November 2, 200717 yr The lincoln street design (aka target symbol/ bicycle spokes?) looks alright... but what is with the central market? No way should they put a "central" market there when the north market is 5 minutes away... I think people would get confused But maybe some sort of grocery store would be nice...
November 2, 200717 yr Official notice on the near term future of the City Center Mall from today's Dispatch. Group to keep City Center open at least 90 days Friday, November 2, 2007 - 3:34 AM Columbus City Center will remain open for at least 90 days while its new owner maps out a path for its future. Guy Worley, chief executive of Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp., said yesterday that tenants are being told the mall will continue to operate while Nationwide Realty Investors creates a master plan for the property. Capitol South completed its $2.88 million purchase this week of vacant ground near the mall, which opened in 1989. Previous owners Simon Property Group and General Motors Pension Trust included the mall in the deal. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/02/city_center.html
November 2, 200717 yr And here's some larger clearer versions of Moody Nolan's City Center redevelopment proposal from the Nov. 2007 Columbus Monthly magazine . . . Moody Nolan - three images
November 4, 200717 yr Damn! I forgot to get a copy of this while I was in Columbus! The only place I looked didn't sell it. Anyone got a copy I can have? :-P
November 4, 200717 yr Oh and a few more things. BIG BOX RETAIL!? A DRIVING RANGE!? ELEVATED GREEN/ DRIVE-UP THEATER!? Is this also known as a drive in Movie Theater? Sorry, but these things seem to be a little rediculous. The only things I do like are the hotel tower proposals, especially the Blostein concept one.
November 4, 200717 yr Acctually, the Moody-Nolan hotel design is better, but I would prefer that Town St. be completely reopened.
November 4, 200717 yr The Lincoln Street design, you'll note, seems to be the only one that incorporates transit (streetcar/light rail). That's got to be a component of any final plan, but I am disappointed the other renderings didn't indicate transit-oriented design.
November 24, 200717 yr Despite the potentially positive developments with the City Center Mall property, the near-term forecast calls for pain. Macy's is closing in one week. And this article is documenting the mall's final anchor store closing. Guess you could call this an anti-Black Friday story. City Center Macy's trudges toward its last day Saturday, November 24, 2007 - 3:05 AM By Jeb Phillips, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH If you hate crowds, you should have been at the Macy's in Columbus City Center yesterday. At times, you would have been the only shopper on the third floor. You should also have been there if you are opening your own clothing store and need to find good deals on mannequins; want a 40-inch black mink coat for $4,045 (marked down from $13,495); or would like to witness the last few days of a department store in a nearly dead mall. Otherwise ... "It's a sad day, isn't it?" said Betsy Morrow of Hilliard, shopping for whatever Macy's had left, knowing that not many people would be there on one of the busiest retail days of the year. The sign outside said the store had nine days left, but the same sign had been there for at least two days. Corporate spokesman Nathan Shore cleared up the confusion: Next Saturday is the last day for the Macy's store in City Center. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/24/city_center.html
January 3, 200817 yr New year, still many unknowns for mall Fewer tenants choose to stick around to see plan for City Center Tuesday, January 1, 2008 - 3:10 AM By Mike Pramik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH The owner of Columbus City Center locked the doors of the struggling Downtown mall yesterday. But not for good. City Center was simply closed for New Year's Eve. It is scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, although its long-term future is as cloudy as many people's heads this morning. The merchants that call City Center home can do so at least until May or perhaps June, said Amy Taylor, a spokeswoman for mall owner Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp. Capitol South is working with Arena District developer Nationwide Realty Investors on a plan for the mall. It's not certain yet what that plan will be, how much it will cost or whether Nationwide will execute it. What is certain, Taylor said, is that the mall will continue to operate as it does now until the new strategy is announced in "late spring." Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/01/01/city_center.html
January 3, 200817 yr wow some renderings. stupid target ad aside, now that is the kinda crap i...am...talk...in....about! more please. then throw a dart and make it happen.
