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Later this afternoon we’ll be hearing an official announcement from the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority (FCCFA) about the long-awaited new Convention Center hotel project that is finally moving forward.
The new project will be located just across High Street from the Convention Center, between Vine Street and Ohio Center Way (the access street that runs underneath the Convention Center). The new hotel will be home to approximately 500 new full-service hotel rooms and rumor has it that it may end up being a Hilton, Marriott or Sheraton development. This new hotel will compliment the existing 631 room Hyatt Regency and help to keep the Convention Center competitive for bids on larger events.
The development may also include a new 15,000 sqft ballroom, a 15,000 sqft meeting space, multiple full service restaurants and bars, and a new 300-space parking garage located underneath the hotel.
The projected cost of the new hotel is $160 million and the grand opening could come as early as December 2012. Franklin County will be backing the bonds to pay for the construction of the project.
Rumor also has it that Nationwide could be considering additional private development adjacent to the hotel on currently unused land, bringing an additional 300,000+ square feet of office and retail space to the area situated between High St, Front St, and Nationwide Blvd.
To put things into perspective, Columbus currently has 1,000 full service hotel rooms near the Convention Center. Cincinnati has 3,000, Cleveland has 2,700, Indianapolis has 4,900, and Pittsburgh has 3,400. Officials at Experience Columbus have noted in the past that the number one reason Columbus is overlooked for larger conventions is our lack of full service hotel accommodations.
And finally, It’s being reported that this new hotel will contribute an additional $35 million of direct and indirect spending in the Central Ohio economy. It will also add 550 jobs and generate $2.3 million per year in tax income.
JPizzow, this is the first I am ever hearing of these proposed towers in Columbus.
” Costs are low and by the time you’re done the recession will be over.”
no one knows when the recession will be over, or if it’ll turn into a depression
In regards to the proposed towers on wikipedia, wow! I hadn’t heard of either of the projects. It lists a new City Center and Ohio Complex to be completed in 2020 that will be potentially 1780 feet? That must be a mistake as that would make it one of the tallest buildings in the world and the tallest (as far as I know) in America.
I admit I love the idea of bigger taller buildings being built here, but a building of that scale would look a bit out of place.
I can’t seem to find anything about the project through google, does anybody have some info about this?
I think these proposed towers were just random rumors. Anything will get posted on Wikipedia in order to be as informative as possible, although that doesn’t always mean the info. is true. These towers are not getting built, although a mass consolidation of Nationwide into a new corporate tower would be nice. I hate how this skyline barely changes.
New hotel to have it all: suites, full service
BY MARLA MATZER ROSE
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Columbus has been losing millions of dollars a year by not having more full-service hotel rooms near the convention center, but that situation is about to be remedied. Local officials formally announced plans yesterday for a new, publicly financed hotel across from the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Coleman said the hotel is expected to bring in $2.3 million annually in tax revenue to the city, “which is $23 million over 10 years going to the city’s bottom line.”
READ MORE
The build height for the Commons was a combination of all four buildings . So they are probly. 2 300 feet each. .. But the 900 ft building would be awsome I think we could fill in the gaps of our skyline between AEP and Nationwide.
According to this data we could support 2 more new hotels of this size.
Nothing about new proposed towers on Emporis.com… But how could Wikipedia be wrong? lol
i am excited for this project, but did just have a twinge of personal remorse when I realized that this would effectively end a tradition among friends of watching Red, White and Boom from the Char Bar’s back patio. Now if this hotel could have a southwest facing rooftop patio similar to the Renaissance, pool side service of Char Bar Long Islands and would not mind me belting some Lee Greenwood every 7.3, it could be the best thing ever.
I suspect that the Char-Bar building can’t be demolished because of its historic value and location. If I’m not mistaken, the Market district (I think that’s the correct name) is a historic district. If so, restrictions on demolition would likely apply. It’s true that the view looking from anywhere in the Char-bar building or rear patio will likely be obstructed, but with progress comes sacrifice, I guess.
I’ve met the owner of the Char-Bar building several times. He’s getting on in years and has some health issues, but from what I’ve heard he’s always been a stand-out, passing on various pretty strong offers to buy the building, including offers from Nationwide. I believe he owns all the buildings on the north end of that block, from Char-bar up to Martini’s. As I recall, Puzzuti has a long term (i.e. 99-yr) lease on the upper floors of the Martini building.
To get a sense for what a slice of life was like on High Street 25 or so years ago, climb the rear stairs of the Char-bar building (south of the patio) and visit the guys living in the rooming house above the Char-Bar. (If you bring along a six-pack, you’ll quickly make that many new friends.) It’s pretty much a – “blast from the past” – High Street flop house. Not many like it left now. Check out the basement too… for our city, it’s ancient. For posterity, someone should do a video tour of that rooming house and interview a few of the roomies as I suspect they’d have some stories to tell.
This proposed hotel will also be great for the North Market. We obviously already do a lot of convention business, and serve a lot of people staying at the Hampton Inn and other near-by hotels, but this will be another boost.
