At least they missed Guy Fawkes Day

For the many skeptics who have spent years voicing their suspicions that The Banks would never get built, Friday’s announcement of an April 2 groundbreaking for the massive riverfront development may have seemed off by one day. As in: April Fools!

But you might forgive those skeptics, as well as the project’s developers for scrupulously avoiding the symbolic first day in April. Cincinnati’s long awaited residential/commercial/entertainment district has been plagued by a decade of false starts, political mud wrestling, postponements, missed deadlines, cast changes and backtracking. Fool me 12 times, shame on everybody. What the project didn’t need was yet another punchline.

Even after last fall’s celebrated deal that finally sealed the project plan and developers in place, financing woes forced planners to blow past deadlines, self-imposed or otherwise, to make sure the money was there. The latest month-long delay saw developers Carter & Associates and Harold A. Dawson Co. cobbling together the required financing of $74 million for The Banks’ Phase 1A, which will include 300 apartments, 70,000 square feet of retail and a garage at Second and Main streets.

Hamilton County Commisioner Todd Portune said it’s "probably a great sense of relief for a lot of people." No kidding. For years, this moment has seemed a mirage, a faraway dream. Is it OK to pinch ourselves now?

Many people won’t believe it until they see the shovels actually digging into the ground. But for Cincinnati boosters who believe this project is vital to our region’s economic development and cultural progress, the start of The Banks can’t come a day too soon. Then again, maybe it can.