From Business First of Columbus, 3/19/07:

 

 

Fortin's N. Third building getting offices, retail to go with its condos

Business First of Columbus - March 16, 2007

by Brian R. Ball

Business First

 

When developer Tom Fortin bought the building at 154 N. Third St. in Columbus last year, he faced a choice: Ride the wave of downtown condo conversions or renovate the five-story property for offices and retailers.  He decided to mix housing and commercial uses at the building.  A potential commercial tenant for 3,200 square feet on the second floor prompted him to set aside more office space in the building beyond the retail planned for its ground floor.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/03/19/story10.html

 

Awesome night for a walk in the city yesterday!  I'm still playing around with this new camera, and only brought my cheap-o 50mm prime lens last night...hence the second shot of the Lazarus Bldg. that's framed a little funny.

 

Lazarus reborn

 

 

 

Miranova

 

Cap me!

 

Looking West down Liberty St. in the Brewery District.  The Worley Bldg is in the foreground with the three new Liberty Place Apt. Bldgs. in the rear.  A 5-story condo building has been proposed across the street.

 

No comments on the crookedness of this picture!  I blame the parking sign that I braced my camera on.

Looking forward to more from you! We don't get that much Columbus anymore.

thanks for the Lazarus shots. I've never seen it with see-thru windows. Ironically it looks better now than when it was the Big Store. Although if someone has a shot of that sign from the Front St. level (I think that's right) by the escalator that read "Up To Basement" I would appreciate him/her sharing it.

thanks for the Lazarus shots. I've never seen it with see-thru windows. Ironically it looks better now than when it was the Big Store.

I agree.  It looks great now and will look even better once the city develops the surrounding lots with a little density.  There's loads of untapped potential in RiverSouth!

Nice pictures. I was coming home from a friends house last night in German Village and I decided to take a drive up Front Street into downtown and saw the Lazarus Building. I really like the way it looks now; I even noticed some lights on the Town Street side that changed colors every few seconds, kinda like the top of the AEP Building.

 

Also, I got a new digital camera for Christmas and I want to go downtown sometime to take some pics. Where are some good, and, perhaps cheap, places to park my car for a while? Any other advice on taking pictures downtown would be greatly appreciated.

I love the fantastic colors in this photo....and I agree with ink; you need to start sharing more!  The Cbus forumers are slacking a bit.

Also, I got a new digital camera for Christmas and I want to go downtown sometime to take some pics. Where are some good, and, perhaps cheap, places to park my car for a while? Any other advice on taking pictures downtown would be greatly appreciated.

 

One of the best vantage points for skyline shots is North Bank Park.  They have metered parking there, but I think it's free after 6.  You could also park at Vets or COSI across the river.  Some great views from over there.

 

As far as tips...idunno...I just started in with photography as a hobby.  I guess one tip might be to have your head on a swivel or else you might miss a cool angle like this...

 

 

Also, if you don't have a tripod for low light conditions, use parking meters, signs, handrails or lightpoles to brace the camera against.

Columbus looks so boring going 71 northbound from Cincinnati. They need a better landscape right off of the freeway. I agree it would be nice to see more pictures of Columbus. Pictures that aren't so typical, like maybe The Hilltop, Franklinton, Linden area, Bexley, etc. Something other than the Short North, Brewery District and German Village. Although those are signature neighborhoods I think people would enjoy seeing Columbus from all angles.

Columbus looks so boring going 71 northbound from Cincinnati. They need a better landscape right off of the freeway. I agree it would be nice to see more pictures of Columbus. Pictures that aren't so typical, like maybe The Hilltop, Franklinton, Linden area, Bexley, etc. Something other than the Short North, Brewery District and German Village. Although those are signature neighborhoods I think people would enjoy seeing Columbus from all angles.

 

???

 

I come up from Cincinnati quite often and Columbus from I-71 looks like the emerald city.

