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Before a near record crowd of over 50 IFMA members and guests, Max Moore of the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation shined a flashlight of hope on a downtown that has seen its share of troubles over the past several years, most recently at the once popular City Center Mall.
In less than 60 minutes, Moore laid out a plan tackling a topic that has grabbed headlines for months, maybe even years. It’s the hope Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman says will bring life back to the city and transform the downtown into “everyone’s neighborhood.”
The revival got its start some two years ago, when Mayor Coleman decided to tackle the persistent challenge of downtown revival. His focus, Moore said, is to turn the downtown into a gathering place, attracting those who have flocked to the suburbs into its shops, parks, and tree-lined walkways beside the river, maybe even live there.
But focus is two-fold -- to make the downtown attractive to business as well.
The city formed the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, a non-profit agency, to tackle the mayor’s plan, and they’ll spend the next 10 years working to put it in place.
“The mayor decided to look at development much like a CEO looks at a corporation,” said Moore of the mayor’s approach.
“This is not rocket science. These strategies are basically common sense. But we’ll put the wheel to the road.”
The team has a tough road ahead though, said Moore.
Columbus’ downtown is already facing an office vacancy rate in the mid-20s, posing the challenge of attracting new business to the downtown.
It also covers a much larger area than most downtowns – 1,300 acres versus most downtowns which cover only about 150. Although it represents only one percent of the county’s land, the downtown contributes about 13 percent to the tax base.
About 140,000 people currently work there.
To address some of these challenges, the team’s plan hinges on five areas of strategy.
The first is to build more housing downtown. The group’s goal is to develop 10,000 new housing units over the next 10 years.
“We are behind the curve in the downtown residential market,” admitted Moore.
To make some headway, the city has created a Housing Equity and Investment Fund that will help finance housing projects “that just can’t crunch the numbers,” said Moore. It’s also adding a Streetscape Improvement Fund that will help cut costs and offer incentives on street and sidewalk improvements around new residential areas.
Already, plans for five new housing projects have emerged since last spring, while three others are currently underway: Brewers Yard, Liberty Place, and Commons at Grant, with over 700 units combined.
The second area of action, said Moore, is to stabilize the downtown office market. And again, that means offering incentives to businesses that move downtown, and to provide the services and amenities once their employees get there. He said there has already been significant progress in this area
First, Columbus City Council has enacted the Columbus City Office Incentive Program which rewards businesses monetarily for creating new jobs downtown. Council has also enacted the Columbus Office Retention Program, rewarding businesses already located in the downtown for creating new jobs, adding to staff, or leasing space downtown.
In fact, AEP and Central State Building Services Council are already receiving a direct payment equal to 50 percent of the city payroll taxes on new hires for three years for moving employees into the downtown area.
Moore said the plan also addresses boosting amenities, like convenient parking, more parks, and more shops downtown, helping those working there to be able to shop and recreate as well.
The third area of focus is the development of new and mixed-use neighborhoods, and their support of the City Center Mall.
“City Center’s success will hinge on the resident market and the office market – a mixed use neighborhood,” said Moore, touching on the sensitive subject of the once-thriving shopping center. He said the mall itself will have to be “completely retrofitted” in order to thrive in the years to come, which may mean opening it up more to the streets around it as well.
Moore said the announcement that Kaufmanns will take over for the outgoing Marshall Fields is good news. But it’s not enough to save the mall.
In order to help revive the area, the city is now calling the area around City Center “RiverSouth” and is focusing its efforts along Gay Street from the river to the east with plans for new shops, restaurants, offices, and housing. Moore said the plan is to open Gay Street to Marconi Boulevard, providing a direct link from the Arena District, now thriving, to Broad and High streets.
The future of the bus station will likely be addressed by COTA, said Moore, which is looking at developing a multi-transport hub in the future, one that may include the bus station as well.
The Riverfront is the fourth focus of the group, and its transformation into a tree-lined promenade connecting it with a system of parks throughout the downtown.
It’s a plan that has been proposed many times before, but Moore said this time it’s different.
“This time the city is sinking some money into this. And if it doesn’t happen this time, I just don’t think it’s going to happen (at all),” said Moore.
It’s the group’s hope that the Riverfront will be home to a 35-foot wide walkway along the eastern edge of the river that would connect Bicentennial Park to the south, and Battelle Park to the north.
In 2004, a new park will open, called North Bank Park, and will encompass 11 acres along the Sciota between Spring and Long Streets.
The City has also given its nod of approval to two new downtown bridge designs for the two aging structures on Town and Main streets.
And plans began last year for a new face for the Riverfront Park.
Finally, the group is focusing on improving parking and the movement of cars, people, and buses throughout the downtown area. Moore said there are plenty of surface area parking lots downtown, which could be given up for more aesthetic and productive development. Therefore plans are in the works to construct more garage parking quickly, with the possibility of remote/shuttle parking strategies in the future.
He said reducing speed limits and opening up streets, like Gay, State and Town, making them two-way again, will allow for a better flow of traffic, slowing things down and making the downtown more “pedestrian friendly.”
The plan also supports COTA’s strategies to improve transportation to the downtown, with the hopes of a light rail in the future.
“Considering, we’ve got quite a bit accomplished in a short amount of time,” said Moore.
But he knows some of the city’s steepest challenges may still lie ahead.
Also at the February meeting, the Associate Relations Committee reported the collection of $16,950 during its recent annual Sponsirship Drive.
The Program Committee said it will feature an address from COTA in April, and hopes to conduct a tour of Discover Financial Services in May.