SAVE THE HOFFMAN SCHOOL BUILDING FROM DEMOLITON

There is no guarantee that affordable housing will be built on the Hoffman School site.
The WVXU article stated:

“Councilmember Mark Jeffries [sic], who voted for historic designation, had

questions about how affordable the development would actually be. 

‘Your studios are $1,300 a month. At 50% [area median income], it’s $885 a month,’ Jeffries [sic] said. ‘So are we missing something?’  he posited.  ‘It’s great and awesome when we throw out affordable housing, but what are we talking about? Because for most of these units, they’re not affordable.'

Ndukwe said the $1,300 a month figure was an average and that some units would cost less and others more. He said that about 10% of the development’s 300 units would be affordable to those making 60% of the area median income. That works out to about $42,000 for a single person.”

It is not likely that Kingsley will qualify for Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) that the

developer would likely need to build affordable housing. Tearing down a historic building is

often a disqualifying action for approval of the credits. Also Kingley’s offer to build 10%

affordable housing at 60% area medium income would make the project ineligible for these

credits. The number of units of affordable housing must be higher.

If Hoffman School is demolished, Kingsley can’t apply for state Historic Tax Credits.

There was another developer, who testified at the City Council Committee meeting. He said his company was willing to pay $500,000 more for the property than Kingsley is reported to have paid. He would save the Hoffman School building and, with the use of Historic Tax Credits, put affordable housing into the building.

The Evanston Community Council actions were not honored or followed. In fact they were denigrated and dismissed. At a low point in the Committee meeting, Scotty Johnson belittled the vote of the Evanston community council. He stated how few people voted at the public

community council meeting. He pulled out his phone and cited the much larger number of people who live in Evanston. He made it clear that the vote was not representative of the community and should not carry weight. This was said without irony by a City Council member – one of nine - who purports to represent over 300,000 Cincinnati residents. City Council sent a clear message that community councils’ actions are not relevant when a private developer has powerful friends.

 In February 2023, the Evanston Community Council, after meeting with Chinedum Ndukwe, the Kingsley founder and spokesperson, voted against the demolition of the Hoffman School building and also decided that no letter of support would be issued regarding rezoning the property and demolition.

Representatives from the executive committee of the Evanston Community Council testified to that in the City’s Equitable Housing Committee meeting. 

They also testified to the fact that the official Evanston neighborhood plan, adopted by the City Council in 2019, specifically named the Hoffman School as one of three buildings in Evanston that should be preserved.  The Evanston community, led by the volunteer efforts of the community council board and many other community members, spent hundreds of hours meeting, deciding upon, and voting to adopt the Evanston Work Plan, the neighborhood plan for Evanston.

The five City Council members who voted against the designation undercut the legitimacy of Evanston Community Council and all the other community councils that labor to represent the 52 neighborhoods in Cincinnati. It calls into question why any community should do a neighborhood plan if City Council members cast the adopted plan aside when it is politically inconvenient. This is undemocratic, at minimum.

The former owner of the Hoffman School building, Christ Temple Full Gospel Baptist Church, led by Pastor Peterson Mingo, sold the property to Kingsley in late June 2023, over a month before the City Council’s Equitable Housing Committee meeting.  The Church was gifted the Hoffman School property in 2013. It has been reported that the Church sold the property to Kingsley in June for an amount that exceeded $2,000,000. The church vacated the property in late summer.

It’s architecturally historically significant. The Hoffman School was built in 1922 in the Jacobethan Revival Style by the city’s most prominent architectural firm, Hannaford and Sons. This is the firm that brought us Music Hall, City Hall, and the Cincinnati Observatory.

It’s historically significant. The former school is representative of the Progressive Era Design for schools. Schools were designed holistically, emphasizing the overall welfare of the students with access to light and air, through physical education, and by providing school lunches.

If this unique, architecturally historic building does not deserve to be preserved, what local historic structure does? Cincinnati is unique because of its rich inventory of beloved historic structures. What sort of city will Cincinnati be if we casually discard our iconic historic buildings?

• This is not an either-or situation. The argument has been made that, in order to have more housing (affordable housing, mixed use, market rate), we must sacrifice the Hoffman School to do so. It’s said that it’s too expensive to save the building and repurpose it for new housing.
  
• Cincinnati is better than this. There are potential developers ready and willing to renovate the Hoffman building into new housing. This would be a win-win for all.
  
• We can save our rich, cultural history while addressing today’s housing crisis.
  
• The most sustainable building is the one that has already been built. 

Hoffman has been a wayfinder and place maker, a nexus, for the larger community of Evanston and East Walnut Hills and Walnut Hills for over 100 years. This beautiful iconic building towers above these communities and should remain in place for future generations to love and appreciate.

In February 2023 the Evanston Community Council voted against the demolition of the Hoffman School building. The community council represents Evanston residents and their voices should be heard.

In 2019 the Evanston community adopted the Work Plan – the neighborhood plan for Evanston. The Plan listed three buildings to be saved and Hoffman was one of the three listed. The City endorsed the Plan; since then Evanston residents have expected the City to support the Work Plan by protecting the Hoffman School building.

The Evanston community is a diverse neighborhood with a rich cultural history, especially associated with the Black experience. Hoffman School’s population reflected the diverse demographics of the community. The demolition of the school will erase yet another site associated with the history of Cincinnati’s Black community. 

The ballfield and green space on the Woodburn Avenue side of the property have provided outdoor recreation for the surrounding communities for generations. These communities have limited green space and need to preserve the Hoffman site.