 

C-bus' skyline is quite attractive from that view. Of course the shot of garbage dump on the left isn't too attractive, but I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at.

...if you don't have a tripod for low light conditions, use parking meters, signs, handrails or lightpoles to brace the camera against.

 

And if you do have a tripod, there's a wide-open parking lot to accomodate any angle.

 

Seriously, good shots. North Bank Park is a great place to start out for downtown shots. The on-street parking seems like it's always open.

 

As far as the fav angle on the C-bus Skyline, downtown lines right up to cut a real nice profile as you're coming from the west on I-670. Living in Italian Village I see the whole mess from the north all the time, and there's so much overlap and blockage, downtown looks, well, as small as it actually is.

 

Plus I'm always looking at the ugliest side of the very ugly Rhodes State Tower. Grr.

 

Nice shots. I was roaming around downtown earlier that day with my son, but didn't think to bring my camera. It was pretty hazy and washed out during the day, though. You had the right time slot.

 

 

 

As far as the fav angle on the C-bus Skyline, downtown lines right up to cut a real nice profile as you're coming from the west on I-670. Living in Italian Village I see the whole mess from the north all the time, and there's so much overlap and blockage, downtown looks, well, as small as it actually is.

 

I was just about to say that.

because the buildings are on a north-south line the drive into columbus from west to east on either I70 (or I670 when you get there) is the best approach to see the city, esp at night.

 

i agree the drive up into cols proper from cinci is disappointing and dull. otoh, the drive in south from clev and points north is much better than that because at least you get to drive straight thru the populated heart of town.

 

ps -- i wish we would see more columbus too.

 

because the buildings are on a north-south line ...

 

Lining up along High St.

The best views of columbus are from I-670 east coming from I-70, I-70 east coming from Broad Street, and OH 315 south coming from OSU. Just my personal opinion. Also, kind of a dumb fact I heard is that the Rhodes Tower was supposed to be 150 feet taller before the planners decided to make the building flat on top. Sorry to get off topic.

Great shots, esp. of Miranova.

--------

Has the pedestrian crossover from the Lazarus building to City Center been removed?

No.

should it be?

 

I mean it is still trying to behave like a retail mall.  Columbus is still trying to treat this as a retail center, correct?

I don't even think Columbus knows how to treat City Center as of now.

Oh duh, I thought I was looking at the Lazarus building from a different side.

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/04/09/focus1.html 

 

Scioto River jewel to shine again

Business First of Columbus - April 6, 2007by Susan DeutschleFor Business First

 

At the turn of the last century, damkeeper William Kipp kept a watchful eye on what was then the new Griggs Reservoir and the winding Scioto River that fed it.

 

He was responsible for, among other things, opening and closing the mechanical valves that allowed river water to flow into the Columbus' municipal water treatment plant. It was an important job in the wake of a typhoid outbreak that killed 195 people, including Ohio U.S. Sen. Mark Hanna, in 1904...

 

Susan Deutschle is a freelance writer in Central Ohio.

Patch on 4th Street pushed as dog park

Columbus Dispatch, 4/9/07

Downtown doesn't offer dogs much room to romp, but now there?s a plan to find them some.

 

The proposed dog park at Spring and N. 4 th streets would be in a small triangle at the southeast corner, now a green patch just big enough for a dog to run a couple of short laps and do his business. But it would be somewhere for Fido to go.  And with more dog owners living Downtown, such parks are needed, said Kevin Wood, president of the Downtown Residents? Association.  "We want to develop three or four of these Downtown. That?s the goal," he said.

Goal: Redefine 'central Ohio'

MORPC's first new director since early '70s wants to shake things up

Monday,  April 16, 2007 3:25 AM

By Debbie Gebolys

 

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The new leader of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission speaks of the sprawling development in central Ohio in human terms.

 

Will there be enough churches and parks and senior-citizen centers and will ambulances be able to reach those who need them, wonders Chester R. Jourdan Jr.