February 11, 200817 yr Parking is pricier at City Center garages Monday, February 11, 2008 - 6:26 AM By Mike Pramik, The Columbus Dispatch The days of parking at Columbus City Center at bargain rates are over. For nearly two decades, the garage's owner, Capitol South Community Urban Redevelopment Corp., charged $1 for the first three hours in the malls' two garages. The low rate was meant to encourage shopping at the Downtown mall. A few years ago, the three-hour rate was increased to $2 for the garage under City Center. Then, on Tuesday, plenty of drivers got a surprise. Standard Parking, the company that Capitol South recently hired to run the garages, raised hourly prices overnight last week. It eliminated the low rates in favor of higher charges, which it thinks the market will bear. The first three hours now cost $5 in the garage under the mall and $4 for the Rich Street garage. The move angered lots of motorists, facility manager Greg Goss said. "I expected people to yell and scream," he said. "We heard it all day long." At least one customer said she'll never park there again. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/02/11/zone_0211_city_center.ART_ART_02-11-08_C10_EC99T1R.html?sid=101
February 11, 200817 yr They have GOT to do something with that mall. What they need to do is get their mall together and start validating parking. Subsidize the cost of parking by using the rent money from future tenants. Someone is ultimately paying for those parking spaces in the suburban malls. The way I look at it-- Columbus has more wealth in the inner city than any other major city in Ohio. The mall really does seem to have a lot of potential.
February 11, 200817 yr The interior doesn't look any more out-dated than Kenwood Town Center in Cincinnati which is the hottest mall in our region.
February 12, 200817 yr If my city wants people to come downtown all times of the day, they need to turn City Center into a Casino downstairs and turn the top floors into a hotel/Restaurant/shops.... Just what the upscale residents of German Village and the downtown condos want (or need) something that will attract every drunken redneck from a 100 mile radius to hang out in downtown Columbus wasting their paychecks every weekend. Build a casino in downtown Columbus and you can kiss German Village property values goodbye and start taking over/under bets on how high the CBD crime rate will spike and how far down the office occupancy rate will plummet. What I would like to see is a nice mix of office, residential and retail--in the framework of some interesting architecture. As far as retail goes you're never going to lure the suburbanites back downtown to shop. It's just not going to happen. What downtown does need is a good mix of retail that has a catalyst effect on downtown living (i.e. makes it more attractive and easier). Things like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Best Buy, Home Depot a Crate & Barrel. In other words, a retail mix that serves downtown residents in the manner that the Clybourn shopping corridor in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood serves the Lincoln Park, Gold Coast, Bucktown neighborhoods.
February 12, 200817 yr If my city wants people to come downtown all times of the day, they need to turn City Center into a Casino downstairs and turn the top floors into a hotel/Restaurant/shops.... Just what the upscale residents of German Village and the downtown condos want (or need) something that will attract every drunken redneck from a 100 mile radius to hang out in downtown Columbus wasting their paychecks every weekend. Build a casino in downtown Columbus and you can kiss German Village property values goodbye and start taking over/under bets on how high the CBD crime rate will spike and how far down the office occupancy rate will plummet. What I would like to see is a nice mix of office, residential and retail--in the framework of some interesting architecture. As far as retail goes you're never going to lure the suburbanites back downtown to shop. It's just not going to happen. What downtown does need is a good mix of retail that has a catalyst effect on downtown living (i.e. makes it more attractive and easier). Things like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Best Buy, Home Depot a Crate & Barrel. In other words, a retail mix that serves downtown residents in the manner that the Clybourn shopping corridor in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood serves the Lincoln Park, Gold Coast, Bucktown neighborhoods. I totally understand what you are saying but I hear soooooooooo many people say that 'downtown is dead' and 'we need more things after 5 to do downtown'. German Village is far enough away that I don't think it will affect it. Do you know what neighborhoods surround GV? The crime is already there. The retail stores you mentioned will be great but I think they will end up the same way City Center did..... closed or on the edge of going out of business. If done the right way, a Casino/Hotels/Resturants would be an excellent idea for downtown IMO!
