Broadway transformation: New looks, new construction and what it means for the future of Columbus

Breda Gleeson is hoping other business owners in uptown Columbus will take notice of big changes underway at her Irish pub, Scruffy Murphy’s.

She engaged local businessman and builder John Teeples to renovate the entire facade. Exposed brickwork will be cleaned and repaired, and new windows, lights and a color scheme will brighten the outside as the business prepares to enter its 20th year in 2020.

The building , at 1037 Broadway, is more than 100 years old, and Gleeson said she’s hoping to leave it in good condition when the time comes for a new owner.

The facelift is one of many going on right now on Broadway, with more changes planned as owners make investments to attract more customers and tenants in an area experiencing a “healthy” transformation.

“I’m hoping it will have a snowball effect and make other business owners clean up and make theirs looks nice,” Gleeson said. “There’s not many left on our block that need facade improvements, on our side of the street.”

Two doors down, the Cannon Brew Pub is also undergoing major facade work. A balcony addition will stretch across all three of the business’ storefronts, a major second floor renovation similar to The Loft’s balcony across the street.

A large hole is cut in the sidewalk while the work is being done, but the restaurant is still open for business.

In the 1100 block, real estate broker Ernie Smallman is working on a renovation of the former Lane Jewelers building. Contractors have gutted the inside and the facade has been removed. Concrete floors will be installed and the upstairs has potential to be two lofts or a restaurant, depending on how things go, he said.

Another block down, what once might have been a small alleyway between two buildings is being renovated into a prime tenant space by Teeples, under the direction of owner Jason Gamache.

The building at 1246 Broadway will have a 21-foot high glass facade and 48 feet of skylights, completely unique to the street and to uptown, Gamache said.

There isn’t a tenant for the building yet.

The changes are part of a wave of investment hitting uptown and Broadway in particular, and work underway to erect two new hotels makes it seem like the entire street is a construction zone.

Signs posted on construction sites by Uptown Columbus Inc. with phrases like “I like big trucks and I cannot lie” and “I got 99 problems but a ditch ain’t one” make light of the mess while letting passersby know the district is open for business.

Ross Horner, president and CEO of Uptown Columbus Inc., said like-minded people are coming together to make uptown a beautiful space.

“I think they’re seeing some of the new developments coming in and they’re seeing what a great job their neighbors are doing and it’s a time of investment in uptown, so some of these people that have been here for a number of years are kind of spurred on by that,” he said. “It is good.”

Working with the Uptown Facade Board

Gamache is as invigorated by the investment being put into uptown by others as he is by his own. Earlier this year, his project at 1234 Broadway, Pop UPtown, made waves with a bright mural and unusual business model.

“It’s kind of like having a neighbor that moves in and starts putting in a bunch of flowers and mowing their grass and hedging and painting their shutters, and the next thing you know the other neighbor is like ‘man, I like that,’ and they start doing that...I think that’s what you’re seeing,” Gamache said.

He said it seems easier now to get approval to make more progressive changes to building facades than it did years ago when he first started acquiring property.

“To put a balcony up before, you pretty much had to like become a politician yourself to change some type of rule in the system to even make it happen, there was so many loopholes,” he said.

He referred to the Uptown Facade Board, which was established by the city in 1987 “to provide and protect continuity of design, and preserve the architectural integrity of the properties within the board’s jurisdiction.”

The board’s current jurisdiction covers the Central Business District and the Central Riverfront District. Any change that requires a building permit, sign permit, zoning review or variance must be reviewed by the facade board, as well as any changes that will alter the appearance of historic property.

Gamache said he respects and appreciates the facade board, but said people who are willing to invest thousands of dollars in the renovations shouldn’t be penalized.

“Architecturally, I feel like (the board has) a lot of value. If you had some beautiful brick facade and somebody wanted to cover it up...that’s kind of what I feel like some of the facade rules and guidelines need to be more about, instead of worrying about what kind of material or what color somebody is going to do something,” Gamache said.

“If somebody is going to do something to paint their business bright red, and it looks vibrant and beautiful, then it shouldn’t be anybody else’s business, especially if they own the building.”

Justin Kreig is the city’s liaison to the board and the director of planning and programs with Historic Columbus. Kreig reviews applications and determines whether proposed changes would meet the city’s guidelines, but it’s up to the nine voting members of the facade board to approve applications in the way they see fit.

“It’s not the facade board’s intention to put a lot of these hard rules and restrictions on properties and make it difficult for people to renovate and open and maintain businesses,” Kreig said. “It’s a need to recognize that, yes, there does need to be some design control of what the buildings look like on Broadway, but also the realization that each of these businesses kind of have their own unique personality and unique character.”

While the facade board’s review guidelines have been amended slightly over the years, there hasn’t been a major update since 2000.

“That has made my job a little difficult because in a lot of cases, and in the last five years, we’ve been receiving applications that are asking for things that aren’t necessarily clearly defined in the guidelines...people are just more creative in the work they want to do with their buildings,” Kreig said. “What the board has been really good about is looking through the guidelines, understanding the intent of the guidelines, and applying that to those applications.”

Kreig said it is probably time for a major overhaul of the guidelines.

“The landscape of uptown and the things that are being asked for in 2019 as compared to what was being asked for in 2000 when the guidelines were initially written, there is a vast difference,” he said.

More changes coming to Broadway

Gamache has been a vital part of that movement lately, particularly on Broadway. In addition to purchasing property in uptown and the historic district, he also owns PTAP, an automobile accessory and repair business in downtown.

He also recently purchased the former Golf Gallery building at 1231 Broadway, next to the Rialto Theater, and has big, though secret, plans for what will happen to it.

“It will be the biggest project that I’ve ever done,” he said.

Gamache also purchased and renovated the buildings that now house tenants Posh Peach and Maltitude, and his under-construction glass-front building will likely draw another tenant that will enhance the experience of Broadway.

“Every one of our buildings, we want the same tenant, I want a tenant that adds value to me and my wife’s journey from the Eagle and Phenix, where we live, to whatever restaurant or place we’re going to,” he said. “It might be something that I don’t necessarily go to, but I want it to have activity to where people enjoy the journey.”

Smallman, who is a real estate investor as well as broker, said facade work will also start soon at the former Regal Jewelers at 1023 Broadway.

He doesn’t own the buildings but is working to renovate and prepare them for new tenants.

With so much momentum in uptown currently, Smallman said the number of unoccupied or renovated buildings is decreasing as people are willing to put extra money in to bring them “up to a certain level.”

“The market demand and the cost to renovate these buildings is lining up so that you can afford to do the renovation and the tenant can afford to pay what it cost for the space, and we’re creating really cool spaces, which works for the landlord and it works for the tenant,” he said.

But with businesses like Scruffy Murphy’s and the Cannon Brew Pub, they’re not necessarily renovating to increase their property value but to upgrade their customer experience, Smallman said, and make their money back on the customer.

“To me that is really important when you start to see the folks that are already established coming in and doing more than just repainting the front or replacing rotten wood, where they’re coming in and adding a whole new balcony structure or something, that’s big and expensive and they have a viable business now so they don’t have to do that, they’re doing it just to increase it even more,” he said.

Smallman, who purchased his first building in uptown in 1996, said Columbus used to be stuck in the past when approaching development. Now, both business owners, developers and entities like the Uptown Facade Board are embracing different things they wouldn’t have considered in the past, like the Pop UPtown mural or the LED sign on the side of the Springer Opera House.

And it’s all in the name of creating the downtown that many people have dreamed of and worked for many years to achieve.

“This is the best I’ve ever seen our downtown market,” Smallman said. “It’s healthy and it’s thriving and we have a ton of interest in these spaces that we’re working on and I think it’s due to a lot a lot of years of hard work from a lot of people. It’s like a 30-year overnight success story.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 5:00 AM.