Carew Tower Conversion Turns a 1930 Art Deco Landmark Into 385 Homes

Carew Tower opened in 1930, held the title of Cincinnati’s tallest building for more than eighty years, and is a National Historic Landmark. Victrix bought the complex for $18 million in 2022. The conversion is now priced at $161.9 million in the city ordinance granting it tax relief, against a $175 million figure in earlier announcements.

Project Scope

The scope covers the 49-story office tower and the arcade, and returns office, residential and retail uses to the complex. The program is 375 market-rate apartments plus 10 short-term corporate housing units, with roughly 20% of units earmarked as workforce housing. The Hilton Netherland Plaza hotel inside the complex stays under Hilton and sits outside the residential scope.

Enabling work came first and is what is visible now: asbestos abatement, interior demolition and a full roof replacement before fit-out starts. The tower’s observation deck, closed for years and one of the few open-air decks in the Midwest, reopens.

Why It Matters

The capital stack is the reason this one is moving when other Midwestern office conversions are not. Ohio awarded a $10 million Historic Preservation Tax Credit in 2024 and a further $4.25 million later, federal historic credits apply, and Cincinnati City Council approved a 30-year property tax exemption worth about $37 million in May 2025. Stack those against an $18 million basis and the math works in a way it would not on a 1980s tower with the same vacancy.

The building helps too. Walter W. Ahlschlager, with Delano & Aldrich, designed a setback tower with deep floor plates at the base and progressively narrower plates above, which is close to ideal for residential conversion. The upper floors have windows where a bedroom needs them. Completion is targeted for late 2029.

Project Team & Details