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Next Thursday, The Ohio State University will officially unveil their new master plan that will outline how the OSU main campus will develop over the next 50 years and how it will change in the context of the neighborhood, city and region. Business First posted up a brief preview of some of the development recommendations coming from the new master plan, which includes the suggested addition of a second “Gateway” at the corner of Lane Avenue and High Street on campus grounds currently used as parking and lawn space. More information on the master plan will be available next week following our coverage of the master plan unveiling.
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OSU May Develop “North Campus Gateway”
By: Walker
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Sounds incredible.
Because the current Gateway is such a runaway success!
ZAS: How are you benchmarking that success? Just casual/observational or are you measuring some sort of actual data?
Doesn’t sound nearly as intrusive or as large an undertaking; it’s just the SW corner of Lane and High. They might want to tell the city to address the horrendous curb radii that encourages drivers to take turns at high speeds, what with the intersection being documented as having one of the highest crash ratios for pedestrians and cyclists before building something here to attract more foot traffic. The last part of the article was amusing.
[quote]Jerry Jurgensen, former CEO of Nationwide, asked if the university will engage city leaders.
“Ohio State has the framework for a really brilliant master plan,†he said. “The city of Columbus has none.â€Â[/quote]
It seems like most of the SCG failure talk died down after the first year. At this point it’s all observation: vacancies, shop changes, and OSU filler…it doesn’t look good, but that may not mean very much.
The project’s primary goal was to revitalize the neighborhood — and they’ve succeeded in that…that’s tough to argue.
Anything that’d replace parking lots sounds good to me!
Zachary: It really is a success, and will continue to help improve the ghetto area between south campus and the short north!
I’d also like to hear how someone will define the success of SCG. If it has to do with retail you’re simply wrong
At the time when gateway was planned the area (love it or hate it) was unsightly for anyone passing through. It was a great marketing ploy for the university. Get rid of the awful looking landscape and build a giant advertisement. That’s exactly what happened. Again love or hate but when Mom, Dad, Grandma are with little Tommy scoping out the school gateway provides a better push than what previously was there in comforting their choice in our university.
SCG needs something, it doesnt feel like a college scene, feels like something from the movie “Truman”, know what i mean???? NCG might have the same problem. I remember when South campus was so packed on a Saturday they had to have ropes to keep people on the sidewalks, Flyers, Froggy’s, Panini’s,Spot Bar, yeah they were dumps, but they were dumps with a college feel.
The ropes to keep people on the sidewalk I think were more of a problem of the narrow sidewalks. As a 30yo, I don’t make it a point to go to the Gateway on a Friday or Saturday night when school is in session, but when I have, I’ve seen McFadden’s, Mad Mex, Ugly Tuna and the outdoor alley area packed with college kids. Those business have been around since the beginning, so I imagine they’re at least profitable.
Walker: I have actually spent quite a lot of time at the Gateway, I’ve eaten at Mad Mex quite a bit (their half off nights are great!), and I see a movie there probably every two weeks. When the Caribou Coffee there was open, I went in there 3 to 4 times a week. I also go the Barnes and Noble there frequently (twice a week) and when I was in school I went to Panera quite a bit.
There are aspects of the Gateway that work (Mad Mex, Ugly Tuna, McFaddens, Panera, Aveda, Potbelly, the Cinema, ect), and many things that have not (they could have more local business that would attract a wider variety of clientele). The high rent has pushed out a lot of businesses and left many store fronts vacant or simply unleased. There is a lot of retail space in the Gateway that’s never been leased, and 5 years on, that’s pretty bad.
There are a lot of things about the Gateway that work, but there are a lot of things about it that have not worked. They are trying to gear parts of the Gateway to the Arts crowd now, which is good (though ironic given that when SCG opened they had no interest in the Arts crowd or local businesses, for the most part), but they have still had a lot of shops close, Skybar closed, and they have many storefronts that have never even been rented.
I don’t have a solution as to how to fill all of those empty spaces in the Gateway, that’s not something I specialize in. I do think the Gateway would be more successful if it had more local businesses operating in it, and perhaps a cafe or two, just places that might bring a wider variety of people, young and old, ect.
I am thinking of something like Cleveland’s Coventry area. If you could take Coventry and pack it into the Gateway, I think you would have something that would work for everyone.
But, it’s not really more forte. I just think it’s funny that they want to build a North Campus Gateway when they cannot even fill the South Campus Gateway with businesses. I don’t have any great solutions to the issue, it’s not my area.
But, that being said, I spend time in the Gateway Gateway at least three times a week and have been doing so since at 2006, so I have seen a lot come and go there. I was just making an observation.
So your answer to my question is that you’re measuring success based on your own anecdotal terms.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see more local retail in the SGC too… but when you consider that in terms of square footage, those vacant retail spots make up a small fraction of the Gateway which contains several large tenants that have always been filled, several floors of office space, several floors of residential space, and a massive parking garage. So in the grant scheme of things, a couple of small empty vacant retail spots may be the most forward-facing element, but I don’t think it’s a good way to judge the success of the project on a larger scale.
Let’s say that a similar mixed-use development is built for the “North Campus Gateway”… office, residential, retail… let’s say they manage to fill the office and residential (the original article says there’s room for another 2000 beds there) components, but only 1/2 fill the retail space. If we end up with something similar to the South Campus Gateway, would you deem that to be a “failure” and not an improvement over what is in that spot right now (parking lots and a small unused strip of grass)?
