DTCL11

From what I've understood, some central Ohio departments of health are interpreting it as construction (including private home contruction/remodel) is not essential and it is expected that most projects in town will likely come to a halt for awhile. I'll be curious to see what the ultimate decision is since the local health departments are the ones making the determination. Will the big 3 come to the same interpretation or will some see them as essential? I guess we'll know shortly. I wish the state had been a little more clear on that.

Looks like the Crew Stadium Experience Center is completed. Whether it's open or not I'm not sure.

Other than that corner building, which could easily be incorporated, that's quite a chunk of land once the warehouse style buildings are cleared. Hopefully something decent.

At least GV hasn't created a formal non-profit organization to raise fund for legal battles to fight development like a community in Sandy Springs (Atlanta) did.... yet... that's a comfort, right? Lol

Pavey, King and High. They made shirts for Pavey if I remember correctly. There was a less concerted but still vocal opposition to High and Thompkins as being too tall... it's all speculative but I have little faith in many of the commissions in Columbus anymore.

'It needs to fit in with the neighborhood, it's too big. We want more businesses but we hate how yellow brick and olde towne tavern affect our parking and complain about it. Why cant it match what is existing. And NEVER. NEVERRRRR. WILL WE ALLOW A BUILDING TO BE A HANDFUL OF FEET TALLER THAN OUR ELEVATED 2 STORY HOMES WITH FULL ATTIC! THATS TOOOOOOO TALLLLLLLL' But in seriousness. How does a city develop beyond log cabins if the argument is that it always has to match? Columbus needs to find that happy place between Chicago and where Columbus is now in terms of community control. For smaller projects, these kinds of conversations are moot. Modern gets build next to old. 4 stories next to 2. And infill is rapid. (There are many more nuances and issues in Chicago than that implies but for the purposes of a project like this, or the GV Hotel etc, people don't *usually* bat an eye, let alone get caught up in year and years of approval processes). Let the commissions have their say on designs and materials and that's about it. I can't wait to see the crap show the day that the lot behind houndogs in ONC eventually gets developed....

Sounds like it went exactly as well as we would have thought... 'We want a walkable neighborhood... but we are super concerned about parking... and don't want any added density to make it MORE walkable. That's preposterous. Absolutely NO HEIGHT. Oh. And make it a Trader Joe's (as if that's the developers choice)'

I was going to go with home ownership age in these communities and income. Along the lines of Gcrites it is who has the time to participate. I would love to for Old North but I travel too much for work to participate so I just email my thoughts each time but could not hold a spot on the commission until i make a career change.

They want single family homes and *maybe* 2 story retail to identically match the next block over. Which is fine. Probably could have worked years ago. But due to cost of land, construction costs, etc etc, that kind of small project isnt financially feasible. But they don't care about that.

So now we're dealing with NITBY's. Frankly, they should petition support among the immediate neighbors and use that to bolster an appeal to the city. 5 freaking designs. That's a lot of patience. Kudos to them for that at least.

Interesting! And perhaps the new development can do more to pay homage for it. Could be an interesting opportunity for perhaps a parklet with a sculpture or a mural that makes it a photo opportunity for buckeye fans. Anything is better than this I suppose.....

According to CU, Gordon Biersch has closed the Arena District brewery along with other across the country. I hope, that with the insurgence of craft and local brewing since 2001, a local or nearby brewery taps the market and takes advantage of the location. Maybe, just maybe, we can finally see Rhinegeist enter the Cbus market... or Cleveland's Market Garden Brewery can keep up a tradition of being next to public markets here.

This could get fun. And those aerials really put the massive size of the property in context. I've never realized how large it is all the times I've been down there. So much potential for a thoughtful development, with a touch of spite if the right people get involved. A rooftop bar 12 stories up overlooking GV and Schiller Park sounds like a wonderful start. Make sure it includes a hotel with glass and steel ? (not that I think that's what should actually go there but.... ) Edit: I had some more free time this evening to dig a bit deeper. Not only does GE sit just outside GVC territory.... it seems to go around the GE... this is the map of the commission territory from Columbus.gov

That seemingly came out of nowhere. What commission has formal review of it? I honestly can't see any scenario where anything substantive will get approved. I want it to but I fear GV will put up a nasty fight.

It would be perfect aesthetically but I think the city would be squeamish with potential flooding. I wonder if the upper plaza would work. But you bring something up I've thought about Columbus for years: How does Columbus not have a winter ice rink downtown? Cleveland, Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Canton, Toledo, Ottawa Park, Dayton, Cincy and perhaps more have them. Not to mention some of our deeper midwest peers. To be fair, some of the rinks disappeared for a few years but they're all back now. I thought winterfest was gonna be our transition to an annual downtown rink. Certainly Columbus's weather isn't any less manageable than Cincy's. There's always artificial as well. An outdoor winter rink is definitely on my wish list for Columbus.

