Key Facts

Location: Hamilton, OH

Partners: City of Hamilton, the Hamilton Community Foundation, and local lending institutions

Summary: Hamilton CORE is a 501(c)(3) partnership established to help accelerate downtown revitalization in Hamilton, and reduce financial barriers for investing in the urban core by managing funds for strategic commercial and below market single-family residential real estate property acquisition and investment.

About

For many Reinvention Cities throughout Ohio, downtowns are not the bustling centers of industry and commerce they once were. Reinvesting in a downtown can pay long-term dividends for a city and a region as a whole, as these unique and historic urban cores can be a catalyst for further redevelopment. Development in these weak market downtowns can oftentimes be risky, and accessing capital to finance these projects can be difficult through traditional bank loans.

Modeled after 3CDC in Cincinnati, the Hamilton Consortium for Ongoing Reinvestment Efforts (CORE) Fund was launched through a public-private partnership of the City of Hamilton, the Hamilton Community Foundation, and local lending institutions in 2012. In Hamilton, the fund provides financial resources for commercial and single-family real estate projects within the city’s urban core.

Hamilton’s CORE Fund engages in three different activities. First, it provides gap financing for large development projects undertaken in Hamilton’s urban core by private developers. Second, it purchases key underutilized commercial properties and works to repurpose them to their highest and best use. Third, CORE has begun to acquire historic residential properties and works with potential homeowners to renovate and occupy the homes.

Since its creation in 2012, the CORE Fund has focused efforts on Main Street and High Street. By renovating and redeveloping the downtown urban core, vibrancy has been felt throughout much of Hamilton’s downtown. CORE’s efforts to remove blight and transform downtown has provided residents with new housing opportunities and businesses to shop, eat, and play.