 

"A child born today will be 23 years old before all the new EPA rules to clean up old diesel engines are implemented," he said when a MORPC air-quality report was released. "This is absolutely unacceptable, and we can do better."

 

Jourdan is MORPC's first new executive director in nearly four decades. When the commission, which helps plan regional transportation and development, has its annual meeting Thursday, the 47-year-old Jourdan will outline his plans to remake it.

 

More at:

 

http://dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/04/16/CHESTER.ART_ART_04-16-07_B1_0O6D1TI.html

 

I though Richland County / Mansfield was Mid-Ohio?

They have their own MPO (metropolitan planning organization).

From the 4/22/07 Mansfield News Journal:

 

Condos welcomed near Richland Mall

By Lisa Miller

News Journal

 

ONTARIO -- Cozy is Stephanie Kavalec's word for the condominiums planned for a 22-acre wooded area between West Fourth Street and Lexington-Springmill Road.  She's the sales manager for Teakwood Reserve, a project of Ontario Development Partners and Granite Development Company being built on newly-dedicated streets near Richland Mall.  It will have 36 two- and three-bedroom condominiums and 24 single-family homes.

 

Kavalec's brother, Jim Kavalec, is a principle with Granite Development, Cleveland, which developed McIntosh Reserve in Lexington.  Teakwood lot owners may choose their own design and builder for the single-family homes or they can choose from plans offered by the developer.  Mayor Ken Bender said the city is optimistic about the project.

 

MORE: http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS01/704220315/1002/rss01

 

From the 4/23/07 Dispatch:

 

* PHOTO: Glenn Balasky, executive director of Mid Ohio Oncology/Hematology, expects the $42 million private outpatient center to lead the local market in chemotherapy treatment.  JEFF HINCKLEY DISPATCH PHOTOS

* PHOTO: One of two linear accelerators, which treat tumors with radiation, at the Zangmeister Center 

* MAP

 

Cancer center on track for May debut

Monday, April 23, 2007

Mike Pramik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Mid Ohio Oncology/Hematology is putting the finishing touches on the Mark H. Zangmeister Center, a $42 million private, outpatient cancertreatment center located off Cassady Avenue near Port Columbus. Built with private funding, the center has the capacity to serve 16,000 patients a year. It is scheduled to open in May.

 

Glenn Balasky, executive director of Mid Ohio Oncology, expects the Zangmeister Center to lead the local market in chemotherapy treatment. If it reaches capacity, it will top Mid Ohio?s 2006 patient count of 9,809 by nearly two-thirds.

 

Mid Ohio Oncology has structured part of the building as a venture with Mount Carmel Health System. Dodie Fankhauser, administrator for surgical and cancer services for the hospital, said it will operate a radiation therapy service with Mid Ohio Oncology. The Zangmeister Center is being equipped with two linear accelerators to treat tumors with radiation.

 

MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/contentbe/dispatch/2007/04/23/20070423-C6-00.html

 

Residential Market

Buyer incentives continue to drive development of homes downtown

Business First of Columbus - by Bill Shelby For Business First

Friday, March 2, 2007

 

The emphasis on downtown Columbus revitalization through new housing starts has proven a huge success, as 4,000 units have been created close to the halfway point to Mayor Mchael B. Coleman's initiative to develop 10,000 new downtown homes by 2012.  But as the initial demand for downtown housing is fulfilled, the city must focus on emphasizing the buyer incentives in place to keep demand strong.

 

While initial downtown housing developments attracted buyers at an unusually rapid pace, the fact is that people who have been longing for years to buy new downtown real estate have already done so.  As continuing developments - and those not yet even on the horizon - contend with the subsequent change in demand, shifting the focus to the benefits buyers can receive in downtown property purchases will continue to lure new investors from a cooling suburban housing market.

