DTCL11

18 Stories in Columbus's University District?! You MONSTER! NOT OVER MY DEAD BODY. We only put parking lots over dead bodies in THIS town!

I've admittedly been half paying attention since I didn't think we'd even get this far so maybe it has been answered but will any of the routes in Ohio be dedicated rail lines? Or is this relying on sharing existing freight lines?

The Upper Arlington restaurant is currently offering delivery service only. Orders can be placed through its website, DoorDash or Uber Eats. Rhuanphae said Basil has adopted a “wait and see” approach to whether or not it will reopen its dining room. Ruanphae said staffing was a major factor in the decision to close Buddha Bowl, and it’s currently one of the reasons the eatery has opted for delivery service only. After closing Buddha Bowl, that eatery’s staff was moved to Basil in Upper Arlington. Another hurdle for the restaurant, he said, is the potential redevelopment of Golden Bear Plaza, where the restaurant is located. They needed quick access to a kitchen and got it. Think of it as a temporary ghost kitchen and not an actual reopening.

Is everything pending archeological dig? We know there will he a pause. That's a given. But is the city holding the permits specifically until that's done for some reason?

It was a strip mall in downtown. I love Wendy's history as much as the next person and LOVE the crown but I do not lament the loss of a building that looks like anything built along Morse or Bethel Road in the same time period. Should that catholic rebuild been better and street front, yes. But I still don't think the original should have been preserved per se unless part of a bigger infill.

The one story and adjacent 2 story are both owned by the same entity so there is some really good potential to build above the two to the corner. I would love to see a similar treatment as the Hampton. Build out and up for the corner with a mix of traditional and modern materials. Part of me would also be ok if that 1 story just went away and became a big gateway plaza.

In a rare occurrence, I'm actually ok with the East long building. I remember looking at it before and it's a bastardized commercial store front built out of 2 homes, like alot of storefronts thay are disappearing along High in the UD. This is one where I legitimately see where it would be near impossible to do anything except mimic the commercial front. I would argue to ok demolition. With the standard stipulation of having definitive replacement lined up.

All indications are this will be darn near identical in height to the Hilton and end up 'technically' shorter. It gains an advantage for ground level being a little higher than the Hilton. I really don't think there will be a discernable difference except from certain perspectives where one advantages the other. Cbussoccers's post is pretty definitive. 352' vs the Hilton's 357'. And seeming to compare apples to apples, Hilton is 30 stories (including mechanial) and Merchant is 32 including mechanical. Wherr multiple stories in the Hilton are massive well exceeding if not doubling the typical 10-14' average where Merchant doesn't have the equivalent. Now, let's have some real fun and figure out the heights from sea level 😅

I wish local media and developers would just give us the heights as well instead of all this digging to try and figure it out. Give us the precision we desire because using stories and floors is so variable. Donley's website (Concrete contractor) for Hilton 2.0 describes the project as being 30 stories instead of 28 but they list the actual height of 357' whereas all other media calls Hilton 2.0 28 stories. In reality, stories are so often confused with floors. So a '28 story' Hilton 2.0 could be much closer to the height of Merchant building if they aren't accounting for the fact several of the stories are well over 10-14' tall. Anywho... I won't hold my breath on media and developers giving us what we want. Lol.

The carve out was there from the start of the major update, including the railings even though the rooftop terrace wasn't formally announced or renderings released for another year. I did some more digging and I think I figured it out. It seems to be semantics. The building will be 31 floors but 32 stories tall. A floor wasn't added. They just started describing it as 32 stories to account for the mechanical penthouse. EDIT: CbusSoccer's elevation rendering seems to confirm the same. 31 floors. 32 stories. From 2021 As of May 2022, the SF of offices, number of rooms etc has shifted but not seemingly the number of floors.

Tell me you don't know how to differentiate urban businesses without telling me you don't know how to differentiate ubran businesses. Anyway... The height changed with the branding change, correct. But the only difference that I can find is that the top floor has potentially grown in height and the Merchant Building signage extends significantly higher than the core. I wonder if it's just some weird semantics they're playing because some articles from the name announcement last may say 31 stories and others say 32 but I don't think anything substantive has actually changed. A side by side comparison. All things being the same. Sorry I couldn't find a better resolution of the updated version. i noticed that they did add telecom as well. Perhaps the rooftop access section was heightened a bit to accommodate this. If they found the right contract, it may have been worthwhile to make a difference most won't even realize while touting an additional story? Now I kind of wish the telecom tower was something more aestetic or iconic as well. Like one of those that also indicates weather conditions or something or some sort of false water tower etc. It would have given it a bit more of that iconic look like the original proposal vs the average mixed use behemoth. They could always play the big city games and shroud the tower too and pretend it adds height too 😅

A community meeting to discuss the proposal is scheduled for February 6 (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.), at Trinity Baptist Church, 461 St. Clair Ave. It's not often I want to see a packed house against development but I hope it's bursting at the seams. Would be fun to see a big student turn out too. Maybe some of those students opposing apartments on High can gather for something a bit more important to the history of the community. I also enjoy the comments on traffic... lol I just keep coming back to this and there is just no justification for it. Not with all they own and their financials. They just don't want to be stewards of a historical, non-medical building, in such case, transfer the building to a non profit and contribute to it.

