25 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

Just found a weather cam that's mounted on the Nationwide Tower. It gives a nice view of the Parks Edge tower that's almost topped out. You can also see Crew Stadium and you can sort of make out the new Covermymeds HQ. 

 

http://www.weatherusa.net/skycamnet/showcam.php?id=6160

 

That green plot just before the tracks along spring street is RIPE for a very tall development... 

 

EDIT: North side of Spring.

Edited October 9, 20204 yr by NightNectar

43 minutes ago, NightNectar said:

That green plot just before the tracks along spring street is RIPE for a very tall development... 

 

 

I would say this entire area is ripe for 3-4 tall developments...but I would be happy with just one. 

 

Green space AND surface lots. So. Many surface. Lots. Add in some of the non contributing (architecturally speaking warehouses and you practically have a whole neighborhood ripe for development. 

32 minutes ago, DTCL11 said:

Green space AND surface lots. So. Many surface. Lots. Add in some of the non contributing (architecturally speaking warehouses and you practically have a whole neighborhood ripe for development. 

They should fill that area in(I will refer to it as Arena West)as well as Confluence Village with at least the height and density of the Arena District south of the arena itself as seen in that weather cam.

There's a ton of potential in the 'Arena West'! With Crew Stadium coming next year and a few hundred residential units being built around it in the coming years, along with Huntington Park, Nationwide Arena, and Express Live / A&R, I think there is a ton of demand for bars and restaurants in that area.

 

It would be really awesome if we could turn Cozzins Street into a pedestrian only street and have it lined with bars and restaurants. That place would be packed during the summer anytime there's a Crew game, Clippers game, or concert going on. Line Cozzins Street with some mid-rise mixed-use buildings and then sprinkle in some high-rises similar to North Bank Condos and we would have an awesome bridge between Crew Stadium and NWA. 

On 10/9/2020 at 2:37 PM, cbussoccer said:

There's a ton of potential in the 'Arena West'! With Crew Stadium coming next year and a few hundred residential units being built around it in the coming years, along with Huntington Park, Nationwide Arena, and Express Live / A&R, I think there is a ton of demand for bars and restaurants in that area.

 

It would be really awesome if we could turn Cozzins Street into a pedestrian only street and have it lined with bars and restaurants. That place would be packed during the summer anytime there's a Crew game, Clippers game, or concert going on. Line Cozzins Street with some mid-rise mixed-use buildings and then sprinkle in some high-rises similar to North Bank Condos and we would have an awesome bridge between Crew Stadium and NWA. 

The nice thing about this is that the original Arena District is built out, and with Confluence Park coming with the stadium and Confluence Village, there will be two nodes that can grow together in the "Arena West" area-it is always good when you have two good areas and can work to fill in the gap between them from both ends-sort of like High being built up by downtown building North and OSU building South, but just on a smaller scale. A pedestrian street would work well somewhere in there with 3 stadiums/arenas having games through most of the year. If it would work anywhere it would be here-they just need to get the density and diversity of uses for it.

Edited October 11, 20204 yr by Toddguy

I believe I saw some guys setting up some construction cams here last night 

4 hours ago, 614love said:

I believe I saw some guys setting up some construction cams here last night 

Where?

1 hour ago, cbussoccer said:

Where?

Shoot this was supposed to be posted in the Hilton Tower section. My mistake.

27 minutes ago, 614love said:

Shoot this was supposed to be posted in the Hilton Tower section. My mistake.

Oh haha makes sense now. That’s great news! Now to figure out where the live feed will be....

5 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

Oh haha makes sense now. That’s great news! Now to figure out where the live feed will be....

 

I have slowly become more and more convinced that developers and design firms read these forums. While I do not think they take everything (or much at all) to heart, it seems like they pick up on little things here and there and throw a surprise at us now and then. 

6 hours ago, DevolsDance said:

I have slowly become more and more convinced that developers and design firms read these forums.

 

They do.  So be nice!

Sure would be nice if NIMBYs read it so that we could tell them to STFU

11 hours ago, DevolsDance said:

 

I have slowly become more and more convinced that developers and design firms read these forums. While I do not think they take everything (or much at all) to heart, it seems like they pick up on little things here and there and throw a surprise at us now and then. 

