On the evening of June 11, 2026, Blue Ash City Council voted 7–0 against Resolution No. 2026-56. The resolution would have let three of the five apartment buildings planned for the former Quality Inn at 5901 Pfeiffer Road rise to six stories. Six weeks later, on Grooms Road near Interstate 275, Sycamore Township trustees cut the ribbon on a 300-unit apartment community that was already leasing.
Between those two dates, Blue Ash announced one employer after another. If you are comparing Blue Ash with the suburbs around it this fall, the median sale price will tell you less than this pattern does. The jobs are coming to Blue Ash. Most of the new homes that come with them are being built next door, and the reasons sit in the city's own meeting minutes.
About 600 approved units, 101 under construction
Three residential projects inside Blue Ash have cleared at least one round of city approval. As of early October 2026, only one has crews on site.
| Project | Location | Units | Latest public status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skyview at Summit Park, M/I Homes | Carver Woods Drive | 101 townhomes | Phase I under construction; builder lists "Opening Fall 2026" |
| The BLUE, Circle Development | Kenwood Road and Cooper Road | 250 residential units plus retail and office | Final plan approved February 10, 2023; no public record of a groundbreaking |
| Ascent Blue Ash, Guttman Development Group | 5901 Pfeiffer Road | Up to 250 apartments | Concept plan approved January 8, 2026; six-story amendment denied June 11, 2026 |
A fourth proposal, Summit View Development's Summit and Fieldhouse, included an apartment building. The applicant withdrew it before the council vote scheduled for June 12, 2025, so it is no longer in the pipeline.
The city's last posted update on the BLUE, dated January 21, 2024, said the developer expected construction to start "later this year." Circle Development's own page still calls the project "Currently in development." That leaves roughly a sixth of the approved units actually being built.
What happened to the six-story request at 5901 Pfeiffer
Ascent Blue Ash is the best documented of the stalled projects, and the record shows exactly where it got stuck. The concept plan approved in January allows five apartment buildings, each limited to five stories. In June, Guttman asked to raise three of them to six stories. At the June 4 Planning Commission hearing, the developer's representatives said larger floor plans were needed so the apartments would appeal to more residents, and Ian Guttman said more large units were needed for the project to work financially.
The height numbers are specific. The six-story buildings would stand about 72 to 74 feet tall. The Quality Inn on the site today is about 58 feet. Planning Commission treated the change as substantial, which made it a new concept plan, and voted unanimously to recommend denial.
The council packet for June 11 included one more detail. It said the developer "has indicated the project is not financially viable" and was asking for a tax abatement and tax increment financing, or TIF. During the council discussion, staff said incentives such as a TIF are far from guaranteed, especially for apartment projects. Council members said any incentive request would come back separately and be judged on its own merits.
The vote left the five-story plan in place, so Guttman can still submit a final development plan under it. No Ascent item or incentive request appeared on the council agendas for July 9, August 13, or September 10. The September 24 meeting was canceled. At the July 2 Planning Commission meeting, staff said proposals for the former hotel site "may return for future consideration."
The easement that runs through both stalled projects
The height dispute got the headlines. A quieter issue may matter more, because it connects Ascent to the BLUE.
At the June 11 meeting, Guttman told council that talks with Ursuline Academy about shared access and easements were ongoing and would have to be resolved before final approval. He also said the project's unit count assumes Ursuline agrees to property transfers or easements. Without an agreement, the buildings would shift back, the access drives would be redesigned, and the project would have fewer units. In the same discussion, he described the six-story version as keeping "about 243 total units."
A week earlier, the Planning Commission minutes recorded a staff status update on the BLUE in the same sentence as the 5901 Pfeiffer easement. Staff "gave Commissioners an update on the status of The Blue and explained that the concerns over the easement between 5901 Pfeiffer Road and the property owned by Ursuline Academy have not been fully satisfied." The minutes do not explain how the two projects are tied together. They do show that the city's planners are tracking both on the same easement question, and the later records through September show no resolution.
As a result, up to 500 units at the Pfeiffer and Kenwood-Cooper corners appear to depend on one access agreement among three parties. A buyer cannot see that from a listing page.
