By: Max Bruns ~Staff Writer~

Behind schedule from the start, the installation of businesses in University Station has yet to be completed. A noticeably unfinished business is Delicio, a coal fired pizzeria that has yet to confirm a date or time for when it will open its doors to customers. The University Station project was initially slated to last from 2001 to 2011. Phase one of the project ended in 2014 but left the pizzeria and several business plots at the corner of Dana Avenue and Montgomery Road empty.

Ackermann Group Real Estate Services and Messer Construction were in charge of the first phase, which included the $54 million mixed-use development with 178 student apartments, 46,000 square feet of office space and 39,000 square feet of retail space. “It’s going to bring a lot of life to our campus community.

It’s going to bring a lot of folks from the neighborhood, folks from around Cincinnati, opportunities for our students right here on campus, and that’s only going to help us in terms of competitiveness,” Aaron Meis, Xavier’s dean of admissions and financial aid, told the Enquirer in 2014 after the first phase was completed.

With businesses such as Goldstar, Starbucks, Graeters, Frozen Yo and Top This in place and functioning, it would seem that the mixed-use development is delivering in many ways. However, the open spaces and unfinished buisness are beginning to raise questions with students and community members as to what will fill them and when they will be open for business.

Although the mixed-use development was scheduled to be completed in 2011, 54 percent of the property, retail or otherwise, has yet to be leased, and the pizzeria has no official opening date on record.