DevolsDance

Not the most exciting speck of information but... Over lunch I was talking with a friend regarding some of the new office projects around the city when they dropped the Scioto Peninsula development. Seems the project has seen heavy interest in it's office components and has actually been successful in pre-lease out multiple floors, I couldn't get who the tenant(s) were/are but it's but good news to hear about a spect project downtown. On one side this is incredibly exciting, on the other side, it just goes to show how incompetent those at the helm of other projects *cough* Millennial *cough must be that they have been marketing for multiple years and don't have a single lease. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news!

The King and High development is headed back to the UARB Commission this month for conceptual review with an updated design. https://columbusohdev.app.box.com/s/tcrwl8zlp5p8a3bgc6u6am6sjxvnivkr Looks like the developers are going to try and sway the commission to allow some height once again with the new design returning to 11 stories. Based on renders the site plan has been reworked to shift the tower massing to the southern-most portion of the site and maintaining/incorporating the townhouse facades along King Ave, along with an updated incorporation of the "Hippie Hut" building on the corner. The developer is asking for a variance from the current 72' to 120' 6". I am curious if the renders released last month of the "no variance" option was to try and poke the commission a bit. Either way, this seems like a much better site plan and while I do have some material questions, I am absolutely in favor of the massing and heights shown in the new concept. Renders attached below! Enjoy all! Okay I lied a bit, I don't love the incorporation of the old townhouses along King Ave but... I get it.

The stadium roof height will be 79', based on that I imagine it'll have a pretty big impact visually from both 670 and 315.

The developers can't go to the city until a formal vote is taken by the commission, which they haven't asked for yet. We know how a vote will go so I am not sure why they haven't just pushed it so they can formally appeal to the city and the commission appeals board. Once it gets to the appeals board it becomes a much more even playing field, the appeals commission has shown hesitancy to go against the neighborhood commissions... but... they have and will with the right arguments and logic because it is a more diverse/unbiased panel. Between German Village and Grandview right now, the people in this city seem to forget they live in a city.

Photo update Hilton infrastructure and groundwork work has begun, the High St sidewalk and parking/shoulder lane have also been closed off for what looks like site prep. Additionally, the new parking garage has topped out and it's connection to the building has begun as well as the bracket structure along 4th the will ultimately hold the fluid mesh set to line that side of the garage.

Quick updates now that we finally have some sunshine, First up is 230 E Long St. The massing is complete and windows are being installed on all sides of the structure. Below is the Schottenstein Development on 3rd, rising pretty quickly on the alley side of the block. Enjoy.

While the reference may have been off, I think his argument still stands. The buildings referenced are for all intents and purposes in Grandview, in most visitors and residents minds it is in Grandview as well (its all even marketed as Grandview... by Grandview themselves https://www.destinationgrandview.org/ ). I get what you're saying but being that they are less than two blocks from the proposed project and align perfectly with Grandview's own zoning and land use, I would argue it still is valid/allowed. Sure he should update the article (he still may), but I am not convinced it invalidates the article or reference points in any way. Regarding the article itself, I love it and want more like this. The residents in these areas need to be called out for their hypocrisy and NIMBYism. Look, these people move to these areas because of the value and amenities then lose their collective minds when someone tries to do the same... sorry no, it's ridiculous. If you're not growing, you're dying and if you wanted quaint small town vibes with no threat of progress then the city was not the right choice for you.

Valid point, I will agree on that now that I think about that stretch. I think the only redeemable piece of Broad through that is the tiny section by COSI/NVMM with medians and bike lanes.

I think Broad St from Downtown to Bexley may own that title haha but 5th is a close second. It's terrible from a pedestrian experience and really needs looked at as developments starts kicking off, I imagine this project is the first of many to come being it seems to be such a valuable property corridor.

