It's All Connected
Further details were revealed this week following the February announcement of the Capital Line, a $100 million “urban pathway” that will connect several Downtown attractions . The project, spearheaded by the city, Downtown Columbus Inc. and the Edwards Companies, is moving forward with a makeover of a stretch of Gay Street in late summer 2025. Global engineering firm WSP USA and Columbus design firm MKSK were hired to design the project. The first phase will focus on Gay St. from N. 4th St. to Front St. but will eventually run the length of the corridor with a goal of completing the first phase of the project by late 2026 or early 2027. The Capital Line will occupy nearly 29 feet on the south side of the street where parking space will be replaced with planters, seats, trees and a walking and biking lane. “This won’t be just dull sidewalks; it will be lively, it will have greenery, art components,” said Jared Love, WSP’s Capital Line project manager. “It will be fun, not just how you get somewhere.”
Jeff Edwards of Edwards Co. saw untapped potential in the Citizens Trust building at the intersection of Gay and High Streets. Since he first brought Josh Dalton and his acclaimed restaurant Veritas to the building in late 2017, the area has experienced a rebirth. The addition of several notable restaurants, the development of more than 270 apartments at The Nicholas and The Madison, and the installation of the Janet Echelman sculpture, Current, which frequently serves as the backdrop for a new series of events organized by Downtown Columbus Inc., are bringing people back to the neighborhood. According to PlacerAI data collected by Edwards Cos., foot traffic between April and October 2024, compared with the same time frame in 2022, saw a 135% increase. Paired with the announcement of a $100 million investment in the Capital Line and Edwards’ substantial investment in public art, downtown Columbus is headed for a major transformation. “In 10 years, I think it’s going to be dramatically different,” he said.?
Rev1 Ventures will move to The Peninsula as part of a two-step partnership with Ohio State University. Together, they plan to create a “software alley” consisting of office and lab space for startups downtown and on campus. Rev1, which advises, invests in and incubates tech startups, will move its headquarters from the Gateway University District but will keep its startup incubation and lab space at 1275 Kinnear Road. At The Peninsula, the “alley” will occupy two floors. The second phase will add lab space for life sciences startups in the planned Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Center in OSU’s Carmenton Innovation district. The OSU center will collaborate with Rev1 on programming downtown. Software Alley is expected to open in late summer at The Peninsula.
Denver-based Cologix announced it will spend $7 billion expanding its presence in the region by building an AI-ready data center campus spanning 2 million square feet across eight facilities in Johnstown. The first phase of the project is expected to begin in 2025. When completed, the campus will have 800 megawatts of available power capacity. Amazon Web Services announced that it too will make a significant investment as part of its multi-billion dollar commitment to the region. It plans to invest $2 billion on a campus in Sunbury. It expects to break ground on an initial 450,000-square-foot building in January 2028 with completion by December 2034. The investment is part of AWS’ planned $7.8 billion expansion to its data center operations in the region, which it announced last year.
Riewald Development is seeking a variance for its Parsons Avenue project. The developer of the five-story building with apartments and ground-floor commercial space at 870 Parsons Ave. has requested ground-floor residential use. The project would include 86 apartments – ranging from studios to two-bedroom units, with the bulk of them being one-bedroom. There are also some ground-floor walk-up units planned. A portion of the units would be capped for those making 80% and 100% of the AMI. Riewald still plans to include ground-floor retail space totaling about 2,000 square feet. There are also plans for a pocket garden along Parsons Avenue, which could be programmed to be outdoor seating for a retail tenant. Construction could start in the second quarter of 2025. “We think this is the first of many projects along Parsons (Avenue),” Riewald said. “We hope to be a catalyst. We can’t wait to see the snowball effect on Parsons.”