February 12, 200817 yr Just what the upscale residents of German Village and the downtown condos want (or need) something that will attract every drunken redneck from a 100 mile radius to hang out in downtown Columbus wasting their paychecks every weekend. What you just described is the Arena District :lol:
February 12, 200817 yr As someone who grew up in Reno, and has no objections to gambling on moral or religious grounds, I can say with near certainty that gambling is in NO WAY a serious long term solution for Columbus' downtown. No matter how shiny and "upscale" the casinos developers promise it to be, mark my words that, within three years, it will be a depressing, low-class dive. I've been to "the boats" outside of Chicago, and was shocked at how depressing and low-rent they were. They made downtown Reno look like fracking Monte Carlo. Vegas is the only city in the country that's been able to do upscale casino gambling with any measure of success. Just look at the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to Atlantic City's casinos a quarter century later. My honest feelings are that gambling should have never been allowed to move beyond Nevada. If you can't afford to go to Vegas for a weekend, you have absolutely no right (particularly if you have kids) to be gambling in the first place. Columbus' downtown has its problems, but there are several significant positives, including the Arena District, North Market, the gentrified neighborhoods south, east and north of the CBD and--of most recent importance--the 10 year tax abatement on downtown condos. Put a casino in downtown, and it will destroy all of that in a decade.
February 13, 200817 yr I'm not saying it's not true, but I need some explaining - Why exactly is it that it's assumed crime goes up if a casino is built? Is it that all of those "out of town rednecks" lose all their money and then go rob a bank down in German village? I don't know, there are examples like Atlantic City (which could also be said of a lot of the New York, New Jersey, Maryland urban coastal regions), but there are also examples like Windsor and here in Seattle there are quite a few casinos on Indian property and some card casinos in the city that do not attract crime. The are around the indian casinos actually are pretty nice and more buildings go up around them every year. It's also the one place left in Washington State you can still smoke indoors lol. I would think a casino would add some revenue, some more people, and lose not so much with having it. I personally (and I could be very wrong) don't see a huge increase in crime, especially if put in the right area. The idea that we are stopping people from betting their money the way we have it right now isn't really true anyway. Online, lottery, riverboats etc all allow the people who are going to bet to bet their money right away. The people who don't normally bet, me, would probably go down there with 40 bucks in their pocket and leave when that 40 has been exhausted... Yeah, some people would blow it, but we didn't stop them from betting all their money on a house a few years ago did we?
February 23, 200817 yr Reposted from <A href="http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=104">my blog located here</a>: ----------------- My City Center Wishlist - A 12-step program for recovery Everyone's got their own two cents to chip in when it comes to what should be done with the <a href="http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=135">black hole that is the downtown City Center Mall</a>. I've done more than my fair share of thinking in the past few years about what could potentially lie beneath the shuttered stores drowned in fluorescent lighting, and here's what I'd love to see happen to the place in a nice 12-step plan: 1. Rip out the skywalk connecting the City Center structure to the Lazarus building. It's ugly and pointless. We need people on the sidewalks and not in an air-tunnel if we want our downtown to look vibrant. 2. Rip the roof off the mall. Turn that inner path through the mall from an indoor corridor to an open-air concrete corridor. It could use the fresh air. 3. Clean out the second and third stories of the mall building. No retail entrances above the ground floor. Spaces on floors two and three can be converted into apartments, condos and loft offices. 4. Redevelop the "face" of the mall corridor. With the inside opened to the outside, things will have to look a lot different. I imagine a variety of facades could be implemented to combine different architectural styles for the retail and residential choices through this corridor. The new Max & Erma's and the apartments above it could be in a traditional brick-looking facade. The new Chipotle and the loft offices above it could be housed in a modern steel facade. And so on and so forth. 5. Apply the same facelift to all four sides of the City Center Parking Garage. There is no reason that entire block should look like a parking garage. Thankfully, there is some retail built into it on the Third Street side, but it's ugly and hidden and could use some revamping. Might as well take it all the way around the building. 6. Replace that terrible flat lot next to the Parking Garage with a high-rise condo building. Once upon a time there was a residential development that was supposed to go in here, but it fell through for one reason or another. All for the better I suppose since I recall it wasn't supposed to be more than 3-4 stories. This building should also contain ground-floor retail, and the parking is conveniently already attached to the building. 