Tight space complicates Downtown hotel project
Cranes dotting the Downtown skyline is good news for Columbus, as central Ohio developers have gotten in on the national trend toward urbanism in a big way after years of focusing on the suburbs.
But construction in an urban area often comes with special challenges that add complexity, cost and time to a project, compared with building in an undeveloped location.
The Canopy by Hilton hotel being built across from the Greater Columbus Convention Center is a good illustration of the extra mile that developers are willing to go to build in a cramped space such as the area of Downtown adjacent to the Arena District and Short North neighborhoods.
David Kozar, principal of Indus Hotels — which is joining with Schottenstein Property Group on the project — estimates that building the 12- story, 167room hotel will take about 25 percent longer than it otherwise would because of the demands of building between two buildings Downtown.
“We own the Hampton Inn and Suites and were looking for another property in close proximity,” said Kozar. Indus has several other hotels around Columbus, most of them near Ohio State University or John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Kozar said the Hampton, which opened in 1999, benefits from the local mix of leisure travelers brought in by concerts and sporting events, groups attending meetings at the convention center and business travelers.
The Canopy is a new, upscale, boutique brand from Hilton. The Columbus property will be the first of its kind in Ohio and one of the first dozen slated to open in the United States. Only one U.S. Canopy, in Washington, D.C., is open.
The developers selected Turner Construction to build the hotel in part because of the company's experience with other complex urban projects, Kozar said. The firm worked on the publicly financed Hilton Columbus Downtown that opened five years ago around the corner from the Canopy site.
One unusual decision made on the project was to place the 200-foot crane used to build the main 12-story part of the building inside the footprint of the structure, rather than off to the side. The building will have a two-story section on one
side where offices will be. The crane will sit in that area for the next seven months or so while exterior construction is under way.
Heather Cassady, who is managing the Canopy project for Turner, said that after completion of the main part of the structure, the crane will be removed piece by piece by an “assist crane.” The large crane breaks down into 10 20-foot sections.
“When we take this crane out, we'll only be infilling the space in the two-story portion, not the 12-story part,” Cassady said. “We decided this was the least-impactful location. Taking the crane down will be a three-day process that will probably take
place in July. Traffic will still be able to pass” going east on Nationwide Boulevard, she said.
Other adjustments made as a result of the location include ordering building materials to arrive “just in time” because there isn't room to store large amounts; and designing scaffolding that attaches only to the building during construction, not to the ground below, Cassady said. That necessitated using extra steel in the building's design.
Moving slowly
With Buckingham Cos. officially announced this month as the developer for the large, mixed-use Scioto Peninsula project near COSI, some are asking when there
will be more news on another high-profile Downtown project: the development of the North Market site.
There's been little news on that front since the city of Columbus unveiled the ambitious design from the team of Wood Cos. and Schiff Capital Group eight months ago.
Rick Harrison Wolfe, executive director of the North Market, said he is asked about the status of the project “every day of my life.”
“But that's great. It's great that people care.”
Wolfe said lots of communication has gone on behind the scenes, and progress is being made. Both he and Cynthia Rickman, assistant
director of development for the city, say they expect to have more details to share in early 2018.
Well-known national architecture firm NBBJ was added to the team in June, joining Columbus-based Schooley Caldwell. Wolfe said changes are likely based on NBBJ's input, but he doesn't expect dramatic revisions.
One thing he insists won't happen: The envisioned 35-story office and residential tower won't be reduced to a midrise, as the originally proposed towers in the Scioto Peninsula project were.