Outdoor drinking area is region’s most high-profile

Latest DORA at The Banks in Cincinnati years in the making.

The idea for the latest high-profile outdoor drinking area in the region came back in 2015.

The 85-acre Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area at The Banks in Cincinnati opened last month after plenty of anticipation and with some criticism about the lack of COVID-19 precautions by attendees.

It was years in the making, first championed by Cincinnati Reds President and Chief Operating Officer Phil Castellini.

“When the Reds were hosting the All-Star game, Phil thought having an open container district would be a fantastic idea,” said Tracy Schwegmann, spokesperson for the Banks. “He worked with a bipartisan group of legislators, and it passed, but it was a little clunky from an operational standpoint. The language didn’t always mesh with local liquor laws, for instance, so we didn’t put it in place for five years.”

Butler County has led the way on these outdoor drinking areas, as Middletown started the first in the state in 2015. Hamilton and Liberty Center also have DORA districts.

But the district at The Banks dwarfs others in an area meant to hold tens of thousands of people, and its location is expected to draw visitors from throughout the tri-state area.

The DORA stretches from Paul Brown Stadium to the Heritage Bank Center, and from the north sidewalk of Mehring Way to the south sidewalk of Second Street. The Smale Riverfront Park, notably, is excluded from the DORA district.

“The Riverfront park is owned by Cincinnati Parks,” Schwegmann said. “And it was thought better to keep it family-friendly. The adults are being given an enormous footprint to the north.”

Patrons can purchase alcohol from Banks’ restaurants/ bars in DORA cups daily from 11 a.m. to midnight, and the area closes at 1 a.m.

Schwegmann said there will be extra police to remind guests of DORA boundaries. She also said police would not be fixated so much on masks and social distancing, though the district is designed with the latter in mind.

“We have circles on the ground,” she said. “And there’s about a dozen bars and restaurants that have doubled their outdoor patio space so they can expand their internal capacity, though people will still have to be seated and wear masks when they go to the bathroom.”

Schwegmann also mentioned that Freedom Way from Joe Nuxhall Way to Walnut Street has been permanently converted into a pedestrian walkway. She said this helps social distancing without disrupting motor traffic.

“There will be picnic tables (and standing tables on the walkway) that are spread out,” she said. “That section of street has been closed as often as it has been open anyway, because of concerts, sporting events, or late Friday and Saturday nights just because the police didn’t think the interplay between all the people still hanging round downtown and traffic was safe. It just made sense to pedestrianize it.”

Pies and Pints, the craft beer and pizza eatery chain, was the only COVID-19 casualty at The Banks. Schwegmann said the rest of the businesses survived through a combination of federal and state relief, flexible landlords, and cooperation.

“It took a lot of players pulling their oars in the same direction,” Schwegmann said. “Some places lost as much as 70% of their business, others lost around 30%, averaging about 50% overall.”

DORA has been open since March 24, and Schwegmann said she was pleased by the results so far.

“I think it’s a win not just for the Banks but for the city,” she said. “Downtown has been sleepy, too, with people working from home and no sporting events. The first weekend (DORA) opened, it was a beautiful day, 75 degrees, and people had spring fever.”

Schwegmann said it’s too soon to tell the full impact DORA will have on revenue, but that she’s optimistic.

“In a perfect world, we’d like to incrementally increase sales, program that space so it comes alive with, say, a concert series on Thursday nights,” she said. “Things that cause people to flow from one end to the other. The Banks are meant to accommodate 40,00060,000 people. It’s a place for the entire region to come and play.”