CINCINNATI — The towering former Queensgate Correctional Facility was built to house more than 800 inmates. In its next chapter, it will be able to house more than 100 small businesses.

"We're looking for this to be economical, affordable space for artists and entrepreneurs," said Andrew Bandy of Arrand Real Estate, which is helping convert the space into more than 120 blank spaces available for all sorts of creative businesses.

Right now, Bandy and his business partner Thomas Gold are focused on building out three of the building's floors. The spaces will be between about 300 and 800 square feet, leasing for about $1 per square foot monthly.

They purchased the building in November 2022 and estimate the project will cost about $5 million once it is complete.

"For our model to work, we have to do everything economically," said Gold. "Which means it is a slower, more careful process."

The pair has a history of success with that model in Milwaukee. Hide House Creative and Lincoln Warehouse are old industrial buildings re-purposed as artist and creative lofts.

Andrew Bandy

"We have at the moment three microbreweries. We have a distiller. We have a gluten-free baker. We have a guy who runs a rage room," Gold said. "We have chocolatiers, cheerleading studios and it's a great ecology."

The process to turn inmate bunks and communal bathrooms into clean, functional, adaptable spaces has taken time. And there are still projects to finish before tenants are allowed to move in sometime in late fall.

One room on the building's first floor holds piles of jail toilets removed during renovations.

Each floor will have new restrooms. Each leased space will have new lighting features, new centrally-controlled HVAC, and added insulation to limit noise.

Paul Weeden

"The bones of this place are just great," Gold said. "It's built like solid as a rock."

Some original building features will stay — including an old elevator lift engine on the fourth floor and exposed brick walls throughout.

New east-facing windows are being installed to take advantage of the light, and an incredible view.

Paul Weeden

"Where are you going to find a building like this with that kind of a view?" Gold said. "We understand that the basic asset that we have is light."

The only wall that won't have windows is the north-facing wall, which Gold said will ultimately feature a major exterior mural. The building can be seen from I-75 and parts of downtown.

Later phases will include renovation of the lower floors, old office spaces, and the old jail's intake and visitation areas. Right now, booths with telephones and glass dividers still exist. A lawyer's long left-behind business card sat on a counter. On the lowest level, the former intake area remains almost untouched. The badge painted on the wall between holding cells features former sheriff Simon Leis's name.

Paul Weeden

The county closed the jail in 2008 amid budget cuts. The Maslow's Army organization used the second floor as a day shelter for those experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic winter.

Gold and Bandy said it was the first building they looked at when scouting locations to expand into Cincinnati. They kept coming back to not only the building's potential, but the opportunity in the surrounding area.

Paul Weeden

"I think that Queensgate has the reputation that it has and maybe it takes an out of town to not maybe understand the history and maybe look beyond it," Gold said. "We think Queensgate is a great place and great opportunity to turn it and this into something terrific."

Anyone with interest in leasing space can email TheLinnCinnati@arrandre.com or call 513-937-5466.

CINCINNATI — Scott Knox has found himself an accidental LGBTQ activist, in the right role, at the right place, at the right time to help make change.

"I am not by nature an activist," he said. "I feel like I was pushed into it because I was in a position to see what was going on."

His legal career started in labor law and asbestos litigation, until the AIDS epidemic exposed a cruel lack of resources and representation.

"I had people coming to me since I was active in the gay community, saying, 'I have a friend whose partner is in the hospital, they have no paperwork, their family is going to swoop in and move him and take all his stuff and disrespect this relationship,' and back then I couldn't think of anyone to refer them to," Knox said. "Out of necessity, I just started doing it."

Knox started doing estate planning and discrimination cases and working with many LGBTQ clients.

Scott Knox

"It was really kind of like my activism because I couldn't think of anyone else to do, so if not me, then who?" he said.

Perhaps his biggest fight would still be on the horizon, a fight that would forever impact Cincinnati's perception in the social justice, business and LGBTQ communities.

In 1992, the City of Cincinnati adopted a human rights ordinance which included sexual orientation. The backlash came quickly, with city voters approving a measure to remove sexual orientation from the ordinance in 1993.

"It sure felt a lot like your community doesn’t want you here," Knox said.

A federal judge ruled the measure unconstitutional. But then it got worse for the Cincinnati LGBTQ community.

Cincinnati voters approved Article XII, codifying that "no special class status may be granted based upon sexual orientation, conduct, or relationships."

"We were the only city in the country that had a regulation that said City Council was prohibited from passing any law that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination," Knox said. "It said this one set of people had no access to the government."

Boycotts and lawsuits followed these actions. Even Pride events and parades ceased in the city for five years.

"The community was so demoralized," Knox said. "You'd walk down the street and look at people and think, 'Really? You thought that I should able to be fired for being gay?' And it took years before we could get a group together that thought it would be worthwhile that there was a chance we could repeal it."

Knox said the group called themselves "The Prayer Group," because they thought their chances were so slim to overturn Article XII.

He describes himself as one of the "worker bees," many who made up what would become the Citizens to Restore Fairness. He credits dedicated volunteers, including lots of straight allies, and boots-on-the-ground, in-person campaigning for the repeal's ultimate success.

"We went door to door and asked people, ‘Do you think someone should be fired if they’re doing a good job just because they’re gay or lesbian?‘ and uniformly, they said no," he said. "Overwhelmingly, people are fair."

Cincinnati voters repealed Article XII in 2004.

Scott Knox

That's a large part of why Knox says he remains "Pollyanna" about people and ongoing LGBTQ issues, mainly the current fight for transgender acceptance and rights. That, and the amount of change in the city of Cincinnati since the rights fights of the early 1990s.

"It's a sea change," he said. "It's nice to see the Pride flags up on the streets, it's encouraging."

Even professionally, Knox said, things are better and he's more optimistic.

"A lot of my LGBTQ issues now are estate planning and family issues, which is kind of fun compared to the past," Knox said. "It's more 'happy law.'"

His work to right wrongs against the local LGBTQ community makes Scott Knox one of the Tri-State's Points of Pride.

WCPO is committed to telling the stories of LGBTQ+ individuals in the Tri-State year-round. If you know someone who should be recognized as a Point of Pride, send an email to evan.millward@wcpo.com or newsdesk@wcpo.com