Meanwhile, the employers kept arriving
While the housing waited, Blue Ash's job base grew all summer:
- Resilience announced on June 18 that it is moving its headquarters from San Diego to Blue Ash, adding about 200 jobs. The Blue Ash site at 10901 Kenwood Road is part of a $750 million investment in a drug-product packaging and supply operation of more than 450,000 square feet.
- Enerfab, now owned by Quanta Services, bought two office buildings at 4350 Glendale Milford Road and plans to move its headquarters and 120 employees there.
- Lahlouh, Inc. opened a 197,000-square-foot printing facility at 9933 Alliance Road on August 12.
- Ohio Valley Electrical Services paid $3 million for nearly eight acres on the former Procter & Gamble east campus along Reed Hartman Highway and announced plans for a new headquarters there.
The city is also paying to open up more employment land. Innovation Center Drive, a new public road through the old P&G east campus, will connect the signalized intersection at Reed Hartman Highway to Grooms Road. As of the city's September 14 update, it was tentatively scheduled for completion by the end of October 2026, weather permitting, with $2 million in federal grant funds behind it.
Where the new units actually opened
Paragon Ranch sits at 11600 Grooms Road near Interstate 275, in northern Sycamore Township. CIG Communities broke ground in October 2024 and finished the first seven buildings by early summer 2026, and the 300-unit first phase held its ribbon cutting on July 21. The Montgomery-Blue Ash Courier described it as a new rental option near the Blue Ash, Kenwood, and Montgomery job corridors.
The Courier reported that as of July 21, rents started at $1,561 for a studio, $1,735 for a one-bedroom, $2,166 for a two-bedroom, and $2,949 for a three-bedroom, with a one-month-free move-in special. Floor plans run from 570 to 1,346 square feet. CIG originally announced 392 units, and the developer has not said publicly whether it will build more phases.
The comparison is plain. A single project just outside Blue Ash went from groundbreaking to 300 leasing units in less than two years. Inside the city, the two largest approved projects together account for 500 units and have none under construction.
What this means for a buyer comparing suburbs this fall
New construction inside Blue Ash is limited to one project this season. Skyview at Summit Park, on Carver Woods Drive, offers townhomes from 2,178 to more than 3,100 square feet. The city reported construction under way on Phase I at its July 9 council meeting, and M/I Homes told Planning Commission on July 2 that Phase II foundations were in. The builder's page says "Opening Fall 2026" but lists no starting price. Visitors are asked to sign up for pricing and availability. Anyone pricing Blue Ash this month is therefore comparing resale homes against a new-construction option with no published price yet.
Regional numbers show how tight that resale market is. Cincinnati REALTORS' August 2026 report for the five-county Greater Cincinnati area recorded a median sale price of $329,000, up 4.5% from August 2025, on 1,741 closed sales. Active inventory rose 6.8% to 3,309 homes, and the median home sold in 10 days. Those figures cover the whole region, not Blue Ash. Inventory is loosening slightly across the region, but Blue Ash's own new supply is stuck behind height limits, an easement, and incentive talks that have not started. For a seller of an existing Blue Ash home, that means less new-construction competition nearby than the approval headlines suggest. For a buyer, the realistic choice within reach of the new jobs is Blue Ash resale, Skyview, or new construction across the line in places like northern Sycamore Township.
A few direct answers
Is the BLUE still happening? The final development plan approved in February 2023 is still on the books, and the developer's page calls the project in development. The city has posted no groundbreaking. Staff told Planning Commission in June 2026 that the easement concerns had not been fully resolved.
Could Ascent Blue Ash still be built? Yes, under the five-story concept plan approved in January. The developer has said it needs incentives and an Ursuline agreement to build at the planned unit count, and neither had reached a public agenda through September 2026.
Does the new Innovation Center Drive add housing? No. City records describe it as a road to open the former P&G east campus for redevelopment, and the announced users there are employers.
Pricing a home in Blue Ash depends on which approved projects are actually moving, and that can change from one council agenda to the next. If you're weighing a sale near Summit Park or a purchase near the Kenwood and Reed Hartman job corridor, The Julia Wesselkamper Group can show you how the active pipeline affects the homes you're considering. Contact Us to start that conversation.
