Next step in Bradley Co.’s riverfront plan: large office building with ground-floor grocery

The W.C. Bradley Company is moving forward with plans to start the second phase of Riverfront Place as construction on the initial phase continues, Real Estate Division President Pace Halter said last week.

Riverfront Place is a 7.5-acre site along the Chattahoochee River in the heart of downtown Columbus between the 13th Street and 14th Street bridges. Construction on a $52-million, 226-unit apartment and retail building to be called The Rapids began this year with completion set for late 2018 or early 2019.

The Bradley Company’s plan has been to develop the site, formerly part of the Eagle & Phenix Mill, in multiple phases. The company currently is evaluating proposals from architectural firms for an office and retail building that could house a downtown grocery store.

“We are looking at a 100,000- to 125,000-square-foot, Class A office building atop 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, which we hope will be a grocery store,” Halter said. “We are in the process of working with several potential lead office tenants and some retail users.”

The company has hired a consulting firm to work toward finding a potential grocer interested in locating downtown.

In the coming weeks, the Bradley Company’s construction, brokerage and property management teams will analyze the architectural proposals and request any needed clarifications from the design firms before picking a lead architect, Halter said.

Final cost of the second phase has not been determined, Halter said, but it likely will be between $20 million and $30 million.

“We will strive to have the building 50 percent pre-leased before we break ground next year with the goal of opening the building in 2019,” he said.

The new building will will include a large adjacent parking facility that could accommodate future development on top of it, Halter said.

The Bradley Company announced The Rapids in late February. The building is just north of the 13th Street bridge along Front Avenue. In addition to the riverfront apartments, the five-story structure will include a restaurant, retail space, park and 313-space parking garage.

Brasfield & Gorrie, an Alabama-based construction company with a Columbus office, began work on the project in the spring, and the parking garage is beginning to take shape.

A park, to be located north of The Rapids and south of the proposed new office and retail building, will be named after Bradley Company Real Estate Division President Mat Swift, who retired this year.

The plan is to have a mixed-use development that brings the riverfront and downtown closer together, Halter said.

“Again, the plan is to have Phase II continue our overarching development goals for Riverfront Place of creating a complete mixed-use environment while protecting and enhancing the Chattahoochee River, the RiverWalk and uptown Columbus,” Halter said. “Our goal is to provide a true pedestrian connection between downtown and the RiverWalk.”

The Bradley Company owns the Synovus Centre, an office complex about two blocks north of where the new office building will be constructed.

They will be similar in a few ways, including size, Halter said.

“Synovus Centre is five floors of 25,000 each, for a total of 125,000 square feet,” he said. “From that standpoint they are very similar; however, that is really where the similarities end.”

The Riverfront Place building will have ground-floor retail and thus is the equivalent of the Synovus Center sitting atop a grocery store or ground floor retail, Halter said.

“Additionally, the Riverfront building will not sit riverfront like Synovus, but rather will be centered on the Mathews D. Swift Park and will be located on the east side of Front Avenue with views overlooking the park and the Chattahoochee,” Halter said. “Beyond that, the Riverfront building will be designed with all the modern amenities, security and conveniences of today’s Class A offices, and while we are still early in design, our goal is to offer a design standard that will afford the Riverfront Place building an opportunity to earn a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification.”

The new building will be behind the Country’s on Broad location, Halter said.

There are about 6,000 square feet of office space available in the Synovus Centre, Halter said. The Bradley Company is still looking to lease the third-floor space vacated by the Pope McGlamry law firm.

This story was originally published October 28, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Next step in Bradley Co.’s riverfront plan: large office building with ground-floor grocery."