I think the issue will be the fact the hospital and university operate so separately. I'm wondering if the school or hospital can take any of the words they have surely put out over the last few years about the impacts of this decision. But like GCrites says, hospitals are not likely to care. They thrive on devalued real estate and usually do little to invest and enhance neighborhoods. I know systems are rethinking this but for many many years, it was in the hospitals best interests to let things slide and scoop up land at a lower value than build up the community. There is no excuse for it except pure unadulterated cost cutting and the perceived for something insanely suburban for patients to more easily navigate. A complete and utter failure of vision and lack of community responsibility.

Bingo. It's all a bunch of circular talk from these committees giving developers the run around. They'll sell it as being varying opinions on the committee but the point is to work together to make it hard on developers. They could almost scale and copy King and High and it would be perfect. But I also like that Buckeye wants to say they're trying to keep rents down when we all know they'll still charge market rate while trying to get away with the cheapest build they can.

The NBC report is generally full of a bunch of bull from both sides but this is particularly laughable from Buckeye: "Justin Garland, vice president of business development at Buckeye Real Estate, told the board the urgent need for dense housing in the University District necessitates a waiver of the business space development requirement." WUT? Other highlights:: Students want more transparency on rental prices before approving it... again, wut? Can't preserve any historic structures because of parking... ok, dude Board won't approve anything modern atop the historic structures... not an earthquake, just my eyes rolling. Board verbally suggests things similar to King and High... but no modern adornments allowed? Students worry about pushing out immigrants owned businesses... Board expresses hesitation to approve something students don't support... Of course, the primary focus of the businesses facing displacement is the bars. https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus/proposals-to-tear-down-bier-stube-little-bar-near-ohio-state-sent-back-to-drawing-board/

They could have also done contextually from the North with King and High. I'll detract and say I like this version less. Glad they added the facade to appease rhe commission. I love how the rendering shows the dirty damaged faced to 'truly preserve'. The angles in the original version were much better. The updated seem too boxy and punched out. Almost shipping container-esque.

The state will most likely have to reroute 23 before we would see anything that drastic. It took a significant amount of effort, stipulations, etc to get Summit/4th/Indianola where they are today let alone something as drastic as that. And yes, the precedent is set with Indianola alone but the state doesn't give up what it has easily.

You're right. Got my schiffty and schotty developers mixed up.

I know we talk about urban groceries alot, but even in big cities, they are rare, not unheard of or impossible, to be fully integrated into mixed use, or if they are, the mixed use is not above the retail so this is exciting and buzz worthy. Retailers do their best to stray away from them if they can. [Waits for list of groceries in apartment buildings in big cities to prove me wrong lol] I know that Lidl is really focusing on mixed used incorporation as well. Would be awesome to see them swoop in and take up that charge downtown or Franklinton.

Is there a possibility that the expanded market and plaza will be open before the building is fully completed? With safety canopies etc of course

I will always repeat this story when appropriate and seems appropriate now. There was all sorts of concerns about moving the small businesses off campus and away from students but for Old North, I think it's been a catalyst for alot of good. The loss of nostalgia on high has resulted in growth elsewhere in the community. And when evolved moved in, I had a close friend and several relatives concerned about living so close to a tattoo parlor. That has never scared me and I expressed that. Especially being a customer and knowing the clientele of Evolved. What I now get to brag about is how the owner of Evolved has been crucial in bringing more life to this little corner. This is not to downplay how much Used Kids and others have played a part as well. He saw a need in the old movie theater. Bought it. Secured it. Sought out a partner for redevelopment. And when that fell through, instead of sitting it out, he has continued with the renovations. So now we have great businesses, a weekly summer swap meet, and soon a revitalized building for someone to rent. Why? Because campus is evolving and a tattoo parlor moved in across the street. In particular, the owner of these buildings uses them and has a vested interest in the success of this area. Their parking lot lights may be a bit too bright at night for my windows, but otherwise, I love to tell people who are skiddish about living by a tattoo parlor how much I'm glad they moved in. Now, if only we could get the out of town buyers of the old Law Office to be a bit more invested in that building as well. I'm sill itching for Lyken to take an interest in some smaller infill projects around here too lol.

The office component was my mistake. I read it as 52k SF per building and was hoping for a more consolidated office presence but at 52k per complex that makes much more sense

In a great surprise, the local media is heavily focused on the displacement of a bar more than anything else. *yawn* Sorry. Just a bit that's annoyed me every time I open the new websites.

As of October 2022, Amazon held roughly 40% of the world market share of cloud computing. A rapid growth from 30% ish a year before. In simple terms, these data centers essentially replace our own laptop, personal computer, business data centers, etc. Companies are outsourcing their own storage and computing to these centers. We all see and know of Amazon for good and products, but AWS is basically going to own the world before long and that's what drives the data center growth. I notice the article mentioned office space which was interesting. Not alot but also not insignificant. I also know people who work for AWS locally so perhaps, without the flare, Columbus become Amazon HQ3. Unfortunately, having all the office space out there kind of sucks rather than consolidating it in a more urban area, even at a more urbanized Easton (if it ever materializes).

It does include the corner building. I don't think the commission is going to put up much of a fight to preserve the corner building. For some reason I get a feeling they will roll on it given its proximity to the rest of the ubiquitous mega builds. It seems to be in a zone they have less care to preserve?