7. Replace the unused green lawn at the north-east intersection of High and Rich. This greenspace was not planned out at all, and I've rarely seen anyone using it for anything. It looks more like a well-kempt field where a building used to be. My thoughts are to reverse that exactly and turn it into another high-rise residential building with ground floor retail and potentially office space on the bottom five or six floors to act as a bit of a noise buffer for residents. 8. Give people something to do. I'd love more than anything to see a year-round oval in the middle of the outdoor City Center project that would function during the warmer months as a shallow waterfountain similar to what can be found at Easton (only much bigger) and the double as a frozen-over ice rink during the colder months. 9. Other entertainment options sorely missing from downtown should also be included in this development. Columbus needs a comedy club downtown. Columbus needs a karaoke joint downtown. Columbus needs an arcade downtown. Columbus needs a bowling alley downtown. Columbus needs a mini golf course downtown (how about an indoor course that glows under blacklights, is open late and serves alcohol?). Columbus needs an urban driving range downtown. I could see that being a huge lunch-break draw for the white collar office workers, and a big evening draw for those retired baby boomers moving into those higher-end downtown condos. There's many other entertainment choices that only exist in the suburbs right now, and we need those options downtown as well. 10. Fill in the rest of the retail with a mix of traditional mall options, smaller versions of big box anchors, and local businesses. My personal wishlist for shopping would include: - An urban multi-story DSW (they're based in Columbus) - A smaller urban version of a MicroCenter store (they're also based in Columbus) - Another Liz Lessner Restaurant (to balance out the chain food) - A new flagship urban Wendy's (to replace the original store they closed down recently) - A new flagship urban White Castle/HouseofCrave (they're headquartered here) - Several chain fast food places missing from the core of downtown... Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, Taco Bell, etc. Not that we need more chain fast food, but there's no reason that folks who live downtown need to drive 6 miles to Grove City just to get their Chick-Fil-A on. - A smaller urban version of Macy's that sells clothing only. - A multi-story Urban Outfitters that carries their full line of products. - An H&M store that sells both Men & Women's clothing (since the one at Tuttle is women's only) - A Pesto restaurant (locally based) - And plenty of other locally-founded boutiques, similar to what we're seeing appear in the South Campus Gateway. - (<em>Note: This list is just off the top of my head. Anyone got any other suggestions?</em>) 11. Extend the reach of the project to encompass the redevelopment of the surrounding blocks. The Greyhound Station is an eyesore and could either use a complete overhaul or relocation (why not stack some office space on top of it?). The buildings on the west-side of High Street opposite the City Center and Garage could use a facelift. There's some flat lots that could be filled in, which would also help transition the area into the RiverSouth District. There's also some wasted space on the east-side of Third across from the City Center garage that could use the same inclusion treatment. This would extend the reach into the up-and-coming Red Brick District as well. 12. Lastly, and most importantly, the new City Center needs to be a transit hub. Keep the COTA station in the garage, and revamp the Greyhound Station, but also run the High Street Streetcar line through the middle of the open-air city center. Add bike racks all over the place. Hell, set it up so that people can rent bikes there, and make the Streetcar pass-through a free-ride zone. We not only need to make the place a destination, but we need to make it as easily accessible as possible for everyone. Well, there you have it. It's not the most overly complex or most unique plan, but I think the diversity would work well. People probably wouldn't identify it as a mall or even a shopping district at all. It would just look like a living breathing part of our city. Just like how the rest of downtown should look.
February 23, 200817 yr ^ You a desert racing fan or is that your real name? Man, I miss the Mickey Thompson Stadium Off-Road Series. OT, I know.
February 23, 200817 yr Love that plan! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 23, 200817 yr ^ You a desert racing fan or is that your real name? Man, I miss the Mickey Thompson Stadium Off-Road Series. OT, I know. My dad was a fan of desert racing. ;) And yep, that's my real name.
February 23, 200817 yr Walker Evans, I love you! OK seriously, I really enjoy your idea. The only thing missing is reopening Town Street (pedestrian or otherwise, can't really make up my mind) and a public park would be nice.
February 23, 200817 yr OK seriously, I really enjoy your idea. The only thing missing is reopening Town Street (pedestrian or otherwise, can't really make up my mind) and a public park would be nice. Thanks for the kind words. ;) The step #2 that I mentioned would create a pedestrian path that follows in the current interior path of the mall which would connect High Street to Rich, Third, and State serving the same purpose that a re-opened Town Street would. :D
February 23, 200817 yr Excellent ideas Walker: especailly the transit hub. That green space ios a natural amphitheater....probably owing to the fact that it once was occupied by the Centrum ice rink. It'd be nice to use it as an open air performance space.
