Found this one, very random never heard of it before.

 

Developer rethinks tower

Brian R. Ball

Business First

 

A Columbus investor has high hopes for a 13-story condominium tower near downtown's North Market, even though a Historic Resources Commission review considers the project too tall.  Developer Tony Sharp, who controls the properties at 504 N. Park St. and 512 N. Park St. under land contracts, is planning an 84-condo tower north of the North Market.

 

The proposed $25 million project, dubbed Arena Park Place, consists of three levels of underground parking, street-level retail space, 11 stories of residences and a clubhouse for residents on the top floor.  Investors from San Francisco and Los Angeles joined Sharp in forming Arena Park Place LLC in late May.

 

Full story at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2004/10/25/story1.html?page=1

:clap: :clap:

yay

I noticed this project on the front cover of Columbus Business First yesterday. It's was the first I had ever heard of this proposed condo tower. After reading the article, it sounds like the developers are pretty serious about breaking ground as soon as it gets the green light from preservationists.

 

Personally, I don't think it's hight would be detrimental at all to the surrouding area. It's not like it's being built in the middle of Vic Village or German Village. The location of the proposed Arena Park Place would be close to the recently opened Arena Crossing Appartments, which is eight stories, twice as high as most structures in the immediate area. Personally, I wouldn't mind if the developers changed it to being 20 stories... :rock:

 

Also, here's a small photo of the proposed tower from Business First:

 

cool..i hope they build it.

I hope Mayor Coleman will push his political weight around to get this project built.

I am writing a letter to the historic commission and the mayor. As acres of previous farmland is developed the city doesn’t object and say expanding is bad instead they say its part of the future. After watching Columbus expand into more and more sprawling low-density development it would only be more than ironic to question building a new residential building on a parcel of land in downtown. The building is still within the boundaries of those highways that cut around the city. I hardly see how this project should be in question at all. The commission must have forgotten the biggest slab of modern architecture, the convention center, is just feet away.

I agree with you, seanguy.

Who exactly are you writting the letters to and what's the address? I might like to write to them and give them my $0.02 worth

Not to put C-bus down, but would an anti-sprawl message work in Columbus?

For now I just sent the email to the mayor's email that I found somewhere on the Columbus' website.

[email protected]

 

I’m still looking for a mailing address. I’m assuming its also on the site on the mayor's page on the city site.

 

 

About urban sprawl and containing new development...if you think about it the city works both ways. I'm not sure about what you meant by "sprawl?" There is a great amount of urban control on older areas and renovation, however, all of the newer parts of the city has been built in a post world war two “suburban style." Still most of the urban areas are in way better shape today than they have been for years. Nice urban neighborhoods exist that did not 10 years ago. And as those areas become mainstream commercialized the bohemian renovation crowed moves on to their next projects.

 

In 1990 100,000 people alone were added to the city limits. The sprawl isn’t typical sprawl as in other cities. Most cities peaked at an older time and experience a leave of their general population to new suburbs. However, Columbus' population that is residing in the newly developed areas was non existent 10,20,30, years ago. Yes the central city has lost population(after 1971) but for awhile it has been slowly gaining.

 

When a city and metropolitan area experience such a growth and increase in population the people have to live somewhere. Columbus decided to build low-density. In this manner the city is "sprawling." Starting in 2002 or 2003 Columbus city limits experienced more housing unit growth than anywhere else in Franklin county. This is the first time since 1980 something. Hopefully, the city can expand on this trend and at least maintain the part of the city that has been developed. If we don’t, eventually, future development wont be in the Columbus city limits (unlike Easton, Polaris, Tuttle which were in the limits.)

 

The main difference is that Columbus' sprawling nature is mostly due to an infiltration of new business and jobs. An economy exists that was hardly apparent years ago. The economic changes occurred and created a sprawl that is not entirely due to a population shift. If the city had decided to build dense and all of the cities commercial points were combined into one can you imagine how amazing it would be. Sadly this isn’t how things happened but it's also why the city has survived. A bigger push is being done in the city for urban development than I imagined would occur. In the urban neighborhoods it’s been happening on its own for years and is picking up at an astonishing rate. In downtown the city has taken the initiative.

Not to put C-bus down' date=' but would an anti-sprawl message work in Columbus?[/quote']

 

 

yeah....not all of columbus is sprawl and there are plenty of people who prefer urban. the mayor is pro-urban, and the city council just needs to be bribed and they'll be on anyone's side.

