Major changes coming to former Raymond Rowe building in downtown Columbus, site shows
Once a large furniture store and most recently home to an axe-throwing lounge, 1200 Broadway is set to undergo a major facelift.
The former Raymond Rowe building in downtown Columbus is “soon to be renovated,” according to a retail listing on Loopnet. The space that is available in the property, which consists of seven stories and a basement, is between 4,000 square feet and 78,752 square feet, according to the attached flyer.
The space would be “great for all types of retail, restaurant and office space,” the listing reads. Spaces will be available starting in September 2022, according to the listing.
“Over the past five years, there’s been significant growth in redevelopment in that 1200 block,” Uptown Columbus President and CEO Ed Wolverton told the Ledger-Enquirer.
An attached rendering shows what appears to be a restaurant space on the first floor, with retail space on the floor above. The rendering also shows a top floor featuring multiple balconies and open space.
The building is two blocks from the Chattahoochee River, on the corner of 12th Street and Broadway. It sits across the street from a future Hampton Inn hotel and catty-corner to Columbus State University’s Brown Hall.
“Kilwins was done, Rocket Fizz was done, getting some mixed-use in there with some residential above (businesses), some office, you can see how that block is really blossoming,” Wolverton said. “And this Raymond Rowe building is a very large piece of that next step forward.”
Columbus Axe opened at 1200 Broadway May 21, 2020, after a delay caused by COVID-19. Before that, the building was occupied by Big Dog Running Company. That business now operates at 1023 Broadway.
Developer John Teeples, who is the owner of the property according to Wolverton, did not respond to the L-E before publication. Carson Cummings, the realtor listed for the property, did not provide comment on the project.
The 1200 block of Broadway was recently the new downtown frontier of investment and opportunity, with traditional players like the W.C. Bradley Co. and smaller investors looking for pieces of the economic pie.
Raymond Rowe Furniture’s store at 1225 Broadway was sold in December 2016 to Columbus-based RAM Hotels. That’s now the site of the AC Hotel by Marriott, which opened this year.
Raymond Rowe Furniture added the 1200 Broadway location in 1976 which, at the time, gave the business two buildings and several floors of furnishings, making it one of the largest such retail outlets in the state.
The 1200 store was closed in 2008 amid the Great Recession and sat vacant until being sold to Mama Uptown LLC in 2015 for $825,000.
Ledger-Enquirer archives were used in this report.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
