The City of Columbus is seeking new development proposals for the one-acre site it controls at the northeast corner of Fourth and Long streets Downtown.
The city originally put out an request-for-proposals (RFP) late last year for the site, which consists of two buildings, a vacated alley and a surface parking lot. A plan from Continental Real Estate that called for tearing down the existing buildings and replacing them with a ten-story mixed-use building containing a 670-space parking garage was well-received by the Downtown Commission but has since fallen through.
The new RFP asks for less parking — the language posted last year required any developer of the site to build a 650-car parking garage as part of the project. This time, the stipulation is that 100 public parking spaces be included, but additional parking that serves the development itself is only required to meet the city’s zoning code (and there are no minimum parking requirements in the city’s Downtown District).
Ann Kelly, Administrator of the city’s Real Estate Management Office, said that the new RFP was first listed in September, with a submittal deadline of October 3rd, but the deadline has since been extended to November 16th.
The existing, six-story building located at 174 East Long Street was originally built in 1912 and was at one time known as the Gugle Building, after businessman George L. Gugle. It was occupied by the Central Ohio Agency on Aging until that agency moved to the former Bob Evans headquarters on the south side. The adjacent two-story building at 182 E. Long was constructed in 1920 for the Winders Motor Sales Company.