DTCL11

To be fair, plenty of commercial retail, office, and housing developers would have done the same over the same period of time. Or even the city. Let's look at how Front Street or Marconi interact with City Hall and the Supreme Court. Without unified city and hospital master plan for a specialized district, it's bound to happen.

It is absolutely deception. They intentionally left out the most significant portion of the existing property to say, look at the grossness we are replacing. And Columbus needs housing is not an excuse to keep bulldozing everything with reckless abandon. Period. I say this every time. If we keep looking at singular projects saying 'well this one is ok because a, b, c...' before we know it we will be out of buildings that add character and history to a city and be left with little to show in history and architectural variety. We have to stop looking so narrowly at demolition approvals. We don't even have to go more than a few hundred feet to a really successful project at King and High to see that there is little excuse for protecting what's left.

The fun part of the Harbor Bay development is the deception. What's missing from the 'current conditions'? Could it be a pretty well in tact, sizeable, pre-war structure? THEN they have the audacity to include a section of brick first floor that essentially mimics similar structures Hear me out.... flip it. And use the existing historic structure for that.... But I'm sure THIS will win over the commission.

Right. Which is why we are voting on a comprehensive transit plan that tackles just that in the city. Improving transit where it is mostly in demand and most likely to be used. COTA, MORPC, and all the parties involved understand that we can focus on convincing the folks who live outside the county, in the least dense areas of central Ohio, who are the most car dependent already, at a later time. Again, sorry if I assumed C Suite folks live out there and have no interest in taking transit but again, that's losing the plot here.

Even if we take out that part, and the off chance that one of these decision makers takes transit, the rest of my commentary stands on its own. But sure, let's hyper focus on the fact that an executive may or may not take transit if available.

'These same people' being C Suite Folks and the ones making the decisions to move to the suburbs. Not the grunts. I'm well aware your average worker may, including some from the burbs but Folks with designated parking spots and negotiated salaries and bonus structures... not so much. I'll stand by my statement all day.

And those stuck around for a LONG time. We are only in year 2/3 and folks are not prepared to consider it will last longer than another year or two. We have also entered the era of profit stability is not an acceptable model and that profit should grow every year. While this probably impacts developers less, investors generally only want to see profit growth year over year and facing years of perhaps stagnant profit is not acceptable. While the margins may still be good, they aren't better than the year before so that makes investors mad.

Their hands aren't tied. Sell and move on. We can't keep sacrificing what's left simply because developers can't afford to rehab a building. It's not a valid excuse.

Upper Arlington is, for all intents and purposes, a bubble of Columbus. It's no different than my experience on the 4 from Old North/Clintonville. My point about outside 270 remains. It's just a different jurisdiction. Circulators are our best bet for the causal folks. Frequency, and dedicated lanes is the name of the game for the rest of us. While looking to expand some service and route for alternative cross town access but even the biggest, most comprehensive transit systems have those shortcomings. Try to get from most of Queens to Brooklyn, or Lakeview to Ligan Square in a timely or efficient fashion. But there's also a mindset that public transit should get us from all point As to All point Bs with little effort or time thats an unachievable goal. The 1 line gets you to all those places, but you might have to walk a couple blocks after you get off. If you solve the frequency issue, is there still a complaint that it's not easy to go for coffee at Staufs, head to Hubbard for Dinner, and then over to Huntington for a game? Something we also lose perspective of is how much more people walk in big cities. It's nothing for those without mobility issues to walk from 250s High to Staufs. Many don't even think about it. But here we do. Because it's easy to drive or otherwise. I will still assert that the move from Downtown to Northern Suburbs isn't going to be alleviated by trying to get New Albany, Pataskala etc subdivisions to hop on a transit line to downtown. In fact, it may expedite office expansion in those areas because they know that their people want to drive and have free parking and transit works 2 ways. Transit people are gojng to prefer tranit. Drivers are going to prefer to drive. So a company would say, well, my city folk can just as easily transit out and be happy and my suburban folks will also be happy not having to drive all the way in to town. See any number of cities where office hubs spring up around transit hubs outside the outer belt. Charlotte for example. Transit isn't what has been driving uptown growth. It's diversity in residential, retail, sports, parks, etc. They've added rail and it hasn't necessarily driven new office growth downtown. It has helped explode residential but they're experiencing the same decline in office use and reduction in new office construction that the rest of us are. DC core is being wiped out while offices are growing in Virginia and Maryland along those Metro hubs. My point shouldn't be misconstrued as transit resistance. I dream of a comprehensive system. My dream is regional rail but its not going to be the holy grail. We do need to focus on our core in other ways including our own urban transit before we start diverting funds to accomodate out of county folks. Sure, a massive holistic approach for all of central Ohio sounds wonderful but it's not feasible right now. My biggest point being that even a massive transit overhaul isn't going to chance C Suite folks deciding to move from Downtown to the Suburbs. Having more people who work in these places who live downtown and surrounding is going to do more for helping or bringing companies back than accommodating people leaving outside the county for easier transit. So make downtown as attractive as possible to love and ramp up residency and the rest will follow. Cbussoccer is right in that there's a reset that Columbus, and most other mid size markets, are going through. It's going to take some time but downtown and urban cores are going to look very different than they did in the latter half of the 21st Century.

