casey

The original proposal was better IMO, but I'm glad this is finally happening. Now we only need about a dozen more projects like this along Indianola...

^ A lot of the other dams on the Olentangy and Scioto have utilities running though them, which both the 5th Ave and Main St ones did not (I believe), and that makes it a lot more expensive to remove them. It'd certainly be nice to get rid of them all, but it just doesn't sound feasible right now. This Dispatch article from April has a good run-down of the current situation, and a map of where the remaining dams are located, http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/04/23/columbus-deems-removing-dangerous-olentangy-river-dams-too-costly.html

Edwards needs to think bigger. 6 stories on High St at this location is not enough. 164 units is not enough. 25k sqft retail along an entire city block is not enough. IMO, the setbacks and open courtyard to reduce its appearance are unnecessary and inappropriate here. Downtown buildings should emphasize their mass and density, not shy away from it like projects in Clintonville do. It's better than the current surface lots, but still a missed opportunity given the potential and prominence of the site. I hope the DT commission encourages them to do more.

Wow. Very sad. I can't believe that DT Pittsburgh will have gone from four major department stores to zero in such a short time. Lord & Taylor, Lazarus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and now the granddaddy of them all - Kaufmann's (Macy's). :-(

Yeesh. That rendering of the storage building is pretty dreadful. Great to see everything else progressing though. I really like those little condos that bridge over the alleys in this development.

Yuck. I agree with the City of Dublin's reaction: "the plan has clear deficiencies with poor open space location and usability, unimaginative layout of buildings and parking areas, poor quality architecture and materials, and other issues" http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2015/06/jacquemin-farms-proposal-draws-opposition-from.html

^ Great news! That has the potential to add a lot of new residents and activity to the area. I agree it'd be nice to keep some of the green space currently there as well. I'd also imagine Battelle will have to develop one or more garages on their northern lots to accommodate for the loss of parking. Exciting times ahead in Harrison West!

April traffic at CMH was up 8% from 2014, and year-to-date the airport is showing a strong 5.1% gain in passengers. All carriers posted gains in April as well, and also flew more mainline flights into CMH (as opposed to smaller, regional jets) than in the year previous. http://flycolumbus.com/files/airline-info/monthly-stats/2015-stats/april-2015-flycolumbus-stats.pdf

The Cleveland Ave BRT-lite continues to inch towards completion. I really hope COTA isn't planning to use the same shelters for this that they installed along High St downtown - those ended up looking pretty cheap and flimsy... Regardless, the art murals are a nice touch IMO and should at least liven up the dreary Cleveland Ave corridor a bit. COTA Unveils Public Art Strategy for Cleveland Ave Bus Rapid Transit 31 May, 2015 in News tagged Public Art / Transit by Columbusight As shown in the renderings below, COTA plans to solicit work from local artists to display on the rear windows of each of the 33 new shelters to be installed for the BRT. Communities and neighborhoods which border the line are being invited to select themes for the artwork, solicit designs, and provide feedback and recommendations on which artists and concepts should receive final approval. COTA plans to begin public outreach and the artist selection process this summer, with final selection of the artwork to be complete by early 2016. Construction for the BRT itself is scheduled to get underway this fall, wrapping up in about a year, with the new service finally starting in spring 2017. More: http://columbusight.com/2015/05/31/cota-unveils-public-art-strategy-for-cleveland-ave-bus-rapid-transit/

The library has some renderings and plans of the new Shepard branch up on their website, http://www.columbuslibrary.org/buildings/shepard Not too shabby!

Three articles came out today with news about South Campus Gateway. First, a new retailer is confirmed as coming to fill the old Finish Line spot: Yoga Six Opening First Ohio Location at South Campus Gateway Fast-growing national retailer Yoga Six will be opening their first studio location in Ohio later this summer at 1624 N High St. The nearly 4,500 sqft space has been vacant since its previous occupant, athletic shoe and apparel retailer Finish Line, closed up shop in January 2014. http://columbusight.com/2015/05/27/yoga-six-to-open-first-ohio-location-at-south-campus-gateway/ Second, Wendy's 90 degree Lab tech. innovation center in the former Charlie Bear space has opened: Wendy's developing apps of the future at new campus-area innovation center The Dublin-based restaurant on Tuesday showed off its new technology innovation center, dubbed 90° Labs. The 1562 N. High St. space is in the South Campus Gateway. It’s a second-floor spot that has been two different night clubs and gives Wendy’s 8,200 square feet to grow into. It houses 25 employees but has room to hold up to 90. Third, a photo tour of the new Wendy's offices: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2015/05/photo-tour-wendys-90-labs.html

X-post from the South Campus Gateway development thread. It seems significant because this will be the retailer's first location in the state: Yoga Six Opening First Ohio Location at South Campus Gateway Fast-growing national retailer Yoga Six will be opening their first studio location in Ohio later this summer at 1624 N High St. The nearly 4,500 sqft space has been vacant since its previous occupant, athletic shoe and apparel retailer Finish Line, closed up shop in January 2014. http://columbusight.com/2015/05/27/yoga-six-to-open-first-ohio-location-at-south-campus-gateway/

Here's news about another small but significant retail project Downtown from Day Companies. I really like how Day isn't shying away from little projects like these that other developers probably wouldn't be interested in. They add up, preserve the historic building stock we have left, and really have a big impact on improving the surrounding area. New Retail and Restaurant Space on Tap for E Chestnut St Downtown http://columbusight.com/2015/05/26/new-retail-and-restaurant-space-on-tap-for-e-chestnut-st-downtown/

