Columbus Development News

[Chadoh25]

Hospital-connected rehab draws Obama trip

President’s appearance highlights aid for expanding Children’s Hospital, renovating South Side

Thursday, June 17, 2010 02:54 AM
By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

n additional $2.4 million in federal stimulus money will help fix up 15 houses near Nationwide Children's Hospital as part of an effort to boost the downtrodden neighborhood.

And the hospital itself will receive nearly $20 million in stimulus money to help pay for a project that is part of the massive expansion of its South Side campus.

That news comes as President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the area Friday to set in motion a stimulus-funded project to rebuild Parsons and Livingston avenues near the hospital.

That project will receive $15 million and should be finished by fall 2011, said Rick Tilton, Columbus' assistant public-service director.

The money will pay to widen Parsons and Livingston, replace the pavement and relocate utilities. The project also includes new sidewalks, curbs, trees, medians, bike lanes, wheelchair ramps and traffic signals. The project will create 325 stimulus-related construction jobs, the city said.

The White House and congressional Democrats credit the $787 billion stimulus package with creating jobs and helping to spur an economic recovery, but Republicans call the package wasteful and inefficient.

Meanwhile, millions in public and private dollars are being pumped into the South Side neighborhood.

The hospital has received $19.8million in stimulus money to support the construction of a research building, said Angela Mingo, the hospital's community-relations director.

And the $840 million hospital expansion will change the area's skyline.

Just beyond a 12-story tower rising from the hospital campus is a neighborhood undergoing a transformation, home by home.

The city, the hospital and nonprofit groups are working to fix up dozens of run-down and vacant houses.

Mingo said $2.4 million in stimulus money was awarded to Community Development for All People, which is working with the hospital to fix as many as 94 homes.

Other groups are involved.

World Changers, affiliated with the North American Mission Board, is collaborating with the hospital and United Way of Central Ohio to rehabilitate 15 South Side homes.

Yesterday, groups of young volunteers worked on a cluster of houses on S. 18th Street. The sound of saws and hammering and the smell of paint filled the air.

Paula Legue and Joyce Jones watched from the sidewalk as the teenagers fixed their homes.

Legue, who has lived in her 116-year-old house since 1971, said she hopes the work spurs other property owners, specifically landlords, to fix up their houses and lawns.

Other projects are about to begin as well.

More than $1.5 million in federal neighborhood-stabilization money awarded to the city last year will help pay for 40 rent-to-own houses that the Columbus Housing Partnership is developing between Livingston and Thurman avenues.

That should be finished by September 2011, said George Tabit, the group's rental-development director.

Michael Aaron, who leads the Livingston Avenue Area Commission, said the city needs to reduce crime and spend more money to improve Livingston Avenue farther east. That work, he said, should include road repairs and utility upgrades if the area is to rebound.

"We believe every little bit helps," he said. "We believe the South Side has long been ignored."

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live...litics&sid=101

The pictures are a few months old, so I aplogize. I'll try to take some new ones soon. This is the new addition to Children's Hospital on the corner of Livingston and Parsons Avenues.

[Chadoh25]

ProjectONE, step1

OSU medical expansion kicks off, but donors sought

Saturday, June 19, 2010 02:50 AM
By Misti Crane

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Ohio State University leaders have a lot more money to shake loose before they reach their goal of $75 million in donations to help pay for the massive medical center construction project now under way.

The university had about $7.3 million in hand and an additional $8 million pledged toward the $1 billion medical center expansion as of the end of April.

As trustees and others gathered yesterday to celebrate the start of construction, they emphasized the important role that community generosity will play as they move forward on the work they've dubbed ProjectONE.

The man perhaps best suited to make that request, Richard J. Solove (for whom the medical center's research center is named), arrived in a wheelchair and said before the ceremony began that he had longed to live to see the day. Solove is 85 and is struggling with medical problems.

When he addressed a crowd that rose to applaud him twice, he spoke of his joy and shared the story of losing his father to thyroid cancer.

"I've spent many years here at the James planning this day," he said of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital. "I'm more than happy to see it.

"It really is going to be incredible."

