Work to Finally Start on Mixed-Use Rookwood Exchange

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

After years of court battles and financial difficulties, a $125 million project will begin construction in Norwood in November, helping to propel the city forward and overcome years of budget deficits. For nearly 10 years,  on a 12-acre site known as the Rookwood Exchange, weeds have been the only things growing. The time has come for them to make way for a variety of property types.

Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate is in charge of the project. The original plans called for hotels, offices, restaurants, a theater, a parking garage, retail and apartments. The new development will include all but the additional retail and the residences.

A 123-room modern Courtyard by Marriott hotel and a 16-screen movie theater, including a 7,000-square-foot restaurant and bar, will open next fall. The hotel’s bar and bistro will seat 50 to 60 people; it will also feature 3,000 square feet of meeting space and an indoor pool.

A  four-story, 900-car parking garage will be built to support a future eight-story office building on top of it. The firm will eventually add two large upscale restaurants, offices and one or two additional hotels.

The city of Norwood will provide $25 million in tax increment financing. The money will finance the parking structure and surface lots, traffic improvements and a new traffic light on Edwards Road. Anderson will also add a new road from Edwards vertically through the site, connecting to Edmonson at the traffic light that currently leads into Rookwood Commons.

U.S. Bank and Fifth Third Bank are financing different portions of the project. Both have partnered with Anderson on other projects; U.S. Bank, for instance, helped to finance Rookwood Commons and Pavilion.

Anderson hopes to ink deals with two upscale restaurant operators in the coming months and also expects to bring a bank branch to the development. The company will employ as many as 750 contractors and 200 full-time employees at opening next fall.