Plan unveiled for $2.75M ‘eyesore’ building that’s been vacant for years in Columbus
The prospective buyer of a commercial property listed for $2.75 million in Columbus has revealed his plan for the vacant building and land.
The former Blue Cross Blue Shield center at 2357 Warm Springs Road, comprising a 147,000-square-foot, four-story, 62-year-old building on 11 acres, would become a climate-controlled self-storage facility with office space, plus canopies in the rear of the property for vehicles and boats, if the plan is approved.
The request to rezone the property from residential/office to general commercial, including the parking lot across the street at 2332 Warm Springs Road, is scheduled for a public hearing at the Planning Advisory Commission meeting, 9 a.m. Dec. 16 in the Columbus Council chamber at the City Services Center, 3111 Citizens Way.
If the PAC approves the plan, it would go to the council for a final vote.
How will building be redeveloped?
Midtown Office & Storage Solutions is a new limited liability company in Columbus, formed Sept. 29, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website. Brent Buck is the registered agent.
Buck specializes in redeveloping vacant properties, said attorney George Mize of the Columbus law firm Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, representing Buck for the rezoning request. Buck’s previous projects include the RiverMill Event Centre and Heritage Tower.
Buck’s plan for the former Blue Cross building calls for office space in the front of the first floor and on the entire fourth floor, Mize said, and climate-controlled self-storage units in the back of the first floor and on the entire second floor. The third floor is slated for more storage units, but that could change to office space, he said.
The topography, existing natural buffers, a stone wall and added fencing would block the vehicle and boat canopies in the rear of the property from being visible outside the property from most vantage points, Mize said. He didn’t have available the proposed number of storage units and canopies.
Windows would be installed in the front of the bottom floor, landscaping would be redone and internally directed outdoor lighting would be added, Mize said.
“It’s going to be a face-lift on a building that’s becoming an eyesore,” he said. “It’s already looking dilapidated.”
Other than the canopies, no other structures are planned for the property, Mize said.
“The rest of the parking lot is going to be used for what it’s been used for decades, when it was Blue Cross Blue Shield,” he said. “… The traffic impact on all that should be substantially less than what it would be if all four floors were taken up by businesses with employees.”
Tax revenue impacts
According to the PAC’s staff report, the property owners within 300 feet of the former Blue Cross property were notified about the rezoning request. No complaints were received as of the report’s Nov. 24 filing, the report says.
Mize’s office phone number is on the signs at the property announcing the rezoning. As of Monday, he said, he hadn’t received any complaints about the proposal.
Columbus Councilor Walker Garrett of District 8, which contains the property, said he also hasn’t received any complaints about the proposal.
“I want to see who shows up at the PAC and if anyone from the community complains about this,” he said. “I encourage them to reach out to me, whether they support this project or they’re against it.”
With that caveat, Garrett spoke in favor of the project.
“It’s going to be an improvement to the community, and it’s not going to be to the detriment of the neighbors,” he said. “We don’t have a public outcry.
“If you’re talking 11 acres that’s going to be developed, and it’s currently abandoned right now, that’s a lot of tax revenue for the community.”
The building has been vacant since Blue Cross moved its Columbus operation to Muscogee Technology Park five years ago. The health insurance company opened the Warm Springs Road facility in 1958.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced in 2018 ago a $62.4 million plan to build a primary care and mental health clinic on the midtown property. That plan changed two years later as the VA decided to construct the 70,000-square-foot facility in north Columbus, at the intersection Mobley Road and River Road.
In the past eight years, the amount of annual taxes the former Blue Cross property generated ranged from a low of $56,993.13 in 2020 to a high of $156,569.55 in 2012, according to Muscogee County records.
The parking lot across the street at 2332 Warm Springs Road has generated a low of $3,984.37 in 2016 and a high of $4,134.10 in 2017 during the same period.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
