By February, the Dunbar neighborhood junkyard will shut down permanently. Crews will then begin the big cleanup effort needed to get the site ready.

This marks a big change for the area. A retiring junkyard owner joined forces with Cincinnati builders and local attorney Sawyer Smith to transform the space.

“We have already started working toward the evolution of this property, starting with the environmental engineering,” Smith told Wink News. “There comes a time when a community relies upon its local government to support it. At long last, the local government has supported the greater Dunbar community in saying, ‘No longer is Dunbar a place where everybody else brings their scraps.’”

City officials view this as a model to follow. It could pave the way for more partnerships between developers and local government.