When it came to the need for contributions to see the project through, he was to the point: "Ladies and gentleman, I plead with you to open your pockets and see what we've got, what we've done and what's planned for the future."

The centerpiece for the ProjectONE plan will be a 17-story tower that will include the Critical Care Center, the new James Cancer Hospital and the Richard J. Solove Research Institute. The project also includes new floors for the Ross Heart Hospital and other renovations.

Dr. Steven Gabbe, CEO of the medical center, said the money in hand so far doesn't tell the whole fundraising story. About $30 million has been verbally committed recently, he said, adding that he's confident the university will reach its goals. By the end of 2011, about $56 million will have been raised, he said.

The official groundbreaking yesterday, and the university's recent commitment of $294 million in construction dollars, will help get things going, he said.

"It's sort of the alarm, that wake-up call," Gabbe said.

University leaders tout the project as an economic boon, creating 5,000 temporary construction jobs and 6,000 permanent jobs at the university. They also call it a transformative moment for the university and medical center.

They estimate the growth will generate 4,000 jobs at businesses near the medical center.

The hospital tower is expected to be finished in 2014. Demolition of some buildings started last year.

The university has spent about $150 million so far on work, including the addition of the two floors to the heart hospital and the construction of an office tower and MRI facility.

The university officials, politicians, business leaders and medical experts who packed the tent where the new tower will rise spoke of the project as unprecedented and applauded its economic impact.

But they also spoke of what it means for people who find themselves sick, scared and seeking hope, of bringing research advances more quickly to patients, of someday seeing a cancer-free world.

The construction beams going up on Ohio State's campus represent a lot of things.

To Jeanette Ferguson, a cancer survivor who spoke yesterday, they represent something promising for the patients who come after her.

She saw them as lifting hopes and prayers and dreams, she said.

She hoped the building to rise on the land on which she stood would "change the face of cancer forever."

mcrane@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...1.html?sid=101

[Chadoh25]

Trustees OK big-picture plan for OSU
50-year wish list includes Rt.315 moved west

Saturday, June 19, 2010 02:50 AM
By Encarnacion Pyle

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Lessening traffic, creating a more concentrated academic core and attracting more people to live, work and play around campus are just some ideas included in Ohio State University's proposed master plan.

Ohio State trustees unanimously approved a set of guiding principles yesterday for a plan that creates a vision of what OSU's Columbus campus and surrounding neighborhoods should look like over the next half-century.

The plan spells out more conceptual ideas than details.

Those ideas range from the practical desire to eventually add up to 6,000 new student beds so sophomores and more upperclassmen can live on campus, to the granddaddy of all dreams: getting Rt. 315 straightened and moved westward.

"We're turning the whole planning process on its head," President E. Gordon Gee said.

Among the more radical ideas is OSU's realization that it shouldn't add any net, new academic space to the main campus. The plan also calls for moving many of the school's programs currently housed on west campus to its academic core east of the Olentangy River.

"This is not about no growth," said Jeff Kaplan, senior vice president for administration and planning.

But it is about smarter growth, he said. That can be accomplished by combining departments into single buildings, making sure existing classrooms and labs are used throughout the day and evening, and doing a better job of renovating halls and demolishing them when they have outlived their purpose, he said.

An example already exists. Ohio State's chemistry and chemical- and biomolecular-engineering departments soon will move into a new shared building.

Doing these kinds of things will help Ohio State "provide the best education to students for the least amount of dollars," Trustee Alex Shumate said.

The plan also recommends that the school keep on-campus housing within the three distinct areas already in existence, but with major upgrades to make them more appealing to students.

A $172 million renovation of the high-rise dorms along 11th Avenue on south campus already will add 900 new beds and about 2,000 renovated beds. The campus also is trying to decide whether to replace or renovate the Lincoln and Morrill towers, with their prime riverside location.

Planners also suggested Ohio State consider adding 2,000 beds on the southwest corner of Lane Avenue and High Street, and work with private partners to create more housing for graduate students and employees.