This is pretty exciting. It may be one of the more exciting projects in terms of potential for me. I won't expect alot, but I hope that a trio of companies can provide the potential for something more than a simple reno and perhaps that is an indication of something big in that there are multiple investors. They would have more capital to go bigger and I assume would expect a much bigger ROI to split There is some pretty significant potential for this location given, not just the size of the existing structures, but the size of the lot that exists as surface parking now. More than 50% of the property is surface lots. Its proximity to the CMAX helps. The unfortunate part is being surrounded by Abbott, Columbus Schools Fort Hayes Campus, and CSCC, there isnt much opportunity to build continuity (from other developers etc) beyond that. I'm not willing to bet any money the city will ever give up any portion of Ft Hayes. It would be somewhat isolated. While it might have the potential to be Columbus's Ponce City Market, that isolation might kill some of that kind of ambition to bring that kind of retail to the location, and reasonably so. Regardless of whether it molds to a Ponce model, there is ample room for a structure over parking in the center of the existing buildings. depending on the size of the central garage, that could be a decent mid-rise and the remaining areas of the NW and North portion of the property could be several smaller outbuildings. But my sim city dreams of maximum potential are probably more ambitious than what the developers can feasibly do. Edit: for reference, the total land there is a little less than 9.5 acres with about half being non structure currently. The Casto Giant Eagle/CVS plaza in VV is about 5 acres.

I was feeling a bit snarky yesterday. I suppose I could have added a '/s' after the first sentence as I'm not *actually* looking forward to it but I do certainly see a scenario where that could be the case. Certainly Easton has a role to play in the grand scheme of Columbus growth but it will be a sad say if we ever see more units and office space going into Easton than the core. The question will be, does the core suffer from the urbanization of suburbs or can there be substantial, healthy growth in both? Time will tell I suppose.

The McCoy Center was built to be a mall? Not a purpose built office? I'm referring to McCoy and not the Mall. Yes, the jobs could have been shipped elsewhere and yes it is significant to the economy, I won't dispute that, but that doesn't mean the city shouldn't have done better at the time. In fact, that sentiment speaks to the nature of what is wrong with corporations using cities in a race to the bottom for benefits. Let them have what they want or they'll leave. This was a big contention with CoverMyMeds. I believe BankOne got quite a bit of benefits from the city, among them, untold millions to build the infrastructure to accommodate the traffic and how many untold millions since by the city and state? How many times can we rebuild highway ramps and widen freeways in 25 years? Sure, it was a different time and better urban practices were not as prevelant, but the 90s is also when many of the financial centers that helped transform some urban centers were built, including references southern cities. Beyond Skyscrapers, what might the core of Columbus have looked like if Columbus had there been another 10,000 people working downtown or downtown adjacent. The McCoy center is coincidentally the same size as the target office space of the Peninsula. I think its equally as valid for us to be disappointed and re-evaluate past decisions that contribute to urban sprawl and over-reliance on cars such as this in the same way we complain about decisions to level neighborhoods for highways, allowing buildings to be torn down for parking lots, poor buildings with little street activation, too many curb cuts, etc etc. Things are changing and perhaps proper mass transit will help change my mind but I will always be frustrated with it having been built in the sticks (at the time) and wonder how the core would be different with these jobs... I'd hope that amounts to being more than 'ignorant'. Edit: also interesting that the McCoy center would be supported by the city which would lead to the overall success of Polaris, not mutually exclusive to the decline of City Center. That's not to say I wish City Center was still around, Polaris was the sole nail in City Center's coffin, or that it was also a great urban beauty, but that itself was a loss of a significant amount of jobs and revenue as well.

As nice as this is, I will still always be jaded by the fact such a massive suburban complex was allowed in the first place.

The right development could bring the next level of Farm to Table dining with a skyline view.... who needs a cart of cuts of meat when the entire cow can be paraded right by the table?

I look forward to the day when Easton builds more towers and housing units a year than downtown... I can certainly see a scenario where that happens if downtown is only able to put 1000 units, give or take, online a year. Single land ownership. Significant investment. Easy peasy. ... in theory... after all, the casino got a zoning variance for a hotel up to 375' in 2012... That was a fun experiment, though, now let's see them also put out a conceptual variance for a street car and a central transit center... if they intend to go this big, they need to be damn serious about a transit system and not simply go with a car dependent urban suburban model this large. A street car that circulates the Easton property (not a stupid self driving shuttle). And such a development should be able to fund a private streetcar and not wait for COTA to catch up with the times. A transit center that ties the streetcar to a COTA BRT and Northern AirConnect etc etc etc. Prepare for it now and not after the fact. But really, why is there even a height limit that applies to Easton? That should have been handled blanket early on. Even if the commission is easily granting variances, it takes a random change of heart or commission members to become much less receptive.

My counterargument would be that a regular aerating fountain (or two) that were present prior and in many other similar ponds would be sufficient. The sculpture could have even stayed. The price tag is really quite significant. The lack of foresight makes it more frustrating in that it has taken 3 tries to find the right solution. I definitely won't argue against public investment in parks and will gladly support any park funding but I will question the value of particular investments. I like the fountain and appreciate it more after I learned its meaning beyond a 'republican birthday cake' but I still cringe at the price tag to fix a luxury in one of Columbus's top parks whether or not the fountain was present while others would dream of a portion of that. And while there is always the 'it could be spent elsewhere' argument, IMO, the value wasn't worth it. Even as a member of Franklin Park, I'm not sold on the $2.7million (including the engineering study) spent to get the cascades working again. The repair of the fountain without a significant effort to raise private capital is alot of dog parks the city lacks, new accessible playground equipment, better lighting for safety, sidewalks or court surfaces in the parks, new pavilions etc. But we all have our preferences on where money is spent. I'm certain to be in a minority on this project I'm sure.

I would have rather saved $500,000 in taxpayer funds and just said 'thanks for the donation, but your fountain is more trouble than it's worth' and just removed it after the first round of significant public spending to rectify the issue from a privately funded fountain. It's the gift that kept sucking up resources that should have been spent elsewhere.

Or build them to allow upward expansion in the future

As of yesterday, no. And no signs of them.