February 24, 200817 yr 7. Replace the unused green lawn at the north-east intersection of High and Rich. This greenspace was not planned out at all, and I've rarely seen anyone using it for anything. It looks more like a well-kempt field where a building used to be. My thoughts are to reverse that exactly and turn it into another high-rise residential building with ground floor retail and potentially office space on the bottom five or six floors to act as a bit of a noise buffer for residents. I'll bet that greenspace is such a crappy space because it looks like a spot where another department store or something connected to the mall was going to go. If you go in mall, there is a blank wall where that indent is on the outside...would have been the mall entrance??
April 7, 200817 yr In the middle of a story posted by noozer about the state of the downtown Columbus retail market was this interesting little update about the City Center Mall redevelopment efforts. CONSTRUCTION ZONE Retailers shunning Downtown Monday, April 7, 2008 6:28 AM By Mike Pramik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH When the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. bought City Center last year, it tapped Nationwide Realty Investors to hammer out a future for the mall. However, that's no longer the case, said Nationwide Realty spokeswoman Tina Guegold. Guegold said Nationwide Realty has backed off creating a master plan while the development corporation strives on its own to find tenants for the mall. Amy Taylor, a spokeswoman for the development corporation, said it's working on a plan for City Center and expects to have details "in May or June." http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/04/07/ZONE0407.ART_ART_04-07-08_C10_DU9QVOI.html?sid=101 So it looks like NRI is no longer involved with the City Center Mall planning. Very interesting.
April 8, 200817 yr ^I noticed this as well about NRI. I thought they were to put together a plan for RiverSouth and City Center, now they are not participating in either?? I think it is still early, but I'm anxious to see what comes of these two developments. Maybe CDDC could persuade the developers of this project to look at Columbus....this would cut that 40 year project quite a bit. http://www.downtownrising.com/city_creek/index.php
April 8, 200817 yr Maybe CDDC could persuade the developers of this project to look at Columbus....this would cut that 40 year project quite a bit. http://www.downtownrising.com/city_creek/index.php Thanks for posting that link. Fascinating mall-type development for downtown Salt Lake City. Nice video on the site. I don't think I've ever seen a retractable roof proposed for a mall before. If you can do it for baseball parks and football stadiums, I guess you can do it for a mall too. Now combine this with Walker's 12-step mall recovery program and we've got a winner!
May 26, 200817 yr Walkway to take a hike? Monday, May 26, 2008 - 5:28 AM By Mike Pramik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Tucked into the state capital budget proposal was a request for $2.5 million to demolish the walkway over High Street that links Columbus City Center and the former Lazarus building. The Columbus Downtown Development Corp. made the request. The money also would pay for rebuilding the facades on those two buildings and re-creating storefronts in the Lazarus building, said spokeswoman Amy Taylor. Georgetown Co., the master developer of the Lazarus building, will take the lead on the bridge demolition and redevelopment of the stores. The walkway has been made obsolete by the lack of business inside the Downtown mall and the transformation of the Lazarus building into office space. "The rest of the Lazarus building has been built out and is really successful," Taylor said. "This will be the final piece in that revitalization." Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/05/26/ZONE0526.ART_ART_05-26-08_C8_QCA9F8B.html?sid=101
July 8, 200816 yr Columbus Retro Metro website just posted a press release from the Mayor's Office regarding the City Center Mall at http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/columbus_retrometro/2008/07/downtown-retail.html#more Demolition of Lazarus Sky Bridge will help prepare High Street for Active Retail (Columbus) In his 2008 State of the City Address Mayor Michael B. Coleman announced the creation of a new district downtown, The Mile on High District to focus on rebuilding the High Street Corridor with active retail, office and housing to bring more people and new investment back into the area. Today, Columbus City Council will consider ordinance 1090-2008 to authorize the release of $503,670 of bond proceeds currently held in the RiverSouth Area Redevelopment Project Fund in support of Columbus Downtown Development Corporation’s plan to repair the