Columbus Development News

[Chadoh25]

Good idea, horrible location!

Cooper Stadium racetrack gets city staff's backing

Saturday, February 5, 2011 02:51 AM
By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A proposed racetrack at Cooper Stadium has finished its first lap around city government. But it's a long race.

Columbus officials are asking that the city Development Commission recommend rezoning the land for a racetrack and automotive and technology center.

If the commission agrees, the recommendation will go to the Columbus City Council.

But first, officials can expect a boisterous turnout at the Development Commission meeting Thursday.

"Carstens says, 'Hell, no!' to Billy's racetrack," said Donna Carstens, a Brewery District resident and German Village real-estate agent, referring to Cooper Park developer Bill Schottenstein.

Schottenstein's Arshot Investment Corp. will make its pitch to the commission at 6 p.m. Thursday at the city complex at 757 Carolyn Ave.

The council will make the final decision on zoning, and the project would need a special permit approved by the city's Board of Zoning Adjustment.

The city staff report, completed yesterday with input from city zoning, planning, parks and traffic officials, said the site has hosted events for some time with good access for traffic.

The report also said that a racetrack and automotive center would create jobs.

It also said sound walls would be built, and races would end by 10 p.m.

David C. Cunningham, former president of the German Village Business Community, said the noise would be too loud for the neighborhood.

"The city has no idea what it's getting into," he said.

Arshot has promised to build 35-foot-tall sound walls at the 8,500-seat, half-mile oval track. The company also said a 25- to 30-foot-tall wall would muffle noise along the southern property line.

The project along I-70 west of Downtown could cost as much as $40million, the developer said. Plans call for a hotel and restaurants.

Arshot said it would create more than 300 part-time and full-time jobs.

Construction could begin by 2012, Arshot spokeswoman Lisa Griffin said.

Franklin County owns the 47-acre site, and the county commissioners have extended an option for Arshot to buy the property by May 3.

The newly formed Southwest Civic Association is to approve a good-neighbor agreement with Arshot on Monday. In it, Arshot agrees to create a community foundation to provide academic scholarships for nearby residents and make public improvements near Cooper Park.

Arshot also promises to make an initial $25,000 donation and contribute 50 cents per ticket to the foundation. Any fines for noise violations would be paid to the foundation as well.

Another promise is to keep a record of neighborhood residents hired to work at the complex.

"We want to make sure local businesses and residents have had the opportunity to get jobs," said Stefanie Coe, the association's leader and a Southwest Area commissioner supporting the project.

ROAR Columbus (Redevelop Our Area Responsibly) vowed to continue to fight the proposed track.

"Nothing has changed," Regina Acosta Tobin, a German Village resident and real-estate agent, wrote in an e-mail. "The developer cannot mitigate the noise."

Carstens, president of the Downtown Residents Association of Columbus, said the area is too densely populated for a racetrack.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

[Chadoh25]

Wagenbrenner Co.’s mixed-used development at the former D.L. Auld Co. site on Fourth is finally starting. So far it looks like they are rebuilding the street. More will be coming I'm sure.



Looking down Grant.



Future Weinland Park lofts.

[Chadoh25]

I would like to remind EVERYONE here that the photos (not the renderings or drawings) are ALL MINE. They are my work and if you wish to use them then PLEASE ASK ME FIRST BEFORE POSTING THEM ELSE WHERE! THANK YOU!

[Chadoh25]

Construction updates on the new Hilton Hotel on North High Street

[Chadoh25]

Downtown. Front Street

Not sure whats going on here.

[Chadoh25]

Once again, the poor neighborhoods get stuck with the worst developments. They would NEVER build this near the Short North or Italian Village.

Development panel OKs racetrack at Cooper Stadium
City Council is next step for vote on rezoning

Friday, February 11, 2011 02:51 AM
By Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Even though it acknowledges concerns about the noise, the Columbus Development Commission unanimously endorsed a plan last night to convert the Cooper Stadium site into a racetrack and auto-research center.

