Downtown Columbus parking is a problem… in that there is far too much of it. It’s long been common knowledge that Downtown had an abundance of parking lots and garages, but I’ve never seen it actually mapped or counted before. The following Google map shows what’s long been known in a bit more graphic detail.
Red pins are surface parking lots and blue pins are parking garages. I only tried to count surface lots with 10 spaces or more, and they could be city, business or other types of lots. Lots currently being developed were not counted, nor were underground garages.
The final tally? 310 surface lots and 27 garages! Remember that the next time someone says they can’t find somewhere to park Downtown.
Ohio State University has been engaged in long-term housing developmentand improvements on its campus for a few years now, and is set to begin the next and largest phase to date.
The first phase along W. 11th Avenue, called the South Campus High Rise Renovation and Addition Project, is nearing completion. The $171 million project began in 2010 and focused on Stradley, Smith, Park, Steeb and Siebert Halls. The residential buildings, which were all constructed between 1957 and 1960, would see major changes.
-New 12-story additions would connect Park with Stradley and Steeb to Smith. -10-story Siebert Hall would receive a major renovation.
Rendering of the additions between Park/Stradley and Steeb/Smith.
In addition to the building additions, air conditioning, new elevators, lobbies and other improvements were made. The air conditioning was provided by drilling 450 geothermal wells. The additions would bring an additional 360 student beds.
Also renovated and added to was the William H. Hall housing complex at W. 11th and Worthington Street. Opened in August 2012, the building added 530 new beds.
The South Campus High Rise Renovation and Addition Project will ultimately add about 900 new student beds, but this is a far cry from the project just beginning along Lane Avenue.
Announced around the same time as SCHRRAP, the North Campus Residential District Project began just this past week. This project focuses on the large cluster of dorms and other buildings at the southwest corner of N. High Street and W. Lane Avenue. Most were built in the 1960s and 1970s and look it.
North Campus in 2013.
The image above shows how the area looks currently. As the key says, the buildings in red are scheduled to be demolished. The road that goes through the complex, Curl Drive, is also scheduled to be removed. The image above shows the first phases of construction through Spring 2014. As you can see, there will be 3 main areas of construction during this period. -A new dorm will be constructed at the southeast corner of W. Lane and Neil Avenues. This area is currently a surface parking lot. -Scott Hall will be demolished and the site will be replaced with a much larger building. -Raney Commons will be demolished, and site preparation will take place for new buildings, as well as removing Curl Drive and other infrastructure. -Once site preparation is complete, 3 new dorm buildings will be constructed at the corner of N. High and W. Lane. The last image above shows the final phase of construction, from Fall 2015 to Summer 2016. During this period, several changes take place. -4 row homes along W. Lane will be demolished, as well as North Commons, Houck, Blackburn and Nosker Halls, the Royer Student Activities building and the Jones Pool. -5 new buildings will be built in this area, as well as new addtions to Taylor, Jones and Drackett Halls. -A central pedestrian corridor will be completed through the entire complex. -High and Lane will be landscaped, and park spaces will be created throughout.
Final rendering.
In the end, 3,200 new beds will be created in the $370 million project. This will drastically change the look and feel of this area, and will continue to add density to the campus area, already Columbus’ most dense.
In this edition of the Columbus Housing Market July 2013, we see from Columbus Realtorsthat the housing market has been pretty white hot, and metro area sales set monthly records in July with an increase over 28%. July also featured the 3rd highest sales of any month on record.
I looked at the 21 major areas of Franklin County (11 urban, 10 suburban). Here is what the July market looked like.
