amped91

That’s what the city has used TIF agreements for here recently. I don’t know about pricing structure, though.

Hopefully with the move to WFH/hybrid and the lots subsequently being used less frequently, more will be done now.

Ha sounds like the former mayor is in agreement: ”Former Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman didn’t pull his punches this week when discussing something holding back development in the central city. “Surface parking lots are the enemy of downtown Columbus,” he said at Wednesday’s Columbus Metropolitan Club luncheon on the city’s new downtown strategic plan. The panelists were in agreement that surface lots eat up valuable real estate that could be converted to more-needed housing or retail, and they break up the flow of downtown, making it harder to navigate without a car. But surface parking lots can be valuable, so what do you do? Coleman wants the city to look at incentives, both positive and negative. “How do you incentivize someone who’s holding on to a 100-space surface parking lot to change its use?” Coleman asked. “And how do you use the hammer as well? You gotta do both, and I hope that’s going to be looked at in time.”’ https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2022/12/09/weekly-rundown-parking-lots-the-enemy.html Perhaps with Coleman pushing now too, some new policies will start coming out?

^wonder how much more infrastructure work is left to be done?

Site clearing to prep for Ogden groundbreaking at 815 E Long? Hopefully!

Really neat shot!

I’m supportive of it too, it just makes me kinda sad seeing all these proposals pop up in the burbs while downtown still has acres and acres of land that could be built up.

Even Powell wants in on the faux urbanism party! Urban-style mixed-use development could come from building demolition “City Council approved an agreement last month that would see grant funds from the State of Ohio support the demolition project at 35 N. Liberty St., which is currently owned by builder/developer STZ Ventures, LLC, per the Delaware County Auditor’s website. White said the building is scheduled for demolition in the spring and summer of next year. City spokesperson Rolanda Castle said that, following demolition, the site would be available for parking temporarily with the intent to add a mixed-use development on the site and several adjacent properties also owned by the developer. White acknowledged no plan is currently before the city for the site. Zenios Michael Zenios, president and CEO of STZ Ventures, said the company intends to bring a plan to the city in early 2023. Zenios said a development plan has not been finalized, but that the vision is to create a mixed-use area that would include urban-style residential with restaurants and other service businesses.“ https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/communities/olentangy-valley/2022/12/07/urban-style-mixed-use-development-could-come-from-building-demolition/69706215007/

The Peninsula did not apply this round.

OTCA incentives for Columbus announced today: - Space technology company Voyager Space said in September that it had chosen a proposal from the state, JobsOhio and One Columbus to host the terrestrial analog of the George Washington Carver Science Park. The Voyager project is expected to create 50 jobs with an annual payroll of $5.9 million. - Safecor Health received approval for its expansion plan to create 100 jobs with an annual payroll of $5.5 million. The company will invest $4 million as part of the project. Hiring for administrative, production and sales positions will begin in 2023. Safecor opened its current headquarters at 4060 Business Park Drive in 2011. It will expand into a nearby building at 4000 Business Park Drive as part of this project. - Logistics company RXO Corporate Solutions plans to create 75 jobs with a payroll of $3.75 million as part of its expansion project in Columbus. RXO, recently spun off from XPO Logistics, provided third-party freight brokerage services. https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2022/12/07/3-central-ohio-projects-receive-tax-incentives-osu-space-project/69707125007/

I thought this quote from McDonald was interesting: Crazy how much expansion activity is still going on, despite so many with fears over inflation and possible recession. Here’s to hoping we’ll be successful in landing a good chunk of those expansions.

