You can get a cocktail at this new downtown Columbus dog park. Here’s a first look.
Dogs ran back and forth across the green turf of Fetch Park Thursday, chasing tennis balls and each other while some of their owners enjoyed a cold beer from the nearby Airstream Bar.
Music played over loudspeakers and the U.S. Open tennis tournament streamed over a large screen that mimics a baseball stadium’s jumbotron.
Columbus’ new dog park and bar combo Fetch Park, 1432 Fifth Ave., is an off-leash dog park and bar combo that started in Atlanta. The new Columbus location hosted a soft opening Thursday evening and will officially open to the public Saturday.
The concept, brought to Columbus by local real estate development firm The Cotton Companies, has been featured on the Travel Channel, CNN and other TV networks.
“I think, if I could wave a magic wand and have one wish of what this would do for the city, it would bring more people together,” The Cotton Companies President Chris Woodruff told the Ledger-Enquirer. “And I think you’ll see that here. Because it’s not about ‘if you have a dog, you can come;’ it’s everyone’s welcome. Everyone is welcome at Fetch Park, and that’s the beauty of it.”
Any person can enter the park for free, and a membership system is in place for dogs.
Entrance to the park for dogs ranges from a daily $10 option to monthly and annual memberships. All dogs are required to have updated vaccinations on file and be spayed or neutered to enter the property.
The Airstream bar serves coffee, wine, beer and spirits. The green space features cooling stations and shaded seating, and the park also has Wi-Fi available.
Founded by Stephen Ochs, Fetch Park’s original location opened in Old Fourth Ward along Decatur Street in Atlanta in 2018. The parks are meant to mimic the feel of a baseball field, a nod to Ochs’ baseball background: He played collegiately at Florida State and Georgia.
“I saw how cool this was in Atlanta and how many people were coming and how many were coming together on a consistent basis, and I went, ‘Columbus has to have that. Columbus deserves this,’” Woodruff said. “And now, Columbus has it.”
Part of a larger development
Fetch Park is just the beginning of a larger development happening in what’s going to become Midcity Yards, a project announced Thursday.
The development will transform the former Uneeda Glass building, 1429 Sixth Ave., into a brewery, restaurant and other businesses, with Fetch Park attached, according to a rendering on Midcity Yards’ website.
Current State Brewery, founded in part by former Cannon Brewpub employee Hank Standridge, will debut in spring 2022. The development’s first restaurant also will open around that time: Moe’s Original BBQ, a Southern soul food joint.
