A development proposal for a new 10-story building received its first conceptual review from the Downtown Commission this morning, and was largely met with positive feedback. Developer Continental Real Estate presented their vision for a building that would house a new parking garage with ground-floor office space, and adjacent apartment units.
“We’re very excited about this project, “said Mark Ford of Ford & Associates Architects, the designer of the project. “Frank [Kass, Founding Partner of Continental] and I have looked at this site for over a year. When the RFP came out, Continental was very aggressive in pursuing.”
The RFP was issued by the City of Columbus, the current owner of the properties, who wanted to see the site redeveloped.
“The city’s role is fairly simple — we’re selling Continental the land,” said Steve Schoeny, Director of the Columbus Department of Development. “We plan to sell based on the condition that they build a mixed-use project with a minimum of 600 parking spaces in an effort to deal with the parking crunch Downtown. We’re still working out the final details of the sale contract, but I’m confident that the sale will go forward in next month or two.”
The concept presented today by Continental Real Estate would accommodate parking for 670 cars, with 30,000 square feet of ground floor office space that would be home to a new showroom for Continental Office — a local furnishings company that Continental Real Estate is affiliated with. The apartment building component would likely be treated as a second phase in construction, adding approximately 135 units with ground floor retail.
Downtown Commission members expressed little concern about the demolition of the two existing buildings that would be replaced by the new development, instead praising the addition of parking to the intersection.
“One concern I have is the large mural space,” said Commissioner Jana Maniace, referring to a large wallscape advertising placement on the top floor of the garage. “If you want to have something visually interesting, I wonder if maybe that could be achieved another way. The success of that depends on what the graphic looks like.”
Kass said the wallscape advertisement was not meant to be a revenue generator, and that they planned on using it to promote area institutions, such as the newly opened expansion at the Columbus Museum of Art. Instead, his primary focus is on providing parking for another building his company owns nearby at 150 East Gay Street.
“When we first bought back the Continental Centre building, we had all the surface parking around it,” he explained, referring to surface parking that has been replaced with the Neighborhood Launch residential development. “I realize that’s not what anybody wants, but now we have no parking and no hope to get office tenants when you have no parking.”
Since the project was only up for conceptual review, the Downtown Commission made no motion to approve at this point in time. Continental is expected to return with a revised plan in the near future for approval. Kass said that once approved, they’d like to break ground on demolition and construction in July, and expect the parking garage construction to take 12 months to complete, as it would utilize pre-cast components that could be assembled very quickly.
Rendering via Ford & Associates Architects.