 

Full article: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/03/05/focus7.html

From the 4/25/07 Chillicothe Gazette:

 

Ethanol plant gets $2.4M boost

New facility in Fayette County plans to open in February

By LOREN GENSON

Gazette Staff Writer

 

A new ethanol plant under construction in Fayette County expected to create 60 jobs recently was awarded a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.  The Economic Development Administration has announced it will award the grant money to the project for the purpose of providing a new water system for the plant, which is under construction.

 

The new plant will utilize about $1.5 million gallons of water each day, said Fayette County Engineer Steve Luebbe, who is overseeing the project.  "Washington Court House uses about 1.6 million gallons a day," Luebbe said. "So this plant will need about as much water each day as the city of Washington Court House."

 

The new plant, in southern Bloomingburg, just north of Washington Court House, will produce ethanol, a colorless liquid that is distilled from agricultural crops, namely corn.  According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 1 out of every 8 gallons of gasoline sold contains ethanol.

 

MORE: http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/NEWS01/704250304/1002/rss01

 

From ThisWeek Clintonville, 4/26/07:

 

Schools for blind, deaf

Residents question future use of site

Thursday, April 26, 2007

By RANDY NAVAROLI

ThisWeek Staff Writer

 

Sharon Heights Community Association officials and residents got an update April 17 from Dr. Lou Mazzoli, the superintendent of the Ohio State School for the Blind, about plans to consolidate his school and the Ohio School for the Deaf.

 

The question of what will become of the remaining property on the sprawling campus near the intersection of Indianola Avenue and Morse Road in Clintonville once the consolidation is complete remains an item of significant interest to residents surrounding the site.

 

Sharon Heights borders the site, part of which could become the home of a new football stadium for Bishop Watterson High School.  Watterson has been playing its home games at the old North High School Stadium for several years.

 

MORE: http://www.thisweeknews.com/?story=sites/thisweeknews/042607/Clintonville/News/042607-News-343475.html

 

 

Columbus park and museum will honor aviator, inventor

Wednesday,  May 2, 2007 3:35 AM

By Barbara Carmen, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/05/02/NEWMUSEUM.ART_ART_05-02-07_B4_PA6IKGV.html

 

Columbus' newest park is being designed to promote not perspiration but inspiration.  Rickenbacker-Woods, a free science and history park and museum, could open as soon as October on Livingston Avenue near Miller Avenue.  It began as a dream of neighborhood residents and has taken more than a decade.  The project sprouted as an effort to save the childhood home of World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker but has flowered into a grander plan.

 

 

Nice!

Splendid as ever

Moving into its ninth decade, Palace Theatre lives up to its name

Saturday,  May 5, 2007 3:24 AM

By Barbara Zuck

 

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/life/stories/2007/05/05/1_PALACE.ART_ART_05-05-07_D1_0D6IGT0.html

 

Theater magnate Edward F. Albee had a grand vision for his new Columbus vaudeville house in the 1920s.

 

The interior would be modeled after the Palace of Versailles, the opulent home of French kings...

Downtown revival

Creative firms put premium on open spaces, cool addresses

Sunday,  May 6, 2007 8:11 AM

By Marla Matzer Rose

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Creative juices are flowing Downtown.  Artistic types who led the evolution of the once-gritty Short North into a chic neighborhood in the 1990s are now fueling a revival of the central business district.

 

Some companies outgrew their space in the Short North and elsewhere.  Others were priced out.  And all gravitated to the core city that has seen an exodus of more traditional businesses in recent years...

 

Read more at http://dispatch.com/dispatch/content/business/stories/2007/05/06/downtown_creatives.ART_ART_05-06-07_D1_MQ6IV6O.html

From the 5/8/07 Dispatch:

 

City OKs rec center addition

Whetstone project to cost millions more than planned

Tuesday,  May 8, 2007 3:33 AM

By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

By autumn 2008, Clintonville residents should be able to use their Whetstone Recreation Center again, after the city completes a long-awaited renovation and expansion.  But it will cost millions more than Columbus officials discussed just a year ago.

