Downtown Matters: Retail Revolution
Without question, Downtown Columbus is the most underserved retail location in Central Ohio. With 100,000 employees; 5,500 residents; 250,000 overnight hotel guest; 31,000 college students; 65,000 in-town residents in the Short North, German Village and surrounding areas; and millions of day visitors to the Arena District, Convention Center, theatres and museums, there is significant demand for retail services. But since the collapse of City Center, downtown has lost its retail sector and the ability to attract corporate retails stores.
Without a major developer pulling those corporate chains downtown, they likely won’t reemerge anytime soon. But that does not mean that downtown cannot attract retailers. Independent and start-up retail are the likely players in downtown’s retail future. But after years of negative coverage surrounding City Center’s demise, there is a negative perception of downtown retail.
Capital Crossroads SID and the City of Columbus have developed a new retail initiative to educate independent and start-up retailers about downtown to and to help overcome the misperceptions that abound. Announced by Boyce Safford, Director of the City’s Development Department, at the Capital Crossroads Annual Meeting in November, the City is offering several incentives to entice retailers downtown.
The incentives, which apply to the “Mile on High” are on High Street from Spring Street to Mound Street and from Front Street to Fourth Street, include cash incentives and tax abatement specifically for retail investments for property owners and retailers.
However, there remains a communication gap. Work must be done to overcome the misapprehensions retailers hold and to share the information regarding the City incentives. Relationships need to be built with independent retailers throughout the area to encourage them to consider downtown as a location.
To that end, Kacey Campbell, the former CCSID Promotions Coordinator, has been tapped as the new downtown Retail Recruiter. Campbell will serve as a “matchmaker”, reaching out to retailers, answering questions, encouraging them to consider downtown, then matching them with leasing agents who can finalize the deal.
For the last four years, Campbell has connected with existing downtown retailers and with the many vendors who participate in the very successful Pearl Market. She has an understanding of downtown and believes in its potential.
“There is a huge demand for retail in downtown,” says Campbell. “It’s a matter of getting accurate information to people and then helping them navigate downtown. It will take time to see results, but there is good opportunity.”
The seeds of success are already sewn, evidenced by the burgeoning pockets of retail on Gay Street and Fourth Street. Programs such as this have also proven successful in other cities with a dearth of downtown retail, including Nashville, St. Louis and Minneapolis. With new incentives from the City and a retail recruiter making the pitch, look for retail to return to the heart of Columbus.
Tags: Arena District, Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District, City of Columbus, Gay Street, German Village, Kacey Campbell, Mile on High, Pearl Market, Short North
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
It’s great to see that there’s a Retail Recruiter for Downtown. High St has the highest concentration of intact blocks with retail spaces in a walkable environment. Still, improvements could be made to make it more attractive. Between Long & Gay you have an empty lane where turn lanes would normally be. A possibility could be a median like the ones seen on Gay St here to make it more welcoming for pedestrians. There’s plenty more of the same underutilized middle lane on High south of State also along a handful of intact retail blocks.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Columbus&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=26.397049,77.519531&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Columbus,+Franklin,+Ohio&ll=39.964746,-82.999874&spn=0.003141,0.009463&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.96494,-83.001169&panoid=Iwlu1JhcwJQiHBmkxqasrA&cbp=12,180.9,,0,-4.69
Of course, the main concern here is that emergency vehicles need to be able to pass by. In which case if the median is not feasible due to that factor it could instead be used for something else like chalk art while still being available for such vehicles to use. Since parking is not allowed on High St it may be a good idea not to underestimate what some shared bike lanes could do from Nationwide south where it would connect to the shared lanes north of Nationwide to/into the Brewery District. Sharrows are inexpensive and additional signage could be added below or above the existing bus lane signs on High where bus-only lanes currently exist. Just some advice on the transportation component to revitalizing High St Downtown.