May 29, 2009

For Immediate Release

Norwood Community Garden project taking root

May 30 “Norwood Community Garden Day” by mayoral proclamation

Supporting organizations: SHP Leading Design; Al. Neyer, Inc.; City of Norwood; The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati’s Do Right! campaign; Whole Foods Market; Kroger; Norwood Service League; Civic Garden Center; Robin Wood Florist; Urban Harvest; Colliers Turley Martin Tucker; Norwood Young Professionals; Johnny’s Selected Seeds; Martin Excavating, Inc.; Warm 98

NORWOOD – The Hon. Thomas Williams, Mayor of the City of Norwood, will welcome Ohio Sen. Eric Kearney, project organizers and community members to Norwood’s first community garden initiative at Linden Pointe on the Lateral office campus, where they will plant more than two dozen beds May 30 at 9 a.m. in the initial planting ceremony.  The morning will also feature educational information on urban gardening and sustainable environments from experts from Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati and refreshments for participants provided from Whole Foods Market of Norwood.

The mayor, sponsoring partners and community leaders will speak at 9 a.m. to kick off the planting.  More than 150 neighborhood residents and guests are expected to attend.

Norwood Community Garden encompasses one acre at Linden Pointe on the Lateral, a professional office campus with retail developed by Al. Neyer, Inc. at the site of a portion of the former GM auto assembly operation, which closed in 1987. SHP Leading Design, an architecture firm with regional headquarters in the office building, designed the community garden plot, and Al. Neyer built the raised structure for the garden beds. Eventually, up to 40 beds will be created for the garden.

According to Lupe Gonzalez Hoyt, executive director of Norwood Service League, the garden is an opportunity for the community to join together and focus on the future.

“Our community was torn to shreds when GM closed – we didn’t know who we were or what we were going to do,” Hoyt says. “In the past few years, we’ve turned the corner and can again look forward with renewed hope. This garden will help us work together as neighbors, to feed our own families and nourish those who are less fortunate.”

Hoyt says there will be an opportunity to donate harvest from some of the beds to local food pantries.

"The Center for Closing the Health Gap is extremely excited about the work we're doing in Norwood in partnership with Lupe Hoyt, executive director of the Norwood Service League,” according to Dwight Tillery, founder and CEO of The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati and a former Mayor of Cincinnati.  “The gardens are very important to our work on addressing obesity in the Latino population.  We're excited that Al. Neyer and company, along with former Vice Mayor Tarbell, have come forward with this great opportunity."

Affirms Hoyt, “This community garden fits nicely into the Norwood Do Right! Health initiative making fresh produce more available.”

Laura Brunner, executive vice president of Al. Neyer, Inc., says the 22-acre Linden Pointe on the Lateral site has required a sustained public-private partnership to redevelop it into a professional office campus, and now it’s bearing fruit, with tenants like SHP Leading Design and Brown Mackie College.

“We’re pleased to be able to provide this ground for Norwood Community Garden at Linden Pointe,” Brunner says. “What once was a brownfield is now green.”

“We welcome this wonderful community garden in the heart of our City,” Mayor Williams says. “We sincerely thank everyone who has had the vision to bring it to this point so far, and look forward to the wonderful outcome during the harvest season – especially the tomatoes, which are my personal favorites.”  Mayor Williams declared May 30 as “Norwood Community Garden Day” in the City by official proclamation.

CONTACT:
Gail Paul
Al. Neyer, Inc.
(513) 379-8153

Jim Tarbell
SHP Leading Design
(513) 381-2112

Lupe Gonzalez Hoyt
(513) 924-1200