I have a slight problem with the Gateway concept. Yes, it looks neat and spiffy, and I think it’s nice having a GameStop close by, and there are some decent restaurants there, but… it would be nice if there were more local business there, and also, I would love to know what improvements they’ve done to the housing in the area east of the Gateway, and what the Gateway has done to better the economic situations of those who live in the area east of the Gateway, because I’ve been through there a good bit, and it still looks like crap. Just sayin’.
@Walker: Nope. The ropes were there to deal with the massive numbers of people on those sidewalks on the weekends. The sidewalks could have been twice as wide and still been as necessary. I started school there in ’84, went away for while and graduated in ’95. I also lived off of 10th from 2004-2007. The foot traffic of the South Campus Gateway is considerably less than that of the neighborhood it replaced. Does that make it a failure? Certainly not, but personality wise it is certainly bland and somewhat faceless. The fact that as a 44 year old, I have more use for SCG than I would have had as a student is rather telling. (though certainly anecdotal). What metric would you use to judge the success of the SCG? I ask because you seem rather dismissive of anyone who isn’t enamored with it.
On topic, I have no issue with OSU building up a North Campus Gateway, that is underused/underutilized land and I agree almost anything would be an improvement. At least this time they won’t be strong arming small business owners out of their livelihoods. That was always my main objection to SCG.
DavidF Says: What metric would you use to judge the success of the SCG? I ask because you seem rather dismissive of anyone who isn’t enamored with it.
I’ve not been calling it a success, nor do I have figures to measure it with. If I come off as dismissive, that’s not my intention. I’m just not a big fan of anyone claiming any development is a “failure” based on personal expectations.
I think I’m pretty neutral to the idea – you can debate the success of SCG, but as someone mentioned here already, if the idea was for slum clearance (for lack of a better term), it did its job – even if it was only for the half block on High Street.
However, I thought Columbusite was on point with both the curb AND that last line. It didn’t only amuse me, it bothered me. I have a deep respect for Sasaki, but somewhat off-handed comments like that only lend themselves to division, regardless of whether its true or not (and, as an aside, of course Dumont will say they’ve got a great framework, isn’t going to be his framework?). In my opinion, OSU and greater Columbus need to continue to look towards integration and cohesiveness especially on the High Street Corridor. Basically throwing your partner under the bus during the process is a sure-fire way to make that cohesion significantly more difficult.
If I take a girl out on a date and say how good I look and how badly she put her ensemble together, I’m almost promised a swift kick to the groin. Sasaki shouldn’t be so determined to do the same.
or generally speaking, just spend the money repaving High St. AGAIN, hire a cleaning co, to clean up high st. from buttles to Lane ave daily. OSU campus is a trash hole. The pavement between Lane ave and the Newport is sad sad sad.
“Revitalize the neighborhood” hardly, I think all they did was re-direct the attention away from the nasty housing behind high st
…this money could be spent in much better ways to improve the osu experience.
I would be embarrassed to take out of state friends/family through the osu campus area….it’s such a dump.
In total very little of the project sits vacant right now. It’s done it’s job.
I keep hearing local business brought up. That gives the idea that OSU has blocked anyone but national companies from joining in. That’s far from the goal which has been hard to keep. OSU wanted food and retail that wasn’t in any other part of the city (for the greater part). Timing was a big issue. We were economically worse then than now. There’s simply no local fittings that want to be there. If you can think of someone that’s been denied an opportunity feel free to say so.
I do think a nicer sit down would work wonderful in the sunflower spot. Freshman students and some others need a place to go with dates or groups when really eating out. Without cars and knowing only the malls it would work well.
As for the NCG even if it it’s filled half way with retail it will fill 3/4′s plus on the office and residential side. That’s a drastic improvement considering that there is currently no revenue stream on that key corner to the district.
Walker:
I don’t recall that I said NCG was a failure. My observations are based on four years of frequenting NCG tri-weekly, which is more time than you yourself have spent there, by your own admission.
As for empty retail space, there is a lot of it, including three in the main alley, the Sunflower corner, and a few spaces right along High Street. There are several spaces in NCG that have never even been rented, four years on, that’s not good.
I apologize for not having any empirical data to back up my personal observations with, other to say that the majority of the people I know personally think the NCG could be a lot more than what it is. As I have said, compare it to Cleveland’s Coventry Area, which is a very successful meld of local and national businesses of all kinds that attracts a wide variety of people.
In my original comment, I was just making a simple observation. I don’t have any magical solutions. Let them go ahead and build a NCG , it is better than nothing, right?
I’m not aware of anybody business that was denied a chance to pay the rents SCG demands, but I’m acutely aware of the small local businesses that were put out of business by this development. That in itself isn’t a major issue, but let’s not pretend that this was designed to do anything but bring in “pretty’ businesses that could pay high rents.
As far as doing what the University intended for it, I would say that the answer is mixed. It has brought some higher end (compared to Campus in general) retail and dining to the area, but it has had little to none of the broader impact it was touted as having on the campus area as a whole.
My opposition to it initially was i felt the university’s money would have been better spent on something directly beneficial to the students and the neighborhood itself. We spent a lot of time and effort working to get University support for co-op housing which would have had more of an effect than a cosmetic whitewash of a couple of blocks of high street. The fact is SCG has done nothing to really improve the area around it.