Columbus Regional Health has hired a multi-disciplinary team tasked with developing an “actionable design” for the health system’s portion of FairOaks Mall.
The team includes engineering firm Smith Seckman & Reid, architecture firm BSA Lifestructures, interior design firm RSP Architects and Turner Construction, said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
CRH officials said they expect the team to spend “a good part of 2020” incorporating input from customers and internal CRH stakeholders and working toward a concept design of the space that would include a visual representation of what the space would potentially look like.
“We’re doing what’s called an integrated project delivery design where we get the construction manager, the architect, interior designer and the engineers all at the table with us early on in the process so we can look at if there are ways to engineer to be more cost effective,” said Jim Bickel, president and chief executive officer for Columbus Regional Health. “…We have already engaged with a project delivery team that will be working with us throughout 2020.”
Last month, CRH officials had their first meeting with the team, Bickel said. The team will meet regularly with Bickel and internal stakeholders at CRH over the course of the year, DeClue said.
A conceptual master plan for the mall property presented on Tuesday during the fourth and final public information session for the FairOaks project shows CRH occupying the former Carson’s space and potentially part of other retail or restaurant spaces next to the former department store on the west side of the mall.
The conceptual plan has not been formally approved by the FairOaks Community Development Corp. Design Committee, said Tom Brosey, a consultant hired by the city to help guide the master planning process. Bickel is a member of the design committee.
Though CRH has not announced any firm plans for the mall space, Bickel said the health system may not follow the city’s phasing for building out the mall property.
While CRH continues its own internal assessment of the mall property, Bickel said that, at this point of the process, the CRH facility in the mall would likely be one-story tall.
“We had actually taken a look at whether second floor could be put in (the former Carson’s space),” Bickel said. “Some of our initial projections were it might be cost prohibitive to do that. Those are things we’ve considered. We haven’t landed on that. But just initially, it may not be feasible from a cost perspective to do that. It’s not off the table, but I’m not thinking that’s where we’ll probably end up.”
DeClue said she anticipates that the hospital system will likely make some public updates on their plans at some point this year.
CRH contributed $1.3 million, or 25 percent of the appraised value of the mall property at 25th Street and Central Avenue, when the city purchased it for $5.9 million in December 2018.