"The university should try to reach a goal of attracting 5,000 additional faculty and staff to live closer to campus," said Ricardo Dumont, a principal planner with Sasaki Associates, the Boston-based design firm hired by OSU to help create the plan.

The plan also recommends:

• Making Neil Avenue the campus' primary academic core, and creating a science and technology gateway that stretches down Lane Avenue.

• Extending Kinnear Road across the river as a research and health-sciences hub.

• Helping N. High Street become a cultural corridor with three concentrated areas of activity: South Campus Gateway, which could add more housing and perhaps office space; Lane Avenue and High, which could add more large-scale commercial and retail space and become a more visible entry to the campus; and 15th and High Street, which already is geared to the arts.

• Moving the 7,000 parking spaces along the Olentangy River and creating a recreational swath along both shores. To improve traffic flow and open up more green space along the river, it is recommended that Rt. 315 be straightened and moved slightly west. Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Hedge said he's never heard of the proposal.

• Developing a pedestrian corridor on 17th, 18th and 19th streets.

To achieve many elements of the plan, Ohio State would have to work with business, civic, city and other government leaders.

In other action, the trustees approved a 5.5 percent increase in room-and-board rates for the coming school year. That will raise the price to $8,874 a year for an average room with the basic 19-meals-a-week plan.

epyle@dispatch.com

[Chadoh25]

Franklin Park Conservatory
Officials ready for next step in master plan

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 11:20 AM
By GARY SEMAN JR.

ThisWeek Staff Writer

Mark this date on your calendar: 10-10-10.

That's when Franklin Park Conservatory officials will break ground on a 10,000-square-foot greenhouse facility. It will complete the first phase of a master plan to upgrade the conservatory.

The first part of the plan, two 5,000-square-foot additions to the John F. Wolfe Palm House, was completed in Aug. 8, 2008, or 8-8-08. It was followed by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Community Garden complex, which debuted Sept. 9, 2009. Yep, 9-9-09.

The targeted completion date of the greenhouse: 11-11-11.

"We're running out of numbers," said Bruce Harkey, executive director of the conservatory.

Harkey said the three-phase master plan, which started more than a decade ago, will transform the 88-acre property on the city's east side into one of the most renowned urban horticultural destinations in the country.

Conservatory officials exceeded their goal of $21-million to complete the first phase of the master plan.

"If we had not been successful with phase one, it would have been very difficult to go forward," Harkey said.

Franklin Park had a rebirth of sorts when it forged a relationship with Chihuly Studio. Founder Dale Chihuly's first six-month exhibit, which started in 2003, sparked a renewed interest in the facility.

Much of the exhibit was purchased for the conservatory by a group of donors. The collection was brought out last July and exhibited, with new pieces provided by the studio, through March of this year. A dozen pieces from the conservatory's collection remain on display.

Staff members have been capitalizing on each success, bringing in more visitors with additional installations, such as community-farming plots and popular exhibits. The next major show is "Savage Gardens: The Real and Imaginary World of Carnivorous Plants," which opens July 10. It will feature an extensive horticultural display, commissioned sculptures and a juried art show.

While the recession has hit many public organizations hard, the conservatory is gaining momentum, Harkey said. A reorganization in 2009 reduced staffing costs by 19 percent while programming increased, he said.

The 2008 and 2009 fiscal years closed with a small surplus and earned revenue increased by 4 percent to 53 percent.

"I think the team is so creative in coming up with solutions," Harkey said. "They refuse to give up."

There are two phases left in the master plan. They are estimated to cost between $60- and $80-million.

Harkey said he expects to launch the next capital campaign in 2012, when the American Public Garden Association conference comes to town. It will coincide with the city's bicentennial, he said.

The next two phases will be ambitious, he said. It could involve the establishment of education wings, an auditorium, children's gardens and the creation of a lake with a boat house. The final phase isn't expected to be complete until 2020.

Bill Dawson, Growing to Green coordinator for the conservatory, is enjoying the fruits of the latest capital campaign. His office is in the original caretaker's house, built in 1914. Located in the Scotts Miracle-Gro garden, the brick structure was boarded up two years ago.

Dawson oversees the community gardens, teaches classes and handles outreach for the conservatory.

