City Center Mall Coming Down (Columbus: sales, real estate, apartments)

[NewToCA]

The city of Columbus and its Capitol South Community Redevelopment Corp. plan to knock down City Center shopping mall this spring to make way for a $145 million office and retail development anchored by a $15 million city park...the decision to tear down the 1.2 million-square-foot building came after real estate consultants at the CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. decided renovating the building into a combination of offices and retail would prove too expensive.

City Center coming down in April - Business First of Columbus:

[HuskerDu]

Finally, one of the last remaining vestiges of urban blight in downtown Columbus is being removed. That place was like a big abscessed tooth in the middle of the city, in a spot that was once The Centrum. I only hope they have plans to do a seasonal ice skating rink like before, but there is a slim (if any) chance of them creating anything more than another place for bike messengers and state employees to eat brown bagged lunch and smoke cigarettes during weekday afternoons. Any word on the Lazarus building across the street? I always loved that building as a kid with all of it's escalators and departments. It kind of reminded me of Grace Brothers from Are You Being Served?

I am predicting Easton will be your next version of The Continent/French Market and Tuttle the next Northland Mall. Wanna place bets?

[NorthPoleMarathoner]

$15 million for a park? That better be one heck of a park.

I haven't been to Easton or Tuttle in a few years. Are there indications they are not doing well?

The Continent was rocking back in the 80s. I used to love to go there.
Is there anything left there besides that business college?

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by HuskerDu

Finally, one of the last remaining vestiges of urban blight in downtown Columbus is being removed. That place was like a big abscessed tooth in the middle of the city...I am predicting Easton will be your next version of The Continent/French Market and Tuttle the next Northland Mall. Wanna place bets?

Actually, I kind of disagree with you.

I think Columbus is making a major mistake here. While I agree that the mall needed to be opened up a bit, I don't think it should be taken down and replaced with a park and smaller office buildings.

Columbus wants to increase the population living downtown, and this isn't going to help. I think they should have looked more toward giving the shopping area a local presence, adding in stores that folks living downtown would find useful. They could have modified the mall to be partially enclosed and partially open, and better integrated into the surrounding area.

As far as Tuttle and Easton go, I think Tuttle is rather poorly designed but Easton isn't too bad. Tuttle's main problem is lack of continuity with the major shopping in the surrounding area, but that shouldn't be fatal to the mall. They also have been significantly limited in the restaurants they could bring in due to the folks in the surrounding areas basically wanting to limit alcohol sales and things that would draw teenagers, so you end up with a "wholesome" mall, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Easton is a clever expansion on the "lifestyle center" concept, adding in a significant entertainment aspect not normally found in those centers. However, I think Easton isn't very well laid out, and too many of the stores end up leading towards dead ends. They need to loop the ends better, and try to integrate more into the surrounding residential and office areas.

[ulnevrwalkalone]

Originally Posted by HuskerDu

I am predicting Easton will be your next version of The Continent/French Market and Tuttle the next Northland Mall. Wanna place bets?

I would love to place a substantial bet with u on this one, just lmk how it can be arranged the end of the continent and of northland came due to easton and tuttle not only being better malls but having much better locations. both malls r located on the outerbelt giving easy access to everyone in columbus.

i will say that i am going to miss city center, but then i realize i have not been to that mall in at least 8 years and thats y its going under. and im pretty sure they are going to be adding a lot more than just the park, i think they are planning on making residential and commercial property in and around said park.

[streetcreed]

Any word on the Lazarus building across the street?

The Lazarus Building was renovated and is now finished. It is one of the only totally green buildings in the state. The building even recycles its own water from the rooftop.

The building is leased on all floors but the ground floor retail. An art studio, owned by OSU, is one of the first ground floor retail spaces to open up.

The Lazarus building, High St. portion, will have new retail spaces. Those are being renovated right now. The idea is that the eastern side of High St., across from the Lazarus building, will have retail with the building of the Columbus Commons.

In regards to this project, the city ideally does not want to build a park on the City Center property. They want to clear the land. At this point it is too costly for a developer to redevelop all of city center or to knock down the building to build new buildings.

The city is attempting to incur the cost of destruction of the building so a developer will be able to build new buildings.

Also, the plan requires the rebuilding of the original street grid, that was destroyed by the destruction of the mall, and will allow for redevelopment to occur following a street pattern.

