casey

Five New CoGo Bike Share Stations Being Added to System CoGo Bike Share and the City of Columbus released a joint announcement today about their system expansion that includes five new stations at popular locations and destinations, bringing the grand total to 46 stations and 365 bikes for rent. The five new stations are located in the following spots: Lane Ave at the Olentangy Trail – near the Lane Avenue Bridge. Jaeger St & Whittier St – in front of the Giant Eagle grocery store. Thurman Ave & Bruck St – Near the new Barrett development. Fourth St & Rich St – Across the street from Dirty Frank’s, 16-Bit and other destinations. Third Ave & Yard St – In front of the Giant Eagle Market District. http://www.columbusunderground.com/five-new-cogo-bike-share-stations-being-added-to-system

A much improved proposal for the Bollinger Tower hotel conversion is up for review at the IVC this month. I'd still like to see the addition be at least two stories along High St though... Redevelopment plans for an affordable-housing tower in the Short North include a new twist – the addition of single-story buildings fronting High Street. Under the project’s latest iteration, that will include an extension of the hotel lobby to High Street, rooftop patio, and a companion 1,500-square-foot retail space. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2016/08/11/first-look-bollinger-tower-addition-proposed-along.html

Voters have soundly rejected Issue 1 by a margin of 72-28.

^ Here's another article from the Dispatch on that with more details than CU's five sentence blurb. Some highlights: - By October 2016 new wireless technology will be installed on all buses in the fleet, making the existing real-time tracking more accurate by updating vehicle locations every 15 seconds instead of every minute. - This technology will also allow COTA to offer wifi internet service to passengers, which they will do by contracting with a vendor, planning to have the service available by the end of 2017. - A new fare collection system will be introduced by the end of 2018, replacing the current fareboxes installed in 1995 (!). The new system will enable re-loadable smart cards and smartphone payment in addition to cash. - Capital University students can now swipe their IDs and use them as bus passes to ride COTA, similar to existing programs with OSU, CCAD, Columbus Public Schools, and certain downtown employers. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/07/27/cota-wifi.html

"fairly certain on it not being a tower" :whip:

WOW.

^ Glad to see that one finally getting underway.

I wonder if the new development will include a UDF in one of the retail spaces? The current building is awful, but it's great having a 24-hr convenience store right in the heart of the neighborhood...

:shoot:

Some pretty wide media coverage of a potential collaboration between Columbus and Google as part of the Smart Cities win: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/27/google-flow-sidewalk-labs-columbus-ohio-parking-transit http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/27/12048482/alphabet-sidewalk-labs-public-transport-columbus-ohio http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2016/06/28/google-spinoff-wants-to-help-shape-columbus-smart.html

Yuck.

Some more anecdotal evidence from the twitters of people utilizing the new COTA AirConnect bus service to downtown. This was on Wednesday morning: "A large number of people are waiting to take @COTABus's AirConnect this morning." https://twitter.com/2_71828182845/status/745645527526674432

^ Not to quibble or take this too far off-topic, because as you said a lot of progress is being made, but there are a few more stubborn ones along High downtown that I'd love to see disappear in the near future as well: - Greek Orthodox Cathedral surface lot at Swan St - Surface lot between Elevator Brewing building and vacant former Wendy's at Spring St - Surface lot between One Columbus building and COTA's HQ at Lynn St - Vacant grass lot north of Franklin County Courthouse at Main St (not parking anymore but still pretty bad)

^ Some good improvements overall. Land Grant especially will be a nice add to the lineup, and I'm glad to see Johnny Rockets finally getting the boot out of C.

Very exciting! Especially that we beat out SF, Austin, Portland, Pittsburgh, Denver, and KC! Looking forward to hearing more details on the plans and their implementation!

Five-Story Lane and High Development Approved Schiff Properties received approval last night from the University Review Board to build a five-story mixed-use development at the southeast corner of Lane Avenue and High Street. The new building will feature 69 apartments, 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and a parking garage with space for 150 cars. http://www.columbusunderground.com/five-story-lane-and-high-development-approved-bw1

Meh. Doesn't seem like they are really doing that much... I wish they would bump the podium out for additional retailers. That could create some cool amenity space for the hotel on top looking out over High St as well. Also, Cambria Suites?? Not particularly impressed with that choice of brand.

