Questions and controversy surround project threatening Columbus Historic District
Reality Check is a Ledger-Enquirer series digging deeper into key issues and focusing on accountability. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email mynews@ledger-enquirer.com.
The tension between growth and stability has created a clash of conflicting forces surrounding the city’s plan to build a new parking garage for the Columbus Convention and Trade Center.
Instead of expanding the trade center’s 424-space parking garage at 801 Front Ave., the Columbus Consolidated Government plans to construct a 500-space parking garage across the street on the city-owned parking lot along Eighth Street, stretching one block from Front Avenue to Broadway on the south side of the Columbus Marriott Hotel, 800 Front Ave.
That site is in the Columbus Historic District. Some of those residents are concerned a parking garage would detract from the carefully preserved nature of the neighborhood. And some of those residents question whether CCG legally can spend the millions of dollars earmarked for this project at that site.
Neighborhood conflict
Fred Greene is a prime example of the residents alarmed about the risk of the new parking garage detracting from the aesthetics of the historic district, plus the noise and traffic it would bring.
Greene, a property manager and real estate agent, is a former president of the district’s preservation society. He has lived in the district for 30 years, including the past 17 in a house across Eighth Street from the site of the proposed parking garage.
Although he appreciates city officials meeting with approximately 100 residents concerned about the project, he isn’t confident CCG will produce a parking garage that allays his doubts because he hasn’t seen a specific plan.
On July 10, CCG issued a request for proposals for the project’s design and construction services. The deadline to submit proposals was Aug. 16.
Greene worries how tall the parking garage will be, what materials would be used for its exterior, where vehicles will enter and exit, and how that traffic and noise will affect his peaceful home and neighborhood.
“Eighth street is already a major corridor for traffic,” he said. “It’s something I accept living here. I like seeing people walk by and ride by and wave and all that. … But with those bigger groups (and vehicles parking at the proposed garage) comes more people and more traffic.”
Elizabeth Walden, on behalf of the Historic Columbus Foundation’s executive committee, told the Ledger-Enquirer that the foundation’s major concern is that they haven’t seen an overall plan from CCG to explain how this project would impact the historic district.
“Our goal is to work with the neighborhood and the city to create the best and most appropriate outcome for the Columbus Historic District with regards to the parking deck proposal and an overall strategic plan while also remaining aware of the needs to accommodate a growing Trade Center and interest in Columbus as a conference and tourism destination,” Walden said in an email.
Walden said building a 500-space parking garage that would blend in with the historic district’s mass, scale and character “would be extremely challenging” at the proposed location. Lighting, noise and traffic also are concerns, she said.
“However, since there is no formal design or proposal at this point it is difficult to comment on with specificity,” Walden said.
Walden added, “The houses in the district have some of the highest price per square foot in the county. The success and appropriateness of these projects are crucial to keeping that property value for both the property owner and the city’s tax coffers.”
Legal conflict
On Aug. 19 and Aug. 23, the Ledger-Enquirer emailed questions about this project to Mayor Skip Henderson, City Manager Isaiah Hugley, Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge, City Finance Director Angelica Alexander and City Attorney Clifton Fay. None of them replied before publication.
So even the estimated cost of this project and the funding source are unclear.
Greene said he heard at the district residents’ meeting with CCG officials that $10 million is available for the city to build this parking garage.
The Ledger-Enquirer reported in 2002 that Columbus Council authorized CCG to issue $44.2 million in bonds for city capital improvements, including $3.5 million to construct a 300-space parking garage for the trade center adjacent to the hotel across the street.
That bond issue also included $5 million to help fund a $35 million expansion of the trade center, which also received money from the state, local sales tax and private donations to nearly double the facility’s size.
In 2021, Columbus voters approved a 1% Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to raise $400 million for city capital projects, including $5 million for “improvements to the parking facility to provide for approximately 500 spaces” at the trade center, according to the public notice from the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration authorizing the referendum.
Historic district residents objecting to this project point out the language in the referendum and the campaign material before the vote never mentioned the new parking spaces for the trade center would be built elsewhere.
“I think everybody agrees that the trade center probably needs more parking, and everybody wants to support the trade center, which is an economic driver,” historic district resident Ken Henson, a lawyer and real estate developer, told the Ledger-Enquirer, “… but I think there’s a problem using SPLOST dollars for that parking deck on Broadway.”
Greene said he doesn’t know how “that’s morphed into, ‘We’re going to build a garage across the street on a different parcel. I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s the way it was sold to the citizens of Columbus.”