 

I'm not sure I believe that considering how many developers allow vocal, but minority NIMBYs from neighborhoods and commissions to dictate watering down every project instead of trying their luck with the city instead.  

29 minutes ago, jonoh81 said:

 

I'm not sure I believe that considering how many developers allow vocal, but minority NIMBYs from neighborhoods and commissions to dictate watering down every project instead of trying their luck with the city instead.  

 

There's a big difference between armchair city planners dreaming up big development plans on an internet forum and deep pocketed residents who collectively have a fairly large political pull. It's very likely that many employees who work in urban development are also very interested in urban development. As a result, it's likely that some of those employees have found their way onto this board from time to time. It's also likely that these people will tend to be lower level employees who can maybe control something small like getting a construction cam put up, but have absolutely no control over whether to try to ram a development past the rich NIMBYs in German Village or Clintonville. 

New Chipotle Building (Sat. 10-17-20)

 

 

 

Park Edge Condo Building

 

 

The last open (non-surface parking) lot in the Arena District mentioned upthread, looking towards the Crew Stadium

Edited October 19, 20204 yr by NorthShore647

11 minutes ago, NorthShore647 said:

 

 

I love this shot! Thanks again for your regular construction updates. I always look forward to the next batch. 

Business First had some Parks Edge construction photos in the below linked article posted on 10/14:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/10/14/photos-arena-district-rises-this-fall.html

 

 

Business First also had some Chipotle HQ construction photos in the below linked article posted on 10/14:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/10/14/photos-arena-district-rises-this-fall.html

 

View from Neil & Spruce:

 

 

View from Neil & Vine:

1 hour ago, Columbo said:

 

 

That curved glass corner reminds me of a mid '90s suburban spec office building.

 

Looks like the Parks Edge tower has topped out. I know we all would have preferred something ~2x taller, but I think it really fills out the park area nicely. 

 

I think it fits really well right there. Taller would have been nice but I’m still hopeful the green space just to the west will get something 10+ stories tall.

I also echo the sentiment that, while more height is always appreciated, this structure does fit in nicely in that location. 

 

Regarding the large green space, who owns it? NRI? FBI? Either way, hopefully with Crew Stadium coming together it becomes an even more desirable place to put a multi-story building.

24 minutes ago, CMHOhio said:

I also echo the sentiment that, while more height is always appreciated, this structure does fit in nicely in that location. 

 

Regarding the large green space, who owns it? NRI? FBI? Either way, hopefully with Crew Stadium coming together it becomes an even more desirable place to put a multi-story building.

 

I put together kind of an overview of who owns what in the "Arena West" area. The majority of the surface lots between North Bank Tower and the FBI Building are privately owned, however the lots west of that seem to have been scooped up by an array development names. I imagine we will see this start to pan out in coming years. 

 

 

 

30 minutes ago, DevolsDance said:

 

I put together kind of an overview of who owns what in the "Arena West" area. The majority of the surface lots between North Bank Tower and the FBI Building are privately owned, however the lots west of that seem to have been scooped up by an array development names. I imagine we will see this start to pan out in coming years. 

 

 

 

Kind of a shame how much is owned by NRI. Their buildings always look great, they just don’t seem to go big enough most of the time. Maybe once they start running out of land, they will start going higher or maybe they will sell portions to other developers. 

New Chipotle Building and parking garage (Thur. 11-19-20)

 

 

 

 

 

Park Edge Condo Building

 

 

View of the final Parks Edge building going up from Huntington Park.

 

New Chipotle building and parking garage (Sun. 1-10-21)

 

 

 

Park Edge North Condo Building (Fri. 1-8-21)

 

The top of Park Edge North can be seen just in front/to the right of Three Nationwide Plaza (Sat. 1-9-21)

Park Edge North Condo Building crane is down (Sat. 2-6-21)

 

 

 

 

Chipotle building and parking garage

 

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 20214 yr by NorthShore647

I don't think I've seen this posted yet on here -- Columbus Rec & Parks is adding a covered patio to the North Bank Park pavilion:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/10/14/city-to-renovate-downtown-north-bank-park-pavilion.html

 

 

It appears that work on this is starting as the area is now fenced off:

 

^That's cool.  Some friends are supposed to get married there later this summer / early fall, and I know a lot of folks had to rent tents for that space if they had more than 100 guests.

