Columbus City and Suburban Development News (Alliance, Clinton: deals, ice cream, hospital)

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by Mplsite

Based on how much (or little rather) Columbus has implemented half-decent bike-frastructure they probably would have needed to start around that far back to be where the top American bike-friendly cities are today (sharrows don't cut it and that's a good chunk of Columbus' current and planned bikeways plan). A somewhat hyperbolic statement, yes, but you did see the part where I mentioned St Paul broke ground on an 7 mile long segment of an LRT line, right? They dug up the roads, moved utilities, laid track, installed signals, built stations, trained several train conductors for months and began regular service in a total of four years. That actually happened with no exaggeration whatsoever within that timeframe. Oh, and they had to collaborate and reach an agreement with another city (Minneapolis) whereas Columbus does not have this issue. Columbus given an extra year, that's half a decade, hasn't even been able to break open a can of paint to offer a car-alternative on a major route. In this case that would be the highly trafficked one-way pair of Summit and 4th between Downtown and OSU/Clintonville which last I checked has the highest concentration of cyclists in the city too right next door on High St. If you think that's an unfair timeline comparison you're going to be all on your own on that one.

For everyone else, it's a clear example of Columbus not committing enough political willpower to get such a project done. Sure, it'll be done someday, but the same can be said of any small-medium-large American city (even ones like Oklahoma City, I think): some small ones (like Madison and Salt Lake City) are ahead of cities much larger in what they offer as far as transportation alternatives (bikeways and LRT respectively). I was able to ride the Green Line end in Mpls to the Megabus stop yesterday and in the past week I was able to ride on a major east-west one-way pair of streets with wide bike lanes similar in function to Summit/4th in both St Paul and Minneapolis: won't have that option back in Columbus. Some of us prefer to have such things be tangible today than wait an unforeseen amount of years more; I don't understand why that's so difficult of a concept to grasp. I'm en route to Columbus right now and will have to lower expectations further and not have the option to take the LRT to the airport which would have cut down a good deal the drive my Dad has to make from a nearby burb outside of 270: instead he has to drive all the way to Downtown: though I am going to make him drive even more to see some of the new developments in the area.

I won't argue that Columbus has been proactive enough in building an alternative transit system, particularly rail, because it hasn't. The last 30 years, though, it has not just been the lack of will, but a comical list of problems and issues that were not necessarily the fault of the city which helped keep that system from happening. I anxiously await the findings of the Airport-Downtown passenger rail line study, though I can't imagine it would be any recommendation other than moving forward. The city will then have to find the funding, but I can't imagine that it will be put up to vote and risk the same result as the zoo levy. People just aren't too keen on voting for public funding recently. So it might have to be a combination of TIFS, private investment, etc. I do think, though, that once the seal has been broken on rail, the city will embrace it. The Downtown Circulator has been pretty successful so far and has been able to attract people who would normally not take the bus. There's no reason that rail couldn't do the same.

As far as the Complete Streets thing goes, it's simply going to take time to implement it across the city. Sure, it would've been nice if they had done that a long time ago, but the concept hasn't been around 50 years. At the very least, the city recognized the need for changing the way they get built, and to make them useful for more than just cars. It's happening, but there is just a ton to fix. And I don't think anyone thinks sharrows alone are preferred in most cases.

[jbcmh81]

309 S. Fourth St. going before the Columbus Historic Resources Commission - Columbus - Columbus Business First

This historic Mercantile Building at 309 S. Fourth Street Downtown was purchased recently with the idea to turn it into high-end condos. It's not yet known how many units the 5-story, 112-year-old former office building would include.

[jbcmh81]

Ohio General Hospital planned for Polaris matches name registered by Adeptus Health before its IPO - Columbus - Columbus Business First

A 24-bed hospital has been proposed for Polaris at Gemini Place.

[jbcmh81]

Indus Hotels gets Starwood Hotels OK for Aloft, Element brands for new hotel on Olentangy River Road - Columbus - Columbus Business First

A pair of connected hotels is coming to the Cap City Diner site on Olentangy River Road. Cap City itself appears to be staying, with the hotel pair and parking garage being built around it. The two hotels will include 250 rooms, and the garage will have more than 300 spaces. No word on the heights of the hotels.

[jbcmh81]

Medical Mutual sponsoring Columbus CoGo bike share system in $1.25 million deal - Columbus - Columbus Business First

Medical Mutual announced it will be sponsoring Columbus' bike share system CoGo for the next 5 years with a $1.25 million grant. Hopefully this helps to allow for future expansions, of which the system is already requesting feedback on locations.

[jbcmh81]

Franklin County Retail Summit panelists say downtown retail can thrive with creativity - Columbus - Columbus Business First

This article talks about the potential retail for Downtown. It gives a figure of 2,700 new residents in Downtown 2004-2014. This is interesting in that Downtown grew by 1,672 residents 2000-2010. This implies that nearly 1,100 residents have been gained in Downtown since 2010. If so, the population there is now between 7,100 to 7,200. Still pretty low, though I suspect the vast majority of those 1,100 have just come since 2012, rather than the heart of the recession economic low-point in 2010 or even 2011. So the Downtown is probably growing closer to 500 residents per year. At that rate, by 2020 Downtown would have between 10,000-11,000.

[jbcmh81]

The Dennison (Formerly The Leafy Dale) in Victorian Village | ColumbusUnderground.com | Page 6

The Leafy Dale renovation and addition project has been moving slowly for several months now, and we haven't heard much about it. But it appears that the 1970s apartment building next door is finally getting torn down in preparation for the new, 4-story, 16-unit expansion.

Here's a rendering of the expansion with the Leafy Dale on the right. It's probably one of my favorite renderings for a project in a while. It looks like it was built in the Victorian Era.

[NC_MVP]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

Indus Hotels gets Starwood Hotels OK for Aloft, Element brands for new hotel on Olentangy River Road - Columbus - Columbus Business First

A pair of connected hotels is coming to the Cap City Diner site on Olentangy River Road. Cap City itself appears to be staying, with the hotel pair and parking garage being built around it. The two hotels will include 250 rooms, and the garage will have more than 300 spaces. No word on the heights of the hotels.

Finally Columbus gets an Aloft!!
But I worry that the area is becoming too saturated with hotels.
Hampton Inn University, Homewood Suites Polaris, and Residence Inn Polaris are all opening this year.
Is there really enough business for all these hotels to stay at least at 75% occupancy?

[jbcmh81]

Council approves pedestrian bridges and bicycle lanes | ThisWeek Community News

Dublin adding new pedestrian bridges and bike lanes along Muirfield.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by NC_MVP

Finally Columbus gets an Aloft!!
But I worry that the area is becoming too saturated with hotels.
Hampton Inn University, Homewood Suites Polaris, and Residence Inn Polaris are all opening this year.
Is there really enough business for all these hotels to stay at least at 75% occupancy?

There are more on the way, actually, with a few more on ORR coming up. Whether the market can handle it... I assume so if so many are getting on board with that type of development. It will also help the city in general attract larger events with more hotel space. Columbus is actually behind peer cities on that.