Yeah, it's a really strange choice especially for Ohio where the pool will be drained/green a solid 6 months of the year. The design element was included in the early renders and I was actually shocked it was something that stuck and didn't raise any eyebrows through commission reviews; Edwards doing Miami FL things in Ohio *shrug*. I can't possibly imagine any way a pool full of intoxicated YoPros overlooking the street could backfire for pedestrians walking below -_-

I do not believe for a second that LC did not know what they were doing and they were nothing more than "innocent mistakes". As stated in the article, these issues are present on the newest three of their downtown builds... this is a result of value engineering at its finest. I do appreciate that LC is taking *some* action to correct the issues, but its minimal at best. I would love the city to hold more developers accountable, maybe with loss of tax abatements or incentives if not built to spec. While the issue is not rampant, developers take notice of these things and the situation could snowball quickly. Additionally, I still hate and will forever trash talk Crawford Hoying and their projects for the Cherry Street bait and switch. If you're reading this, you cheap a** principals at Crawford Hoying.... just know, I HATE THEE. Thats all.

Looks like Cover my Meds is progressing forward with the Phase II of their new HQ project, they just submitted engineering and site plans with the city for the second office structure. I believe this may actually be an accelerated timeline as opposed to the original build out plans, guessing they are growing faster than anticipated or realized it's easier to just get it done in one swoop than phase it out longer and deal with construction down the line.

The Gravity II project has also submitted material and foundation applications to the EFRB for final approval tomorrow. Speaking of which, the application reveals the final height of the 12 story tower will hit 156' and the garage will top out at 55'. Should stand out quite well in Franklinton pulling the skyline across the river nicely.

Walked by Goodale Park earlier today, looks like city crews have set up and are starting to drain the pond in prep for the new fountain pump project approved earlier this year. The park should finally have a consistent working and maintainable fountain for spring. I wasn't sure what thread this best fit so feel free to move if there is a more appropriate one.

Big news this morning out of Kansas City, the city has voted to go fare-free across the KC transit system. Currently only the KC streetcar is fare-free and has been since debut, however this vote extends free access to the full bus and BRT systems at a cost of roughly $8 million per year. Additionally, the move makes KC the largest American city to have fare-free public transit. https://www.kcur.org/post/kansas-city-council-unanimously-votes-get-rid-bus-fares#stream/0 I can see this being a huge catalyst for the city, excited to see how this plays out and what other cities take notice.

Millennial Tower is... it's basically dead. With weekly articles about how tight and valuable the office market is downtown and how companies are moving because they cannot find space downtown, I refuse to believe Elford and Arshot are even attempting to make this thing happen at this point. I'm not sure what is with the smoke and mirrors but I have given up on it. The 15 story Holiday Inn mixed-use tower is also dead according to some friends who were working on it. The State + 4th project is also on indefinite pause, I have been told the perspective tenant pulled out of the project and settled on a different location downtown that was a quicker move-in and more financially sound than a new build, effectively killing the project.

Yep, it's pretty abysmal what Downtown proper is getting related to its surroundings. I am hoping that things will trend up for downtown soon with impending projects like the Dispatch Block development and so many surface lots slowly disappearing, but as of now it's just really unfortunate how much it has been ignored by developers as a place to go big.

Quick breakdown of projects that could/should be under construction in 2020. These are not all proposed or currently running projects projects by far but instead ones that are "high impact" projects, projects that will be highly visible and will change the view or feel of the respective areas. Arena District Chipotle HQ - 4 stories Parks Edge III - 10 stories North Market Tower - 26 stories Hilton Tower - 28 stories Park Street AC Hotel - 7 stories Crew Stadium Confluence Village Downtown Library Park/Grant Oak Apartments - 5 stories + Renovation Motorists/Encova Apartments - 5 stories Grant + Mound Apartments - 8 stories High + Cherry - 7 stories 3rd + Long - 5 Stories 230 E Long - 7 stories Franklinton Gravity II Residential - 12 stories Gravity II Office - 6 stories River + Rich II - 12 stories Cover My Meds - 7 stories Scioto Peninsula Residential - 11 stories Scioto Peninsula Hotel - 8 stories Scioto Peninsula Office - 8 stories Short North/VV/IV Jeffrey Park Tower - 11 stories Westminster Thurber Tower - 11 stories Parkside on Pearl - 7 stories University District Medical Center Tower - 20+ stories 15th + High Hotel - 10 stories 15th + High Mixed-use - 6 stories WOSU - 6 stories King + High Apartments - 7 stories Again, these are just what I am looking at as "high impact" projects in addition to the Brewery District project above. Based on this list, I think we could possibly see 17-20 tower cranes up in 2020 alone throughout the urban core.