In the middle of the new mixed use buildings, which will include retail on the ground floors, offices, and apartments, would be the "park." This would be the commons in the middle of the development, similiar to the park built in the Arena District. If you remember that park was built before any buildings surrounded it. Then the buildings followed. Parks add value to land and can work to encourage development.

Now the city is only buidling the park and then hoping that with the clearing of the land and the addition of the park, and the underground parking garages, there will be a large incentive for the private market to come and build.

No one knows what exactly the private sector would build on the land. The buildings could be 4 stories tall or 50 stories. It all depends on the future economy and local market.

At this point, downtown office vacancies are at 13 percent, they have dropped from 24 percent in 2003.

My Prediction: Any new offices built downtown have leased very quickly, thus it appears there is a high demand for new office space with parking, which Columbus Commons will have. The Arena District has continued to add new office space even in down economic times.

The unleased office space downtown is either out of date or lacks parking.

The demand for new retail space could be low, but there are apartments (as we speak) under construction right behind the Lazarus building. Apartment rentals, downtown, have proved very successful. Thus I predict a few apartment buildings can easily be built, by the private market, with in the next few years on the site.

[AustinGuy]

Columbus seems to have a habit of chewing through its malls in less than 20 years. City Center never really worked even from when it was launched, but I remember that it was an attempt to "revitalize" downtown at the time and now they are tearing it down in order to "revitalize" downtown.

I wouldn't necessarily bet against the poster above who says that Easton will be the next Continent and Tuttle the next Northland although I hope that isn't the case.

My question is, do these mall projects that go from brand new to blight in two decades make money for their investors? I remember that City Center was a pretty expensive project when it was first built.

[NewToCA]

Here is an interesting article about City Center from over 10 years ago, and you can see the early signs of concern that ultimately led to the center's demise:

Taubman still plans fourth anchor for City Center mall - Business First of Columbus:

[Columbusneon]

Here is an interesting article about City Center from over 10 years ago, and you can see the early signs of concern that ultimately led to the center's demise:

Taubman still plans fourth anchor for City Center mall - Business First of Columbus:

That really is interesting. I remember the place being pretty crowded as recently as 5-7 years ago actually, even though it was then in obvious decline. It isn't just that Easton and Tuttle are right on the 270 Outerbelt that killed citycenter. It also has to do with the fact that people have had the "downtown is scary" image placed in their heads for years. Old Les will never let anyone know, nor should he really I guess, that some fairly high crime neighborhoods are located very close to Easton. The crime problem that City Center experienced in it's later years was more a self fulfilling prophecy rather than an original problem with the mall. I never felt in any sort of danger at the mall, especially when I visited between about 1997 and 2001.

While I am sad that the mall is dead, the fact is that it is. The park idea sounds so great on paper. But it just seems like again another idea to cater to some business people on their lunch breaks and may be a bona fide vacant lot after 5pm. I would prefer to see reuse..that is a lot of space and only being twenty years old, I can't see how it is structurally unsound. I was last in the actual building just a few months ago, and while no longer a viable mall, I didn't feel like the building was going to suddenly collapse. In my opinion I would like to see this used again for SOMETHINg, rather than face a wrecking ball. I am not a fan of the "it is old so tear it down" mentality anyway. While not award winning architecture, it is far from old! This being said, if they must tear it down, they really need to think about how to use this space wisely and economically. I was not around for the Centrum Days (didn't live here then), but that does sound like an option. Recreation in some form, rather than JUST a park.

The Continent was rocking back in the 80s. I used to love to go there.
Is there anything left there besides that business college?[/quote] The apartments and several businesses around it. The movie theater has come and gone through about 4 reincarnations and deaths in the last 10-12 years.
[quote]

[streetcreed]

This being said, if they must tear it down, they really need to think about how to use this space wisely and economically. I was not around for the Centrum Days (didn't live here then), but that does sound like an option. Recreation in some form, rather than JUST a park.

This is exactly what the city is doing. They are not wanting to put only a park on the property.

The city wants to clear the mall and put open land down so the private sector will have land to develop into apartments, office space, and retail. They want to make the land more appealing to the private sector.

The "park" is only the term being given to the use of the land before the private sector construction. Now some of the park will be kept, but only a small fraction that will sit between the buildings.