Arena gets $2.4M for upgrades: Is it enough?
Facilities director suggests major 'facelift' is needed
The Columbus City Council on Monday approved the distribution of $2.4 million in ticket tax proceeds for Nationwide Arena improvements that will go toward $13.1 million in work including locker room, elevator and lighting upgrades.
But Don Brown, executive director of the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, which owns the facility, said the arena is going to need more work – and much more money – to stay competitive in luring sports, concerts and other events.
“We’ve got a 22-year-old arena. And sometimes in the near, 5, 10 years, we should contemplate a major facelift to improve the fan experience over the next 30 years,” Brown told City Council.
Brown cited Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, home to the NBA’S Cavaliers and the Cleveland Monsters, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ American Hockey League affiliate. That arena, which opened in 1994, underwent a $185 million upgrade completed in 2019 that included $70 million in public money and $115 million in private funds.
He also cited the $360 million renovation of Indianapolis’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse, built in 1999 and home to the NBA’S Indiana Pacers.
Any similar major renovations at Nationwide Arena can only be done with broader public and private support, Brown said. But there have been no discussions on that yet, he said.
“I’m only contemplating, speculating, we might follow Cleveland’s lead in that regard,” Brown said.
“This $13 million list is a start,” he said. “This keeps the arena in shape but doesn’t give it the facelifts that Cleveland or Indianapolis have given their arenas.”
Beyond the $2.4 million from the 5% ticket tax on Nationwide Arena events in 2022, the rest of the $13.1 million in work will be funded with a $10 million federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and
casino-tax revenues.
A partial breakdown:
• $3.75 million for two phases of Columbus Blue Jackets locker room renovations. Renovations started last fall, Blue Jackets spokesman Todd Sharrock said.
• $3.4 million to replace the ice plant and cooling tower
• $1.25 million for event production upgrades
• $1.2 million for lighting-related improvements
• $850,000 for a boiler replacement • $169,270 for elevator upgrades Not on this to-do list is a needed $5million roof replacement, Brown said.
Blue Jackets spokesman Todd Sharrock said the team also put money into the locker rooms, but would not elaborate. Sharrock also would not address the arena’s needs more broadly.
Also Monday, the City Council approved a $1.85 million contract with California-based Lisa Wise Consulting to continue to work on updating the city’s zoning code, which hasn’t been overhauled since the 1950s.
Councilman Rob Dorans, who leads council’s Building and Zoning Committee, said Wise will help city officials rewrite the code while looking at what other cities have done.
The city has already paid Wise $200,000 for a study in 2021 that found the city relies too much on spot rezonings and variances, often for controversial projects that neighborhoods fight.
Wise has already advised the city that the major changes initially should be confined to three regional growth corridors: Main Street east from Downtown through the Near East Side and East Side; Broad Street west from Downtown through Franklinton and the Hilltop; and potentially Olentangy River Road north past Ohio State University.
Those are the same corridors where the Central Ohio Transit Authority plans to build bus rapid transit lines through the Linkus effort that would be
funded by a 0.5% sales tax increase voters in Franklin County and parts of Delaware, Fairfield, Licking and Union counties would have to approve.
The new contract with Wise is for two years, with two, optional, 12-month extensions. Dorans said Wise was the only company to respond to the city’s request for proposals and negotiated the terms of the contract with city officials.
Zoning codes help guide the way cities develop and look, and can hinder or prevent the development of affordable housing in some areas.
Wise’s 2021 study said Columbus’ zoning code standards aren’t tailored to specific neighborhood conditions, and do not prioritize transit and future housing needs, including affordable housing.
The City Council also voted to rezone a 180-acre parcel at 6680 Lockbourne Road on the Southeast Side where a developer plans to build four warehouses near Rickenbacker International Airport.
The warehouses will be part of a $250 million development involving two more warehouses to the north. Exxcel Project Management, of Columbus, is the developer. Cliff Aiken, Exxcel’s chief investment officer, said the four warehouses would total 2.4 million square feet, and that Exxcel is in discussion with several companies to occupy them.
The Far South Columbus Area Commission opposed the project. Bruce Miller, the commission’s recording secretary, said members were concerned about drainage and that there wasn’t enough buffering to protect an old cemetery on the property.
The City Council also passed a resolution opposing Ohio House Bill 616, which would ban discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity until fourth grade in all public and most private schools.
“It is dangerous because of the message it sends to our young people,” City Council President Shannon Hardin said. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik