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Last night at City Hall, Council approved an ordinance to take the next steps in developing the old City Center site into the Columbus Commons project. Capitol South will be financing the demolition of the mall, which is scheduled to begin in July. The demolition will make way for the the placeholder nine-acre park which is still on track for an expected completion in Fall of 2010. There’s no new updates on the the long-term plans to eventually fill the site with new mixed use mid-rise development.
Comments
- itinerantfoodie: Not one mention of Huntington Park or their sparse advertising. (Seriously
- Liz Samuelson: Why can't they just pay someone to do it versus a contest? I really like t
- RichLauro: Awesome! Good for Justin and best wishes!!
- Liz Samuelson: @jpizzow – Thank you for the compliment, yes lots of potential and lots o
- Taz Devil: Oh, and it should be finished soon considering that they work late into the
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City Center Demolition Scheduled to Begin in July
By: Walker
Related Posts:
Has anyone seen any dates or estimates on how long the demo might take? Sounds like it’s going to be slowly dismantled so that the parking structure underground is preserved. Does that mean 3 months? 6 months? Guesses?
I am hoping for a nighttime Vegas-styled laser and pyrotechnic laden explosion spectacular during Red White and Boom!!! That would be AWESOME!!!!!
Good heavens in order to leave the garage OPEN during demo it will take forever. If I had to guess I’d say they will put holes in the outside walls allowing dump trucks inside to park beneath the 3 story openings in the main mall corridor. Then using skid steers they can push all the walls, etc, down the hole into the waiting trucks. Final demolition will probably resemble the top down method used on the pedestrian bridge.
My guess is sometime at the start of winter it will end.
I know most of the Macy’s has non parking type basement beneath it, so traditional machinery can probably work there.
I’ve only went to City Center like twice. Mebbe I should go before it’s gone.
I’m not even sure if the inside is still open to the public? I think they closed the last of the stores in there before the liquidation sale started on fixtures. Perhaps it’s still open during the day as a walkway between offices and the parking garage?
The auctioneer said it was closing on March 7th, as they sold all of the hand rails that would keep someone from falling off the mezzanine, elevators, etc.
This is like the rail, I’m so tired of hearing people complain about it I just want it DONE already so we can enjoy the results.
Yes, it’s closed to the public at all times. I walk from the parking garage to work every day. I wish they could have at least kept the ground floor open for a little longer on those rainy days.
While this is happening more (intelligently located) infill needs to go Downtown for this to work. And by infill I mean buildings.
The crappy apartments on the SE corner of Town & Washington were converted into a lumpy grass lot instead of a building. Worth noting is that this is right across from the gorgeous Topiary Park. Town Franklin has been ripe for new development, but has only seen very little development. Where’s the signage so that people know about this place? Then there’s the Warehouse District, aka Gay Bar District concentrated on 5th St which offers one of the only lively night-time streets (between the surface lots) Downtown. Signage please (yes, the kiosks are helpful, but they identify general areas, just specific locales)? How about installing some kiosks with a little box with mini-neighborhood pamphlets on the area with history, a map, local establishments, etc? I don’t know why they haven’t done this already, maybe they’re waiting for me to do it. The city did draft a plan about a decade ago, for the WD and even a logo, but when Columbus residents and even businesses located there don’t even know they’re a part of said district, that might mean they’ve gone about it the wrong way, not to mention the Warehouse District is a relatively short drive north compounding what a bad name choice that was. Written in 2000, it’s a downer to compare to today’s version which has seen little change in nearly a decade
“The Warehouse District will be a distinct mixed-use
district that includes residential, commercial, office, and
light manufacturing. These uses will compliments
adjacent districts and support nearby public facilities
and institutions. Uses will include residential lofts,
condos, and studio apartments; drug stores, grocery
stores, and other retail supporting residential uses;
hotels, restaurants, and night clubs; loft offices for
photo studios, art studios, etc.; small corporate offices;
and light manufacturing firms. A passive park will be
centrally located, preferably near a public building.
Streetscape improvements will serve to establish a
cohesive image for the district. New in-fill buildings will
reinforce the architectural character of the area and
respect the district’s existing buildings in terms of scale
and materials. Redevelopment of existing buildings
will seek to preserve/restore exterior facades.”
This serves as an example that the city can only, at most, provide a vague concept for how to revitalize a neighborhood even when backed with their pricey marketing consultants. I’m very weary of the top-down approach to revitalizing Downtown. The new park is going to require an intact, functioning urban setting for its success, so I’m not really impatient for this to get done. Right now, only a handful of people have bothered to breathe some life into Downtown and have an understanding for what it can be. From residential developers who focused on filling in parts of Downtown with real potential to the businesses who offer post 5PM action. Good businesses who close earlier also deserve kudos, so to be clear I’m not leaving them out. They are working together indirectly to make Downtown a place people want to be where residential and commercial can be found in a high enough concentration. They have shown that if you have a good product in a good location people will come. A great park alone will not.
Just look at the Topiary Park. Great for residents, but there are no nearby restaurants, bars, i.e. reasons for people to be in the general vicinity in the first place outside of the lunch hour for employees at Motorists and the CML. Even after having turned the neighborhood around long ago, this little park is still starving for development even though it borders a pre-existing residential neighborhood that is quite dense. I’m having trouble fathoming all of the expected development, especially for it all to be mid-rise when for over a decade High St., Town Franklin, and the Warehouse District are all basically mirror images of what they used to be. I’m all but certain that we’ll end up with a large park as the end result. I think it’ll be nice, maybe the best in the city if they do it right. Instead of the park, there needs to be a major focus on a single segment Downtown. The mayor has taken a step with the “Mile on High” (maybe a bit too far with the name), but what physical changes are going to be made? Nothing much has happened in over a year, save for Barrio and Dunkin Donuts. I’d be happy if the right lanes on High became bus and bike lanes, since it would be something instead of more wishy-washy development plans that don’t come to fruition.
Downtown panel chief blasts decision to tear down City Center mall
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:36 PM
BY MARK FERENCHIK
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The chairman of the Downtown Commission thinks that tearing down Columbus City Center would be a mistake.
Razing the shopping mall sends the message that Downtown never will compete with outlying areas for retail even though a growing number of people live in or near the center of the city, Harrison W. Smith Jr. said.
“This was a major policy decision that will last with us forever,” Smith told commission members today.
READ MORE
Did anyone else hear about this:
http://www.newsmatters.org/bids-for-columbus-commons-millions-lower-than-expected/
Scratch that, wrong city…
Bummer there’s no news about our commons.
Ha! I actually did a double-take when I saw this headline the other day in my news reader: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090718/NEWS01/907180332/1001/NEWS/Financing–debt-have-City-Center-II-on-hold
But yeah, they’ve only got a few days left to get the wrecking ball swinging if they’re still planning on starting demo this month.
Corna Kokosing is the general contractor, while Moody Nolan is the architect. Check out this link from Moody Nolan under “current projects.”
http://www.moodynolan.com/#portfolio/project_37ea098e-faff-4a5f-a821-555355c64619
I want to say I’ve seen those images before somewhere… but yeah… Yeesh. Looks like they’re building a video game. :P
It definitely looks nothing like the original idea. Being that it is under current projects I’m curious if it is just their sketch thoughts, or the renderings based on the final plan.
Now that it’s nearly October, I wonder if this demolition will get done before snow flies and if any sort of green space will be made available before it’s ugly and barren all winter.
I have seen the fence go up around the mall and some periphery work being done on the sidewalks.
JoePeffer Says: Now that it’s nearly October, I wonder if this demolition will get done before snow flies and if any sort of green space will be made available before it’s ugly and barren all winter.
Well, the original demolition start date was July 2009, which meant an opening of the park by Fall 2010. I would guess that starting the demo 2 months late means the park will open Winter 2010-2011… aka Spring 2011. :P