As new developments pop up, what’s next for ‘Mid City’ area of Columbus?
An area on the edge of downtown Columbus, filled with historic, brick-facade buildings, is undergoing quite the transformation.
The long-vacant area between midtown and downtown — termed “Mid City” by local developer Chris Woodruff — is being transformed into a vibrant destination for Columbus residents and outside visitors.
“I think everything is playing off the riverfront,” Alan McClure, owner of Gallerie 143 at 513 14th St., told the Ledger-Enquirer. “ ... It’s just a happenin’ place, and everything just spills off of that and overflows from there. And we just happen to be pretty close and everything comes this way.”
Recent growth
The corporate offices of Columbus-based apparel and lifestyle company Salt Life move into a former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Sixth Avenue, owned by local attorney and investor Ken Henson, in spring 2020.
The company moved its 12th Street corporate offices into the three-story building and attached warehouse at 1147 Sixth Ave.
In addition to corporate moves, developments geared at bringing customers and residents to the area also have popped up.
A Cotton Companies development, Fetch Park, which has been featured on the Travel Channel, CNN and other TV networks, hosted its grand opening at 1432 Fifth Ave. in early September.
That development, part of a larger project called Midcity Yards, is near The Lofts at Swift Mill, an apartment complex built after the historic mill burned down in 2011. What was left of the mill, owned by developer Pace Burt, was transformed into loft-style apartments.
Just down the street are OmegaFi, Chattabrewchee, a brewery and other businesses.
“There’s some real momentum happening on Sixth Avenue now,” Brian Sillitto, executive vice president for economic development at the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, told the Ledger-Enquirer. “And I think there’s still room for some more stuff. ... Everything that Uptown has going on is fantastic, but imagine duplicating that around the Sixth Avenue corridor and energizing that with a bunch of people, which then catalyzes that whole area.”
An optimistic future
The historic nature of the area draws developers and visitors.
Sillitto said that out-of-town visitors have mentioned the structures, how they used to have similar ones in their cities and how they wish their cities hadn’t torn them down.
“There are many things we’re involved in, but one of the more rewarding things, for me, is the reuse and readaptivity of some of these old buildings,” Sillitto said.
Lori Greef, co-owner of Stumpy’s Hatchet House, 517 15th St., said she and co-owner Jan Greef saw the success enjoyed by Chattabrewchee and Gallerie 413.
That, plus the parking space and easy accessibility from the rest of Columbus, sold them on the spot.
“We knew it would be an up-and-coming area,” Lori said. “ ... And it’s good to see people reusing the buildings. We completely refurbished ours.”
And there’s more to come for the area.
Midcity Yards, a project by Columbus-based The Cotton Companies, will open its first phase in soon, with further developments through spring 2022.
It’s at 1429 Sixth Ave., the site of the former Uneeda Glass building. Woodruff previously told the L-E the development’s name stemmed from the part of town it lies in — not necessarily Midtown, yet not downtown either.
More projects within Midcity Yards will open this spring. Current State Brewery, founded in part by former Cannon Brewpub employee Hank Standridge, will debut in spring 2022, and the development’s first restaurant also will open around that time: Moe’s Original BBQ, a Southern soul food joint.
Additional developments at Midcity Yards will be announced in the future, according to a press release.
“Mid City, Uptown, the city village area, those areas of town, they’ve got soul,” Woodruff said. “And that soul resonates within the dirt, it resonates within the building that still exist, and there’s no substitute in this world for something that’s been created in the past and is still standing, and that you can see how time and history have weathered.”
Nearby Sputnik, once a dive bar, was supposed to become a coffee shop before those plans failed to materialize. Owner Ben Link hired The Cotton Companies in 2020 to turn the space into a development, which hasn’t yet been announced.
It all bodes well for businesses in the area.
“Just like a city shifts north, Columbus is going north,” McClure said. “It’s just a little microcosm here. It’s just shifting this way from (Broadway).”
