Columbus is looking to pump life into its downtown.
“It dreams of the streets teeming with people and a real living community,” said Tom Hawk, co-owner of Hawk Galleries at 153 E. Main St.
However, such is not the case for downtown Columbus, and the streets predictably empty at 5 p.m. each day as people return uptown or to the suburbs.
Downtown Columbus has the potential for life; with only 1 1/2 square miles of high-rise buildings and basic groundwork, there is elbowroom to form a big-city character.
According to Bob McLaughlin, head of the downtown office of the Columbus Department of Development said, flawed planning in the area has hindered its popularity and success.
“The core of downtown is huge. It is car-oriented and pedestrian unfriendly. It’s disjointed. We have developed projects individually. We have never built considering the need for close proximity to create synergy,” McLaughlin said.
The City Center Mall is the poster child of the faulty planning that built the failing downtown area. Though the shopping center remains 85 percent occupied, it must compete with centers like Easton, which has created its own urban feel with shops having entrances directly from the street.
“We built it (City Center) and people came, and then we moved on to another project. The City Center was phase one of what should have been a two-phase project, the second phase being a street-side urban experience,” McLaughlin said.
Another issue facing the downtown area is the absence of businesses. According to McLaughlin, the city’s office space has a 23 percent vacancy rate, which translates to 2 million square feet that could employ 12,000 people. In order to entice businesses to the area, customers must be present.
“The businesses won’t come unless the people are here,” said Dan Schmidt, owner of JDS Companies, a real estate development company that is investing in the inexpensive downtown area.
Mayor Michael Coleman and the city of Columbus have implemented a revitalization plan, including an investment of $100 million over the next 10 years to stimulate private investment and incentives for assisting with the awakening of downtown. Besides that initial investment of public dollars, the plan is funded primarily by private investors such as the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation.
“We needed to have a plan. It’s starting to be executed. The mayor just came out with an update. The plan is working, and people are becoming excited,” said Bill Shelby of Spectrum Properties, a development company that has opted to take advantage of the incentives.
In exchange for building Connection Lofts, which will open its doors to tenants in August at 104 N. 3rd St., Shelby and Spectrum properties received a 100-percent tax break.
The abatement is offered to developers who build affordable housing or renovate old buildings. A 75 percent tax break is offered to developers for building other sorts of housing, such as condominiums.
“There’s a menu for tax abatements for building,” Schmidt said, whose company is in the process of building a total of 180 new units in both the central core and the marketing exchange district, and is planning to invest further in downtown.
Coleman has set a goal of having 10,000 new housing units built within the next 10 years. McLaughlin said 1,400 new housing units have already announced opening, begun construction, or broken ground.
“It’ll create demand for services downtown. Today there are no customers. Where people live is where the businesses exist,” McLaughlin said.
The revitalization plan also offers incentives to businesses that want to come from outside the city to provide those services.
McLaughlin said the city will pay back a business half of the income tax gathered from the employees for up to five years or two years less than the lease term of the office space.
“So far the city has granted three incentives that have created about 300 jobs, and hopes to give one more by the end of the year,” McLaughlin said.
Also essential to any downtown area, besides housing and services, is a fast-paced and thrilling sense of culture.
McLaughlin said the downtown area offers seven theaters, an art museum, an art school and a number of galleries, but the area is relatively void of an apparent cultural and artistic feel.
The benches around Nationwide are empty on Saturday nights and the free-of-charge art gallery in the Riffe building is not attended nearly enough, McLaughlin said.
“It’s just not a story well told. It’s there but you got to look for it,” he said.
Arts and entertainment are defined by the mayor’s revitalization plan as the only business line of downtown Columbus not troubled.
Hawk Galleries made the move downtown in June from the Short North after sixteen years in the gallery district, and owners Tom and Sherrie Hawk remain hopeful for the character of downtown.
“We are making progress. We are feeling a buzz in the air and some movement,” Tom said.
“The mayor has made his commitment clear. We have made a serious investment in the arts,” said Mike Brown, press secretary for the mayor.
Because downtown areas tend to revolve around a young population, the presence of nightlife is essential and businesses within that realm are definitely willing to capitalize. Red Zone owner Chris Corso opened six new bars on Long Street in July, including Global, Barfly and Fabric.
“Chris Corso generated a concept to have six venues and access to all of them. The outcome is tremendous across the board. Actually he is exceeding his goal,” said Karen Curry, who owns a marketing firm that consults Corso.
Due to open this Friday is an upscale urban nightclub at 55 E. Main St. called Flo`, owned by out-of-towners Gail Turkovic and Mo Vaughn.
“The chance to do something here in Columbus is great,” Turkovic said.
The question is when will downtown Columbus break out and become a 24-hour home to millions, or at least thousands.
“What’s going to happen is people are going to wait for the housing,” Curry said. “If you have somebody (Turkovic and Vaughn) not from here and coming in and investing – come on, let’s have some pride; step up and help us. We need people to stand up.”
Both Curry and Shelby said good public relations and expertise in marketing should be a high priority.
“We want to energize the media. Marketing should be a real high priority. That priority may come ahead of both housing and businesses,” Shelby said.
Curry said he supported the revitalization plan.
“What the mayor is doing is exceptional. He is building a downtown from scratch. We just need people to get down here,” Curry said.
Curry said it is only a matter of time until Columbus’s big city pipe dream becomes a reality in which people walk the streets night and day and the city can compete with the likes of Manhattan, Chicago or Boston.