Starlab space station's science park at Ohio State airport to create 50 jobs “The terrestrial science lab paired with the private space station under development by a NASA-backed coalition is expected to create 50 high-paying STEM jobs when it opens at Ohio State University Airport. Average salaries would top $118,000 at George Washington Carver Science Park, a key element of the Starlab station, according to data from the Ohio Department of Development. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority on Monday awarded a 10-year, 2% tax credit on payroll created by the project, expected to grow to $5.9 million annually over the next five years. That would result in up to $1.25 million total savings over the life of the deal for Voyager Space Force LLC if it creates the pledged jobs and meets other terms, such as maintaining operations at the airport site for 13 years.” https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2022/12/07/starlab-osu-airport-tax-credit-jobs.html

Axium Packaging invests $45M in new recycling facility, buys 83 acres for future expansion in New Albany “Axium Packaging has quietly grown into one of Central Ohio's largest employers, as the company continues to expand at what is now its headquarters in New Albany. The manufacturer of plastic packaging products launched in 2010 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It still has two facilities in that city, but today it calls New Albany home. Axium is spending $45 million to construct an additional facility called Vertix, also the name of a new product line for the manufacturer. In addition, the company just acquired 83 acres to ensure it has space for future expansions. This growth will add to the $400 million Axium has invested in New Albany facilities and production equipment in recent years. The 120,000-square-foot Vertix site — located off State Route 161 at the intersection of Worthington Road and Ganton Parkway — will house the company's new recycling business, Axium President Paul Judge told me in an exclusive interview. The facility, slated for completion in January 2023, is the first of three phases for the recycling project. Separate from the Vertix complex is the 83 acres Axium purchased off Jug Street at near the future home of Intel Corp.'s planned semiconductor manufacturing complex. Judge said his company was landlocked at its current facilities, which necessitated the need to find another location for future expansions. There are some ideas on the table for how to utilize the acreage, but Judge said nothing has been finalized.” https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2022/12/07/axium-packaging-new-albany-expansions.html New Albany offers VanTrust tax break for developing tech park near Intel site “The city of New Albany has granted VanTrust Real Estate LLC a tax abatement on the development of the New Albany Tech Park adjacent to the Intel site. City Council on Dec. 6 approved the abatement 6-0 while expanding the community-reinvestment area (CRA) in the New Albany International Business Park that essentially includes the tech-park land. Councilwoman Marlene Brisk was absent. Phase 1 would include about 10 buildings totaling approximately 1.5 million to 2 million square feet of speculative industrial, distribution or manufacturing being constructed across 159 acres. The initial investment is estimated to be $120 million to $160 million. Additionally, the proposed project is to create about 500 to 1,500 full-time jobs with roughly $20 million to $60 million of payroll upon completion.” https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/communities/new-albany/2022/12/07/new-albany-expands-cra-grants-vantrust-a-tax-abatement-for-building-of-tech-park/69706858007

Anyone know anything about this one? It would go in this general area:

Maybe. I don’t remember ever hearing that, though. However, similar to nearly-complete (not mixed use) CMM campus winning last round, it is silly for Grandview Xing, already far along in its construction, to win out over other proposals. Seems to go against the intent of helping projects that need the extra help get off the ground.

Great news! Hopefully this means a groundbreaking announcement is in the near future. North Market tower, Grandview Crossing projects awarded transformational mixed-use tax credits from state “The planned North Market tower, now dubbed The Merchant Building, and the Grandview Crossing development that straddles Columbus and Grandview Heights will receive state support via Ohio's new transformational mixed-use tax credit program. The awards were announced at Wednesday's Ohio Tax Credit Authority meeting. Columbus-based Rockbridge secured a $34 million tax credit for its nearly $345 million Merchant Building project. The 31-story tower will house a boutique hotel, apartments and retail. The company said this kind of high-rise project has proven difficult to deliver in Ohio and is the type of project the TMUD program was created to support. The project also aims to help keep the North Market thriving for years to come, the developer said. Thrive Cos. was awarded $6.3 million for the $506 million Grandview Crossing project. The developer had also requested $6 million for the $251 million project in Franklinton that would redevelop the Mount Carmel West campus, but that project was not awarded tax credits. This is the second round of the tax credit awards. All but one of the 11 Central Ohio projects that applied for this second round of funding had also applied for the first round.” https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2022/12/07/north-market-tower-merchant-building-grandview-cro.html

