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DispatchPolitics : Goodbye, City Center Columbus Dispatch Politics
DispatchPolitics : Goodbye, City Center Columbus Dispatch Politics
Goodbye, City Center
A Downtown gem when it opened in 1989, the forlorn mall will be torn down by summer. The city wants to develop the land as a park, ringed by housing, restaurants, shops and offices -- all to be completed in five to 10 years.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 3:16 AM
By Marla Matzer Rose and Mike Pramik
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp.
A park called Columbus Commons will be landscaped once City Center is demolished, a process the city hopes to begin this summer.
ERIC ALBRECHT | DISPATCH
City Center is boarded up where the pedestrian bridge stretching across High Street was removed.
The view looking toward the north along High Street should include shops and green space.
Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp.
A tree-studded walk would line much of Columbus Commons, which is to feature several new structures. The view is toward the southwest and High Street.
The Columbus Dispatch
click here to enlarge graphic
Then and now
Columbus City Center has been on a slow slide for nearly a decade. A comparison of the mall in its glory days three years after opening and today:
Square feet of occupied retail space (out of 1.3 million total)
1992: 1.25 million
2009: 5,000
Cost to build: $116 million
Number of tenants
1992: 144
2009: 8
Estimated cost to tear down and build a park: $15 million to $20 million
Sources: Columbus Downtown Development Corp.; Dispatch research
Columbus City Center is coming down, and Downtown as we know it is about to change.
This summer, nearly 20 years after City Center opened as the shining star of central Ohio's retail universe, the obsolete and nearly abandoned mall will be demolished. It is to be replaced by an urban park and, within several years, a collection of buildings that will contain homes, offices, restaurants and shops.
The city has dubbed the $165 million project Columbus Commons. It is seeking federal stimulus money to pay for the mall demolition and development of the park, which city officials expect to start this summer and complete within 18 months. The remainder of the project will take shape over the next five to 10 years, as the market dictates.
While the timing of the development is somewhat fluid, the plan is now clear.
"In my opinion, City Center was built to fail," said Mayor Michael B. Coleman. "But now, the potential and opportunity for this site to be the jewel of the city of Columbus is there."
Coleman calls Columbus Commons a critical component of the $280 million revitalization planned for RiverSouth, an area that covers the southwestern part of Downtown.
City Center will close March 5, said Guy Worley, chief executive of Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp., a nonprofit group that was created in the 1970s to develop the area around the mall and that took ownership of City Center more than a year ago.
Since 2007, the number of tenants at City Center has dropped steadily. Today, it includes three fast-food restaurants, two dance studios that are open irregular hours and a luggage store that promotes a going-out-of-business sale. The remaining eight tenants were given 30 days' notice late yesterday.
All that will be left are the parking garage, underground parking and the entryway to the mall off State Street.
The most controversial part of Columbus Commons could be destruction of the mall. While clearly past its prime, the mall is structurally sound and cost $116 million to build.
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