Average # of Days before Sale, July 2013 Urban: 49.8 Suburban: 48.7 Urban without Columbus: 48.8
Average # of Days before Sale, YTD Urban: 64.6 Suburban: 62.3 Urban without Columbus: 64.4
Top 10 Lowest Housing Supplies (based on # of months to sell all listings), July 2013 1. Worthington: 1.9 2. Grandview Heights: 2.4 3. Upper Arlington: 2.4 4. Clintonville: 2.5 5. Hilliard: 2.7 6. Westerville: 2.8 7. Dublin: 3.1 8. Bexley: 3.2 9. Gahanna: 3.6 10. Downtown: 4.0
Average # of Months to Sell All Listings Urban: 3.7 Suburban: 4.2 Urban without Columbus: 3.6
Average % Change of Single-Family Home Sales, July 2013 vs. July 2012 Urban: +55.0% Suburban: +33.4% Urban without Columbus: +58.0%
Average % Change of Condo Sales, July 2013 vs. July 2012 Urban: +78.4% Suburban: +89.0% Urban without Columbus: +82.3%
Average % Change of Single-Family Home Sales YTD vs. YTD 2012 Urban: +14.4% Suburban: +28.5% Urban without Columbus: +13.0%
Average % Change of Condo Sales YTD vs. YTD 2012 Urban: +42.8% Suburban: +32.7% Urban without Columbus: +44.0%
Seems like most areas are doing fairly well, including the urban core. Of course, these number do not measure rentals, which is what is really booming right now in the residential scene.
The history of the Scioto Peninsula is much the same as the Franklinton neighborhood it resides in. Since Franklinton’s founding in 1797 (Columbus’ oldest neighborhood and predates Columbus itself by 15 years), it did not take long to figure out the area’s one major flaw: Floods. Essentially built upon a river flood plain, Franklinton flooded several times during the 19th century, but the most devastating came in 1913 and 1959. The 1913 flood, Ohio’s deadliest and most widespread natural disaster, inundated Franklinton with up to 20 feet of water in places, and the neighborhood flooded all the way back to where present-day I-70 cuts through the far western border. Franklinton suffered massive damage, and over 100 people died along the Scioto in Columbus. The flood in 1959 was less severe, thanks to flood protections put into place after 1913, but one consequence of this flood was that new construction and most renovation was all but prohibited due to the flood risk. This helped to stagnate the entire neighborhood, and combined with the urban decline for the next several decades, Franklinton gradually fell into disrepair. The Scioto Peninsula, the far eastern section of the neighborhood just across from Downtown, was always the hardest hit by flooding. As such, the 56-acre peninsula gradually became a manufacturing and warehouse site, although a few thousand people did live there in low-income housing projects. Central High School also helped to maintain a residential presence.
As manufacturing declined and more people left the urban core, the warehouses and businesses closed shop. Many were bulldozed into vacant lots. Central High was closed as a school in the early 1980s. By the mid-1990s, the area was largely empty except for Veteran’s Memorial and a handful of housing developments and businesses. Plans were in the works to help bring Franklinton back, however, and construction of the Franklinton Floodwall began at this time. This construction helped encourage COSI to move into Central High, renovating and expanding the old building in exhibit and museum space. Most of the rest of the peninsula became surface parking. In 2004, with the completion of the floodwall, building restrictions were finally lifted, but for several years, little happened. The stigma of a neighborhood in decline kept development interests away.
In 2010, Columbus came out with a list of 12 projects it wanted to accomplish in the downtown area. Some of them have come to pass, such as the renovation of the riverfront with Scioto Mile and the redevelopment of City Center into Columbus Commons. Another one of these projects was the redevelopment of the Scioto Peninsula. The city saw an opportunity in so much empty land so close to Downtown, especially coinciding with the emerging back-to-the-city movement. This prime real estate was ripe. The city began planning of this project early in 2012, as East Franklinton itself began to emerge as an artist destination. The Short North has, more or less, reached the final stage of gentrification. It’s become upscale, attracting high end retail and residential, as the number of art galleries has gradually declined due to rising rents. Franklinton has proven to be an attractive alternative, with such live-work projects as 400 Rich, which grew rapidly in its first year. Residential projects are now in the works, as well as more artist space, warehouse conversions and new bars and restaurants.
General plan for the Peninsula.
