Greater Columbus Convention Center to Get Facelift
One big weakness in Columbus that hasn’t been addressed yet is the dowdy convention center. And here we are trying to attract the 2016 GOP National Convention or even the DNC? With what?
Cleveland just completed a half billion dollar new convention center. Indianapolis just invested $275 million in theirs. Nashville just opened their $600 million center. Even COBO in Detroit is most of the way through their heavy remake.
Columbus is investing all of $25 to $30 million in ours? I hope we have some really creative interior decorators. The last heavy remake we did was in 2001, which makes ours older than just about all of the similar sized Midwest cities.
The convention center soon will undergo a $25 million to $30 million renovation that will improve “the finishes, the ceilings, the lighting, the wall coverings,” said Bill Jennison, executive director of the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority.
We’re getting a bunch of new multiunit high-end housing in the Columbus CBD, but we need more Columbus commercial real estate for sale and lease, especially net leased retail. The Columbus downtown, Short North and the Arena District could really benefit.
Doesn’t sound like nearly enough to me, but we’ll see.