What are the possibilities? Vacant BTW land near downtown Columbus moving toward redevelopment

In the eyes of Verona Campbell, the land that served as a home for public housing residents for more than seven decades is now like a blank canvas. It’s waiting for someone with a special vision and the ability to splash fresh vibrancy and energy onto the nearly nine acres across from the Columbus Civic Center.

The property is the former Booker T. Washington Apartments, which were built in 1941 at the intersection of Victory Drive and Veterans Parkway, the latter known years ago as Fourth Avenue. The red-brick, two-story structures with 392 total units were torn down beginning in 2015, with 106 new and modern affordable housing units constructed on the northern portion of the land overseen by the Housing Authority of Columbus.

“We’re about 75 percent leased up. We had more people on that wait list than we’ve ever had, and it has been very, very popular,” said Campbell, chief real estate officer with the Housing Authority.

Now, for those Columbus-area residents who enjoy speculating on what will happen next, comes the fun and interesting part of the redevelopment project that has been dubbed Columbus Commons. With roughly 30,000 vehicles per day motoring past the former residential housing site that now is a blank canvas of open field, it appears the property is only limited by someone’s imagination.

“I want that property to be a gateway. I want it to announce Columbus to the world,” said Campbell, a Troy University and Auburn University graduate who recalls the first time she traveled over the Oglethorpe Bridge from Alabama during her college days and saw the less-than-impressive BTW complex.

“That’s the first impression that some people get when they come across the bridge or they’re traveling through,” she said. “I want that impression to be, hey, this is a gorgeous city. It’s a cool city, it’s an art scene, it’s an entertainment district. It’s a city of business and commerce. There’s just a million opportunities, and it’s whatever we are committed to making with this gateway property ... In my mind, that’s what it is. It’s sort of a welcome to Columbus. It’s a chance to say all good things about our town to people.”

Like any development project, however, it will take time. Len Williams, chief executive officer of the Housing Authority of Columbus, said his office has submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asking for permission to dispose of the property.

“I would certainly hope it’s done by the end of the year,” he said of receiving approval, which likely would be followed in early 2019 with a request for proposals from development companies or organizations interested in a venture on the vacant property that also is adjacent to the Columbus Historic District and a revived downtown.

“We’ll probably put some parameters in (the request for proposals) and decide whether we will sell the property or ground lease it or co-develop it,” said Williams, who also doesn’t want to see a cookie-cutter development at the high-traffic location. Aside from the Civic Center, it is near the South Commons softball complex, A.J. McClung Memorial Stadium, Golden Park and Port Columbus Civil War Naval Museum. The city’s riverwalk is behind those attractions.

“That’s why we like having control of the property,” he said. “We can screen out what we think are not good uses for our community. We would look to get something for the highest and best use of that property.”

Williams said there has been informal discussions in the community about what might work on the land, which also isn’t far from the highly populated Fort Benning military reservation.

“When we first started talking about it, we would have people come in and mention supermarkets and hotels, and someone wanted to do a big entertainment district,” the CEO said. “I think some mixture of commercial use would be nice there. We have also talked about residential over commercial there, but we’re just not sure the Columbus market is strong enough to do that. We’ve had some visits from prospective developers on that.”

Any financial proceeds from the redevelopment of the former BTW property would go to the local Housing Authority operation, Williams said, with the money being put back into affordable housing in the city. He said such funds are less restricted on use than regular federal funding, “so we can do a little more with it.”

Campbell said the raw piece of land in such a strategic area of the city — just a short distance from the Chattahoochee River and where the community was founded — needs some extra thought put into its future use. She thinks a hotel or grocery store would be a fantastic idea, or perhaps a movie theater, bowling alley and entertainment space.

“I would imagine with that size of property you would want an anchor or two and a bunch of smaller interests to come in. … That seems a likely scenario where there would be maybe two anchors, things that really draw people, and then supportive (tenants), maybe retail. It could be anything,” she said. “I don’t want to say it’s going to be one way or another, because that’s for people out there who make investments and want to take that property and make it their own.”

Campbell stressed it’s a critically important moment for the site and it needs a plan that is well thought out and executed.

“All options are on the table,” she said. “It’s really a blank page in our history. It’s exciting to think about, changing it from what it was to what it could be.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2018 at 4:37 PM with the headline "What are the possibilities? Vacant BTW land near downtown Columbus moving toward redevelopment."