovated tower promises a health and med spa, salon, pet store and more club spaces.
"When you work on something that's one-of-a-kind and has this much history, it's amazing," Richards said.
Construction on the project to restore Union Central tower started in 2021 and has landed around $5 million in tax credits. At the time construction began, the project was expected to cost $75 million.
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