The next stop for developer Arshot Investment Corp. is the Columbus City Council, which probably will hold a final vote on the rezoning in March. Then it's on to the city's Board of Zoning Adjustment for a special permit.

Between now and then, there will be a lot of lobbying of City Council members by proponents and opponents of the plan. Arshot wants to convert the empty baseball stadium west of Downtown into a sports and entertainment hub near some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"I deeply believe this area of Columbus is ripe for rebirth," the Development Commission's chairman, Mike Fitzpatrick, told more than 100 people at the city's Carolyn Avenue complex after the commission's 5-0 vote.

Developer William J. Schottenstein, who did not attend last night's meeting, is promising neighbors that sound walls will minimize track noise, that he'll pay fines if they don't, and that he'll hire area residents to work at the complex.

"It's a $30 (million) to $40million gamble he's taking here," Fitzpatrick said.

A parade of people for and against the track made their cases during the hour that the commission gave them.

Opponents said the track would hurt the quality of life for nearby residents, reduce home values, disturb visitors at the nearby Green Lawn and Mount Calvary cemeteries, and harm migrating and nesting birds.

"How can anybody expect us to sell Downtown living?" German Village real-estate agent Regina Acosta Tobin said.

But proponents said the project would breathe new life into the 47-acre site, turning a lifeless area into a job generator.

The half-mile oval track would seat 8,500 at the site of the former home of the Columbus Clippers, with sound walls up to 35 feet tall. Arshot has been emphasizing the automotive-research and technology center.

The project would create more than 300 jobs, Arshot said, and host not only races but also concerts, festivals, trade shows and sporting events.

The new Southwest Civic Association signed a good-neighbor agreement with Schottenstein yesterday before the meeting.

Races have to be finished by 10 p.m., the agreement says, although other events could go until 11:30p.m.

Money from ticket sales and fines for noise violations up to $20,000 would be placed into a community foundation for scholarships and vocational training for residents, and public improvements near the site.

"We wanted to make sure this development has a lasting, positive impact," said the new civic association president, Stefanie Coe.

Coe said Arshot would monitor noise and report violations to the Southwest Area Commission, which drew laughs from opponents.

Though the Southwest Area Commission has approved the idea, the Franklinton Area Commission voted against the plan on Tuesday night.

Coe, also a Southwest Area commissioner, said good-neighbor agreements can be better enforced through civic associations, and acknowledged the track helped spur the new group's creation.

"If we formed it for this purpose, who cares?" Coe said.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

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

[Chadoh25]

Campus Partners filling in gaps with deal for parcel near Gateway
Business First - by Doug Buchanan

Friday, January 21, 2011, 6:00am EST

Ohio State University’s real estate arm has filled another gap in its effort to acquire most of a city block next to South Campus Gateway. Business First reported Dec. 3 that Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment had assembled nearly 6 acres along East Eighth and Ninth avenues for unspecified future development, with a handful of holdouts remaining. On Dec. 30, it bought the only remaining gap along Ninth, a boarded-up duplex, for $223,000.

Campus Partners President Doug Aschenbach said the organization approached property owners in the area through a broker about possible sales when Gateway was developed four years ago, then stepped back. Deals since then have come from owners who sought out Campus Partners or simply listed their properties for sale. But the agency made another round of queries in November, and Aschenbach said this latest deal resulted from that.

The last gap along Eighth is owned by one James Ellerbrock, whom Campus Partners couldn’t track down. Aschenbach said the agency’s broker has been in touch, but he’s not sitting on a jackpot because development can go forward on separate projects.

Campus Partners plans to ask developers in early February for ideas on how to reuse the ground – contingent on them not trying to do deals of their own with property owners along High Street adjacent to its land.

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/...gaps-with.html

[Chadoh25]

Construction updates!

Weinland Park Krogers on North High Street. Feb 13th, 2011.

From Clark Place





North High Street







All photos are by me.

