Now is time for conversation about parking deck in 1200 Broadway block

The 1200 block of Broadway has been a constant in my more than 27 years in Columbus.

I have walked the block more times than I can count, usually making the trek from the old Ledger-Enquirer building at the corner of Broadway and 12^th Street to Country’s barbecue two blocks away. If you worked downtown in the early 1990s, especially at night, your dining options were limited.

Country’s was the best bet, if not the only bet, for dinner.

So that took you up 12^th Street, which was nothing special. There were a series of finance companies. You had some furniture stores — Raymond Rowe and Holiday House — but not much else. Some of the buildings were vacant and in various stages of decline. There were more surface parking lots than other Broadway blocks.

You get the picture. And it was not the prettiest picture.

Thursday, I was in the Broadway median across from the 1225 Broadway building that was sold that day to Columbus-based RAM Hotels. That building will be razed to make room for a 100-plus room upscale Marriott-branded AC Hotel. Just a few doors to the south, in the old Aaron’s Rents building at the corner of 12^th Street and Broadway, the Pezold companies are planning a 60-plus room Hampton Inn.

The developers now have both of those sites under their control.

For those of us who have often looked at the 1200 block of Broadway as the forgotten stepchild, the game has changed. And it it has changed in a dramatic way.

Imagine what more than 160 hotel rooms ranging in price from under $100 a night to near $200 a night will do to that area. There are currently three restaurants and, as of today, a chocolate shop in that block. There is another restaurant planning to open soon. The bet here is by the time the hotels open, there will be 10, 12, maybe more restaurants in that block.

The 1000 block began to fill out when Columbus State put the bulk of its downtown student housing there. You will see much the same thing as hotel rooms go in the 1200 block. And folks staying in hotel rooms, many of them on expense accounts, have more disposable income than a music school student.

It is still a couple of years away, but the change is going to come much quicker now that Columbus State University starts education and nursing classes in Dr. Frank D. Brown Hall, on the old Ledger-Enquirer site. The timing of everything you see, is because of that redevelopment.

Which brings us to this point: there is a great opportunity for the city, the developers, current property owners, the university and impacted businesses to begin a serious discussion about parking. Downtown Columbus is one of the city’s new Tax Allocation Districts. The increased tax revenue generated in that area can be used to fund infrastructure.

Friends, parking decks are the very definition of infrastructure.

There is no doubt the two new hotels will need parking for guests and employees. Plans for the Hampton and the AC Hotel call for onsite parking at each place. What if there was a broader solution that benefited the hotel developers and their neighbors? I know there are competitive issues and that may not be possible, but this seems like the time to raise the question. Nothing is written in stone, and the architects are still working on designs.

There is a small window for this discussion, because pretty soon everyone will set their plans and begin construction.

Even if nothing happens, it is worth a conversation.

This story was originally published December 17, 2016 at 7:12 PM with the headline "Now is time for conversation about parking deck in 1200 Broadway block."