"The creation of the master plan has been very important, a very community-oriented plan," he said.

gseman@thisweeknews.com

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/con...n.html?sid=104

[Chadoh25]

High St. hotel plan moving ahead

Saturday, June 26, 2010 02:51 AM
By Marla Matzer Rose

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A proposed hotel in the Short North took another step forward this week with the unveiling of renderings at a joint meeting of the Victorian Village and Italian Village commissions.

A number of commissioners remained concerned about the scale and design of the project, which would include a 135-room hotel, office building and retail space on the east side of High Street and a garage on the west side.

The plan calls for demolishing a portion of the United Commercial Travelers building, which faces Goodale Park and was built in 1917. The proposed 500-space parking garage would empty onto a small one-way street in an area that is frequently congested.

Marc Conte, head of the Victorian Village commission, said several members asked developer Joel Pizzuti and his team to consider tweaks, including setting back a portion of the 10-story hotel so “every square inch” isn’t built out toward High Street. He pointed to the new Jackson on High condo project to the north, which is set back above the first three floors, as an example.

Victorian Village, which claims the west side of High Street, has long been sensitive to limiting the height of buildings along the thoroughfare. Italian Village, representing the east side of High, has been slightly less strict. The joint meetings of the two groups were started this year to address the planning of projects that involve both sides of High.

Pizzuti said yesterday that he was optimistic that the hotel project is moving forward and characterized Thursday’s meeting as another step in a “collaborative” process.

“We’ve been trying to come up with a development plan that works for us, for the commissioners and for the neighborhood. We’ve gotten some great feedback,” Pizzuti said. But with 14 commissioners “come that many opinions.”

Pizzuti expects to appear again next month in front of the commissions to present tweaks to the plans. He declined to identify what those might include.

Meanwhile, a Downtown hotel project is quietly moving forward. The developers of the planned Hotel Indigo across from the Ohio Statehouse on Broad Street are negotiating with a third-party hotel operator to run the hotel and to possibly buy the developers’ stake in it. The 117-room hotel would be housed in two historic buildings near Broad and High streets.

Michael Schiff, who is spearheading the project on the part of Schottenstein Property Group, said he expects to announce a deal “in 60 to 90 days.”

Schiff said several million dollars worth’ of state and federal historic-preservation tax credits, along with a buyer’s market for construction services, makes him confident that the project won’t have a problem getting financed and advancing.

mrose@dispatch.com

[Chadoh25]

Friday, June 25, 2010

Wonder Bread plant gets preservation tax credit

Business First of Columbus


The former downtown-area Wonder Bread plant being developed into an artists’ haven is getting $597,000 in historic preservation funding from the state.

Gov. Ted Strickland’s office on Friday announced $28.3 million in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit awards to 13 projects, one of which is the Wonder Bread building. The latest announcement is the fourth and final preservation award under the state’s $1.57 billion job creation stimulus package, which set aside $120 million for such credits.

The plant, which Wonder Bread owner Interstate Bakeries Corp. shut down last year after to deciding to shift operations out of state, is under development as a mix of arts-oriented retail, exhibition, office and rehearsal space. Arts entrepreneur Adam Brouillette formed Wonderland Columbus to serve as the master tenant that will go about filling the 64,600-square-foot building.

The state said the project in applying for the tax credit pledged to preserve the industrial heritage of the building along with the Wonder Bread sign that has become a visual landmark in Italian Village. The tax credits fund up to a quarter of qualified rehabilitation spending.

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/colu...1/daily45.html

[Chadoh25]

8 NEW HOMES ON NEAR EAST SIDE
Federal aid helps transform neighborhood

Saturday, June 26, 2010 02:52 AM
By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Will Figg | Dispatch
Standing out on N. 21st Street are two of the new, "green" homes that were funded by $1.9 million in federal neighborhood stabilization money given to Columbus. Five of the eight new homes have been sold by the Columbus Housing Partnership, which developed them, for $140,000 to $160,000.

When Charles Minter moved to N. 21st Street two decades ago, it was filled with crack houses, he said.

