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    New Downtown Report Details Continual Neighborhood Growth

    A lot of time, effort, and energy has been invested in the revitalization of Downtown Columbus in the past decade. A lot of money has been invested too — $1.9 billion to be exact, according to the freshly released Downtown Columbus Economic Development Update Report for the Third Quarter of 2014, prepared by the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District. That financial breakdown includes $795 million in public investment (things like parks, bridges and government buildings) and $1.1 billion in private investment (things like apartments, retail and offices) since 2004.

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    “This report shows that there’s a return on the public money invested Downtown because the private sector is also investing a lot — the public is getting something for their money,” explains Marc Conte, Deputy Director of Research, Planning & Facilities at Capital Crossroads. “We do sometimes hear criticism about the amount of public money that goes into Downtown, but it does spur private development, which pays dividends back to the city in new taxes.”

    Conte adds that public investment in urban neighborhoods like Downtown also benefits from existing infrastructure like streets, sidewalks and utilities, whereas sprawling suburban development requires additional public funding to build brand new infrastructure on greenfield sites.

    “It’s actually very green to build Downtown,” he says.

    downtown-chart-01

    The end result from all of this public and private investment is the continued growth of the residential population Downtown (which Capital Crossroads estimates is now 7,000). The past year alone has seen the addition of 562 new housing units added to the Downtown market, with another 491 units currently under construction and 494 more in the proposal phase. If that rate of residential growth continues, the Downtown population could eclipse 10,000 within the next two or three years.

    “There’s still vacant land west of the Arena District, and depending on how dense Nationwide Realty Investors decides to go with that, it could add thousands of new residents,” says Conte. “We have the whole southeast portion of Downtown, which has a lot of surface lots and developable land, as well as opportunities near major institutions in the Discovery District.”

    Conte says that while home sales lagged during the 2007-2009 national recession, the desire to live in urban areas like Downtown only continues to grow, so developers are still responding to that demand. Many new apartment developments are seeing full occupancy during the pre-leasing phase, prior to the completion of construction. 

    downtown-chart-02

    The business side of Downtown is also continuing to perform well. Office vacancy rates have fallen to 14.1%. New office developments aren’t as numerous as apartment projects, but several significant new additions are under construction, including 136,000 square feet of new office space inside the 12-story 250 High building, and a 108,000 square foot office conversion that Nationwide Realty Investors has planned at one of the old Buggyworks Buildings.

    “That means more workers and more commuters are coming Downtown, so our parking supply is being challenged,” says Conte. “We’ve lost surface lots to new development, which is a good thing, but we’re not going to be able to build enough parking garages to continue to meet this demand. We have to find other ways to get people to use alternatives.” 

    The report shows that Downtown retail growth continues to be focused on restaurants, bars and food-based businesses. Of the twelve new Downtown businesses identified as having opened in 2014 by Capital Crossroads, only three are non-food businesses.

    “Retail is very immediate, so in the short term we’re going to see the most interest from bars and restaurants,” says Conte. “We’re still faced with the issue of properly clustering non-food businesses in the right spaces to create destinations. But a year or two from now, when the Edwards development is coming out of the ground at Gay & High, and the Madison’s building is redevelopment, we may have a new retail cluster there that can join in the activity that is already happening on Gay Street.”

    For more information, visit www.downtowncolumbus.com.

    Photo and charts via Capital Crossroads.

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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