 

The Columbus City Council approved a contract yesterday with Hopewell Constructors of Columbus to do the work for $5.59 million.  Work is scheduled to begin June 1 and take 14 months.

 

Last year, the city budgeted $2.25 million for the renovation and a 6,000-square-foot addition to the 50-year-old building off N. High Street.  The City Council then approved another $1 million for the project, said Alan McKnight, the recreation and parks director.

 

MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/05/08/COUN08.ART_ART_05-08-07_B1_NI6KE8F.html

City's priorities

Capital budget aids fire division

Tuesday,  May 15, 2007 3:32 AM

By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Mayor Michael B. Coleman's proposed $817.6 million capital improvements budget for 2007.  The proposed capital budget includes $6.8 million to buy eight fire engines, seven medic units and an air-supply truck.  Four ladder trucks also will be delivered this year.  Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, who plans to outline the proposed $818 million capital budget this morning, said last night that the city is getting the new trucks because it finally can.  The city has an additional $100 million in capital money this year, thanks in part to higher-than-expected income-tax revenue from 2006, said Joel Taylor, the city's director of finance and management. 

 

The budget is more than the $677 million package the city adopted last year.  Much of the increase this year can be attributed to sewer and water projects that have been planned for years or are required under a settlement that calls for Columbus to separate its storm and sanitary sewers.  The mayor's plan includes $518 million for sewer, electric and water projects, up from $328.7 million last year.  That includes $123.2 million for three new Columbus water reservoirs in Delaware County.  Construction is scheduled to begin next year.

 

The city also would spend $1 million to resurface Broad Street, from Marconi Boulevard to I-71 Downtown. That would begin this fall. Other streets Downtown and in the Northeast, Southeast and Northwest sections also will be resurfaced, Assistant Public Service Director Mary Carran Webster said.  Also in the mayor's plans are $7.2 million to beautify a tired section of N. High Street between Lane and Arcadia avenues in the University District.  Another $17 million would go toward refurbishing the former police headquarters at 120 W. Gay St. for city offices.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/05/15/CAPBUD.ART_ART_05-15-07_A1_2K6NIKF.html

Find: "streetcar" Results: [bonk sound]

Find: "street car" Results: [bonk sound]

Find: "rail"  Results: [bonk  sound]

 

Hits head on screen: [bonk sound]

Perspectives

Columbus downtown needs masterplan for retail

Business First of Columbus - by Saleha Ghani

Friday, May 11, 2007

 

So the city of Columbus is attracting at least some residents to live downtown, which has been helped along by an explosion of condominium developments in the past few years.  However, local retail analyst Chris Boring says whether the area can support the retail needs of those new residents remains a big question.  Boring, who runs Boulevard Strategies, says in addition to a housing master plan, the city needs one entity to coordinate how retail development evolves downtown.

 

When City Center mall opened in 1989, it was seen as the answer to the area's stagnant economy and declining downtown population that fell from 30,000 during the 1940s to 3,500 by the 1990s, he says.  But the mall began losing its sheen when the Mall at Tuttle Crossing opened in 1997, with Easton Town Center and other suburban shopping developments following later.

 

With the future of City Center mall unknown and housing development in the downtown area on the upswing, Business First talked with Boring about the retail climate and what it needs to support the residents the city is trying to attract to the area.

 

Full article: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/05/14/smallb5.html

Sad. But I sent a couple of letters to the mayor and O'Shaughnessy which 1000 Friends is going to use (some of it at least) as a template for an email letter for members to send to our city leaders to push for streetcars. It's something.

Find: "streetcar" Results: [bonk sound]

Find: "street car" Results: [bonk sound]

Find: "rail"  Results: [bonk  sound]

 

Hits head on screen: [bonk sound]

 

too funy

err funny

 

This summer ODOT to get rights-of-way

Washington Court House Record Herald, 5/4/07

 

A right-of-way kick-off meeting was held recently by the Ohio Department of Transportation for the State Route 753 extension project.