Things are beginning to change.

Now, the Near East Side neighborhood has eight new houses built with $1.9 million in federal money - an average of $237,500 per house.

That's $70,000 to $100,000 more than the houses are selling for, and Minter couldn't be happier.

"I want to be in a neighborhood where I'm comfortable," said Minter after an event yesterday to mark the completion of the houses.

Six of the homes are on his street.

These are the first new houses built with the first round of federal neighborhood stabilization money, $22.8 million, that the city received last year.

The Columbus Housing Partnership, which developed the houses with the city's money, has sold five of them for between $140,000 and $160,000. Owners are eligible for 15-year, 100 percent property-tax abatements.

That's much less than the cost to acquire and demolish the old homes on the lots and build the new, energy-efficient "green" homes.

Other new homes on the street have sold for similar amounts in recent years. But some of the century-old homes on N. 21st Street have market values of $45,000 or less, according to the Franklin County auditor's website.

But Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the housing partnership's Amy Klaben insist that this is the best way to redevelop worn center-city areas.

Without these types of projects, Coleman said, neighborhoods would decline more and cost far more to rebuild in the long run.

"That's what it takes," Coleman said. "We're not in the business of (making) profits. We're in the business of building neighborhoods.

"I'm OK with that. That's the way it should be," said Coleman, whose $25 million Home Again program spends similar amounts of money to redevelop houses in other run-down neighborhoods.

Klaben, the partnership's president and chief executive, said the proceeds from selling the homes are used to develop more homes. She said jump-starting neighborhoods this way will help attract more private investment to the area. Her group has developed an additional 20 houses in the area.

However, Matt Mayer of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a conservative, free-market group, said it's not worth it.

"More irresponsible government ideas," said Mayer, the group's president. "People have to get serious in not spending more money to do something than it's worth.

"It's just nuts."

But those living in the North of Broad neighborhood disagree.

Kristian Rose-Anderson, who leads the new neighborhood association, said the new homes add to the safety of the neighborhood.

Rose-Anderson, 30, a business planner for American Electric Power, bought a Columbus Housing Partnership house on N. 21st Street in 2006.

"It's an amazing transformation," she said.

Minter agrees.

"The neighborhood has changed."

The North of Broad neighborhood is in the King-Lincoln District, which has seen a lot of city money head its way since Coleman became mayor a decade ago. That includes the $13.5 million Lincoln Theatre. The city contributed $6.3 million to that project.

The city received a total of $45 million in neighborhood stabilization money, including a second-round allocation of $23.2 million in stimulus money, to help central-city areas struggling with foreclosure and vacant housing.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...d.html?sid=101

[Chadoh25]

Some of the projects in Downtown and other areas of the city which are still be built or have just been completed.

First, Jackson on High Condo building in the the Short North. The outside looks down but I'm not sure about the inside.

[Chadoh25]

The "Flats on Vine" Delevopment on the corner of Vine Street and Neil Avenue in the Arena District.

[Chadoh25]

Gay Street condo's in Downtown.














Same development, different style. These were completed last year I believe. Not exactly my taste (I prefer the ones under construction) but nice never the less.



Looking down Gay Street. Across the street is the rest of the development.

[Chadoh25]

And finally, the new courthouse on the corner of High and Mound Streets in Downtown.

[araman0]

I love all the quality infill residential that is sprouting up in Columbus. Quality residential neighborhoods are the foundation to a quality city.

[TonyAnderson]

Thanks for the great updates.

[Chadoh25]

It's my pleasure

Agency expects to draw people to Northland
Commissioners approved lease-purchase this morning

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 04:13 AM
Updated: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 11:27 AM
By Barbara Carmen

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Northland Village, rising on the site of the old mall, is set to get a new tenant that will bring more than 1,000 people a day into the once-thriving community.

Franklin County Job and Family Services plans to remodel the old JCPenney store on the Northland Mall site to consolidate three offices - two customer-service centers and its Downtown management bureau.

The move will save the agency an estimated $2.9million in rent and operating costs within five years and streamline services to the needy, officials say. The agency helps about one of every five Franklin County residents.