Moving along! Good to know things are progressing nicely on this desperately-needed project. :clap: Historic Madison’s and White-Haines Buildings to Undergo Mixed-Use Renovation http://columbusight.com/2015/05/26/historic-madisons-and-white-haines-buildings-to-undergo-mixed-use-renovation/

Columbus is starting to see more projects above 10 stories get proposed and/or built, but not many. Downtown there is Two25 Commons (17 stories) and 250 High (12 stories), both mixed-use office/apartment buildings. A couple major projects are also in the planning stages that have the potential to have some height, including Edwards development on High, and Nationwide's next condo development in the Arena District. In the Short North, the new Le Meridien hotel is 11 stories and the proposed White Castle project also goes up to 11. Other than that, most of the development is between 2-10, like jmicha[/member] mentioned. The last real high-rise project built was Nationwide's North Bank condo tower, which is 20 stories and was finished just before the recession. That said, all of the low and mid-rise development is adding significant density to the core. Jeffrey Park, for example, doesn't have anything over 5 stories but that development alone is adding more than 1,400 new residential units to a vacant former-industrial site immediately adjacent to Downtown.

That's probably about as good a project as we could expect, given the far-flung location. I do wish more of the ground floor was any use other than parking, though. Not necessarily retail, but even townhome-style residential entrances screening the parking behind would be an improvement and help generate more pedestrian activity.

The transformation of 11th Ave with this project has been nothing short of amazing. Such a great change and will add a lot of good momentum to the neighborhood.

Sounds like construction has wrapped up (at least on the residential portion), and that leasing is going very well at the Atlas Building. Should be completely full soon I'd bet! So glad this building was saved and renovated. It's such a gem and adds a lot to this part of downtown. New Apartments in Downtown's Atlas Building Leasing Up Quickly It's been only a few weeks since tenants began moving into the newly renovated, historic Atlas Building Downtown, but already demand for some units has outstripped the available supply. Several one and two bedroom floorplans are now completely leased, and many other have only a few units remaining. Of the total 98 units - only 25 are still unspoken for and available for lease, according to leasing office representatives. http://columbusight.com/2015/05/18/atlas-building-downtown-apartments-leasing-up-quickly/

So Destination Donuts opened this month, and apparently the North Market is down to only one vacancy. I'd say it's time to build that long-rumored expansion! :wink: Destination Donuts Opens, North Market Close to Full Occupancy Local favorite Destination Donuts opened this month as the North Market's 32nd vendor, bringing the popular city-owned market very close to enjoying 100% occupancy. Destination Donuts had hosted pop-ups at the market for several years, but as of May 8th now operates a full-time retail shop. Once Little Eater Produce and Provisions opens this summer (replacing The Greener Grocer), the North Market will only have a single vacancy - space which was left empty by the closure of Expressly Market Bakery earlier this year. http://columbusight.com/2015/05/18/destination-donuts-opens-north-market-close-to-full-occupancy/

Looks like a deal was worked out between CoGo and OSU to fund two stations on campus after all. The Zagster system will still be more prominent with locations throughout campus, but these additional stations for CoGo nevertheless should open up a lot of ridership opportunities for Ohio State students/employees and make the whole network more useful throughout the city. OSU and CoGo Bike Share Partner to Expand System onto Campus Columbus City Council will consider legislation tonight releasing funds for the addition of three new stations to the city-owned CoGo Bike Share program, including two on OSU's campus. The stations would be funded in part by Ohio State University, bringing CoGo onto campus just two months after selecting a rival company's bid to run the university's own bike share system. At the time, there was criticism of the decision because the on-campus system run by Zagster would not be compatible with the city's larger, existing CoGo network. http://columbusight.com/2015/05/18/cogo-bike-share-expanding-to-osu-campus-after-all/

Saw this on Columbus reddit, it looks like the Casto project on the former CMHA site is moving forward! Lots of housing units which is what East Franklinton really needs, retail space, and five stories for the first phase. Not sure how I feel about the whole 'shipping container' look, but I'm not complaining. :clap: :clap: New Details Revealed for Major Mixed-Use Development in Franklinton Plans show the first phase of the project would consist of a 5-story mixed-use building lining Rich St between the CSX Railroad tracks and Lucas St. The first phase – Building A (L-shaped structure to the East in the below site plan), would contain 20,000 sqft of pedestrian-oriented commercial or live-work space on the ground floor, along with 124 residential units on the four floors above. http://columbusight.com/2015/05/18/new-details-revealed-for-major-mixed-use-development-in-franklinton/

As part of Southwest's schedule extension yesterday they eliminated a number of business destinations from Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) and reallocated the Washington-National (DCA) slot previously used there for a second daily CMH-DCA flight beginning Nov 1st. It's worth mentioning that the Los Angeles flight on AA/US did return to daily service as scheduled this month. Also, everything I've heard from contacts at both the airline and airport indicate performance has met/exceeded expectations for the route, I wouldn't expect the that it could be dropped unless additional competition (possibly Southwest or Spirit) crowds in. Cool, but why does it bear repeating that rumor here? As you said, this isn't the Cleveland airport thread... :wink:

And just today Republicans voted to slash Amtrak funding by $252 million - which will have major negative repercussions for funding much needed capital improvements across the network's infrastructure. Shameful. http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/13/406506853/the-morning-after-lawmakers-vote-to-reduce-amtrak-funding

Woah.

Olympic Swim Club project clears Clintonville Area Commission http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/05/11/olympic-swim-club-project-clears-clintonville-area.html :clap: