COLUMBUS, Ind. — City officials are reexamining a major downtown project.
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission has voted to engage Hunden Strategic Partners of Chicago to complete an update to their previous market and feasibility study for a hotel and conference center in the downtown area. Redevelopment Director Heather Pope said that the update, which will cost $21,600, is expected to take about seven weeks and be completed by mid-April.
She noted that the hospitality industry was “crippled” amid the pandemic, which put the development on hold.
“That (study) was in 2018; it’s now 2022,” said Pope. “And we just felt like it’s a good time to maybe have that market and feasibility study updated.”
The city’s current plans call for the Bartholomew County court services building, located in the former Elks Club at 507 Third St., to be torn down. That would empty an entire county-owned block for the hotel and conference center between Second, Franklin, Third and Lafayette streets.
The city will receive that property as part of a land swap and is, in exchange, largely handling the construction of the new court services building.
“Anything associated with travel and events was completely changed by the pandemic, and we’re coming out of it now,” said Rob Hunden with Hunden Strategic Partners. “…We’re assessing what the long-term changes are to the hotel market in general, in terms of business versus leisure versus group. So we have a lot to look at; it’s not just sort of a cookie-cutter recast of the situation.”
He said that the firm will go through the same process as last time and make a revised assessment, though he’s not sure whether or not their recommendations will change. The company will also speak with the firm chosen for the project, Sprague Hotel Developers, to gauge if they “still remain interested in the process.”
“We’re very, I think, optimistic to restart the process and see where it takes us,” said Hunden. They will also be speaking with Cummins, Inc about employees and travel for the future.
City Director of Administration and Community Development Mary Ferdon added that the firm should take into account expected sports tourism from NexusPark, the health, wellness and recreation center to be based at the former FairOaks Mall in Columbus. The development will include an 150,000-square-foot fieldhouse for sports and other events.
Ferdon said they’re projected to have “40,000 unique visitors per month” coming to the center just to use the fieldhouse.
“That’s a lot of visitors to come to the community on a monthly basis,” she said. “Many of them will be day trips, but … with the tournaments, there’s also a large number of overnight stays.”
Many of these visitors will want to stay downtown because it will provide other things for parents to do during their weekend trips, she said.
For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
