From TSYS merger to Roses opening, here are our top business stories of 2019
The Columbus business world had a very busy 2019.
Locally-owned restaurants such as Bodega 1205, Vertigo Fusion Kitchen and Stock Market Dueling Kitchens opened their doors in uptown, highlighting a rich food scene dominated by unique flavors and creative concepts.
Twelfth Street came into its own with a notable change perceived by local business owners, and new stores cropped up in the area like The Well, which replaced a gun shop.
Property owners on Broadway started paying attention to the appearance of their buildings, working to attract new tenants or new customers with updated facades. PopUPtown, a new pop-up space on Broadway decorated by a colorful mural, may have signaled a new way of thinking about ways to use space on the heavily foot-trafficked street.
The Midtown business scene saw its own successes, with longtime florist David Benefield celebrating his first anniversary at Highland Hall and the St. Elmo Shopping Center welcoming new stores.
In north Columbus, Best Buy moved across town and the Kadie the Cow saga finally came to a satisfying conclusion while Cafe Motif opened at Old Town and a feline-infused coffee experience, Alley Cat Cafe, came to The Landings Shopping Center.
Retail and restaurants aren’t the only businesses in Columbus, and major industry shifts affected large corporation TSYS and manufacturing plant Gildan Yarns, while local hospitals St. Francis and Piedmont Medical Center grew in multiple ways in 2019.
While it’s not easy to fit a whole year of business developments into one single list, we think we’ve done a fair job: here are the seven biggest business stories of 2019.
TSYS merges with Global Payments
A merger between Columbus-based TSYS and Atlanta-based Global Payments was announced in May and completed in September, a $23.6 billion move billed as an “all-stock merger of equals.” The new company, called Global Payments, has maintained dual headquarters and is aiming to save $300 million over the next three years by combining business operations, eliminating duplicate corporate and operational structures, and executing other changes.
Roses moves into former Kmart
The Ledger-Enquirer’s most-viewed business story of 2019 announced that the former Macon Road Kmart building would be gaining a new tenant. Roses Discount Store opened in the Midtown Shopping Center in the latter half of the year, bringing an old favorite back to Columbus and filling a space that has been vacant since Kmart left the scene in March 2017.
Repurposing vacant buildings was something of a trend in Columbus this year as a shuttered Winn Dixie grocery store reopened as a call center and an ATM manufacturing plant was purchased and retrofitted for food and beverage company Califormulations.
Third downtown hotel in the works
Not only did construction kick off for two hotels coming to the 1200 block of Broadway, but a third hotel joined the ranks of beds-for-heads under construction in 2019. In September W.C. Bradley revealed they have been working on plans for a hotel just south of the 14th Street pedestrian bridge, which will be part of the Riverfront Place development that currently includes The Rapids luxury apartment complex and adjoining Mat Swift Park.
The Marriott on Front Avenue will also gain rooms due to an agreement reached earlier this year between the city, the Development Authority of Columbus, Georgia, and the owners of the Marriott. Eighty-eight new rooms will be added and a sky bridge will connect the hotel with the Columbus Convention and Trade Center across the street, creating the first true convention hotel in downtown.
Five Below announced, opens
Perhaps the next-most anticipated store to open in Columbus after Roses this year was Five Below, which opened September 6 in the Columbus Park Crossing shopping center next to Ulta. Five Below is a discount store where the items typically cost up to $5. The Whittlesey Boulevard store is the only one in Columbus.
Columbus manufacturer shuts doors
Gildan Yarns, LLC closed its Fourth Avenue plant at the end of July after notifying nearly 100 workers their jobs were going to be eliminated. The site produced yarn for athletic socks, and a drop in demand led to the plant’s closure. A second location at 16 Corporate Ridge Parkway in east Columbus remains open, specializing in yarn for t-shirts.
Former Coca-Cola bottling factory building gains local tenant
Curiosity ran high surrounding the future of the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on 6th Avenue until last month when it was revealed that Columbus-based apparel and lifestyle company Salt Life is expected to move its offices into the historic building. The building is owned by local attorney and investor Ken Henson Jr.,who said building renovations are expected to be complete by March 1, 2020 so that Salt Life can move its corporate offices from 12th Street into the three-story building and warehouse.
Local restaurateur reflects on anniversary of life-altering wreck
Ledger-Enquirer reporter Nick Wooten caught up with Columbus chef and restaurateur Mark Jones a year after a car wreck that injured his spinal cord and temporarily paralyzed him. Jones owns or co-owns many restaurants in Columbus including Mark’s City Grill, Smoke Bourbon and BBQ and Plucked Up Chicken and Biscuits, and in the spring announced he had begun converting Flip Side Burgers & Tacos on Broadway into a boutique doughnut shop.
This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 6:00 AM.