Placing this under Brewery District because it falls under the Brewery District Commission but please move if there is a better thread. Looks like a North Carolina developer is teaming up with NBBJ and CSX to propose a 4-phase development in a rather unique piece of land on the edge of the Brewery District. The CU article goes into how the project is aiming to be built out in 10-15 years across 4 phases with office, residential, commercial, and parking. Phase 1 would include a 7 story and a 12 story structure containing 350+ apartments. Future phases and a massing provided to the BDC show the possibility of the site supporting up to a 30 story building (probably targeting skyline, river, and park views). The article is linked below. https://www.columbusunderground.com/large-development-proposed-for-whittier-peninsula-bw1 While I am shocked by the scale of the proposal, there have been multiple engineering and permits working their way through the system for weeks now regarding the site. The NC developer has a heavy portfolio in the Triangle and seems to be growing their urban portfolio in recent years with a highrise proposal in Downtown Raleigh. Anyway, the continuation of outside developers taking leaps into the market is a good sign.

The final site plan is designed to keep the majority of the dense development off of the former landfill. The landfill was located up along SR-33 with the back portion being traditional "brown-field" redevelopment. In addition to that the denser development is located within City of Columbus Municipal boundaries (abatements possibly) while the lower density souther and western portion falls within Grandview Heights.

I had a similar reaction; I've e seen, heard, and read plenty of iterations involving transit over the past few years here and this is the first one that actually left me with some promise. I am very curious because I believe this is the first time we have actually seen hard timeline of implementation and the hiring of a design build company like Kimley-Horn. To me this reads as someone or some big names have decided to hold the cities feet to the fire. Just basing it on the route, this transit corridor would connect Nationwide (DTWN), possibly Cover My Meds, OBM, Nationwide Grandview Yard, Battelle, OSU, CAS, Riverside, Ohio Health, and countless other big things like the Schott, OSU Innovation District, Crew Stadium. If ever you could assemble a list of big names in the city that can make something happen, this list checks off about half or more of them. This whole thing is very interesting all around.

Additionally, in a shocking twist of events, all the comments on Facebook are actually advocating for rail. Anecdotally, I have seen a massive shift in opinion in just the short time i've been in Columbus. When I moved here a few years back it seemed that people I talked to were open to transit but interest was still pretty tepid, however now, I regularly here people discussing/bringing up the transit issue. Personally I think the population is finally seeing strain put on the road infrastructure and even if they never plan on using a train or high-capacity mode of transit, they seem more accepting of the idea that it actually would do wonders for the city and so many people. Overall, the article was completely unexpected, I really am pleasantly shocked how direct and aggressive the city is coming across here... This could be it guys. *crosses fingers* I am going to do some digging with some friends and see what they know.

It was not I, but whoever it was, thank you. It's really an interesting situation because I have no clue what the city really can do to rectify the situation (a similar thing happened with Casto fon Highline at 9) aside from a fine that ultimately does nothing considering we're still stuck with a bad building for decades. I hope the city/commissions have some way to force a fix of this, however based on the article it sounds like they don't. It blows my mind that the LC has continued to find ways to value engineer the crap out of what started out as such amazing proposals/projects.

Based on the final rendering, it seems the buildings will not have parking fronting 5th Ave.... except for the hotel... *maybe*. It seems they received quite a bit of pushback by planning parking fronting 5th Ave so it looks like that has changed and will now just be a slight setback. For the hotel however (the plot closest to the river), the site plans have drawn parking along 5th but the most recent announcements say the hotel is still being designed/worked on so there is a good chance that could change. For more detail and renders just follow this http://harrisonwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Battelle_Combined.pdf

My favorite piece of this article is the quote from Brian Ellis, “We’re excited to get the final phase underway and fulfill the full vision for this project which has forever changed our city’s great skyline.” Whoa man, that's a neat little take on this project. Like, can you all imagine how stunning these would be at like 25/30 floors! That would be skyline changing. Okay, got bored. Enjoy some photoshopping of my dreams everyone.