[Chadoh25]

Abigal on Gay and Grant Updates. Feb 13th, 2011.



All photos by me.

[Chadoh25]

Gay Street Condo updates. Feb 13th, 2011













All photos by me.

[Chadoh25]

Centennial Park and Scioto Mile updates. Feb 14th, 2011





South Second Street





West Main Street



South Second Street/Civic Center Drive









West Rich Street



Civic Center Drive



All photos by me

[Chadoh25]

Rich Street Bridge.









Civic Center Drive/Scioto Mile













all photos by me

[Chadoh25]

Rich Street





Courthouse updates.

Opening delayed due to lack of cell phone reception.







Looking West on Mound Street.







As you can see, work has started on the renovation of the old Common Pleas building.





All photos by me. Please ask before posting elsewhere!

[GarfieldPark]

Looking good. Thanks Chadoh for the excellent pictures. It'll be interesting following what happens with the race track and automotive technology center. In Indianapolis, something similar happened about eight or nine years ago. Indy's old baseball stadium ("Bush Stadium") was replaced by a new downtown stadium ("Victory Field"). A wealthy developer bought the old stadium and turned it into a dirt track race track. That lasted about two or three years. I don't think it ever attracted too many fans. After that closed, the old stadium just sat empty and deteriorated for several more years. Lately, the site is now a place where old junk autos are stored. Real pretty.

The Indy site never had the related "auto technology center" proposed for the area around the old stadium though -- so, maybe that will make a difference for Columbus. Indy has a large amount of auto technology and racing technology in town however -- most of which is located near the 500 track or further west out near Clermont and Brownsburg. It wouldn't have made sense to try to put more auto technology companies in that area. The area around the old Bush Stadium in Indy is actually being turned into a campus for bio technology and life sciences research - as well as other medical and university related uses (and new residential development). The old stadium site is just NW of downtown Indy and north of the IU Medical center and IUPUI.

If the Columbus race track gets approved and they start racing - it'll be interesting to see how well the sound walls work. I guess we'll see how it all works out. I hope it doesn't have too much of a detrimental effect on German Village. I just know that if I lived there, I'd be very pissed to think that a small race track is going to be opening within a mile or so of my house.

[Chadoh25]

Ohio State dropping ProjectOne (the name, that is)


The Ohio State University Medical Center is giving up on ProjectOne.

Oh, don’t worry, the $1.1 billion project, which is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy, will go on.

But from now on, everyone at the school is calling it what it is: The OSU Medical Center expansion. Which is what I have been advocating Columbus Business First stick to all along (with varying success).

Andrew Sorensen, the university’s senior vice president for development who started last fall, told trustees Thursday evening that the joke around campus is that from now on, anyone who uses the term ProjectOne on campus has to throw $5 into the construction fund.

“I thought it was a terrible, terrible name,” he said during a committee meeting. “I’m pleased to say that it’s dead and we're going to have an internment ceremony I’m going to preside over this weekend.”

Sorensen said the term is inappropriate because the new hospital and infrastructure are so much larger than a project, and using “One” implies that other parts of the university’s mission and $2.5 billion fundraising campaign aren’t as important.

There’s little expense in erasing the ProjectOne title, since not many advertising materials were printed, said Beth NeCamp, communications chief for the Medical Center. Digital traces will need to be removed, such as the ProjectOne Internet domain name and construction blog.

No one’s taking credit for the moniker, bestowed after a series of come-to-Jesus meetings ended internal disputes, and officials came forward with a design that fit the expansion within President Gordon Gee’s overall “One University” integration mission.

“When we first conceptualized it, it seemed to make sense,” NeCamp said. “It was really successful at the time.”

Fundraising update

Speaking of the fundraising kitty, the OSU Medical Center has raised $34.7 million toward its trustee-set $75 million philanthropic goal. About $22 million of that is in hand with a third, $12.7 million, expected from what will be raised from events dedicated to the expansion through 2015, such as a portion of the proceeds from the annual Pelotonia bike ride.

