April 1, 201510 yr The downtown Domino's is open now. I know that isn't very interesting, but what I thought was interesting was the fleet of Smartcars they have. I counted 6 of them.
April 3, 201510 yr So I never heard weather that storage building proposal was approved, but I assume so because it is fenced off and there is drilling going on. Anyone know what the purpose of the drilling is?
April 29, 201510 yr Newest City of Columbus office building gets OK from Downtown Commission By Brian R. Ball, Staff reporter - Columbus Business First April 28, 2015, 2:59pm EDT Construction of a $75 million office building and parking garage on the City of Columbus’ downtown government campus could start in August after development regulators OK’d the design of the project Tuesday. The eight-story building, planned for the corner of West Long and North Front streets, will replace the city Department of Development’s home at 109 N. Front St. ( . . . ) The mostly glass-and-zinc-panel design includes granite on the building’s lower levels to give it a look similar to the neighboring municipal buildings. Also part of the design is a pedestrian thoroughfare – dubbed “the mayor’s walk” – that will connect City Hall with a renovated city office building at 77 N. Front St., police headquarters at 120 Marconi Blvd. and the planned 111 N. Front St. building. ( . . . ) Construction and outfitting of the 8-story, 190,000-square-foot office building is expected to cost $60 million. The 700-slot parking garage at the northwest corner of Front and Long streets is estimated at $15 million. The building will house offices for the city departments of development, public service and building and zoning services and is expected to open by early 2017. MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/04/28/newest-city-of-columbus-office-building-gets-ok.html
April 29, 201510 yr More about yesterday's approval of the new 8-story, 190,000 sq. ft. city office building at the southwest corner of Front & Long and the 700-slot parking garage at the northwest corner of Front & Long from CU (with two new renderings of the office and garage from Front Street): http://www.columbusunderground.com/citys-new-downtown-office-building-and-garage-approved-bw1
April 29, 201510 yr Meh. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
April 29, 201510 yr I wish the garage would be constructed as a pad for development atop. Front Street will be almost entirely parking on the west side between Long and Nationwide once this is complete.
April 29, 201510 yr Ugh that is a really huge garage, and with only a minimal token amount of street-level retail space. I agree with ink[/member] that it should have been designed to allow for development on top. This area is really the 'Parking Garage District' and creates a huge unattractive dead zone dividing central downtown from the Arena District. edit: I just read CU's article where the city says they are not including retail after all. Very disappointing and such a wasted opportunity.
May 10, 201510 yr Phase Two of Bishop's Walk on Gay Street: Late April from http://www.columbusunderground.com/construction-roundup-april-2015-part-1 Bricks going up in early May from http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/what-is-up-next-at-neighborhood-launch/page/7/#post-1075139
June 8, 201510 yr So does anyone know if something is going into the space where Betty's was supposed to go, next to Domino's? There is some kind of work going on there.
June 8, 201510 yr An Italian restaurant - Lomonico’s - is the Betty's replacement tenant. CU has more about this at http://www.columbusunderground.com/lomonicos-eatery-to-open-downtown-gay-street-location-rw1
June 14, 201510 yr I thought I'd reopen this old Capitol Tower thread given the blockbuster news of The Dispatch sale. (More about that HERE at Local Media News thread in the City Discussion section.) The sale of Dispatch publications from the Wolfe family is big enough news. But there is also a downtown real estate development part to this sale. In addition to the Dispatch print publications, the sale also includes the Dispatch's printing plant, an office building at 62 E. Broad Street and the offices of the company's suburban newspapers (This Week News) in Lewis Center. Interestingly, the sale does not include the paper's current offices at 34 S. Third Street across from the Ohio Statehouse. Additionally, Wolfe's company also will still run its real estate investment firm, Capitol Square Ltd. Which brings us back to this old Capitol Tower thread. That tower's location was to be at the northeast corner of Third & State. This property was owned (and is still owned) by Wolfe's Capitol Square Ltd. real estate company. The remainder of this block north along Third Street up to Capital Street was owned by The Dispatch Printing Company. Now these properties will be under the same ownership. And it looks like the Dispatch offices will not be staying at 34 S. Third Street for very much longer, according to the reporting in http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/06/04/dispatch-buyer-briefs-staff-on-possible-job-cuts.html: "As for the downtown location at 34 S. 3rd St.? It’s prime real estate across from the Statehouse. John F. Wolfe, the longtime publisher of the Dispatch, notably kept that building in the deal and he eventually could redevelop it, Reed told staffers. The new owners will rent it from Wolfe for now. Staffers who spoke to me expect their days at the downtown location to be numbered. (Another tidbit – New Media gets the famous Dispatch rooftop sign in the deal.)" - 34 S. Third Street: The existing Dispatch office building at 34 S. Third Street has a four-story section in front (with the Dispatch sign on top) and a six-story section behind it for a total of 44,640 square feet. - 62 E. Broad Street: The office building that the new Dispatch publishers acquired is a four-story building on the north side of Capitol Square. This is the middle building in the three remaining buildings in between the State of Ohio's Rhodes Office Tower (to the left in the below photo) and the Key Bank Tower (to the right in the below photo). It's a reasonably nice old building with an ungainly roof addition that totals 25,568 square feet. If the new Dispatch publishers reduce overall staff levels (as is expected) then they won't need a building as large as the current Dispatch Building. And a building like 62 E. Broad Street that's about 60% the size, but still has a good Capitol Square location, would seem to be ideal for the "New Dispatch Building". That would open up the east side of Capitol Square from Capital Street to Third Street for development. I wouldn't bet on a repeat of the 42-story Capitol Square Tower from the 90's returning (unless they get a huge tenant commitment from some company that would justify it). But there seems to be a more than reasonable chance that Capitol Square Ltd. might propose a mixed-use development for all that Third Street frontage. Development that might include renovating the Dispatch Building into residential units.