Interesting little read from WOSU on car culture and efforts to improve sidewalk access in the city. Check out that bus stop on Dublin-Granville 😳 How much does Columbus invest in new sidewalks each year? “For decades, urban and suburban planners focused on cars rather than pedestrians when building infrastructure. Now Columbus and other cities are playing catch-up in adding safe sidewalks and shared-use paths. WOSU's Curious Cbus received a submission asking why only about half of Columbus streets had sidewalks and "How much does the City of Columbus invest in building new sidewalks each year?" One example of the issue can be seen on a stretch of Dublin Granville Road between Interstate 71 and Cleveland Avenue. There are pharmacies, restaurants, apartment complexes and shopping centers along the road, but no sidewalks. That’s because when this area was built up from a country road to the developed corridor we see today, the U.S. was steeped in car culture. Pedestrians were simply not a concern for the city or developers. But Columbus is working to correct that oversight and plans to construct a sidewalk there next year.” https://news.wosu.org/2022-12-05/how-much-does-columbus-invest-in-new-sidewalks-each-year

Progress on 4 unit condo building on Long and 6th: There’s still plenty of space to build on that parking lot. I wonder if there are any plans yet for more condos?

View of Topiary Park Crossing from Rich St:

Plenty of activity at McKinley Manor today: And going vertical at McDowell Place:

There’s quite a bit within walking distance—Wolf’s Ridge, Pins, Holy Trinity, etc—but I get what you mean, with this center not having great visibility. Hopefully it’s marketed well; I’d like to see it do well since I’d love to see this corner of downtown further developed.

Pulte Homes breaks into Westerville market with new nature-focused townhome development “Central Ohio's largest homebuilder is breaking into a new market with the construction of a nature-focused townhome development in Westerville. Dublin-based Pulte Homes recently began work at Towns on the Greenway, its first project in the northern Columbus suburb. Located at 343 N. West St. in northern Westerville, the three-story townhomes will be built on a former family farm. The owner of the farm, the Brown family, previously entrusted a portion of its land to the city for a community center, which is next to the new housing development. Along with bringing new housing to Westerville, Towns on the Greenway will have a direct connection to the rest of the community via a pedestrian bridge and trail connector to more than 50 miles of trails already located in the city. The pedestrian bridge will connect to the Westerville Community Center and Alkyre Run trail. This portion of the project represents a nearly $600,000 investment, which will be paid for by both the city and Pulte Homes. The developer expects to build the bridge as part of the first phase of construction in 2023. A multi-use path also will connect from the west side of the pedestrian bridge to Alkyre Run and the community center. The east side of the bridge will connect to West Street through the housing development. The nearly $83,500 investment, again paid for by both the city and developer, is expected to be constructed as part of the general site development. City documents state the path will be built "at an appropriate phase of the development," though it does not list a specific timeline. The project has garnered the attention of Rapid 5, a new nonprofit whose goal is to create the largest inter-connected park system in the country. While Rapid 5 is not an official partner on Towns on the Greenway, it was part of a recent groundbreaking for the project and is a strong supporter of its connection to the local trail system.“ https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2022/12/06/towns-on-the-greenway-westerville.html

Pizzuti Cos.' Astor Park development marks office building construction start “Pizzuti Cos. CEO Joel Pizzuti hopes that the activity happening now at Astor Park, as construction beeps and hums away, will continue long after the last nail is hammered into place. "We are committed to building a vibrant, dynamic neighborhood to complement the great architecture and excitement happening at the Crew stadium," Pizzuti said Tuesday during the ceremonial groundbreaking for the project's office building. "We want to generate activity 16 hours a day, 365 days a year." The first piece to get built is a 600-space parking garage, where work began this summer. The office building is getting underway now, while work on the project's apartments will come later. Astor Park neighbors Lower.com Field, the new home of the Columbus Crew. The office building will include about 17,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, which will be managed by Pizzuti. Bosse said there will be a roughly 10,000-square-foot gym in the building for use by BBI and residents of Astor Park. BBI will have its own lobby and secure entrance to the offices on the second through fifth floors, he said. BBI will have about 120,000 square feet of office space.“ https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2022/12/06/astor-park-bbi-lower-crew-construction.html

I’m glad work will finally be starting soon. But yeah, that’s a….unique set up 😂

I figured it would be an odd spot for the coach’s announcement. Hopefully it’s for the office and residential groundbreaking.