 

Plans have been finished and filed, and the environmental impact study approved, said Fayette County Engineer Steve Luebbe.  "There's been a lot of headache and heartache...but it's been a great project with the city and county to see that it gets done," Luebbe said.

 

ODOT will conduct appraisals and start acquiring rights-of-way this summer.  "We're looking at a spring '09 construction, so hopefully in two years we'll be building that thing," Luebbe said.

 

Well folks, ANOTHER condo tower...

 

Developer sets plan for condo tower on E. Main

 

 

Land developer Mark W. Jones has considered but ultimately rejected various plans to redevelop a pair of 19th-century buildings at 220 and 226 E. Main St., which he has owned for 10 years.  But the World Furniture building, vacated a dozen years ago, could aspire to lofty living after serving as storage space, artist studios and a temporary gallery.

 

"We just couldn't make the numbers work," Jones said of earlier efforts to convert the property into condominiums. "So we decided to go up."  Jones said plans call for incorporating the facades of the buildings into his proposed Time Tower, which will have eight-, 10-, 12- and 15-story-high sections. Parking would be provided in a two-level automated garage under the building.

 

The planned building's staggered heights, Jones said, would offer more and better views of the downtown skyline for residents.  "It gives us three rooftops for terraces and more balcony units," he said.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/05/21/story7.html?b=1179720000^1464302

That looks quite interesting, and almost avant-garde-ish at the least. I don't know about incorporating the historic buildings into a glass condo, because with this, it seems almost out of place and hidden. Other projects, like the Iron Quarter development in Louisville, utilize historic facades for the main condo tower, but its more in harmony than in this.

Those price points are also really low.  Youngerish people could actually afford them.

Nice -

Most things that go up are good things -

From Business First of Columbus, 3/5/07:

 

 

Residential Market

Buyer incentives continue to drive development of homes downtown

Business First of Columbus - March 2, 2007

by Bill Shelby

For Business First

 

The emphasis on downtown Columbus revitalization through new housing starts has proven a huge success, as 4,000 units have been created close to the halfway point to Mayor Mchael B. Coleman's initiative to develop 10,000 new downtown homes by 2012.  But as the initial demand for downtown housing is fulfilled, the city must focus on emphasizing the buyer incentives in place to keep demand strong.

 

While initial downtown housing developments such as ConneXtions Lofts and EcleXtion Lofts attracted buyers at an unusually rapid pace, the fact is that people who have been longing for years to buy new downtown real estate have already done so.  As continuing developments - and those not yet even on the horizon - contend with the subsequent change in demand, shifting the focus to the benefits buyers can receive in downtown property purchases will continue to lure new investors from a cooling suburban housing market.

 

More at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/03/05/focus7.html

 

Link contains a photo.  From the 3/8/07 Dispatch:

 

GRAPHIC: Market snapshot

 

GRAPHIC: Apartment owners are offering fewer concessions to renters

 

A RENTAL REVIVAL

Good times, tenants return to apartments

Home sales in slump, so rents going up, incentives going away

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Mike Pramik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Not long ago, renters in central Ohio could get free rent, reduced security deposits or gift cards for nearby shops ? even a chance to win a new Ford Mustang.  Landlords were competing with home sellers who were luring potential renters into houses of their own with competitive prices for starter homes and low interest rates. Apartment owners were desperate.

 

But not anymore.  The incentives mostly are gone, and rents are rising as vacancy rates drop.  The latest spin in the real-estate cycle is driven by several factors, including a cutback in apartment construction and a sagging economy that has cooled home sales.  Apartment Realty Advisors, a broker of multifamily housing, confirms that Columbus apartment owners are able to raise rents significantly for the first time this decade.  Apartments are leasing better across the Midwest, said Debbie Corson, a principal in the corporation's Dayton office.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/contentbe/dispatch/2007/03/08/20070308-A1-01.html