July 4, 20159 yr Downtown student housing property back on the market By Brian R. Ball, Columbus Business First June 16, 2015, 1:23pm EDT Daimler Group has put its 4-year-old student housing property downtown back on the market. The Abigail off-campus housing project at 369 E. Gay Street will take a second round of offers during the next several weeks through the Wagenbrenner Co. brokerage. Wagenbrenner agent Matt Brown told me the 69-unit property fell out of contract in April after the high bidder expressed concern about the expected leasing expirations at the end of spring terms of downtown colleges, including the nearby Columbus College of Art & Design and Columbus State Community College. ... Just after the contract fell through, though, he said property manager Legacy Management leased 51 units in 45 days. That rush of leases leave just two or three vacant units. MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/06/16/downtown-student-housing-propertyback-on-the.html
July 7, 20159 yr Edwards Cos. plans 14 more downtown housing units Edwards Cos. has signaled its intent to build even more housing as part of its Neighborhood Launch condo and apartment community. The developer's Eclipse Real Estate Group division has filed an application with the city's Downtown Commission for the 0.41-acre development site in the middle of the North Sixth Street block that backs up against the Hills Market at 95 N. Grant Ave. The project involves 14 units. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2015/02/edwards-cos-plans-14-more-downtown-housing-units.html The first picture here shows the site of this small condo development on 6th. Recently the pavement there was removed so hopefully we are seeing the start of construction. The pictures after that show that interesting side condo that crosses the alley in the second phase of Bishops Walk. The last pictures are of the new storage building.
July 8, 20159 yr Yeesh. That rendering of the storage building is pretty dreadful. Great to see everything else progressing though. I really like those little condos that bridge over the alleys in this development.
July 8, 20159 yr Yeesh. That rendering of the storage building is pretty dreadful. Yeah, but I never expected much for a storage building. Hopefully the lots on each side of it will be developed and the storage building will become one of those buildings you just don't really notice when you pass. I'm also glad one more surface parking lot disappears.
July 9, 20159 yr Dispatch vacating iconic Capitol Square offices By Tom Knox, Columbus Business First Updated: July 9, 2015, 11:12am EDT The Columbus Dispatch will move from its long-time downtown headquarters by year’s end, bringing an end to one of the city’s more memorable landmarks after 90 years. The newspaper, owned by the Wolfe family for 110 years, was sold last month to GateHouse Media parent New Media Investment Group. The Dispatch building at 34 S. 3rd Street was not included in the $47 million deal, although New Media took ownership of three other buildings – and the iconic sign atop the Dispatch headquarters. According to sources at the paper, Dispatch staffers will move down the street to a nondescript building sold to New Media at 62 E. Broad Street, between the Rhodes Tower and the KeyBank Building. The 62 E. Broad St. building was built in 1920 and has a little more than 22,000 square feet of space. The 34 S. 3rd St. building – famous for its large, old-fashioned sign denoting the Dispatch as Ohio’s greatest home newspaper – was built in 1925 and has 67,000 square feet. Both are five stories tall. Sources said the Dispatch is trying to figure out how to put the big sign on top of the new, slimmer headquarters. MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/07/09/columbusdispatch-vacating-iconic-capitol-square.html
July 9, 20159 yr ^ Yeah. That'll be interesting to see how they pull that off. The current Dispatch building is 60 feet wide, while the new Dispatch Building is only 34 feet wide. It seems like the sign would need to be pretty severely angled to fit on the 62 E. Broad Street roof. And speaking of the 62 E. Broad Street building. It's nice enough - but the Broad Street façade could use a good cleaning. And it would be great if they could do something with that ungainly roof addition. Cutting it back a few feet would lessen its visual impact. Even making the front into an LED sign that could post news updates might help.
