Old Strietmann Biscuit Building is ready for its new life

After more than 15 months and roughly $16 million, an old cracker bakery on West 12th Street is ready to start its new life as The Strietmann Center. The seven-story property encompasses 88,000 square feet of leasable space and nearly a full city block of historic Over-the-Rhine. Grandin Properties, the project’s developer, expects to market most of that to office tenants. But there will be space on the ground floor for restaurant and retail operations, too, said Kathy Meier, Grandin Properties’ project manager for The Strietmann Center. “A lot of people don’t realize that doing old buildings is harder than doing new buildings,” said Denis Back of Denis L. Back & Associates, the architect for the project. “We took it down to a shell.” WCPO and 9 On Your Side began reporting on the restoration project in January 2017 to give the public a better idea of what it takes to bring a historic property back to life.