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Those markets that have weathered the economic downturn the best all have something in common: They’re places in which people actually want to live.
Consider what Michael Glass, vice president and regional manager with the Columbus, Ohio, office of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, says of Ohio’s capital city:
“Columbus offers a good quality of life,” Glass said. “It is affordable to live here. There are good places to eat and shop. There are good schools for the kids. There are a lot of job opportunities. It’s just a good place to live.”
And there are two new attractions making Columbus an even nicer city to call home: a pair of public parks in the city’s downtown, projects spearheaded by Columbus Downtown Development Corporation.
Don’t think that such amenities as public parks aren’t important to the strength of a city and its commercial real estate market. Expansive public parks, like the new ones in downtown Columbus, bring people into the heart of the city. When a downtown is vibrant, teeming with traffic at all hours of the day, retailers will follow. So will multi-family developments and mixed-use projects.
Such has been the case in downtown Columbus.
The two new parks combined bring 20 acres of green space to Columbus’ downtown. And one of the parks is planned to be the future home of a mixed-use development including residential, retail, office and entertainment projects.
Amy Taylor, chief operating officer of Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, said that the new parks in addition to providing welcoming green areas to downtown visitors will also help spur additional commercial and residential development.
“The value of these parks is immeasurable,” Taylor said. “Green space, especially in urban areas, spurs private investment and redevelopment. It creates that sense of place that is so important to an urban area, that neighborhood feel. In our downtown, we have a riverfront that had been underutilized and had not been a real asset. We’ve been talking about revitalizing the riverfront. It was always a dream, not a reality. Now that has changed.”
Columbus Commons, located at 160 S. High St., former site of the dying City Center Mall, opened in May of 2011. It is now a 9-acre urban park, with one-third of the site reserved for the development of residential, retail, office and entertainment projects.
The park features a carousel with horses hand-carved by local artists; the Columbus Bicentennial Pavilion, which features a 40-foot-by-60-foot stage; an outdoor reading room; 12 gardens; a cafe’; and a pizza restaurant.
More than 230 events, including Shakespeare in the Park, the Capital City Half Marathon and Picnic with the Pops, were scheduled for the park in 2012. The Columbus Downtown Development Corporation raised more than $15 million for the development of this park.
The Scioto Mile public park is an 11-acre urban park that stretches along downtown Columbus’ riverfront from the city’s Arena District to the Whittier Peninsula. Its most impressive feature is the Scioto Mile Fountain, a interactive fountain that serves as the park’s centerpiece.
The park is also home to Milestone 229, a glass-enclosed restaurant and the Scioto Greenway Recreational Trails, which span 7.5 miles along the downtown riverfront.
The city of Columbus and the downtown development corporation raised more than $40 million for the development of Scioto Mile.
The parks have since become gathering places for visitors to downtown Columbus. And Taylor said that the crowds have encouraged additional commercial development throughout the city’s downtown core.
“When we were building these parks, some detractors would say that you just couldn’t get people to come to downtown Columbus,” Taylor said. “I think we’ve proven that wrong.”
