As Ivy Tech Columbus last week hosted Ivy Tech President Sue Ellspermann for a visit, students began their first full term in the new $32 million Moravec Hall. While students buzzed around their new environs, a remarkable buzz of activity and progress also was evident throughout the community.
Just down the street from the Columbus Learning Center, the Propeller maker space is getting off the ground, aided by a $580,000 economic development grant from the state. The Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grant will help makers and entrepreneurs with 3-D printing labs, robotics, electronics, metalworking, woodworking and more.
These developments on the education and enterprising fronts are just a couple of pieces of the changing face of a thriving, aspiring Columbus. When you look around, it’s hard to recall a time when so many big projects were in the works locally.
One of the most visible projects is, for the moment, a demolition site.
Crews from Force Construction got really busy last week digging into the former FairOaks Mall, removing the edifice that formerly was a Goody’s store and beginning the gradual transformation of the old mall property into NexusPark. This coming athletic complex, fieldhouse, health plaza, community space and parks department facility promises to be a focal point and destination for our region for years to come. It too, got a boost from a state READI grant made possible by federal COVID relief funding.
These projects are aided by public money because they serve the public, and READI grants are a welcome use of tax dollars flowing back into local communities. Gov. Eric Holcomb has advocated for another round of READI grants, and we wholeheartedly agree. These grants are focused on economic development and enhancing quality of life among other measures, based on needs identified from communities and regions around the state.
Investing public dollars in human infrastructure and public needs pays dividends in ways that can easily be measured and in ways that are more nebulous but also worthy. What is the price of experience, of individual discovery, of achievement, of education? Those are the value of these investments at Ivy Tech, Propeller and NexusPark.
Head from NexusPark toward downtown and you’ll notice girders rising at the site of Flaherty & Collins’ new $41 million apartment building and urban grocer in the 700 block of Second Street. The Taylor, as it has been dubbed, continues downtown residential development that began with the Cole. It will help meet the ongoing need for housing in our area by bringing in 200 new apartment units.
Steps away, the 1821 Trail is under construction. This new link to the People Trail commemorates the bicentennial of Columbus’ founding and, in conjunction with other nearby developments, will greatly improve underutilized land close to the heart of downtown.
There is much more happening around the city, in the private and public sector, that will keep Columbus buzzing for years to come. And we didn’t even get around to mentioning projects that are only on the drawing board.
Columbus is a thriving, striving community. What we see now and in the near future gives us confidence that our city’s most vibrant days lie ahead.
