Yohannan “Yogi” Terrell wants nothing more than for Columbus to live up to its potential as a fashion hub.
In 2016, a labor market study revealed that our city was home to the most fashion designers outside of New York and Los Angeles. And while a lot of that has to do with our large corporate headquarters in the retail sector — including Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, DSW, Express and others — it hasn’t stopped city leaders from shouting that factoid from the rooftops.
“We have these assets,” said Terrell. “We have retailers, designers, logistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), but they’re all somewhat siloed. There’s no real pathway for the next brands to come up.”
To that end, the Columbus Fashion Alliance was born. Terrell launched the effort as a nonprofit in 2019, with a multi-part plan to cultivate a better fashion design ecosystem in Columbus.
“Phase one — which, we’re in right now — is the strategy,” he explained. “If we’re going to become a fashion city, we have to believe it, and we have to come together.”
The Columbus Fashion Alliance has hosted workshops, classes, internship programs, fashion events, industry networking nights and more. And over the course of the next year, Terrell says that phase two will come to life in the form of the Innovation Hub that is planned at the four-story building located at 161 N. Grant Ave. in the Discovery District.
“We need to create more pathways for entrepreneurs, and to do that you need resources,” he stated. “We started looking at incubators in other cities and how they got there, and studying place-based economic development as a way to build cultural hubs and bring resources together.”
The search for a building to develop an innovation hub actually began a few months before the pandemic, but Terrell said that nothing fit all of the parameters they were looking for. It needed to be centrally located for accessibility, large enough to house multiple uses, and within close proximity of overlapping resources.
Formerly known as the Amelita Mirolo Fine Arts Building, CCAD listed the building for sale in 2021, along with the smaller building next door at 145 N. Grant Ave. The latter of which was purchased separately and is currently listed for lease by Capitol Equities.
“We spent a lot of time looking, and as soon as I saw this building I could see in my head in five years what it could look like,” said Terrell. “Our goal is to transform this into a place to connect, create, and move fashion forward.”
Transformation plans for the 41,000 square foot building include a total of 20 individual fashion designer studios and 13 fashion designer offices along with a screen printing lab, resource library, design lab, production lab, shoe lab, photography area, conference rooms, event space, coworking space, retail space and a cafe-lounge.
Terrell stated that construction should take place next year, with a goal of opening in early 2025. Once completed, he sees the Innovation Hub functioning as an anchor for an ambitious transformation of the surrounding area into something akin to a fashion district or garment district.
“People move to New York and LA because they have the assets,” stated Terrell. “We’ve spoken with Hackman Capital Partners about their properties in the Warehouse District. They have space available, and Columbus could become a hub for small batch manufacturing. We’re already talking to companies interested in potentially moving here.”
For more information, visit columbusfashion.org.