Parking conflict
Henson provided the Ledger-Enquirer a diagram of the area that shows the current trade center parking garage comprises 56,808 square feet with 397 spaces. The parking lot south of the Marriott comprises 74,419 square feet with 175 spaces.
Nobody representing Valley Hospitality, which owns that Marriott, replied to the Ledger-Enquirer’s messages about this issue, but Henson said CCG has an agreement with them to provide 125 spaces for the hotel in that parking lot.
“So it may not be economically viable to put the parking deck there,” he said.
That’s why Henson hopes CCG will develop a master plan for the trade center area to include space for a new convention hotel and parking.
“I know (city officials) looked at the area where the fountain is (in front of the trade center) as a potential hotel site,” he said, “so maybe they should look at that as part of a master plan process. Is that a good location to put a hotel on top of a new two-or-three-level parking deck?”
Walden also referred to discussions about constructing a hotel on the trade center’s current parking garage, “which makes expansion of the deck problematic,” she said. “If there were to be a new hotel on the existing parking deck site, those spaces would also need to be replaced.”
All of which prompted Walden to say the Historic Columbus Foundation wants CCG to develop a master plan “with stakeholder involvement” for the area before a final decision is made about a new parking garage for the trade center. Such a plan should consider “the impact of this project and the potential new hotel, along with overall design and traffic considerations to protect the historic integrity and economic value of the district,” she said.
Another factor to be considered in a master plan for the area is Columbus State University’s intention to move the adjacent Coca-Cola Space Science Center, 701 Front Ave., from downtown to CSU’s main campus in midtown.
The case for more trade center parking
During the past several years, the trade center has increased its number of conferences and conventions from a few dozen event days to more than 100 event days annually, Hayley Tillery, the center’s executive director, told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Tillery noted the parking garage wasn’t enlarged when the trade center was expanded in 2003. Then a deal CCG reached with the hotel to expand on the parking lot across Front Avenue from the trade center “evaporated” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
“So, right now, we are beginning fresh with a new plan and merely seeing available options,” Tillery said via email. “The recent RFP is merely a start to a lengthy process of working towards the ultimate goal of completing the 2003 plan which involved a dedicated convention hotel and additional parking, and also a walking bridge to the Trade Center.”
The trade center’s events pump an estimated $6.9 million into the local economy per year, Tillery said.
“This economic benefit has the potential to grow even further with the right infrastructure to support the influx of guests,” she said. “Enhancing our facilities, including the addition of a parking garage, is essential not only for accommodating more attendees but also for positioning Columbus as a premier destination for conferences and conventions in the state. This development will benefit the city and create a positive ripple effect, supporting local entrepreneurs and businesses throughout the region.”
Equitable perspective
Perhaps nobody in Columbus is better equipped to understand the governmental, economic and residential sides of this controversy than Richard Bishop.
He lives in the historic district and is president of its preservation society, but he also is a former assistant city manager and a former CEO of Uptown Columbus, the nonprofit organization that promotes the city’s downtown.
Bishop, who emphasized he was sharing his opinion and not speaking on behalf of the district’s preservation society, warned against folks rushing to judgment about this issue.
“I think it’s premature to have a real thought on it,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer. “The city is going through a process, and that process is inclusive. They are engaging the district, … and if the district is really listened to and their thoughts are carried on to the pages of a design, that’s what I want to see before I have an opinion.”
A representative from the district’s preservation society and a representative from the Historic Columbus Foundation are on CCG’s committee that will review the proposals from the project’s potential architects and construction contractors, Bishop said.
“The city is going to have challenges on meeting the district’s expectations,” he said, “but it’s very encouraging to me that the city is going through this process to include the district in that design.”
Regardless of the final design, Bishop said, he wants to ensure CCG officials “have ample sessions with the district to go over the process as it develops. … I don’t have a vision for what that parking deck would look like, but I think it needs to be compatible with the district and the Marriott and the trade center and other structures that have been built in the downtown area.
“And if it’s built on that site, it has to be sensitive about everything that happens in a parking deck, from cars and lights. … They’re going to need a manageable traffic flow so it doesn’t impact Eighth Street, Broadway and Front Avenue in a negative way.”
Bishop mentioned the parking garage across Broadway from the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, one block north of the Marriott, as a caution.
“When I’m in front of the RiverCenter, it sounds like a racetrack going on in that parking deck,” he said. “So how is that going to operate (at the one proposed for the trade center)?”
This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