two alleys adjoining the northwest portion of The Lazarus Building to complete a plan to demolish the sky bridge connecting the Lazarus Building to City Center and repair the Lazarus facade, preparing it for street-level retail. “High Street is the spine of our City and for our City to work best, our backbone must be strong,” said Mayor Coleman. “With more than 100,000 workers and an increasing number of residents moving downtown, we need to spur economic development and create new retail opportunities along High Street by demolishing the cavernous City Center walkway. We are grateful to Governor Strickland and our legislative partners for helping to secure money for this worthwhile project.” The sky bridge that once connected City Center with Lazarus has been dormant for years and is a strong impediment to creating a thriving retail environment. Demolition of the Lazarus Sky Bridge will provide a catalyst for retail along the High Street corridor in front of The Lazarus Building helping to spur economic redevelopment. The total cost of the project is approximately $3 million with the State of Ohio contributing $2.5 million from the 2008 state capital budget. Recent public and private investments have made RiverSouth an emerging neighborhood. Construction for the Main Street Bridge has been underway for several years, and The Lazarus Building has been renovated into an award winning "green" office space and is 99 percent leased. The Scioto Mile Park began construction in April 2008 and the municipal garage at the corner of Front and Rich streets will be completed in the spring of 2009. Last month, Lifestyles Communities broke ground on a moderately priced housing development, featuring both rental and for-sale units on four empty lots just south of The Lazarus Building, providing an important housing product downtown. Council will also consider ordinance 0973-2008 for the creation of a downtown Tax Increment Financing District (TIF). The TIF will cover a large area of Downtown approximately bounded to the north by the Arena District, south by the Brewery District, east by I-71 and west by the Scioto River and is targeted to fund a variety of public improvements including parking garages, roadways and parks. The City of Columbus is helping lead the implementation of the Downtown Business Plan with the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation and local businesses. 2008 marks the sixth year of the 10-year plan to bring new investment, energy and activity into downtown. The total new investment in downtown since 2000 is estimated at $2.19 billion, with $711 million in public funding helping leverage $1.48 billion in private investment. This includes projects proposed, under construction, or built since 2000. http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/columbus_retrometro/2008/07/downtown-retail.html#more
July 10, 200816 yr walker i like your plan and retail mix a lot, but it strikes me that it might be easier and maybe even cheaper in the long run to just tear down the mall or much of it and build it out again correctly from scratch. that would be an opportunity to undo a lot of wrongs like open streets back up, open up space and all that. regardless, all the stuff in your plan needs a place in it.
July 11, 200816 yr I dunno... demolitions are super expensive, and the bones of the mall are still good being only 19 years old. It's going to cost $3 million just to tear out the skywalk over High Street. I think we can re-use a lot of the existing building if the roof can be ripped off and the former "inside" be retrofitted and weatherproofed to become "outdoor" space. There's also room to add on a build upward in the unused Greenspace at High & Rich and the parking lot next to the Garage. Either way, bring on the revamp! :D
July 12, 200816 yr The City of Columbus will need to dump millions into the place and make it adhere to standards of attractive retailers. That's the only way you're gonna get the economics to work. Considering the streetcar proposal, it doesn't seem like there will be much money to go around. I don't think demolitions are that expensive. A typical house costs 15-20k to demo which is a small fraction of the value of a house that could replace it. Even retrofitting is very costly. The city would have to take a huge brunt. Aren't Easton and Polaris already inside the city limits? How does it make good economic sense for the city to take away business from within its own jurisdiction? I mean, Columbus retail is probably already near its point of oversaturation. I went to city center recently and had "Mark Pi's " for the first time, absolute worst Chinese food I've every had. The chicken was so soggy from all the orange sauce! It really is a shame; that mall is not old! I'm only 21 and I remember when the place was hustling and bustling.
