Even with the rumble of bulldozers to be heard in the distance, plans for the University Gateway Center are still evolving.

In early 1999, the Druker Co., Ltd., a Boston-based company, won the contract to design Gateway, beating two other design companies. Druker’s proposal was full of many ambitious plans to develop the area around the intersection of High Street and E. 11th Avenue into an attractive entrance to the campus, both for students and visitors to Ohio State.

These plans included retail stores and restaurants, apartments and townhouses, a movie theater, a grocery store and a student services building that would house such university offices as the Registrar and Financial Aid.

Bill Whitney, project manager for Druker, said some of these plans have changed over the years.

“We no longer anticipate a movie theater as part of the project,” Whitney said. He cited that several theaters have recently closed in Columbus and the national downturn in the theater industry as a whole as reasons for this decision.

Whitney was unable to say what Druker is looking toward replacing the movie theater with, but said the company remains committed to providing a strong entertainment area within the Gateway project.

In the 1999 plan, which Whitney stressed was highly illustrative and not meant to be seen as a final concept, several entertainment venues were highlighted. These include a dance club, a jazz club, a sports bar and a possible new home for Panini’s Bar & Grille.

Another concept originally mentioned in the plan was a 70,000-square-foot student services center, a one-stop center where students could pay their fees, check their financial aid and get a copy of their transcript all at the same time.

Whitney said they are still discussing this idea with OSU, but nothing is certain.

“The university still has to decide who moves when and where,” Whitney said.

Steve Sterrett, spokesman for Campus Partners, was even less certain of the student services center’s future.

“Earlier, the university was going with the Student Services center concept, but it has moved away from it. The university is not sure what offices it might place in Gateway,” Sterrett said. One office that may move to Gateway is the office of Human Resources, he said.

Yet another change for Gateway is a shift to more of a focus on local and regional retailers. Whitney said this is being done to lend the project some distinction from other recent retail construction projects in the Columbus area.

“We hope they will distinguish Gateway from Easton and Polaris,” Whitney said.

Local retailers, such as Firdous and Cycle Tech Bike Shop, two businesses formerly located in the Gateway area, were already part of the design concept in 1999.

There are some parts of the 1999 design plan that remain the same, however.

An integral part of the success of Gateway is the apartments and townhouses Druker plans to build in the area said Whitney.

“Druker is looking to develop market-rate apartments aimed towards graduate students and faculty and staff,” Whitney said. “These apartments would certainly be very convenient for students in the law school.”

Some students are uncertain whether they would enjoy living in a planned apartment area in Gateway.

“I personally would not want to live in Gateway. I like character in the community I live in, and any designed neighborhood like Gateway cannot have character,” said Elizabeth Kearns, a graduate student in Slavic studies.

A bookstore also remains an anchor for the project, Whitney said. Barnes and Noble Booksellers plans to build a 50,000-square-foot OSU bookstore that will combine the operations of the current OSU bookstore and Long’s bookstore. This bookstore is currently the only confirmed tenant for Gateway, said Gregg Hanner, president of CEG Development, Inc., the retail leasing agent for Gateway.

Whitney said developers want to have about half of the project pre-leased by the time construction begins.

With demolition tentatively scheduled to begin late next month, Whitney said actual construction is still a bit in the distance.

“Construction may begin late this year, if everything goes swimmingly,” Whitney said.

The reason for this, he said, is a great deal of utility and infrastructure work that needs to be done before construction work can proceed.

Things that need to be done are a traffic study, including a focus on widening Pearl Street, the burying of above-ground utilities and work on the sewer system in the area, Whitney said.

Even with the slow pace of progress, Whitney said developers are very excited with the Gateway project.

“We are very encouraged by the success Campus Partners has had,” he said.

If everything goes well, Whitney said, Druker hopes to have the campus area’s “new front door” finished by late 2005.