"These days, there are all kinds of people who receive help from Job and Family Services," said Northland Community Council President Dave Paul, noting the bad economy.

He called the agency "a good fit" for his neighborhood and said the influx of workers and visitors will support shops and restaurants.

Northland won't be as close to some clients as the neighborhood centers, but the agency has been forced to economize, said Lance Porter, a spokesman for Job and Family Services. Renting neighborhood centers is expensive, he said, and the agency expects to lose about $3 million in state and federal funding next year.

"In the 1990s, our focus was making services as easily accessible as possible," Porter said. "But now to continue to do what's best for the public, our focus must be on how to maintain a level of service."

The agency's move to the renovated department store would mark Franklin County's second investment at the site: It is also building an $18million dog shelter on the southeast edge of the property.

This morning, commissioners unanimously approved a 20-year lease with Northland Developers LLC. The county will pay $1.54 million annually for the first five years and $2 million annually for the remaining 15 years. Then it will own the 145,000-square-foot building.

"I like this," Commissioner Marilyn Brown said last week as she reviewed architectural drawings by Design Collective Inc.

Brown noted the superior layout of customer-service areas and the addition of huge windows to provide natural light. "We've just got to make it less intimidating and more welcoming than it is now," she said.

Mo Dioun, whose Stonehenge Company is guiding development of Northland Village and is the parent company of the leaseholder, said the agency's arrival will reinvigorate the neighborhood.

"About 200,000 people live in Northland," Dioun told commissioners. "Northland by itself could be the 10th-largest city in Ohio."

In all, 365 employees would move by fall 2011 to the new Northland offices. The county would consolidate 179 managers from its Downtown complex with 186 case workers from customer-service centers at 345 E. 5th Ave. and at 3443 Agler Rd.

bcarmen@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live...litics&sid=101

[Chadoh25]

Metro Park board accepts land, opposes racetrack

Thursday, June 10, 2010 02:55 AM
By Doug Caruso

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A new park continued to take shape yesterday as the Metro Parks board accepted 193 acres of Scioto River flood plain from Grove City.

The new park is one of three that Metro Parks promised last year in its successful campaign for a property-tax increase. Walnut Woods Metro Park is expected to open this year between Groveport and Canal Winchester, and a third park is planned near New Albany.

Also yesterday, the three-member board signed a letter opposing construction of a race-car track at the former site of Cooper Stadium. The track's noise would disrupt nearby Scioto Audubon Metro Park, board members said.

The letter noted that the park system has invested $10 million in the nearby Scioto Audubon Metro Park and that noise from the proposed racetrack would affect visitors.

The advisory board for the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, a birding center within the park, sent a similar letter opposing the track last month. A number of neighborhood groups also are opposed to the track.

It's unclear whether the Grove City park, referred to as Scioto South in Metro Parks' planning documents, or the New Albany park, sometimes referred to as Rock Fork, will open first, said John O'Meara, the park system's director. Each is at least a few years from opening, he said, and Metro Parks is negotiating to buy more land for both parks.

Grove City plans to connect its bike-trail system to the park on the Scioto River, Mayor Richard "Ike" Stage said.

"There will most likely be other amenities, depending on what other properties we're able to acquire," O'Meara said. "Once we have the land, we will do an advisory committee with Grove City, Jackson Township, park neighbors and other parties to suggest facilities."

The 193 acres Grove City donated is mostly former farmland in the river's flood plain, O'Meara said. It has mature forests along the river and young forests growing on former fields. It will support trails, he said, but because of flooding the park system would not place buildings there.

The developer of a nearby subdivision donated the land to Grove City about 10 years ago with the intention that it would become a park, Stage said. Some of the land is in Jackson Township.

"We've worked jointly with Jackson Township in the past, and we would hope that they would work with us on this," he said.

In October, after the levy passed, Metro Parks purchased 70 acres to the north of the Grove City property for $328,000, O'Meara said. The park system is discussing the purchase of a few hundred more acres for the park with nearby owners.

dcaruso@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...d.html?sid=101

[Chadoh25]

Bishop's Walk on Gay Street.