I was driving on 670 and noticed they had cleared out the trees along Vine St.  I don't think it means anything, it was just very noticeable with it being so open.  I pulled off and turned down Vine from Neil, and you can see the stadium driving on Vine now.  I wonder if maybe there were some homeless camp problems in there that they wanted to clear out.

 

44 minutes ago, TH3BUDDHA said:

I wonder if maybe there were some homeless camp problems in there that they wanted to clear out.

 

Cutting down all those trees seems like a lot of work to get rid of a homeless camp. It would be nice if that area could get developed, but it's in such an awkward spot. The railroad tracks are really making things difficult for tying everything together in this area.

5 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Cutting down all those trees seems like a lot of work to get rid of a homeless camp. It would be nice if that area could get developed, but it's in such an awkward spot. The railroad tracks are really making things difficult for tying everything together in this area.

I would agree, but they didn't cut down 100 percent of the trees.  Just like 95 percent.  They left some really big ones pretty regularly spaced.  Is it possible this could be used as green space from Neil?  I forget who owns it.  It looked like they had possibly planted grass, but I'm 0 percent sure about that.

Edited April 1, 20214 yr by TH3BUDDHA

Yeah between the railroad tracks and the highway it will take a really creative solution to develop this land. But there's always hope, I still can't believe 300 Spruce was built basically jammed between the highway and an exit ramp. 

 

I think you'll need to see some of the more low hanging lots developed south of Nationwide before this land attracts some development, but who knows? 

 

 

9 minutes ago, TH3BUDDHA said:

I forget who owns it. 

 

Two parcels listed at the Franklin County Auditor site - 18.83-acre and 4.34-acre - both listed to:

 

NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES LLC

500 WATER ST

JACKSONVILLE FL 32202

 

19 minutes ago, Columbo said:

NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES LLC

Future Amtrak Station location for the Amtrak expansion just announced?  One can dream, right?

 

 

Edited April 1, 20214 yr by TH3BUDDHA

During 3C talks, it was assumed that the Convention Center would be used as the train station since it was built to accommodate an easy conversion to a train station. Knock down a wall in the Convention Center next to the tracks that was already designed for this purpose, add a small siding and use the current amenities of the food court and mini mall inside for train station purposes. I still prefer this to a new station for cost reasons and to make the Convention Center amenities activated more often.

 

Note that the parcel above was a roundhouse and small train station in the past used by the Big Four RR. The trains would stop at Grandview, Franklinton, the parcel above and Union Station in addition to the Leonard Avenue one and also one at the airport.

 

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/new/?menu=05Steam_Railroads&submenu=33Stations_%26_Depots

Edited April 1, 20214 yr by GCrites80s

A station at the convention center is definitely the best option. There are numerous parking garages nearby if you are going to drive downtown to catch the train. It’s quick and easy access from 670 if you are ubering from somewhere outside of the core neighborhoods. And it’s walkable to most of the key hotels and attractions that people would be coming in town for. It also provides easy access to most of the key bus lines so no re-routing would be necessary. 

1 hour ago, Columbo said:

 

Two parcels listed at the Franklin County Auditor site - 18.83-acre and 4.34-acre - both listed to:

 

NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES LLC

500 WATER ST

JACKSONVILLE FL 32202

 

 

That's a CSX LLC

If that becomes a train station the east coast trash trains need to be rerouted. 

13 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

 

Cutting down all those trees seems like a lot of work to get rid of a homeless camp. It would be nice if that area could get developed, but it's in such an awkward spot. The railroad tracks are really making things difficult for tying everything together in this area.

