TH3BUDDHA

This popped up on reddit about a month ago and is linked in the WaPo article. It's an essay that he wrote about Columbus: Regarding Columbus, Ohio Why Columbus? I can usually hear the question coming a few sentences before it arrives. People, old friends and new, Twitter followers and digital passersby, journalists interviewing me about my new book, want to know. To say nothing of proud Ohioans. And, obviously given the concept of this newsletter, I enjoy talking about my joy. So, whenever asked (and okay, often when not asked) I happily rhapsodize about the town I up and moved to this September after living in New York City for almost a decade. I go into “I swear no one is paying me to say this” mode. “Why Columbus?” you ask? How much time do you have? The thing is, my explanation is always iridescent, taking on the color of the person asking as well as my mood and the moment itself. The answers are legion and varied; the answers are all the truth. And so, this one is for Columbus and all the colors of why. ... More here: https://saeedjones.substack.com/p/regarding-columbus-ohio

Nationwide Realty to break ground soon on 10-story Arena District condo tower Nationwide Realty Investors Ltd. is moving ahead with plans for a third building in its Parks Edge condominium project at West Spring Street and John H. McConnell Boulevard. The 10-story, 50-unit tower will be the final phase of the luxury condominium community. It's slated to break ground in early 2020 and welcome its first residents in 2021, according to an email obtained by Columbus Business First. ... According to the email, the new building will offer similar floor plans to the existing buildings, with the majority of the units fronting the commons. The building's exterior will feature two stories of brick facade with glass on the upper floors, designed to "connect seamlessly" with the architecture of the first two buildings, according to the email. More here: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/11/07/exclusive-nationwide-realty-to-break-ground-soon.html?iana=hpmvp_colum_news_headline

Yep, I didn't mean to come off snarky. Just that I can't really tell what IS and IS NOT confirmed in that thread. Some people were talking about rumors of a 650' tower being announced today and then KJP is saying no iconic tower. Hard to tell. I guess I'll just wait for the official announcement from SHW. And just wanted to point out that we have a lot of excitement coming as well.

Did they confirm that they are "going big"? KJP has said multiple times that they have no interest in building an iconic tower and it is even in that most recent article he wrote. They are going for a campus setting on the Public Square and Weston lots. Many of them in that thread are still concerned that they'll waste the Public Square lot with a smaller build. But if they do the 1.8 million sq feet in a campus setting, we'll literally be having the same thing being built on the Peninsula at the same time, and possibly more considering the Peninsula project is 2million sq feet of office space ON TOP of the residential and retail. It will be interesting to see if SHW goes mixed use.

Another write-up about Columbus from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Columbus, Ohio: A two-wheel tour where fun and giant cream puffs reign COLUMBUS, Ohio — A labyrinth of a bookstore. A cream puff the size of a Corolla. A breezy stroll along the river. A bustling indoor market. A conservatory featuring interplay with glass sculptures. Those are just some of the highlights of a recent visit to Columbus, Ohio, where I was in town for AIMExpo, a national motorcycle and powersports convention. The good folks at KTM North America were kind enough to lend me a 2019 790 Duke for an entire day, and that provided the perfect excuse to explore the city. (And, really, what better way is there than doing that via two wheels?) More here: https://www.post-gazette.com/life/travel/2019/11/04/Columbus-Ohio-tour-visit-tourism-motorcycling-German-Village-Scioto-River/stories/201910210001

It looks like scoring the American Society of Association Executives is already starting to pay off. Columbus scores another big convention: Influential meeting planners to gather here in 2023 The Professional Convention Management Association has selected Columbus to host its Convening Leaders convention in 2023. The event is expected to bring 4,200 attendees to the city and generate about $6.2 million in direct visitor spending, including 14,650 hotel room nights. ... Ross said the city’s successful experience hosting ASAE led to PCMA’s decision. He said Columbus officials had to “build trust” in PCMA’s leadership that “Columbus could not only host, but provide a tremendous experience.” More here: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/11/05/columbus-scores-another-big-convention-influential.html?iana=hpmvp_colum_news_headline

Dirt lots represent!

They better watch out for all of those bodies under there! In all seriousness, I’m newer to following this kinda stuff. Doesn’t soil sampling usually happen before any proposal is made?

No proposal yet.

