The plan to build a new soccer stadium and mixed-use development on the western edge of the Arena District will gets its first hearing from the Downtown Commission next week.
Update Aug 27, 2019: CLICK HERE for a closer look at the mixed-use proposal.
Documents submitted to the City of Columbus show the proposed street alignment for the development, a basic site plan showing the location of the stadium and a public plaza, and an inventory of the buildings that would need to be demolished to make way for the apartments, offices and parking garage planned for the western portion of the site.
According to the Daniel Thomas, Urban Design Manager for the city, the applicant plans to ask the commission for permission to begin demolishing those buildings. Thomas said they will also likely present more detailed plans of the overall development on Tuesday – to get commissioners’ first thoughts on the project – but no further documents had been submitted to city as of this afternoon.
The buildings proposed for demolition are all on the portion of the site – known as Central Outpost – that once held the city’s street maintenance operations. A plan to redevelop that parcel with offices and apartments was proposed in 2015 but never came to fruition.
The city still owns the Central Outpost parcel, and Nationwide Real Estate Investors (NRI) still owns the 13-acre piece of land directly to the east, at 560 W. Nationwide Blvd., that is slated to hold the soccer stadium.
The city, NRI, and the owners of Columbus Crew SC have all claimed in recent months that a final deal – one that would transfer ownership of the land and clear the way for the project to move forward – is close to being inked, although the original goal of an August groundbreaking and completion by spring of 2021 will not be met (team officials have said that July of 2021 is the new target).
The latest documents submitted to the city do suggest that some changes have been made to the overall plan since it was first announced last December.
Renderings and site plans released at that time showed new buildings on the south side of Nationwide Boulevard, across the street from the stadium, but the latest submission doesn’t include any information on plans for that side of the street. The new plan also shows the stadium aligned more closely with the street grid, instead of at an angle.
The Downtown Commission meets at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, in Room 204 of 111 N. Front St. Also on the agenda for the meeting is a seven-story apartment building proposed for East Mound Street.
