3CDC unveils Fountain District, a new branding for area near Fountain Square – Cincinnati Business Courier

The Cincinnati Heart Metropolis Improvement Corp. is unveiling a brand new identify for the world round Fountain Sq. downtown, with the hopes of branding it as a location in the identical means because the Banks and Over-the-Rhine.

The nonprofit developer and supervisor of a number of metropolis civic websites plans to name the world inside two blocks of the sq. in all 4 instructions the Fountain District. The purpose is to create a model that may promote street-level industrial, workplace, residential, parking and civic areas to the general public, in addition to potential new companies.

Companies across the sq. are typically regionally owned and usher in practically $100 million per yr in income, in accordance with 3CDC. There are about 100 companies close by.

In different cities, eating places and retail close to a metropolis’s central civic house typically are chain eating places or nationwide retailers, a distinction that units Cincinnati aside and one thing 3CDC believes must be promoted.

“There’s simply so many cool, completely different distinctive spots,” Christy Samad, 3CDC’s govt vp for civic and industrial house activation, stated. “We knew we needed to create a model and have some visible components to it. We actually needed to ensure it was a time period that individuals would use.”

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Supplied/3CDC

The agency GoDutch, which has labored on Blink, one of many area’s largest occasions, helped with the branding. Internally, 3CDC had referred to it because the Fountain District however about seven months in the past, it began assembly with stakeholder teams and testing out different names, together with the “central district.”

“We positively needed to get the purchase in from everybody,” Samad stated.

It additionally commissioned a bigger survey, with 3CDC and different stakeholders reaching consensus earlier this summer season. The transfer comes as 3CDC, town and Hamilton County improve the variety of occasions at Fountain Sq. because the Duke Power Conference Heart closes for an 18-month renovation, a course of that some enterprise house owners fear will hit downtown foot site visitors.

“The fountain is on the coronary heart of this,” stated Joe Rudemiller, 3CDC’s vp for advertising and communications. “It’s distinct, iconic and really recognizable for locals.”

Samad acknowledged that individuals possible will nonetheless name downtown “downtown,” however the Fountain District will enable individuals to be extra particular about the place they’re going throughout the Central Enterprise District.

“We’re nonetheless a small downtown, however now we have a lot packed in,” she stated, including that conceptually, the identify tells you the place you might be.

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go Dutch/3CDC

3CDC will push the branding by signage on storefronts that aren’t but leased, social media, digital advertising, adverts at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Worldwide Airport, radio and print.

It’s a $100,000 effort.

The branding may very well be significantly helpful for individuals who don’t come downtown quite a bit, stated Emily Stowe, 3CDC’s senior occasion advertising supervisor.

“For individuals who don’t come downtown, downtown will be very intimidating,” she stated. Telling them you could park and stroll to 100 companies inside two blocks “makes it slightly bit extra approachable.”

Requested how they are going to measure success, Samad stated, “Success is it turning into a family identify. It turns into a district that everybody acknowledges.”