Designer hired for garage project

City officials are seeking design work and cost estimates on part of a major downtown project in order to hold onto $5 million in grant funding.

The Columbus Redevelopment Commission has approved hiring atelierRISTING to prepare architect and engineering documents for a parking garage that will be part of the city’s new hotel conference center. The contract has a total not-to-exceed amount of $436,700. This includes a lump sum of $403,700 and an additional $33,000 for reimbursable expenses, said Redevelopment Director Heather Pope.

The hotel conference center project has been awarded a $5 million Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grant. Pope said that in order to remain eligible for these funds, the city needs to provide more project information to the Indiana Economic Development Commission (IEDC), which has requested a schedule, rough renderings and concepts, and a preliminary cost estimate.

She added that while the redevelopment commission is working on an agreement with Sprague Hotel Developers on the overall project, they will not be able to have a final version of this document ready by the IEDC’s March 8 deadline.

“We’ve always known that a parking structure would be accompanying the hotel conference center,” said Pope. “And so in order to make sure that we meet the deadline in order not to lose that $5 million, we need to go ahead and engage Steve (Risting) to get some cost estimates and things for the garage portion of the larger hotel conference center project. And we’ve talked to Indiana Economic Development Commission through our consultant, HWC, and they’ve said that by doing this, this will secure us and show movement so that we do continue to be eligible for that $5 million.”

Risting added that the state also requires that READI grant projects must be able to start construction before the end of 2024 and be complete by the end of 2026.

His proposal for the commission shows that the parking garage will be located along Second Street, between Franklin Street and Lafayette Avenue, with the hotel conference center to its north. The garage is expected to include 400 to 500 parking spaces and could consist of four or five levels.

Additionally, there are plans for retail space ranging from 3,000 to 8,000 rentable square feet, with frontage along Franklin and Second Street. Risting wrote that his assumption is that this will “provide core & shell space only, with storefront glazing with mechanical, electrical and plumbing as required for a potential coffee shop or small restaurant.”

There are also proposals for a plaza at Second and Franklin with outdoor seating and the conversion of Franklin Street for two-way traffic.

Risting estimated that the garage’s construction could cost $12 to $15 million based on an estimate of $30,000 per space and 400 to 500 spaces. This does not include the cost of other site improvements such as preparation, drainage and landscaping.

The redevelopment commission plans to build the hotel conference center and parking garage on a downtown block that it acquired through a property-swap agreement with the county.

The commission purchased property at 555 First St., demolished an existing structure, and contributed $1.5 million to the construction of the new Bartholomew County court services building at the site. The county picked up the remainder of the cost, which was approximately $2 million.

Under the deal, the county received the new court services building and a small parking lot. In return, the city received the county-owned block surrounded by Second, Franklin, Third and Lafayette streets. The plan is to eventually tear down the former court services building at 507 Third St. and utilize the empty block to build the hotel and conference center.

The commission’s agreement with the county also includes allowing their employees to park up to 100 vehicles in the new parking garage on weekdays.

Sprague Hotel Developers, the city’s development partner, previously put the project on hold in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry. Pope said at the commission’s Jan. 23 meeting that the city has had several conversations with Sprague on moving the project agreement forward, and she hopes to have something for the commission to vote on soon.

The commission has hired August Mack to conduct an asbestos survey of the former court services building and engaged Renascent, Inc for demolition, which is expected to begin in April and take about three weeks, according to Pope.