City Center Closing

10 TV: Downtown Columbus’ City Center Mall will be torn down and replaced by a park surrounded by residential, retail and office space. Mayor Michael Coleman’s spokesperson, Dan Williamson, told Preston the city asked for $15 to $16 million in federal stimulus funds to cover the demolition cost.

Capitol South Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation told Hunt the requested $15 to $20 million would be enough for demolition of the mall, site development and park creation. The city asked for the money as part of a $32-million funding request for the River South project. The decision to begin tearing down the 20-year-old mall this summer was made last year, Williamson said.

Capitol South owns the mall and planned to keep the underground parking and parking structure across the street from the mall. The new area was to be called Columbus Commons—8.9 acres of green space, eventually surrounded by apartments, condos, office buildings and retail space.

The most retail space in the new project is 30,000 square feet, while there will be 40,000 square feet of restaurant space. Williamson said mall demolition would take longer without the use of explosives. Rather than retrofit the buildings at considerable cost, the decision was made to “wipe the slate clean,” Williamson said.

Capitol South and the city used input from several popular blogs and area publications in which residents sounded off about what they wanted to see. The overwhelming sense: People wanted a space where they could “Live, Work, and Play.”

Two well-known companies, one known worldwide and the other nationwide (CB Richard Ellis and Georgetown Company), looked at the site and told Capitol South that City Center would be a difficult space to redevelop without demolition, according to Capital South. The mall’s size and layout would have made it cost-prohibitive.

Columbus’ shoppers would not support mall revitalization, according to the consulting firms. Making the mall over into an office building would have cost $250 per square foot at minimum; new builds are $140 to $180 per square foot. To make it retail, the city and developers needed people who would live Downtown.

Each retailer needs a certain number of “rooftops” Downtown before developers would consider putting in stores. Since Columbus, didn’t have the needed numbers, the mixed-use space of Columbus Commons would provide some of that, the consultants said.

Without federal stimulus money, Capitol South also has a secondary plan in case federal monies don’t come through. If Wednesday’s announcement were to signal the beginning of the project, the goal was to have it complete by fall 2010. Demolition of the interior of the mall would begin in May and the exterior’s demolition would begin in June or July, according to developers.