Press Release:
Mayor Coleman and Franklin County commissioners announce new downtown hotel project
The downtown skyline will have a new addition with the announcement of a financing agreement for a new 500-room convention center headquarters hotel located on North High Street. The new full service convention headquarters hotel is expected to generate an additional 52,000 annual room nights as a result of convention center business.
Tourism is a $7.2 billion industry in Franklin County and while the Columbus Convention Center has capacity to increase the number and size of conventions, meetings and tradeshows, the inventory of full service convention quality hotel rooms near the center makes expanding business difficult.
A new full service convention hotel will protect Franklin County and the City of Columbus’ current investment in convention facilities by retaining existing business and expanding regional and national conventions in Columbus.
“When we start to pull in these bigger conventions, it will bring more people to Columbus and Franklin County to spend their money,†said Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “This creates jobs not only for those who build and will work at this hotel, but also for those working at our restaurants, our nightspots, our sports and entertainment venues and the hotels we already have.â€Â
“Franklin County is making targeted, leveraged spending decisions to secure jobs and secure our future,†said Commissioner Paula Brooks. “This exciting new hotel will serve as an underpinning for our already robust tourism industry and stimulate additional private investment. This is the perfect time to get shovels in the ground and put people to work.â€Â
The new hotel site is located on the west side of High Street between the Greater Columbus Convention Center and Nationwide Arena. Adjacent to the site is a 900 car parking garage also owned by the Authority.
“Over half of the Columbus Metropolitan area jobs are concentrated in service business and the retail industry,†said Commissioner Marilyn Brown. “It just makes good sense given the tough economy to take on a project that will create additional stable jobs and boost our retail economy at the same time.â€Â
“Even in tough times, we need to continue to invest in our community,†said Commissioner John O’Grady. “Franklin County’s sound financial health has allowed us the opportunity to partner on this project to create jobs for our residents and support our wonderful retail economy.â€Â
A new full service convention hotel is expected to add 550 jobs and generate $2.3 million annually in sales, lodging and income taxes.
“While the federal stimulus package will undoubtedly help retain and create jobs during this national financial crisis, it is also important for local government to do our part,†said Columbus City Council President Michael C. Mentel. “This latest partnership between the city and county comes at just the right time as we continue looking at ways to invest in the economic growth of Columbus.â€Â
“Currently, Columbus can accommodate only 65 percent of our target market’s minimum headquarter hotel room requirements. A new 500-room convention hotel will enable the Greater Columbus Convention Center to compete for 92 percent of our target market and increase utilization of the facility. These large regional events require 1,000 to 3,500 peak room blocks,†said Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority Executive Director Bill Jennison.
Some site photos sent over from City Hall. These are all of the “front side” of the site along High Street:
And some site photos I took myself of the “back end” of the site. There’s really a lot of unused land over here.
I’ve wondered what was going to happen with this space. Thanks for the info :)
I really hope the site south of the rail, north of Nationwide stays free for some sort of train station, too. I’d hate to see shortsightedness box us out of that one.
Also, can we get this one at a 45 degree angle too? ;)
If anything we might see a rail station tacked onto the hotel…
I’m curious how they are going to get all of these bigger meetings and conventions to Columbus? It seems like they are working on a Field of Dreams concept…if you build it and they will come (ask St. Louis how that turned out http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/01/19/story3.html). The city slashed the funding to Experience Columbus recently, and now they are using public bed tax dollars to build this new “private” hotel. If they aren’t attracting new groups, it could end up putting other hotels out of business, which would put the city right back where it was in the first place. I’m not saying the city couldn’t use the additional facility, but hopefully they have marketing plans in place to make sure the city is getting new business and not just canibalizing the existing groups.
They don’t canabalize each other, they benefet each other. The more full service hotels a city has, the more events will come to town resulting in more rooms being booked. These other hotels want this hotel to be built and I’m willing to bet they are clamoring for a Hyatt expansion as well. As for the “field of dreams” , that’s kind of how it works. If the coordinator of a certain convention looks at Columbus and determines that we don’t have adequate hotel space for the size of attendees, then they will go somewhere else. It would be nice if the downtown could get 2000 more full service hotel rooms.
BP, that’s a great point to raise, and a very valid concern. Have you ever mentioned it directly to anyone with EC? Perhaps we can get Pete back in here to address it.
Personally though… I’ve heard of two specific large events we’ve missed out on in the past few years because of our lack of convention hotel space. I’m sure there are plenty more that don’t get mentioned.
And the fact that this new hotel is only adding another 500 rooms to our existing 1000 full-service rooms downtown sounds to me like we probably won’t see as much cannibalism going on. Our regional brethren all have more than that (see original post up top). If Indy (which is a very similar city to Columbus in quite a few aspects) has nearly 5000 rooms, I think Columbus can probably handle a bump from 1000 to 1500 without it putting anyone out of business.
More project info here:
http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/progress/convention-hotel