cbussoccer

Looks like we'll see another tower crane soon - the tower crane base has been installed for the garage project. I was just wondering about this yesterday. Those pesky tower cranes just can't leave Columbus alone can they? ;) May we be cursed with more and more of them. :) The curse seems to have no end in sight!

Looks like we'll see another tower crane soon - the tower crane base has been installed for the garage project. I was just wondering about this yesterday. Those pesky tower cranes just can't leave Columbus alone can they? ;)

^ I"m so happy they preserved that building and are using it as part of the development. There are many other lonely historic buildings very much like this one in the downtown area that could easily be saved and developed in a similar way. I hope this project is a success and will set a new standard.

Relating to the Moxy Hotel development: "Coming in mid- to late-February there will be a short-term (two to three days) full closure of E. Hubbard Ave. between High St. and N. Pearl St. " I wonder if that's when the tower crane is going to be constructed. It would make sense considering the site seems to be fully excavated. I haven't been by the site recently so I'm not sure if a crane base is already in place or not. They typically try to do that on weekends so who knows, my guess is what Pablo said for utility work. They've been working to sort of meet in the middle between 5th & Goodale. I'm not sure who is providing the crane for this one yet, but can ask. Yea, do some recon work for us. I'm just wondering if we could end up with 4 cranes up at the same time within a couple blocks of each other in the Short North.

Relating to the Moxy Hotel development: "Coming in mid- to late-February there will be a short-term (two to three days) full closure of E. Hubbard Ave. between High St. and N. Pearl St. " I wonder if that's when the tower crane is going to be constructed. It would make sense considering the site seems to be fully excavated. I haven't been by the site recently so I'm not sure if a crane base is already in place or not.

Fischer has been pretty diplomatic/cordial recently when speaking about Garber though. I think that's the important point. If we get Garber and the rest of the league on our side, Precourt doesn't really matter.

Unfortunately there is no source given for the report that Precourt is looking at that land. I wouldn't be surprised if that is outdated information from a few months ago when the Schottensteins made it public that offered their plot of land to Precourt but he turned it down. If this report is accurate though, this gives Columbus two different stadium sites that are far better than anything available in Austin, as far as we know.

Yea, I definitely think a parking structure needs to remain, but I think it's still possible to tear down the current structure and build parking and a condo tower (or something) in its spot. I doubt anything could be built on top of the current parking structure because I highly doubt it was designed with that in mind.

Well that's....odd. Is it possible to get the historic status removed from the garage? There is absolutely no reason for that hideous garage to be recognized as a historic landmark.

I would prefer them to tear down the garage portion and replace it with a new mixed-use building with a parking component that backs up to Ludlow Street but isn't visible from the river. Wishful thinking, I know, but it would be nice.

^ Huh, interesting. Thanks for the insight. I wonder if these companies will start to expand or if new companies will come into the market. If not, I could foresee this stifling future developments.

I could foresee that happening in the next decade or so, no question. If, by some miracle, the Crew stay in Columbus and build a new stadium in the last vacant lot available in the Arena District, I would bet we would see another tower go up sooner rather than later. Maybe within 3 or 4 years. A developer would be smart to make it mixed-use with a hotel component along with residential units.

^ I think we are on to something here. Seriously though, I wouldn't be surprised to see another building of at least 12-stories go up on one of those surface lots to the left of the North Bank Condos tower.

^ "The Condo Tower District". Love it lol. I think we need one more tower there to complete the district though. I'm think maybe a 20-25 story tower in there would be good.

This building is moving at a snail's pace. I think the shortage of construction workers is really hurting some of these projects.

This building is quite noticeable when driving on 670. The design is odd/interesting, but I think it works for that part of downtown. Anywhere else in the city and I wouldn't have liked it as much.

Somebody more talented than I should do a mock-up of what the Columbus skyline will look like with Millennial Tower and Market Tower.

^ I was at the game last night. When I saw three Penn State players in a row make half-court shots during warm-ups, I knew I had a bad feeling about how the game was going to go. It was a great game though. Probably the most exciting OSU basketball game I've ever been to.

Columbus doesn't really care about OSU basketball until Feb 10th and only if they are very good. It's always a fun time when the whole city has that one week where they're like "Oh they're good?" That doesn't change the fact that Columbus market cannot support an NHL team, OSU basketball, and an NBA team, all the same time. It becomes even more unlikely when you factor in OSU football, the Clippers, and the Crew if (God willing) they are able to stick around. There is only so much corporate money that can be thrown around and there is only so much money individuals have to spend on tickets and merchandise. For a city the size of Columbus to have an NBA team, an NHL team, an MLS team, a top tier college basketball team, a top tier college football team that is more popular than half of the NFL, and a top tier AAA baseball team, it would be absolutely unheard of. Just go look at the list of cities that have both NHL and NBA teams. They are significantly larger than Columbus, and many of them have a team in one league or the other that is near the bottom of its league in attendance. Now, maybe things could change HQ2 ends up in Columbus, and on top of that Columbus sees the population growth that has already been projected. That is a big 'if' though, and even then it would be stretch. Also, to say "X city only cares about X team when they are good" is simply stating the obvious. There are very few exceptions where a team can be consistently bad for multiple years and not see a significant dip in attendance. Ohio State has been pretty bad for a couple years. Before that, they were averaging between 15k and 18k each season for a solid 10 years. That is on par with many NBA teams.

There have been arguments made for one team to represent the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming since basketball is popular in those states. It would be a team almost exclusively dependent on TV and apparel. Yet nobody is willing to do it because they're afraid of not getting enough butt money from the individual cities being too small. As you state, requiting butt money may be an outdated notion. Of course, there's also less personal glamor in owing a team that only gets 3-5,000 people per game and is located in Casper. Also, good luck getting NBA players to want to live in Casper.

In terms of an NBA team in Columbus, the only way I see that being a possibility is if the Cavs were no longer in Cleveland. Even if the Cavs were no longer in Cleveland, I think the Blue Jackets would do everything possible to keep an NBA team as far away from here as possible. I think an NBA team would do better in Columbus than the CBJ, which pains me to say, and the CBJ know that. If an NBA team did, by some miracle, end up in Columbus, it would probably end up killing off the CBJ. I don't see any way the Columbus market could support the CBJ, OSU basketball, and an NBA team, all at the same time.

Requiring affordable housing without financial incentive will significantly slow down development. If I had a pizza shop and sold pizza by the slice for $1.50/slice and the city came in and said that I must sell 20% of my pizza for $.75, I would go sell pizza somewhere else. The only way I would continue to sell pizza there is if I was reimbursed for the money I would lose.

It's done all the time with buildings of various sizes; think the Short North Donatos, a one story building that looks like two. Yea, I guess what they are saying is the size of the building will not change, just the configuration of floors and units. I suppose that's good to hear.

^ This Biz First article might provide the answers to your questions: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2018/01/25/lifestyle-communities-makes-tweaks-to-s-high-and-s.html It's interesting they say the Beatty building will be 9-stories, but look like 10-stories. Not sure how that works. The good news is they actually add units to the building with the change, like you mentioned.

It's also very noticeable from I-70, even though it doesn't have much height. I'm excited to see the finished product.