A divided Columbus City Council on Tuesday night approved a resolution to allow for the city’s purchase of the former Sears building downtown, now owned by Cummins Inc., by a 5-2 vote.
Councilmen Chris Bartels and Jay Foyst voted against the purchase, Councilwoman Elaine Hilber recused herself because she’s a Cummins employee, and Councilman Jerone Wood was absent.
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission during a March 18 meeting executed a purchase agreement with Cummins Inc. for $4.2 million to acquire the 91,380-square-foot property at 323 Brown St., including the adjoining parking lot.
City officials have proposed a potential conference center at the site, though no final decisions have been made on the building’s future use.
The $4.2 million was derived from tax increment finance (TIF) funds from the Central Economic Development Area, Director of Redvelopment Heather Pope said. YES Cinema would remain as a tenant, but their rent would increase, according to Pope, adding that redevelopment had been in conversation with them and that they were OK with the increase.
The resolution came before the city council because it’s required for city expenditures greater that $500,000.
City officials said they intend to move quickly and not possess the building for long, and that the building’s ultimate use is contingent on what comes out of the Columbus Downtown 2030 plan. During its meeting on Monday, the redevelopment commission hired Bonnie Boatwright as Columbus Downtown 2030 project manager.
Pope said the city is looking for narrower plan than 2018’s Envision Columbus plan to account for a changed climate downtown post-COVID, and the hope is to have the Columbus Downtown 2030 plan completed within one year.
Members who approved the purchase felt as though the city should act as a steward, purchase the building and then seek input from the community through the new plan to decide on its ultimate use, continuing a city strategy of utilizing public-private partnerships to encourage cohesive development.
Those opposed said they city was engaging in real estate speculation and should leave the fate of the building to the free market and not expend city funds.
Notably, community member John Fairbanks came forward during public comment to say that he had assembled a plan for the building to fill 65,000 square feet of it and that he had submitted a $6 million offer to buy the building from Cummins.
Fairbanks said his plan for the building would house sports entertainment, including bowling and simulated golf, plus sports therapy and a restaurant. He said he has been in contact with potential tenants about it and brought to the meeting a representative from Franklin-based 10 Pins bowling who signed onto the plan.
“The big question is why, if we have developers like our team, like our group who want to take this building on, are willing to take it on, why don’t we get it under contract? We want to start developing this and I think we could be operational in nine months,” Fairbanks told the council.
Fairbanks distributed a copy of a plan to council members who had not seen it, but he took copies of the plan back after saying it was proprietary. Fairbanks was approached by The Republic to try to confirm its contents, but he gave no comment.
“I’m asking you please to give us an opportunity to look at this and take a shot at this and keep your TIF money where it is, let us contribute to that, but let’s put city TIF money where it really belongs and not in real estate,” Fairbanks said to the council.
Councilman Chris Bartels was most vocal during the meeting, saying he didn’t believe the city had done its due diligence on the building and that it had no business acquiring a property that a developer seemingly had organized a plan and offer for.
Bartels and Foyst held a town hall on April 30 where they discussed “city acquisition of properties” and “properties taxes” that Fairbanks attended.
“The free market will figure that out if it’s the best plan, but I’d much rather prefer it figure it out on the investor’s dime, versus our taxpayer’s dime,” Bartels said.
Mayor Mary Ferdon said although she believes in the free market, the downtown area is a place that often needs city help.
“When we talk about free markets, I think that’s great, I’m a Republican, I love the free market. But businesses come to us all the time and violate the free market— TIF funds, tax abatements— so many businesses need a little bit of a help to get their businesses up and going,” Ferdon said.
“… Very few things happen in the downtown community, or in one of our large industries, all by themselves. They oftentimes come to the city for financial assistance.”
Pope and Redevelopment Commission President Al Roszcyk disagreed with Fairbanks on whether he brought the plan to the redevelopment department and the avenues through which redevelopment potentially learned of it.
Foyst noted that the city acquiring the property in the leadup to the new downtown plan doesn’t preclude Fairbanks’ plan from coming to fruition later.