This phase of the development will look like the photo below once complete.



Map of the Development

[Chadoh25]

New greenhouse to complete first phase of expansion plan

Sunday, July 4, 2010 - 3:00 AM
By Michael Grossberg,

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

With its first phase of expansion nearing completion, the Franklin Park Conservatory is carefully considering up to $60million in improvements during the next decade.

"We need to proceed with caution because of the recession and make sure we can complete what we want to complete," Executive Director Bruce Harkey said.

Groundbreaking for a new greenhouse - the last piece in the plan's first phase - is expected in October between the main building and the new community garden (toward the southeast) completed last year at the conservatory, 1777 E. Broad St., just west of Bexley.

The first phase of expansion, made possible by $21 million raised during the conservatory's successful first capital campaign, focused on new gardens, the greenhouse and additions to the John F. Wolfe Palm House.

The greenhouse, to open in November 2011, will allow the conservatory to grow annuals, perennials, bonsai and seasonal plants on-site instead of borrowing space elsewhere, Harkey said.

After that, the conservatory will take 12 to 18 months to conduct a feasibility study for its next capital campaign, whose target is expected to be $40 million to $60 million.

While elements of future expansion won't be pinned down and announced until 2012, the second phase will focus primarily on improvements along the north side of Franklin Park near E. Broad.

The first phase, which focused primarily on the eastern side of the park, was designed to bolster the conservatory's financial stability through extra income from facilities designed for receptions, meetings and weddings.

So far in 2010, the conservatory has seen an increase in earned revenue to 63 percent of its budget, up from 53 percent in 2009 and 49 percent in 2008.

Among the ideas being discussed for the next two phases: reconfiguring and re-

landscaping gardens in front of the Palm House for large outdoor events, updating the visitor center to be more "green," restoring a lake that existed decades ago on the grounds, building a new boathouse and moving the main E. Broad entrance further west, toward Woodland Avenue.

The conservatory aims to complete all phases of its expansion plan by 2020, the 125th anniversary of the Palm House.

"The concept," Harkey said, "is to move the park more toward a botanical garden, with more trees, shrubs, ornamentals and plant diversity."

mgrossberg@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...sion-plan.html

[Chadoh25]

Short North Housing
Condo plan replaced as investors keep suing

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 02:50 AM
By Jim Weiker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH



The developer of the failed Ibiza housing project in the Short North says it has signed an agreement with a "large Columbus developer" to build apartments instead of condos on the site.

"The goal is the exact same building," said Scot Dewhirst, an attorney representing the developer, Apex Realty Enterprises. "I think it's still going to be an exciting project for the Short North."

While Apex tries to revive the project, lawsuits mount against the company from investors seeking to get their condo deposits back.

"I've lost faith in the developers," said Joanne Strasser, 31, who is suing for the return of $15,000 she deposited on a $275,000 condominium in 2008. "I think it's really unfortunate because I believe the project would have been a great one."

Strasser is among more than 60 buyers who deposited an estimated $1 million on condos in Ibiza, which was designed to be the neighborhood's largest condo project, featuring 135 homes in two 11-story towers.

Dewhirst said Apex has reached an agreement with an unnamed developer that would allow all the deposits to be returned with interest.

"Our goal is to resolve those disputes," said Dewhirst, a partner with the Columbus firm Artz, Dewhirst & Wheeler. "We want to pay that money back as soon as possible."

Dewhirst said Apex is also working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on the revised project. In a May 13 e-mail included in court filings, Apex partner Michael Council told investors: "We are also moving down the path with HUD to get the project financed as an apartment project."

Tom Leach, the director of HUD's Columbus field office, said Apex approached HUD about a year ago to discuss the project, but HUD has seen no plan since.

"There's no current proposal submitted, and the previous discussions were preliminary," Leach said. "There's no action pending by HUD."

Dewhirst said the Columbus developer will be identified as soon as due diligence is completed. He said he could not say when construction will begin or deposit money will be returned. Apex has told depositors that they can sign a note that would provide a judgment against Apex if the money is not returned by Dec. 6.

