Downtown office building lands final tenant in Strayer University

A two-story loft office building in downtown Columbus that once was home to an automotive business has finally nailed down its final tenant just a few months shy of the renovation project’s launch nearly two years ago.

Strayer University, which offers both online courses and live instruction, is relocating about five miles south from its longtime location at 6003 Veterans Parkway to 408 12th St., which is at the corner of Twelfth Street and Veterans Parkway.

Strayer is expected to begin occupying the new ground-floor space starting Jan. 1, Reynolds Bickerstaff, a partner in the office project, said Thursday. Crews are now in the process of installing signs above the doorway of the university’s portion of the building.

“They’ve got a new office model, so they’re downsizing from 16,000 square feet to 6,100,” Bickerstaff said. “The space that we’ve built for them, I would say a third of it, or 2,000 square feet, is kind of an open work space with standing-height work areas, as well as a lounge where you can get on the computer, or go to the lab. But they’ll have several classrooms there as well. So you can take a class online or sit in a class with a live instructor.”

The anchor for the office building is the law firm, Morgan & Morgan, which is occupying the entire 13,000-square-foot second floor, having moved into the space last summer. The Columbus office of the Orlando, Fla.-based firm, which uses the slogan “For the People,” has a staff of 22.

Aside from Morgan & Morgan, already in the building and sharing the ground floor with Strayer University is CWC, an office furnishings company based out of Atlanta. It is using more than 2,000 square feet of space, which includes a showroom.

After Strayer enters the building, Bickerstaff said, there will be about 2,000 square feet of unfinished space remaining that will be saved for either of the ground floor tenants wishing to expand at some point. The university already is expected to have between 50 to 60 people, including staff and students, entering and leaving the building each day, primarily after 5 p.m., considering the school is used often by employed people seeking additional coursework and degrees.

“They’re really interested in the location, being close to Uptown Columbus because of all the activity, and this location is actually more accessible for their existing students,” Bickerstaff said. “You also would be surprised at how many people live in Alabama and work in Columbus, so it’s more convenient from that regard as well.”

Bickerstaff is a partner in the $3.1 million project with Columbus businessmen Todd Ammerman and Russ Carreker. He’s also a partner and chief experience officer, or CXO, with Allen Parham in Bickerstaff Parham Real Estate, the Columbus company firm formerly known as Waddell Realty.

The building project partners spent at least $2.6 million to prepare the former automotive building for Class A office space. That was after paying $504,000 to purchase the property. Design work was done by Hecht Burdeshaw Architects, while construction was headed by River City Contracting.

In the late 1940s, the property was home to Strickland Motors Inc., a sparkling Lincoln-Mercury dealership apparently operated by a Florida native, Porter M. Strickland, whose life and career eventually brought him to Columbus. A postcard of the auto dealership shows the two-story building with Shell gas pumps outside and an “autotorium,” or garage, used for vehicle maintenance and repairs. The bottom of the postcard reads: “Continuous 24 Hours Day or Night Complete One-Stop Automobile Service.”

“The building structurally is about as sound as you can get with poured concrete and steel frames,” Bickerstaff said Thursday. “The negotiation of the leases with the tenants, that always takes longer than you anticipate. But we’ve got a good team and it’s been a really fun project. So I’m looking forward to closing this one out and moving on to another project.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Downtown office building lands final tenant in Strayer University."