July 10, 20159 yr Not much extra news here, but here's the memo the Dispatch's publisher sent staffers about moving out of their current 34 S. Third Street building: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/07/09/heres-the-memo-the-dispatchs-publisher-sent.html
July 10, 20159 yr ^^I agree. That added floor is terrible and will significantly distract from the sign above.
July 11, 20159 yr Yeesh. That rendering of the storage building is pretty dreadful. Yeah, but I never expected much for a storage building. Hopefully the lots on each side of it will be developed and the storage building will become one of those buildings you just don't really notice when you pass. I'm also glad one more surface parking lot disappears. CU had an earlier conceptual rendering of the storage building at http://www.columbusunderground.com/neighborhood-launch-plans-to-add-six-story-storage-building. I think the final version that Eridony posted is improved with the brick added to the Long Street pedestrian front - but otherwise this rendering fairly accurately shows the storage building's impact on Long Street. Fortunately, only the short side of the storage building faces Long Street. And the construction of the six-story Neilston apartment building (which is next to the finished six-story Normandy apartment building) will help conceal the much plainer long side of the building. --- The other long side of the building is already partially blocked from the busier Fourth Street with the previously built five-level parking garage and the previously existing two-story Telhio Credit Union building. But building something at the Fourth & Long corner parking lot would conceal it better.
July 17, 20159 yr Edwards proposing $40M project at Gay & High By Brian R. Ball, Staff Reporter Columbus Business First - July 17, 2015, 6:00am EDT An Edwards Cos. unit plans to develop a $40 million apartment and retail complex on North High Street in downtown Columbus. The Eclipse Real Estate Group affiliate is proposing 25,000 square feet for retailing as well as 164 apartments in a six-story building in a long-awaited project between West Gay and Long streets. Eclipse plans to take its concept to the city Downtown Commission on July 28. The project would include three levels of parking – one of them underground – and unspecified future development above parking and retail structures at the corner of North High and West Long streets. Developer Rick Day welcomed the prospect of filling what he called a “big hole” created by parking lots along North High Street. “That’s going to be awesome,” said the principal of the Day Cos., which owns several historic properties near the site. MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2015/07/17/edwards-proposing-40m-project-at-gay-high.html
July 17, 20159 yr I'd like it to be taller...but I'm not going to lie, it doesn't look terrible. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 17, 20159 yr Edwards needs to think bigger. 6 stories on High St at this location is not enough. 164 units is not enough. 25k sqft retail along an entire city block is not enough. IMO, the setbacks and open courtyard to reduce its appearance are unnecessary and inappropriate here. Downtown buildings should emphasize their mass and density, not shy away from it like projects in Clintonville do. It's better than the current surface lots, but still a missed opportunity given the potential and prominence of the site. I hope the DT commission encourages them to do more.
July 17, 20159 yr I would also like additional height, especially at the corner of Gay & High, but I will of course take this over the huge parking lot that is there. Eventually if downtown parking lots keep getting redeveloped with these projects the buildings will have to grow taller.
July 18, 20159 yr More about this from CU. Includes a ground floor plan showing locations of retail, leasing office and parking garage: http://www.columbusunderground.com/edwards-submits-plan-for-high-street-between-gay-and-long-bw1
July 20, 20159 yr Perhaps that rendering does not show the entire plan, omitting the towers that will be placed on the shown podium... :wink:
July 28, 20159 yr New downtown hotel under consideration along High Street Edwards Cos. went before the Downtown Commission on Tuesday seeking reaction to its plans for a $40 million apartment-and-retail complex along North High Street in Columbus. What the developer didn't show during the conceptual review of the proposal is what may go above the retail and parking section of the complex at the corner of High and Long streets. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/07/28/new-downtown-hotel-under-consideration-along-high.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 28, 20159 yr There is no proposal for a hotel, there is not even a commitment to a hotel. There is an 'if a hotel is included' and that is all. If there is no hotel, they will tack on another 75 or so units on to the empty two floor segment that will exist at the Northern end of this development. Meaning this will have the same number of units at the same height and on approximately the same area as Highpoint. Hey it is Columbus, it is 'good enough' though. JMH(disappointed)O.
July 28, 20159 yr ^^ More about the Gay & High proposal presented to the Downtown Commission earlier today: http://www.columbusunderground.com/high-street-mixed-use-development-received-well-by-downtown-commission It was up for conceptual review only. The developer stated that they plan to return to the Downtown Commission sometime in the next 60 to 90 days for approval. They also hope to break ground on construction by the end of the year and expect the project to take 21 to 24 months to build out.
