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Columbus City Center

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buckeyefool said:
I'm sure the used car salesman Coleman will fuck it up somehow
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The bitch of it is that City Center is still (seemingly) in good shape. Even with nothing in there, it is still clean and beautiful.

I wish there was something they could do with it that didn't involve razing it. My wife passes through it everyday on the way to work, so we've talked about it quite a bit.

I liked the idea of converting the upper level shops to condos while keeping some of the lower level shops as different necessary retail places. A grocery store. Maybe a couple gyms. A couple coffee shops. Some restaurants/cafes. Parking is abundant. Super easy access for downtown workers. Seemed like a pretty neat idea to me.
 
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ORD_Buckeye;1399106; said:
Green space surrounded by street level shops, bars and restaurants. That is an absolutely great idea. Combined with the tax incentives for buying downtown condos, and it would seem that Columbus finally has some visionary leadership when it comes to revitalizing the central business district.

In the not so recent past, Columbus would have just let the space get turned into another surface parking lot.
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There's one huuuge problem with this plan. A friend of mine who works in downtown development informed me that Columbus' plan is to knock down the building and hope that a developer comes along and takes on the project.

Meanwhile half of Columbus' downtown is already sitting primed for redevelopment with no takers. I foresee the lot sitting empty for at least a couple years.

What Columbus should be doing is getting a developer in place with the promise of the city covering the cost of razing the property. I guess Columbus sees a massive dirt lot as more appealing than an empty building, but I think it's going to be a huge scar on the city's downtown until development starts.
 
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Bucky Katt said:
The bitch of it is that City Center is still (seemingly) in good shape. Even with nothing in there, it is still clean and beautiful.

I wish there was something they could do with it that didn't involve razing it. My wife passes through it everyday on the way to work, so we've talked about it quite a bit.

I liked the idea of converting the upper level shops to condos while keeping some of the lower level shops as different necessary retail places. A grocery store. Maybe a couple gyms. A couple coffee shops. Some restaurants/cafes. Parking is abundant. Super easy access for downtown workers. Seemed like a pretty neat idea to me.
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didnt they jack up rents on tenants? then they evicted the rest? i mean not the best "business plan"
i wonder what would have happened if they actually tried to leave it as it was. downtown vac rates were up to around 25% in 2002, now they are 12%. toss in that coleman and company condemened some buildings when he first got in office. actually the area that now houses those luxury condos and nbc daytime studios used to be office buidings that the city condemened shortly after he was elected.

interesting to see that in 20 years it went from the place to dress up and be seen to nothing. literally nothing.
 
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Bucky Katt;1400030; said:
The bitch of it is that City Center is still (seemingly) in good shape. Even with nothing in there, it is still clean and beautiful.

I wish there was something they could do with it that didn't involve razing it. My wife passes through it everyday on the way to work, so we've talked about it quite a bit.

I liked the idea of converting the upper level shops to condos while keeping some of the lower level shops as different necessary retail places. A grocery store. Maybe a couple gyms. A couple coffee shops. Some restaurants/cafes. Parking is abundant. Super easy access for downtown workers. Seemed like a pretty neat idea to me.
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When they knock it down, this will just give the "homeless" people, or other types of people who are looking for trouble, to do whatever they do.

I am glad that the rest of the country is going to pay for this (federal dollars) because I don't think is a very good idea at all and am with you for a change.

They currently don't have many tenants at the City Center so where are they going to get the tenants for the little shops that they planned to build around this mall or whatever you want to call it.

In addition, they want to save the underground garage and surrounding buildings from any damage so there will be no imploding of the City Center. I wonder how many years it will take them to finally get it down if they are not going to do any damage to the structures I have mentioned.
 
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Scioto Mile/River South is currently under construction and will be pretty nice when completed. Both Front St and Civic Center Dr will be converted to two way streets and there will be a ton of shops, condos, and restaraunts there. I'm actually looking forward to seeing it all finished.
 
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This has been coming for a while, but it's still sad and hard to believe. Most malls manage to last a good 30 years or so -- City Center barely made it past 10 before customers and stores started leaving.

I'd actually been over there quite a bit last year, because I was dating a girl who owned one of the few remaining businesses. The shop spaces were still very nice, and it was weird seeing the upper two floors essentially abandoned. There's certainly no good reason to tear it down, but it's hard to see what else could be done with the place. Offices or something, maybe. Ultimately, the problem is that it's hard to repurpose an indoor downtown mall, which is why storefronts and shopfronts make more sense. If you walk through the Short North, you'll see that an old car dealership has been turned into a restaurant, for example.

The funny thing is, someday the City Center will be part of Columbus' forgotten history, and people will regret that it had been torn down.
 
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