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Small
firms get a break at complex
Tuesday, July 21, 1998
BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A decage ago, Steven
Reece wrapped up a speech to high schoolers about giving back to the community,
walked off the stage and realized he should be practicing his preaching.
Soon after, Mr. Reece and his wife,
Barbara, bought a vacant 31,000-square-foot photographic processing factory in
Bond Hill and relocated the family business from downtown.
Bit by bit, private dollar by
private dollar, the couple has created an unusual sort of community center at
2081 Seymour Ave. During the last 10 years, the Reeces gutted and renovated the
complex, creating a banquet center, a beauty salon, a floor of offices and three
one-bedroom apartments.
"I look at it as a family
entrepreneurial center where people can make things happen," Mr. Reece
said. His family could serve as a model. The couple's three children -- Alicia,
27, Steven Jr., 19, and Tiffany Janelle, 18, each hold positions with the
family's companies.
Except for the leased apartments and
family's offices on the second floor -- which house their promotional company --
all of the space is available for short-term rental. Integrity Hall, which
opened in 1989, caters to groups that can't afford the rates of hotels and
convention centers.
"When we were coming up,"
Mrs. Reece said, "we would go to events and we would go to the hotels and
we felt that there was no interest in accommodating us. . . . That's why we
decided to open the banquet hall and give people something that looks elegant,
but at a savings of cost."
Five of the upstairs offices are
available for lease to start-up businesses or home businesses that need
short-term use of the space. "We're not a (public) program here, but we do
a lot to help individuals get down to really doing business," said Alicia
Reece, who handled promotions at the Reeces' Communiplex Promotional Services.
The most recent addition to the complex, and the family enterprise, is a record
label and production company created by Mr. Reece and his son, Steven Jr. SR
Productions, which will operate from studios in the rear lower level, will
record and produce music and offer disc jockey services.
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