A few months back, details of the Peninsula’s redevelopment plan began to trickle out, but the official announcement finally came yesterday. Here is what we now know of the plan:
1. Veterans Memorial, built in 1955 and expanded/renovated a few times over the years, will be torn down and replaced with a new Vets. This new Vets will be of modern design, spiral in shape with glass walls and a rooftop, outdoor amphitheater. Inside will be an Ohio military museum, along with meeting and event space. Estimated costs run around $50 million. Old Vets Memorial New Veterans Memorial
2. Southwest of COSI, the Columbus Zoo will build a $50+ million, 50,000 square foot zoo extension. The building will include an aquarium, rainforest, outdoor zoo-themed playground and other exhibits.
3. Where the current COSI parking lots are, a large underground parking garage will be constructed to serve the 3 attractions. Once complete, the garage will be covered by a large central park. 4. While not yet designed and weren’t talked about yesterday, previous details have included elevated walkways connecting all 3 buildings across the peninsula. 5. Between Bell Street and the railroad tracts that run along the western border of the peninsula, a mix of low, mid and high-rise mixed-use buildings will go in. Ground floor retail will line streets while upper floors will be mostly residential. Between 1,000 and 1,200 residential units are planned, but private interests could easily include more given the very high demand for urban residential and the fantastic location with views of Downtown and the river. Estimated costs exceed $100 million. 6. Not included specifically in the peninsula plan, but surely also impacting it, will be the Scioto River itself. Another one of the 12 projects is the removal of low-head dams through Downtown. This will lower the river level through Downtown, creating 33 acres of new land that will be landscaped into park space. Bike paths and walkways will also be constructed on this new land. The river itself will run faster, cleaner and open up more potential recreational uses. This project is set to begin this fall and complete in 2015. Estimated costs for the project are around $25 million.
The Riverfront after reconstruction.
The Riverfront now.
7. After the completion of the river restoration project, another one of the 12 ideas should begin. That will be the construction of a signature pedestrian bridge connecting North Bank Park in the Arena District with the Scioto Peninsula near the new Vets. There are no cost estimates at this time.
So given all this, the Scioto River and the Scioto Peninsula are looking at several hundred million in investment and development over the next several years. This will radically change the riverfront, and has the potential to jumpstart Franklinton, especially eastern parts, in ways not seen in many decades.
During and just after the recession’s housing crash, single-family home construction in the Columbus area seemed to fall apart, much like it did across the nation. Foreclosure rates soared, prices fell and builders were suddenly left with too many homes they couldn’t get rid of.
Out of the ashes of this market rose a surge in rental demand. It suddenly made more and more sense to rent rather than to own, especially for young professionals and empty nesters who wanted to downsize during tough economic times. Not only did what housing people wanted change, but so did where they wanted it to be located.
Columbus experienced a relative boom in rental housing during the late 1990s into the first few years of the 2000s, but almost all of that rental housing was constructed along and outside of I-270, where the suburbs were exploding with growth. Inside of 270 saw little of this, and the urban core neighborhoods around Downtown were almost completely ignored altogether. Single-family housing became popular again during the early 2000s mild recession, and the housing boom that would help lead to the Great Recession of 2007-2009 really began at that time. However, it was in 2002 that the City and Mayor Coleman came up with a 10-year plan to help bring more residents to Downtown. It began offering tax incentives to developers who would build there, in some cases 100% abatements, in a goal to have 10,000 residential units built in and around Downtown by 2012.
I’ve done a ton of research on the results of this move by the city, and it did have an impact. From what I’ve been able to find (so far), Downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods saw the addition of less than 200 residential units between 2000 and 2002. 2003 saw over 500 alone with the new incentives package in place. Between 2003 and 2006, the area added over 2,000 new residential units, most of them condos. As the Great Recession hit in 2007, the rate of new projects slowed to half of what it was, though still higher than it was prior to 2003.
As the Great Recession eased and more financing became available, construction began to pick up once more. With the new trends in favor of urban living and rentals, the rental market has exploded and overall Columbus residential development is booming across all parts of the city.
