Downtown Progress (Columbus, Franklin, Scio: hair salon, 2011, apartments)

[streetcreed]

Recently the city, and the non for profit partnership, completed the renovation of the Lazarus building into offices. Continuing downtown are many large scale projects, and privately built apartment and condo projects.

Here is a nice listing of the government, or government non for profit entity, controlled projects ongoing.

Here is a link to the Downtown Columbus Development Corporation, an arm of the city that does public-private downtown work:
Convention Hotel - DowntownColumbus.com

Some of the projects:
A 500-room Convention Center Hotel located on the west side of High Street between the Greater Columbus Convention Center and Nationwide Arena will be added to the mix for central Ohio tourism. After years or discussion, this new full service convention headquarters hotel is expected to generate an additional 52,000 annual room nights as a result of convention center business.


Columbus Commons will transform into a full-fledged neighborhood consisting of multi-story buildings with residential units above street-level retail, office buildings and entertainment venues, as well as a return to a more pedestrian-friendly street grid.

View of Columbus Commons, with the park and planned 10 year long development


Lazarus Building Renovation
Tenants

* CDDC/Capitol South
* City of Columbus Economic Development Department
* Columbus Chamber of Commerce
* EDS
* Franklin County Economic Development Department
* Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
* Ohio EPA
* Ohio Department of Administrative Services Print Shop
* Ohio Department of Insurance
* Office of the Ohio Insurance Liquidator
* OSU Urban Arts Gallery


The Main Street Bridge will feature two decks: one an 18-foot-wide walkway for pedestrians and cyclists, the other a 35-foot-wide three-lane deck for vehicle traffic.


Huntington Baseball Park, ready for opening in under 2 months!
Construction of a 10,000-seat stadium located in downtown’s Arena District at the corner of Nationwide Boulevard and Neil Avenue is set to be completed by the 2009 season opener.


Riversouth Neighborhood, next to Lazarus Building and near the Main St. Bridge, and Columbus Commons Plans. River South is getting a lot of attention.

Construction began in June 2008 on the 200 new apartments and condominiums along Front Street between Town and Rich Streets. The project will be moderately priced and targeted at young professionals.

The 130 apartments will have rents between $750-$990, and 76 condominiums will have an average cost of $200,000. Both townhomes and flats will offer shared rooftop terraces, a central plaza and more than 300 parking spaces.

Most importantly, the project is integral to the renaissance of downtown’s up-and-coming RiverSouth District. Recent public and private investments have made RiverSouth an emerging neighborhood.

Columbus Downtown High School

Designed to house up to 800 students, the Columbus Downtown High School, which features a public restaurant staffed by students, a three-story library and a cosmetology/hair salon unites students from three other career centers across the City into one central location. This location allows students convenient access to colleges and universities as well as internships and job placement with major central Ohio corporations.

River South Parking Garage, and 4th & Elm (Gay St.) Garage

Not since city Center has the city pushed for public parking garages to be built. But with new development eating up exisiting, ugly, parking lots the city has decided to transfer parking to affordable public garages. The first two are now under construction.

The Scioto Mile


The Plan
Construction began in 2008 with completion set for summer 2011 — just in time for the City’s bicentennial celebration in 2012.

When completed, Scioto Mile will connect downtown with the Scioto River, creating a green corridor and completely transforming the area along Civic Center Drive from Broad Street through Bicentennial Park.

As part of the project, Civic Center Drive will be narrowed to two lanes from four, as well as converted from one-way traffic to two-way in an effort to make the Promenade safer and more accessible to visitors

[OSUGUY87]

The only developments that I think are good is the new hotel since we don't have enough hotel rooms downtown for conventions such as the classic. I also think that the new baseball stadium was desperately needed. I really think the city needs to halt development, unless we get federal funding to do so. We don't have the extra revenue. I think Columbus commons is stupid, we don't need a park! The only people that will go to these retail locations are people that work downtown and people that live within walking distance. The new retail will just fail just like city center.

[HuskerDu]

Outstanding post Streetcreed!!

We might disagree on plenty of C-bus stuff but this is exactly the kind of update I needed from back home.

Very cool.

[FarewellLA]

Thanks Streetcreed, this is a great post! Still hoping to move back to Columbus one day so whenever I see positive developments I get very very excited. I'll be heading back there for a week in May, soooo looking forward to it.