 

 

and seanguy: are you looking for the mayor's house address or his office?

either if you have em? thanks

i just got the email so far been too busy to look for the others

City of Columbus Mayor's Office

90 West Broad Street

Room 247

Columbus, OH 43215

 

and his house:

 

michael coleman

1362 E Haddon rd.

Columbus, OH 43209

^ Anything happen on this?  I haven't seen anything in RetroMetro or the papers, or on the Moody-Nolan website.  Weren't they supposed to submit a revised drawing in November?

I posted an update regarding the planned Arena Park Place project here a month or two ago:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2227.0

 

This weekend though, BusinessFirst posted another article regarding the development.  It looks like the investors really want to get this thing built...

 

New look for North Market condos

Developer overhauls plans in response to commission input

Brian R. Ball

Business First

 

A dramatically revised plan for a condominium building next to the North Market in downtown Columbus has received the conceptual blessing of the city's Historic Resources Commission.  But the altered plans of developer Tony Sharp must still pass through closer scrutiny before construction could begin late this year.  The commission in March approved the concept for a nine-story, 60-residence project at 504-512 Park St.  The proposed 90-foot-high building is half the height of the 12-story building offered by Sharp in his original plan last August.  That plan called for a mezzanine level that would have include a club house.

 

The project faced a city rules hurdle, however, because zoning standards for the neighborhood limit building height to 60 feet unless the commission approves a variance.  The developer said the revised building includes 20 fewer condos than the initial plan.  The newest version contains three levels of underground parking with about two slots for each condo.  The design from Moody-Nolan Inc. changed the building's setback above the fifth floor, hiding the top stories from view from sidewalks alongside the structure.  The project also incorporates three buildings that the Historic Resources Commission sought to retain so they could contribute to the architectural complexity of the neighborhood.

 

More at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus

Thanks for the updates!

Another update and a new rendering...I like the old one much better.

 

Developer of Short North condos faces varied challenges

By Mike Pramik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Being a young developer is tough enough in Columbus without having to play dominoes.  But one might have to fall if Tony Sharp is to get his ambitious condominium project off the ground.  The Columbus native is developing Arena Park Place, a 60-unit complex at the northeast corner of Spruce and Park streets near the North Market.  Sharp said the $30 million project will require tearing down a building that was built in 1999 to house Club 504.

 

There are other structures on the site, though.  One is the home of Columbus Children’s Theater, 512 N. Park St. Sharp said he has a purchase agreement on the building, but a theater executive says it wants to find a new home before vacating.  Randy Black, the city’s historic-preservation officer, has approved the condo project in concept and is awaiting final drawings from Sharp, who has hired Moody Nolan to design the buildings.  The concept includes a five-story edifice facing Park Street, rising to nine stories to the east.

 

 

More at http://www.dispatch.com

i think the original plan was a lot better

There's a fear of new things in Ohio.  A fear of tall buildings.  It's a miracle any of them got built.  All people seem to do is romanticize about the days of the Waltons, and Beaver Cleaver, and the lifestyle of the Amish people.  A new condo tower will be denied in Columbus under the premise of preserving some shit building in a crap neighborhood no one cares about, except some long winded public officials who call it "history".

 

People here are upset about sprawl, but the developers go where they can build.  In Ohio cities, there is almost always vehement, foaming-at-the-mouth opposition from historical societies, environmentalists, and NIMBYs anytime someone wants to build something, especially if it happens to be a tall building.  :drunk:

 

Some of these historical societies are not content to preserve a building or two.  They want to preserve entire cities, and in doing so they turn vast neighborhoods into ghost lands, because the buildings are old and rotting, and no one wants to live there, but at the same time the land can't be reused for other purposes because the historical societies deny tearing down the old buildings on historical grounds.  At some point people will have to decide: do you want to live in a city, or do want to live in a 80 square mile museum of rotting buildings from the 1900s?

:drunk:

 

indeed

That's not really a fair assessment of historic preservation, Locutus.  If you take a look around most cities with strong historic preservation legislation, you'll find that the historic districts (which are the only areas where demolition can be categorically halted like you're describing) are generally in much better shape than the non-historic districts.  There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which is that many people are buying into these neighborhoods because they are historic, and because that historic value will be preserved.  There is also a value to "branding" a neighborhood, which is a built-in byproduct of creating a historic district.

 

I wish the problem was that there were all sorts of developers beating on the doors of our inner cities trying to build high-rises, but that's just not happening!

sometimes historic preservation groups are good (german village as an example), sometimes they are completely bad (you know, that state up north)

what are the updates?  if any?  did this project become known as something else?

My guess is that this project can be safely put in the "Abandoned Projects" section of UrbanOhio. It's a shame too, that could've been a really nice development.