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Move afoot to expand hotel offerings Downtown to attract bigger events
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Marla Matzer Rose
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCHPublic officials and others are working to add several hundred hotel rooms that they say Columbus needs to be a contender for marquee events that bring millions of dollars into the city.
Proposals being considered would involve expanding the Hyatt Regency Hotel adjoining the convention center or building an upscale hotel across High Street from the center, on land controlled by the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority.
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Downtown expanding hotel offerings to attract bigger events
By: Walker
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I still don’t know about this. This could turn into a “wouldn’t it be nice?” project a la City Center.
Are there really conventions out there that are seriously looking at Columbus, and for which our lack of hotel space is really the deal-breaker? If so, then I might get behind this … however, I’m really just thinking that Columbus just isn’t that kind of destination city yet, and even if we had 10,000 more hotel rooms available, that wouldn’t change. At least, not for a while.
People say of New York that it’s a great place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there. Right now, Columbus is closer to the opposite: a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit here.
I can name one. And that one was a big important one with lots of publicity… I’m sure there are others that we don’t hear about because it’s decided in comittees for the conventions and never makes national news like this example.
It seems to me like the convention center is a pretty busy place, and with all the new office and entertainment facilities going into the Arena District I don’t see how additional hotels would be a BAD idea…
People say of New York that it’s a great place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there. Right now, Columbus is closer to the opposite: a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit here.
i hear that. even though we do have bars/clubs, we really don’t have anything else really going on unless there is a event going on or something like that.
one day Columbus will be a city for people to want to visit but right now, Columbus is growing with more areas to expand the city and the areas around it.
New York, from what i hear is great to visit but with it being so crowded, a person really wouldn’t want to live there.
Either way, I’m still moving to Chicago in 2008!!
Not everyone in the world visits a city for their bar/club scene. We have plenty of family-oriented places and events around town. Our summer festivals are a great draw… most other cities our size don’t have half as many as we do.
You have to consider that not everyone has the same interests as you or I. I know there’s a lot of teenage cheerleading conventions held at the convention center every summer, and I doubt 13-year-olds care whether or not there’s a dj event at a nearby bar. :lol:
i see what you are saying Walker. There is no doubt that Columbus is a Family focus city. Matter of fact, that is what it excatly is. There is a lot of things to do for families and for children that are involve with youth events.
What I’m saying is that Columbus still has to grow to where it appeals to everyone no matter the age. That is why i love Chicago (don’t mean to keep bringing this city up but oh well) b/c it does appeal to the family focus of the city as well as people that want to go out and have a good time. Also, besides the snow, it is a great place to live to raise a family or to be a adult and have endless things to do.
Thats all i’m saying. I’m glad to see that Columbus has come to where it is at from where it use to be and that is a lot. It just has a way’s to go which is why I said it is still a growing city.
anybody here anything more about this
they should make city center into a hotel. problem solved.
Wow…old thread. They’re actually looking at the site across Front St. now. I’ve actually heard something about a Ritz coming, but it was even characterized as a total rumor.
I’ve heard mention of more downtown hotels being needed pretty regularly in the speeches and presentations of city officials, so I don’t know if that means things have been going on behind the scenes, but I’ve not heard too much publicly about this.
Has the suggestion already been made of ‘tear down City Center and build (among other things) a new high hotel?’ This would undoubtedly spawn development in an area that already includes a beautiful renovation of the Lazarus building, a new courthouse building, etc.
Can’t say I’d complain if they put in an urban hotel in between that big gap of nothing between Char Bar and Nationwide Blvd to make downtown more connected and an easier walk from the Short North. Something needs to go in there.
Preferably something for which the railroad noise isn’t going to be too big a liability, too, though they could do at least a little to wall it off. It’s true that that space south of Char Bar is definitely wasted at the moment, though.
I’ve always thought they should cap over those railroad tracks (putting them in a tunnel) and build a rail transit station over top. Some of those tracks run out towards the airport, and they also head north parallel with 71. Would be a prime location for a transit station downtown seated between the Convention Center, Nationwide, North Market, etc.
And I’m sure there would be room for a hotel on top of it too. 8)
There are so many open spaces in and around downtown that using money to “cap” the railroad tracks would be a total waste. Why is Columbus so obsessed with capping things anyway?
Typically, rail stations have two levels. An upper level for ticket purchasing and sometimes retail, and a lower level for boarding.
“Capping over” would simply establish a ground-level upper floor with the train tracks below. The location is perfect for a rail station.
First: Welcome to the site!
Second: I think this thread went off on something of a tangent focusing on one parcel instead of hotels generally (then again, this thread has now been bumped from obscurity twice, looking at the date of my last post in this thread). I think reserving that space for a rail station in the future is better than looking at it as a hotel space now, even taking into account the fact that there are always costs to sitting on an empty stretch of land. Holding out for rail there just makes so much sense, and I don’t think the wait will be all that long, the streetcar setback notwithstanding.
The possibility of a hotel in the City Center space is worth discussing, as is the possibility of another hotel in the Arena District a little ways off High … they have enough underdeveloped land closer to Neil & Goodale that could offer a footprint big enough for one. I think that the space right at High & Nationwide by the tracks can’t be allowed to ignore the fact that it’s, well, by the tracks. And by High. That is a rare combination across the entirety of Columbus, even as land-rich as the city is.
At an NRI meeting that parcel of land is intended to be a second office tower for Nationwide. (reason why its just a surface lot)
so NRI is planning an office tower for nationwide headquarters expansion or they’ve always held on to that parcel just in case??
I think CbusIslander is referring to the projects that were announced at the Neil & Goodale intersection (see here). Although the focus there is on apartments and a Giant Eagle (but then now there’s this). I don’t know that an office tower is necessarily in the works there, but I suppose it could be a little further down the (temporal) road.
Or maybe I’m wrong and CbusIslander knows something I don’t. I’d be interested to hear if Nationwide is planning another tower.
(also, Nationwide already has two or more office towers, depending on how you define tower and how you define Nationwide – but that’s neither here nor there)
I doubt that NW is going to build another tower there ( I could be completely wrong though). I work there and there are quite a few open areas still in the buildings downtown that NW currently has. Also, they just built some ( I believe ) 6 story buildings just next to BDs Mongolian BBQ. Also, I know that they we still have some open spaces in the buildings in Dublin and an open space in a building in Hilliard. If NW does own that parcel I really wish it could be capped as Walker stated but put a hotel above it. The Convention Center and Hotel in Philly has a train station underneath it and it is great to just hop on the train at the airport and ride on in. Very convenient.