Hopes to secure a solid future for the 129-year-old Crump Theatre could be realized with a strategic plan that could pair the historic downtown Art Deco building with a new, 184-room hotel and conference center.
Efforts to “Save the Crump” first launched in 1995 when Kerasotes Theaters ended its lease to show first-run movies at the 425 Third Street center in Columbus. Similar sentiments were rekindled nearly 20 years later when the theater — by then used just for occasional events, a shadow of its earlier glory — was closed by the Columbus Fire Department in 2014 for fire and safety hazards.
But now there appears to be new life for an adaptive reuse of the Crump Theatre. It’s part of a new vision being developed for downtown Columbus, paired with a 10-story hotel and conference center suggested for next door, said David Rubin, principal with Philadelphia-based DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, which is leading the study.
That concept was shared last week with more than 75 people who attended the third and final Envision Columbus public meeting at Columbus City Hall.
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The plan would be dependent on finding a developer willing to tackle the project, purchasing property east of the theater and securing parking for both buildings.
The idea of a hotel and conference space next to the Crump is an interesting one, said Tracy Souza, president and chief executive officer of the Heritage Fund, which has organized the strategic process for Envision Columbus.
Souza also serves as secretary of the Capital Foundation Board, the nonprofit organization that took ownership in 1994 to protect a future for the iconic building.
“What we’re going for now is to lay out an aspirational vision of how you can activate the downtown,” Souza said of the Envision Columbus process.
However, it’s too early to say whether a Crump makeover and neighboring downtown hotel/conference center are viable, she said.
Souza and others want to see what comes out of a separate study commissioned by the city and the Columbus Area Visitors Center for a downtown hotel and conference center, in addition to an assessment on viability of a theater venue being done by Landmark Columbus.
Just last month, the city hired a consultant to study the feasibility of locating a hotel and conference center on 10 acres of city-owned land at Second and Lafayette streets, several blocks from the Crump location. The Columbus Redevelopment Commission hired Hunden Strategic Partners, based in Chicago, to complete the study for up to $36,000, with the Columbus Area Visitors Center picking up half of the cost.
The firm was subsequently asked to broaden the scope of its study to consider the Crump block on Third Street as a second option for a hotel and conference center, said Karen Niverson, executive director of the Columbus Area Visitors Center.
“It’ll be interesting to see if it’s viable,” Niverson said.
The idea of keeping the Crump was supported by Columbus residents Mary Moore and her husband Norris, who attended the Envision Columbus meeting.
“It would be a travesty not to do anything with it,” Mary Moore said of the historic Crump, a building first constructed in the 1870s.
Repurposing the Crump with a hotel and conference center could make the historic building more valuable, Mayor Jim Lienhoop said.
Still, the mayor said much work remains to be done on the strategic plan for the downtown, due to be completed and presented in September.
“It continues to be an exciting process,” Lienhoop said. “We have a lot to work with.”
A component of the idea for a new hotel next to the Crump site would be to return Second and Third streets in downtown Columbus to two-way streets — to slow down traffic and reduce congestion, Rubin said.
Second and Third have been one-way streets for at least 40 years, said Dave Hayward, the city’s executive director of public works/city engineer.
The strategic plan for Envision Columbus looks at a large footprint, an area of downtown Columbus bounded by 22nd Street on the north, the Flatrock and the East Fork White rivers on the west, the confluence of the East Fork White River and Haw Creek on the south and California Street on the east.
Envision Columbus will replace the city’s 2005 strategic plan known as Vision 20/20, whose ideas have largely been completed.
Support for grocery
Besides public-input meetings and small stakeholder sessions, an online survey has also been used to collect ideas to create the plan, Rubin said.
An urban grocery store in downtown Columbus was favored by 56 percent of respondents, he said.
Renderings of three different concepts of what an urban grocery for downtown Columbus might look like were shared during last week’s meeting. Options that could be explored include a stand-alone grocery store, one with a development behind it or one featuring an 8-story multi-family or commercial development, Rubin said.
If built, the urban grocery store could be made accessible to individuals by car or foot — and appears to be financially feasible, Rubin said.
Columbus resident Jessica Schnepp, who moved downtown with her husband and their two children two and a half years ago, said an urban grocery store would be beneficial for downtown dwellers.
“I think we’re going to see some creative growth and movement of people downtown,” Schnepp said.
The plan outlined by Rubin calls for the urban grocery store, multi-family/commercial or mixed-use developments on an existing parking lot owned by Bartholomew County near Third and Lafayette streets. Parking for a stand-alone grocery store would be on the roof, while parking for the other proposed developments would be on several levels.
There are currently more than 200 spaces in the surface lot, where county employees park.
Bartholomew County Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said the county wasn’t aware of the latest proposal, but noted that officials been approached by developers who have expressed interest in the lot — across Second Street from the county jail — in the past decade.
Any new development on the site would require a solution for county employee parking, Kleinhenz said, adding that the county would not be willing to rent spaces from a potential developer.
About 40 employees work at the county’s probation department in a building that faces Third Street, which would likely be demolished with operations relocated if the parking lot were developed, Kleinhenz said.
He described the parking lot as an integral part of the infrastructure owned by Bartholomew County.
“While we are willing to help, we have to have our own issues answered in the discussion,” Kleinhenz said. “We realize it’s very attractive, but it’s very valuable to us.”
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DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, based in Philadelphia, will have a final strategic plan completed by September. A presentation is planned.
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Ideas being considered for a strategic plan for downtown Columbus, according to planner David Rubin, include:
- Linking trail connections between Noblitt and Donner parks.
- Improving alleys in downtown Columbus to make them accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists to use.
- Creating two soccer fields, native plantings and a cafe in Noblitt Park, which currently has two baseball fields and open space of land.
- Creation of several small pocket parks in neighborhoods along Chestnut Street.
- Townhouses on Franklin Street between Sixth and Seventh streets that would initially include 18 units with garage space.
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