July 13, 200816 yr No, The City of Columbus does not need to dump millions into the mall to make it attractive to retailers. We do not need the City to be the landlord of a downtown property like this. The city needs to invest a bit of money (more through incentives than actual payouts) to make it attractive to a <i>competent developer</i> and let them redevelop the property. Who ever heard of a City Government running a mall? That would never work. ;)
July 14, 200816 yr The final countdown begins for walkway Uninviting mass over High Street may be gone by '09 Sunday, July 13, 2008 By Bobby Pierce, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH S. High Street will lose what some call an eyesore when the City Center sky bridge to the Lazarus building is removed this fall. The walkway connecting the mall and former department store was in vogue in the 1980s, but city leaders and urban planners now see it as a barrier to Downtown commerce. "Holistically, these buildings are widely falling out of favor," said Andrew Overbeck, an Urban and Regional Planner at MSI. "They rob the Downtown streets of pedestrians and activity." The Columbus Downtown Development Corp. is managing the demolition and looking for contractors for the job, set to begin around October and finish in a couple of months. The sky bridge lost much of its traffic in August 2004 when the Lazarus building closed; some retailers were still using the bridge at the time of the closing, but they have left. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/13/Skywalk.ART_ART_07-13-08_B4_UOAO8JV.html?sid=101
July 15, 200816 yr No, The City of Columbus does not need to dump millions into the mall to make it attractive to retailers. We do not need the City to be the landlord of a downtown property like this. The city needs to invest a bit of money (more through incentives than actual payouts) to make it attractive to a <i>competent developer</i> and let them redevelop the property. Who ever heard of a City Government running a mall? That would never work. ;) I didn't say the City of Columbus should own or manage the mall. Trust me, if I had it my way, hardly anything would be ran by the government, but they can still be a mopper-up of economic malaise. I'm not sure in what ways they've considered subsidizing the place but as much as they must spend on policing the place currently, it would probably be in their best interest. The problem with attracting quality nationally recognized retailers like Apple, Kenneth Cole, Bose, etc. is that they want to locate somewhere that is proven to be a sure bet or at least a LOT of potential but even still, the economics of those lease deals are extremely thin. I spoke with the vp of Madison Marquette who managed Tower Place Mall (which is in a similar situation) in d/t Cincy and he said it is EXTREMELY hard to even get the attention of top notch retailers. I would love to see downtown malls with small independent retailers but their credit will surely be an issue and many of their stores aren't worth a crap. Still, I wonder if it is possible. Perhaps it could be a sort of grass roots effort in a similar fashion of what created momentum in the Short North. I love your idea of having successful local places with good track records, such as Pesto and DSW. One thing I believe downtown Columbus has going for it is an extreme amount of wealth in the inner city compared to most others. A quick search on Social Explorer proves that and in 2010 when the new census comes out, it will be even more surprising.
July 15, 200816 yr Although I'm not advocating the city of Columbus to purchase the site, it isn't unheard of that a city would own a retail complex. Transit stations and market halls were typically owned by the municipality. Most airports are owned by a city. And the West Side Market in Cleveland is still owned by the city.
July 22, 200816 yr The City currently owns the mall. They wrestled it from the most recent owners a year ago after they missed a monthly rent payment (see page six of this discussion). The mall had been changing hands a lot lately and the City wasn't able to get owners to sit down and the table and talk about redevelopment, so they used a bit of blunt force to nab it. So now they're looking for a new developer. For awhile, it seemed like NRI would be handling the revamp, but with Grandview Yard being planned, it will probably be up to someone else. I can see the City sinking a bit of money into making the parcel more attractive (such as spending money to demo the skywalk) but we should be seeing news (fingers crossed) before the end of the year about handing the reigns over to a private developer to take things from there.
August 1, 200816 yr Forlorn Downtown mall waits ... One year after takeover, mayor calls it city's hardest project Friday, August 1, 2008 By Marla Matzer Rose, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH One year after moving to take control of the Columbus City Center, the city of Columbus has not yet come up with a plan for its future. Mayor Michael B. Coleman says he won't commit to a timetable for unveiling plans for the nearly empty 1.3 million-square-foot Downtown mall. What's left? Downtown's City Center mall was home to more than 100 stores when it opened in 1989, including internationally known brands such as Coach and Gucci and three department stores. Fewer than 10 retailers were open during a recent visit: Goods/Services Waldenbooks Radio Shack Repair Express (watches and watch repair) A Dollar (dollar store) Food City Diner Subway Angus Grille ThirdJohnTwo Bar-B-Q New Orleans Pralines Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/08/01/citycenter_status.ART_ART_08-01-08_C8_CAATG64.html?sid=101
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