Those conversations to move to suburbs are to accomodate people who live in the suburbs. Those same people will never take public transit. Even the most updated system will not deter many of those conversations because they aren't thinking of the folks who live in the core neighborhoods. They're thinking of the ones who live in the winding mazes of suburban subdivisions that transit will never effectively help, nor would the residents ever want to take them. Instead we invest billions in roads to accomodate them. Billions in public transit will not appease them. At best we get rail hubs in the suburban centers but that won't necessarily mean more development downtown. It would likely mean a spike in office development around those rail hubs like many large cities. So your wish may still very well have you commuting to the suburbs to accomodate the folks who don't want to drive downtown. Which shouldn't be read a reason not to build such systems. Do it now. Delaware to Columbus should have been done 10 years ago, but that doesn't mean it would have jump started growth downtown exclusively. We would have seen office growth spike wherever the Delaware line stopped too. Also, in flexible work models, those same people don't want to be paying for monthly parking passes when using them a handful of times a month. Parking is a abundant and cheap. We leveled entire blocks of this city to accomodate parking for the office tenants. Their concerns are hollow. Transit is a must, but its not going to solve our current exodus. Those same C Suite folks will move offices to the burbs all day with a good transit system or not. I'm kind of ok with some of the exodus. That has allowed alot of residential conversion and perhaps the Key Bank Tower will be next on that list if the owners decide to sell cheap. That then forces demand for new commercial space that tenants can move in to and new buildings. What's going to be more impactful to downtown is a drastic increase in residential and retail and new Class A office space where people want to live and play. We will never appease or be able to accomodate those who make decisions about office locations catering to those who live outside 270. Again, 10000000% transit and I am VERY harsh on COTA, but it's not the main solution to this problem.

Yay.... another one gone... /s This city is a joke. Over under on how long it's a gravel pit?

Wouldn't that give Edwards a leg up with a signed tenant for 200+ lawyers of there is some greater deal that serves multiple parties? I don't think the scoop and the former Edwards scoop have to be mutually exclusive.

These folks give me scammy vibes. We've seen alot of press and promises corporate buzz words but little more than a mural, demolition of building, and a bar in a warehouse?

Don't worry. 1 year of road dust from all the major roads near by and it won't be white long.

It's a Law Firm. Don't expect anything more than what it is. They're moving from rented space at 175 S 3rd to their own space. https://www.sikoralaw.com/contact-us/

MLS is 15 weeks away. At an average of 1.5 weeks per floor, 10 stories. If it's any slower, 5-7 stories. With a 2.5 year construction schedule, I don't see it happening any faster than that for much of a show for the all star game... now... if it had started in late 2022 like it was supposed to...

The collective panic and utter car dependent and parking bias of the media about the zoning changes kills me. Every article is basically uproar about parking. Developers will barely build a structure downtown without too much parking, where there are no parking requirements. Do people really think developers are angling to build en masse outside of downtown with no parking when they understand that they still have to attract tenants? It's not just the comments melting brains. It's the authors melting brains too.

Thank you @ColDayMan :-)

Can we make a new thread for this or add it or Downton Strategic/Zoning Plan from the Random Thread? Urban General 1 (UG1) Urban General 2 (UG2) Urban Center (UCT) Urban Core (UCR) Community Activity Center (CAC) Regional Activity Center (RAC)

Email template: Dear city council, f*** NIMBYs. Pass this now. Thank you for your consideration, [Name]

Our winters here aren't miserable enough to warrant that kind of system. It's kind of counter intuitive general urban practices these days. skybridges pull from street activation year round to make it more 'comfortable' for a small period of time. So in a time when cities are not permitting them and tearing many down to fix their negative impact, we don't need any new ones here. Especially as our winters resemble a Carolina winter more and more.

It was completely remodeled in 2013. Yes, those design choices were intentionally made just a bit over a decade ago. You'd be surprised how many travelers prefer the decor of the existing. Granted, many of those being a certain age and income bracket but if the rooms are booking, they won't update it for awhile. If the booking levels decrease, then we would be more likely to see a modernization.

Rebranding to 'The Plaza Hotel at Capital Square' still managed by Marriott

I caught that yesterday too. Also took a peak inside, it's cleared out and plywood over one of the doors.

I really don't think it's that bad. Bland, yes. But bad, no. Two building breaks it up a little bit and seems less monolithic than the 4th and 5th project across the street. I would not advocate for just making it one unless the architecture significantly changes. Plus there is an alley there which is most likely why it's separated. Brick and what appears to be metal panels are going to age much better than the stucco and composite board that the Aubrey is already showing wear from. And it doesn't have those giant amenity caverns facing the street like Uncommon, Nicholas, etc. Feels more appropriate for a denser area, area like the AD perhaps but I'll take 10 more of these over Aubrey's and Uncommons, and 100 of these over the current design of the affordable housing proposal at CSCC. For quick, substantial infill, this works. Remember, every architectural era has its go to format. This is our current era. It's not unique to Geis, Columbus, Cleveland, or any one city. These style ubiquitous across the country, big and small cities alike.