Another $12.6 million in requests are pending with donors, and another $20 million in requests are planned, said Bill Mountcastle, leading the expansion campaign. There’s a December deadline to raise at least $56 million.

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/...ctone-the.html

[Chadoh25]

Yea, I'm not crazy about the track. First off, Columbus isn't a big racing town. Second, there are many residential, industrial, and commercial structures around it and I think this will really hurt efforts to rebuild Franklinton, as well as attract tenents to Westpoint, which was constructed on the former site of a project. And third, I think there are better uses for that land. But I guess till will tell.

[Chadoh25]

OSU Medican Center Expansion. All renderings are from http://projectone.osu.edu/

[vidgms]

Its great to see multiple cranes over the skyline of Columbus.

They also removed all the dirt at the Rich Street Bridge. The river is flowing completely once again.

[Mudhen419]

Whats the building going up on Parsons i believe? bout 8-10 story across from the childrens hospital.

[Chadoh25]

Four projects key to Franklinton rebirth
Coleman plan announced this week will boost COSI neighbors

Friday, February 25, 2011 02:49 AM
By Doug Caruso

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

When the Franklinton contingent at the State of the City address erupted into applause Wednesday night, some of it came from genuine surprise.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman had just announced that Columbus would back the redevelopment of the neighborhood with $900,000 to buy a warehouse on State Street. It will allow the Franklinton Development Association to turn the warehouse into 42 condominiums, with studio workspace for artists and other creative types.

Even Jim Sweeney, executive director of the development association, said yesterday that he hadn't been 100percent sure that Coleman would make the commitment.

The warehouse, at 435 W. State St., is now owned by the AD Farrow Co., a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealer. With the city's help, Sweeney said, the nonprofit Franklinton Development Association will exercise its option to buy it and start renovating it with an eye toward selling the first units in late 2012 or early 2013.

Kim Stands, assistant housing administrator in the city's Development Department, said the money will come from capital bonds issued by the city. It could be given to the Franklinton Development Association as grants or forgivable loans, or the city could buy the property and turn it over.

"We're still kind of working out all those details," Stands said.

He expects the units to be affordable for people making $28,000 to $35,000 per year. And the project will be one of four expected to anchor the redevelopment of eastern Franklinton near COSI Columbus.

In his speech on Wednesday at the science museum, Coleman described the neighborhood he wants to see: "It will be a cool, funky and, most of all, an affordable place to be."

The first project likely to take shape will be at the Eickholt Glass Factory between Town and Rich streets, just west of the railroad tracks. There, Chris Sherman already is showing off artists' studios and other workspaces for Urban Smart Growth Co., which also has plans for the abandoned B&T Metals factory next door.

"Our plans at the moment are to get the glass factory up and running in 45 or 50 days or so," he said. Studio space there will rent for about 55cents per square foot per month, meaning the average space of 200 to 400 square feet will cost $110 to $220 monthly.

At B&T Metals, Urban Smart Growth President Lance Robbins has been trying for years to get a project off the ground. He said he's close now, having used about $150,000 in state money for an environmental study on the factory where machinists once ground uranium rods for the Manhattan Project. Now he's waiting for $750,000 in cleanup money.

Demolition of part of the factory should begin this spring, he said.

There will be a lot of demolition in the area this year. This summer, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority plans to tear down the Riverside Bradley housing project, said Charles Hillman, the authority's executive director.

About 80 families remain there, he said, and the authority is working to help them find places to live by June 30. Along with the Sunshine Terrace high-rise nearby, CMHA is planning to redevelop its property in the neighborhood into a mixed-income development, similar to one the authority built in Italian Village.

Sunshine Terrace, which houses people in the Rebuilding Lives program for the homeless, will come down after a new facility is built on W. Broad Street for that program, likely late in 2012, Hillman said.

dcaruso@dispatch.com

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