Site plans of the Kaufman proposal for those interested:

The hotel portion of this project appears on track for a November opening... FIRST LOOK: Art Deco, celestial theme highlight Hotel LeVeque The Hotel LeVeque, to open in late fall on floors five through 10 of the landmark building at 50 W. Broad St. amid a wider redevelopment that includes offices and residences, will feature a celestial theme while paying homage to the 89-year-old structure’s Art Deco grandeur, according to a press release and marketing materials from those involved in the project. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2016/06/15/first-look-art-deco-celestial-theme-highlight.html

COSI is starting something new this year called "City View Patio" to activate and better take advantage of their front plaza space which faces onto the new Scioto Mile park. On most Friday and Saturday nights from now through Labor Day there will be beer, wine, and food for sale, as well as additional seating set up in the normally empty hardscape area looking out over the river. I think this is a pretty great idea, since it adds another activity generator and food/drink option right on the new park space - especially one on the West bank of the river. Right now, there's really only Milestone 229... Hopefully additional opportunities for vendors/concessions can be found elsewhere as well. More info here, http://www.cosi.org/visit/calendar-of-events/icalrepeat.detail/2016/06/17/2332/10/new-city-view-patio-at-cosi

Wow. Huge news today for the former National Office Warehouse site on Broad St mentioned a few posts upthread. It, along with the neighboring Phillips Coney Island site have been purchased by Kaufman Development. Their proposal calls for a new development with 241 apartments, 50,000 sqft of offices, 30,000 sqft retail space, and a laundry list of 'funky' amenities: outdoor fitness areas, a dog park, community gardens, dedicated graffiti and mural walls, an outdoor movie screen, art galleries, co-working space, a food truck court, shipping-container food incubators, and a climbing wall. The East Franklinton Review Board will have it's first conceptual review of the project this month, with developers hoping to start construction by the end of this year. NBBJ is the design architect for the project (also of Kaufman's 250 High and Two25 Commons projects), and responsible for the stunning renderings below: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2016/06/14/first-look-funky-mixed-use-development-with-241.html

In 2010 Nationwide had ~8,000 jobs in downtown Columbus, and another ~5,000 in scattered suburban sites around and outside of the outerbelt. By the end of this year they will have grown to nearly 12,000 in downtown proper at their main HQ, and are consolidating the bulk of the suburban sites and some add'l jobs from Indy to Grandview Yard, which will house 3,000 workers by the end of this year and 4,000+ by 2018.

As long as it gets going soon, I couldn't care less about the height at this point. Franklinton needs one of its proposed projects to actually break ground and open. That will spur the others along, and drive demand for more. The ball just needs to get rolling... Hopefully ASAP!

Some interesting info from the community meeting mbeaumont[/member] mentioned above: The new building is slated to feature approximately 11,000 square feet of ground floor retail, which Pizzuti would offer to Grandview Mercantile first, if they choose to relocate and reopen there. If not, they said that they’ve already gotten good response for retail demand, and would likely look to secure three to five high-end national retail brands that have no current presence in Ohio. The Joseph office building, developed by Pizzuti, is home to the Short North’s Anthropologie store, which developer Joel Pizzuti said is outselling their Easton store. The proposal shows that the rest of the new building would be devoted to 107 parking spaces — with some of those dedicated specifically for retail use — and 41 luxury condominium units. Pizzuti said that the condos will average 1,600 square feet and will likely average $600,000 to $700,000, with penthouse units priced over $1 million. “We need a 12-story project,” said Pizzuti when discussing their decision on the height. “We’re not proposing 12 and figuring we’ll end up with ten — we need 12 to make this work.” http://www.columbusunderground.com/developer-addresses-concerns-about-12-story-building-with-residents

Agreed with Toddguy[/member] that I'm a little disappointed in the layouts they decided on for the block west of the main hospital... But, NCH is also showing with this plan that they can do good urban infill as well, when it suits them too. The office building going up now at Parsons/Livingston is probably the best example, especially with the inclusion of ground floor retail. The new admin building on 18th St across the freeway also looks like it will be similarly appropriate for its context. All in all, the plan is not bad IMO. Especially since it is building on already vacant land and that it includes NCH pledging to respect the residential neighborhoods to the south and east, as well as continuing to fund home renovations and employee incentives to buy in the area. It's not perfect, but it really could be a lot worse - (just look at the Cleveland Clinic thread).