Strasser said she declined to sign the note because she thnks Apex already has violated its contract.

"I hope everybody gets their money back," said Strasser, who bought a home in Victorian Village after giving up on Ibiza. "I just don't feel comfortable putting my signature to another agreement with Apex."

At least five investors have filed suits accusing Apex of systematically misrepresenting the project and of failing to build the condos as agreed to in contracts.

In addition to Strasser, a suit was recently filed by Mark McGuire and Timothy O'Neill, who deposited $16,500 on a $325,000 unit.

The suits are similar to others filed this year: Michael Saucedo and Reena Buddhdev sued for the return of $11,500 they deposited on a $230,000 condo; the Simon Group sued for the return of $74,750 deposited on a $1.5 million condo; and Roy and Debra Walters sued for the return of $17,250 deposited on a $345,000 condo.

jweiker@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...g.html?sid=101

[Chadoh25]

SCIOTO AUDUBON
City clearing clunkers to make way for park expansion
Columbus is preparing to move hundreds of abandoned vehicles to a new impounding lot by February

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 02:50 AM
By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A green Volkswagen Jetta has been on the city's impounding lot for so long that a tree has grown in front of it - and died.

"I sprayed it to kill it," said Sgt. Dan Hale, who helps run the operation and whose duties, yes, include weed control.

The car has been held as evidence in a homicide since May 15, 2004, and is one of hundreds of vehicles that sit on the lot - at least until the city begins moving them later this year to a new South Side lot off Rt. 104.

The city is to clear the Whittier Avenue lot by February to make way for an expanded Scioto Audubon Metro Park.

The number of vehicles on the lot changes by the hour. On May 31, the police division listed more than 1,200 vehicles in its inventory report.

The vast majority were towed there this year or last year. But some have sat there a lot longer.

At least 20 vehicles have been there for five or more years, many of them evidence in criminal cases. Hale said as many as 40 percent of the vehicles on the lot at any time are being held as evidence.

Parts from a Honda motorcycle have been lying around since 1996.

A 1997 Nissan Maxima had been there since March 19, 1999. But when Hale tried to find it last week in row 25, he couldn't. He suspects it was stolen.

Right from the lot.

"We've had a few of them taken over the years," said Hale, who has worked for the police impound section for 12 years. Sometimes people have stolen cars by following another vehicle right through the gate, he said.

By the end of the year, more will be gone - either junked or sold, so they won't have to move as many cars to the new lot, Hale said.

The city sells 90 to 100 abandoned vehicles every five weeks, and junks about 70 a week, Hale said.

City police keep a handful of abandoned vehicles to place in its fleet.

The new 54-acre lot costs about $10.4million, including design, construction and land purchases, he said.

Dan Giangardella, deputy public safety director, expects the cost of moving the vehicles to be less than $100,000.

The new lot is made of recycled asphalt and will have an upgraded security system to cut down on thefts.

He said the parks have applied no pressure on the city to move sooner.

Plans for that part of the park haven't been finalized, but officials have discussed a sledding hill and a shelter, or perhaps even a kickball field, said John O'Meara, the park district's executive director.

Earlier this year, Metro Parks was awarded a $200,000 federal grant to test the lot for contaminants before it expands on to the site.

The city and parks will share the cost of the site cleanup, although the details have yet to be worked out, O'Meara said.

Residents near the new impounding lot are preparing themselves.

In 2007, Dave Bonner was upset when he learned the city was planning the lot just west of his Scioto Village neighborhood. Last week, he was resigned to it as crews worked on the project.

"They could care less about anybody on the South End," he said of the city. "If they can keep the lights down, the noise and dust to a minimum, it probably won't bother anybody."

Another Scioto Village resident, Gloria McElravey, said she doesn't know how the lot will affect her neighborhood once it opens. Before the impounding lot came along, she was more concerned someone would build apartments on the former Shelly Materials site.

"We've had everything. The trash-burning power plant. Inland Products," she said. "They dump everything here."

mferenchik@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content...s.html?sid=101

[Chadoh25]

The Whitney condo development at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Mt. Vernon Avenue in the King Lincoln District