That parcel actually has the easiest connection to the whole White Castle development -- no railroad tracks to cross, and already open area under the 670 overpass to connect to the road system there. At the very least the corner at Neil is prime for development -- it's raised above the roadway level significantly and would make for great views in low buildings. (Can you tell one of my Knowlton studio projects looked at this site? 😄)

At the city council meeting, the director of All Aboard Ohio mentions the need to find station locations in Columbus.  He specifically mentions that the original Union Station(the Convention Center) probably won't work because development has narrowed the route too much.  He specifically mentions the Arena District as an option.  I'll link the specific location in the video, but his whole part is a pretty good listen.  He talks about Amtrak's interest in a Chicago - Columbus - Pittsburgh route and the potential for Columbus to become a hub for Ohio and surrounding states.

 

Edited April 1, 20214 yr by TH3BUDDHA

12 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

A station at the convention center is definitely the best option. There are numerous parking garages nearby if you are going to drive downtown to catch the train. It’s quick and easy access from 670 if you are ubering from somewhere outside of the core neighborhoods. And it’s walkable to most of the key hotels and attractions that people would be coming in town for. It also provides easy access to most of the key bus lines so no re-routing would be necessary. 

***Cross posting because I feel this may be a more appropriate location for this discussion***

 

I've always known about this ability, but this adaptation was taken into consideration back in 1980 when the Ohio Center Way was built.  Since then the convention center and entire surrounding area has basically built out to the max, way more than probably anticipated in 1980.

 

That being said, the remaining rail lines that pass under the convention center are extremely active and busy for CSX.  There would need to be a build out for a sitting area for the entire train to pull out of traffic.  The convention center site would work best for perhaps a smaller tram to the airport, but I think a site closer to 670 would be better long term.

 

And this is all just for fun and throwing other ideas out there.  As much as we would like a downtown terminal, perhaps it would be best to build the main Amtrak train terminal/station at John Glenn International Airport, with a tram connecting to the convention center/OSU.  I feel like for future accessibility/functionality, an intermodal approach would be key, but that's just me.  The airport, and their new parking and car rental facility was built to accommodate this future tram/rail capability in mind, and would be able to support the parking as well.

 

Whatever is built, consideration for future growth should be built into the scenario.  I would think Columbus would want to be able to hold at least 4 trains/platforms simultaneously....Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati & Pittsburgh in mind.

 

Again, just spit balling here, love to hear other ideas for potential station locations...

54 minutes ago, Gnoraa said:

There would need to be a build out for a sitting area for the entire train to pull out of traffic.

This is most likely why the All Aboard Ohio director mentioned that development has made the route "too narrow" to revive the old Union Station location.

I think a central station at the airport could work very well, assuming that we could also get some form of quick and easy transport directly into downtown. Nobody wants to arrive at the airport at 5 and then be forced to sit on a bus on 670 in rush hour traffic for 30 minutes to get downtown. 
 

^That would be the epitome of a broken transportation system controlled by GM, Firestone and Gulf.

In terms of the Convention Center, there is still that very large surface lot behind it.  And we're also kind of ignoring the possibility of building on top of the Convention Center itself and making some kind of connection- or even building partially underground. Probably would be a lot more expensive than just finding an empty plot, but the city might have to get more creative if the project moves forward, but most suitable lots are already taken.

Edited April 1, 20214 yr by jonoh81

The surface lot behind it is for semis to load in and load out. I know it seems really big, but I've seen that dock nearly full of semis before. And truckers consider that the minimum size to be able to maneuver properly today with that many bays. I've stood on that dock and waited 45 minutes for the truck to get lined up with the dock properly. The old Vets and Ohio Center dock lots were totally antiquated having been built in the '70s.

6 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

The surface lot behind it is for semis to load in and load out. I know it seems really big, but I've seen that dock nearly full of semis before. And truckers consider that the minimum size to be able to maneuver properly today with that many bays. I've stood on that dock and waited 45 minutes for the truck to get lined up with the dock properly. The old Vets and Ohio Center dock lots were totally antiquated having been built in the '70s.

 

I think they meant the East Surface Lot that sits between 3rd and 4th. Right now that lot mostly just seems like a giant overflow lot for the various things around it. I know at one point the Convention Center had mentioned the lot as a future expansion/field house, just not sure if that is in the books anymore. 

 

Edited April 1, 20214 yr by DevolsDance
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