City buying up blighted property on south side

The city of Columbus is planning to buy five parcels of land on and adjacent to Cusseta Road, including the notorious former Club Majestic, “to eliminate slum and blight,” Columbus Council decided this week.

The city will spend $365,800 for the property at 2100, 2102, 2200 and 2210 Cusseta Road and 2111 North Andrews Circle, which runs parallel to Cusseta and abuts one of the other lots.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said the area is one of the prime examples of neighborhoods that could benefit from being designated an “enterprise zone,” which entitles it to receive investment by the city. The fact that, in spite of many of the local businesses and residents leaving, a strong core of people remain and have an allegiance to the area, she said.

“When we’re looking for things like redevelopment districts and investment opportunities, we’re looking for areas where there are still great little nuggets of neighborhoods left and we have opportunities to reweave and reconnect from an infrastructure standpoint,” Tomlinson said. “That’s what we have in this particular area.”

The fact that the area at the southern corner of the property has a five-points intersection also makes the property prime for redevelopment, Tomlinson said. The intersection is where Brown Avenue, 21^st Street and Andrews come into Cusseta Road to form five points.

“Five points are where it was intended that there would be a natural coming together in that neighborhood of the enclave of citizens who have decided to live there,” Tomlinson said. “It’s where you have your neighborhood grocery store or market.”

Columbus Council on Tuesday approved spending $365,800 of the city’s $1.2 million in enterprise funds on the property, which has a combined assessed value of about $211,700.

City Manager Isaiah Hugley said the city’s assessed value for taxation purposes is almost always less than the current appraised fair market value of the property, which was the case on Cusseta Road.

“You wouldn’t sell me your house for its assessed value,” Hugley said. “If you were going to sell your house, you would have it appraised and determine what it’s actually worth. We don’t pay a penny more than the appraised fair market value for any property we buy and we don’t sell any property for a penny less than the fair market value.”

The property includes the old Club Majestic building, an abandoned car wash, parking lot, an abandoned restaurant building and another parking lot. The lot on Andrews appears to be vacant, but badly overgrown.

The former nightclub, at 2102 Cusseta Road, was shut down by the city as a public nuisance in 2013 after constant criminal activity was reported there, including the New Year’s Eve slaying of 24-year-old Charles Foster.

The other properties are similarly now unused and in disrepair, but Tomlinson said there is great potential for the neighborhood to rebound. As a first step toward that rebound, the city is planning to put in a small park with a playground in the area.

“The way it is now, because there aren’t a lot of connections, there’s no way for the children to safely walk to places where they can play and be kids. So they’re playing in abandoned fields and around abandoned buildings,” Tomlinson said. “So right off the bat, we can look at putting in a small pocket park with a playground. That will be one meaningful indicator of the promise of what might happen.”

The only reason the city is able to undertake projects such as this one is because of federal grants, usually from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that can only be used for such projects, Tomlinson said.

“The Enterprise Zone Fund is the only reason we’re able to do this,” Tomlinson said. “The only reason this is taking place at all is because we have these funds that can only be used for these kinds of enterprise zones and other kinds of revitalization.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 3:38 PM with the headline "City buying up blighted property on south side."