July 28, 20159 yr ^^ More about the Gay & High proposal presented to the Downtown Commission earlier today: http://www.columbusunderground.com/high-street-mixed-use-development-received-well-by-downtown-commission It was up for conceptual review only. The developer stated that they plan to return to the Downtown Commission sometime in the next 60 to 90 days for approval. They also hope to break ground on construction by the end of the year and expect the project to take 21 to 24 months to build out. I saw it there first, and already left my opinion there thanks. (Assuming the ^^ was directed towards me). It is disappointing, but better than 4 plus decades of surface parking lots and I will take it over that(and hope for higher density nearby in the future).
July 29, 20159 yr The ^^ was just indicating an update/additional article to ColDayMan's post. But no problem either way.
July 31, 20159 yr Business First had an interesting article about a few weeks ago about the media history of 62 E. Broad Street - the building the Dispatch will be moving into: - Dispatch sale: Rich media heritage found in building eyed for paper: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2015/07/17/dispatch-salerich-media-heritage-found-in-building.html Unfortunately that article will be behind a paywall for other couple of weeks. But here is a summary of the past media located in 62 E. Broad Street from the article: - It was built in 1920 and the Wolfe-owned Ohio State Journal moved into 62 E. Broad Street in April 1922. - The Ohio State Journal operated there until it merged with the Columbus Citizen in 1959 to create the Citizen-Journal. The C-J operated there until 1985, when its joint operating agreement with the Dispatch to print the paper expired. - The article also notes that United Press International and Scripps Howard news syndicates previously operated from the fourth floor of the building. - The Dispatch-owned Ohio Magazine operated out of 62 E. Broad Street until they moved in 2002. - After the Dispatch bought the alternative weekly Columbus Alive in 2005, its staff moved to 62 E. Broad Street and continues to operate from there. Additionally, some non-newsroom Dispatch staff are currently housed at the building.
July 31, 20159 yr Included with that previous Business First article was an undated historical photo that shows 62 E. Broad Street when the Ohio State Journal was located there. Note the roof pediment facing Broad Street where the current roof addition is now located:
August 1, 20159 yr *prays for a NuCLEus type proposal on Third directly across from the Huntington center and not another six story stickbuild box attached to a renovated Dispatch building sans sign*
August 4, 20159 yr Business First reports at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2015/07/31/columbus-dispatch-offers-employee-buyouts-sets.html that the newspaper's offices will be moving into 62 E. Broad Street in January 2016. However, they also report that the iconic Dispatch sign may stay atop their current 34 S. Third Street building for now - because "it doesn't appear to fit the smaller new building"!
August 17, 20159 yr Update on the 14-unit for-sale townhome project going behind the Welsh, the church renovated into a community center and sales office for Neighborhood Launch from http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/what-is-up-next-at-neighborhood-launch/page/9/#post-1082270 Site had been cleared of the former parking lot paving and fenced off. (Photos posted June 24 at link). View looking northwest toward the back of the Welsh and the five-story Normandy apartment building: View looking northeast toward the back of the Welsh and the back of the Hills Market:
August 17, 20159 yr Some additional Neighborhood Launch updates from http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/what-is-up-next-at-neighborhood-launch/page/10 Parking lot next to the five-story Normandy apartment building is fenced off. This is where the five-story Neilston apartment building will be built. Storage building construction site is in background. (Posted on August 3 at link) Elevator shaft for the storage building. (Posted on August 17 at link)
August 18, 20159 yr One more Neighborhood Launch update from CU. Per http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/what-is-up-next-at-neighborhood-launch/page/10/#post-1089196 "Demo work started on the Neilston site today. They had equipment out and were removing staked signs, utility poles, and utility wiring from the site."
September 14, 20159 yr AS DOWNTOWN COLUMBUS GROWS MORE RESIDENTIAL, THE FUTURE OF CAPITOL SQUARE IS UNCERTAIN http://www.columbusceo.com/content/stories/2015/10/as-downtown-columbus-grows-more-residential-the-future-of-capitol.html Some key quotes, “Conceptually, we look at the land we have and know that there is a higher and better use than parking lots, but you only get one chance to develop it,” says John F. Wolfe, chairman of The Dispatch Printing Company and former publisher of the Dispatch. “Sooner rather than later we’ll engage with different potential planners to give us an idea of what might be doable.” “We’ve got a great footprint on the Capitol Square, and we would want anything we would do to enhance the Downtown. It’ll take a while for exploration to tell us what we might do with it,” Wolfe says. “It’s a big enough footprint that it doesn’t all have to be developed as one development.”
September 27, 20159 yr The former Cafe Lola/Maki Go/Yuan Ye space in this project at 12 E Broad (in the base of the 8 on the Square condominium portion) has a new tenant lined up - and it is a great one... Old North Columbus favorite Jack & Benny's diner is opening another location there, and it will be 24/7! http://www.columbusunderground.com/jack-and-bennys-downtown-diner :clap: :clap: :clap:
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