Also, Pizzuti has put up signage around the Graham Ford lot. This has to be pretty recent as I've driven by there not too long ago:

I also noticed that Fortuity had their signage up on the 775 Broad St building and are working on getting their courtyard along Broad St done:

Here are some others from the Orange Barrel Parking lot and one through the fence from the road:

On my drive home on 670 everyday, I've started to notice that CoverMyMeds HQ is beginning to become visible from the highway. I decided to swing over there after work today. It's hard to get a great shot because of how it's fenced off and blocked by some buildings, so I grabbed some from Orange Barrel Media's parking lot. This picture shows the building in comparison to the highway level:

I was just going to comment about this. MORPC had us over 900,000 in 2018. Based on their estimates, we would crack 915,000 sometime in 2019. http://www.morpc.org/news/central-ohio-population-to-reach-3-million-by-2050/

A really interesting photo from the company installing the Encova lettering. Posted on the Columbus subreddit:

Because "putting developers on notice" shifts the narrative away from their decades of incompetence.

This article was frustrating to read. I can't believe the city is worried about more parking. If Rogue says it can work without the parking, give them their damn variance. Only throwing out Austin as an alternative city seems like too much of a coincidence, though. Trying to bring up bad memories to make the city give them what they want?

I imagine there are too many people invested in the auto industry that are causing this stuff to be held back. If you start building developments with no parking, people will need public transit and this will hurt their bottom line. Central Ohio benefits from the Japanese auto industry. Obviously the Honda plant, but I know some Japanese auto tech companies have brought their Amercian HQ to Dublin. Maybe I just have my tinfoil hat on, though.

Such a great spot for a future rail stop from the airport

Yea, I think the Scioto Peninsula developers have the benefit of having such a huge parcel of land that they are building out in multiple phases over a decade. They can afford to go a little smaller on these first buildings and get a feeling for the demand. They can ramp up the next phases as needed. Millenial Tower is a bit different in that they have that smaller plot in a prime location. It seems they want to go tall, but it's probably more risky to do that without a guaranteed commitment. I'd rather they wait for the right moment to go tall than to take the safe route of putting another 5 or 6 story building there. Maybe this new "mini Millenial Tower" is actually their attempt at similarly feeling out the market?

I also think a failing Cleveland actually prevents a lot of people from considering Columbus as a cool place they'd want to move. You will often see positive media about Columbus with comments like "yea, but it's in Ohio." I've talked to people when travelling to other cities and they immediately have a certain reaction when you say you're from Ohio. They really know nothing about Columbus, though. I think a lot of this negative feeling people have about Ohio as a whole comes from the famous negative media about Cleveland, especially the burning river and "at least we're not Detroit video." They just assume that's all of Ohio. I do think the secret is beginning to get out about Columbus, though. So this may start changing very quickly.

I hope they stay in Cleveland as well. I'm just happy that they've expanded their comments to include "across the state of Ohio" in the event of some failed land deal or something. It would really suck to see them leave for Charlotte or Atlanta.

Same. But, a man can dream. I'd say our chances are about 1 out of a million.

Yea, here is the related article: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/report-four-cities-outside-of-ohio-are-being-seriously-considered-for-new-headquarters-of-sherwin-williams/95-765feb7c-2ebb-4f3e-beef-f4364f2b6012 Most of it is useless repeated information from John Boyd, who has no inside sources and is just spewing the names of typical relocation cities. However, there is one interesting thing from the article, a quote from Sherwin Williams themselves: The "across the state of Ohio" is interesting because it is new information directly from the company and is a blatant change from their original quote when they first publicly announced that they were looking for a new HQ: From here: http://crainscleveland.com/real-estate/sherwin-williams-confirms-its-looking-new-global-headquarters It most likely means nothing, but it becomes a bit more interesting because of comments by a very well informed NE Ohio forumer that goes by KJP and is actually blogger, Ken Prendergast, who they are referring to in that first article. He has mentioned that there have been some issues between Sherwin Williams and the county regarding Sherwin Williams' preferred site at Public Square because the county is also looking for a plot of land to put their new Justice Center. He has even mentioned that at one point, relations needed to be smoothed out with Sherwin Williams. I just find it interesting that the company has changed their quote to include all of Ohio when their first quote explicitly only mentioned NE Ohio. At that time, some of the NE Ohio forumers were concerned that Columbus would try to attract Sherwin Williams but were assured that Columbus is not part of "Cleveland, Northeast Ohio and several other states." I find the number 2m sq ft to be particularly interesting because the number that has been thrown around about Sherwin Williams is that they are looking for the new HQ to have 1.8 m sq ft of space. Like I said, this all probably means nothing. But, I like speculating and until shovels are in the ground in Cleveland, I'm going to hope. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Columbus put a package in front of them. They may very well want to stay in Cleveland, but that means nothing if they can't get their desired land and maaayybbbeee they're just giving Columbus a little listen because of that.

We already have Walmart in the Short North. Bonobos.