Tomatoes fly in Reynoldsburg
Kmart to be demolished for new church HQ
The Reynoldsburg High School marching band offered an extended drumroll Saturday as an excavator started ripping the facade off the former Kmart at Main Street and Brice Road.
Then the tomatoes started flying – hundreds of them, in true Reynoldsburg fashion – and splatting against the soon-to-bedemolished vacant building that is set to become home to a mixed-used development, anchored by the national headquarters of the Christian and Missionary Alliance family of churches.
Final plans for the area are not yet set in stone, and the ultimate buildout likely will take five to 10 years, but officials hope to include housing, a conference center and a hotel, in addition to the Alliance operations and other office and retail spaces.
“When you come into Reynoldsburg off of Main, this is the first thing you’re going to see,” said Reynoldsburg Mayor Joe Begeny. “… You’re going to see a great development here, a lot of restaurants, retail, commercial (spaces), we’re going to have a convention center where there’s always going to be something going on. And it’s going to be open for everybody.”
Begeny joined other Alliance and city officials Saturday for a festival of sorts in the parking lot of the former Kmart, complete with food trucks, balloons, stilt walkers and a performance by an Ethiopian and Eritrean worship choir.
Alliance President John Stumbo envisions the property as a gathering place for the entire community. The development is being called “Alliance Place.”
“We’re the back office for a Christian organization that has work in 70 countries…,”
he said Saturday. “But wherever we go in the world, we always connect with the community, whether that’s a Muslim community, a Buddhist community or secular … While we have our beliefs, we also want to be the good neighbor … When people of faith and people of goodwill partner together for the common good of the city, good things happen.”
The Protestant denomination has about 24,000 locations and 6.3 million members globally, including 2,000 churches and 440,000 members in the United States. Ohio was a natural pick for its relocated national headquarters, with 107 Alliance churches and 40,600 congregants.
That total includes eight locations and 1,200 members in the Columbus area. And Reynoldsburg is within a day’s drive of more than 700 different Alliance congregations, according to Peter Burgo, director of media relations at the Alliance.
The Alliance has based its national headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for more than three decades but decided it was time to relocate and approach its central operations differently.
“Every Christian organization I know (locates their) offices in the very same way: You build a building, move in our staff and then lock the doors 40 hours a week,” Stumbo said. “We’re an organization whose entire mission is to be there for people, and yet our staff isn’t interacting with the community as we come to work… Our vision was to challenge the model of offices for Christian organizations and to move it into the public so that, in natural ways, our staff was engaging within a community in a way that benefited both.”
Columbus was one of three finalist cities that were considered, with a top international airport, a more affordable cost of living and a racially diverse community. Reynoldsburg quickly rose to the top of the list, with the longvacant Kmart building and city officials who were excited about the opportunity, Stumbo said.
Andrew Bowsher, development director for the city, said the property has been empty for about 10 years. A comprehensive plan completed several years ago designated the area for medium- to high-density, mixed-use development, along the lines of Grandview Yard in Grandview Heights or Bridge Park in Dublin.
“When we met with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, they bought into our vision and everything that we are trying to do here,” Bowsher said. “And, at last, it will be a gorgeous development once it’s done.”
He added later, “This is the tide that’s going to lift all of the boats here in Reynoldsburg. And I think that all of the new housing we’re bringing in, all the commercial development we’re working on, it stems from the growth of what this is going to be.”
Begeny said, “It had to start in this location. This was the first step in a long journey to make sure that all of Brice Road is revitalized.”
The Alliance already has purchased close to 11 acres, including the former Kmart building. And Bowsher said the larger mixed-use area could include a little more than 20 acres, taking into account a new library branch planned to the south.
Robb Childs, relocation assistant for the Alliance, said demolition and other site work will move forward in coming weeks, with construction expected to begin in 2022 and potential occupancy in late 2023 or early 2024.
A first phase is expected to cost an estimated $25 million to $30 million and likely will include the construction of a multi-story, L-shaped building off of Brice Road, with a coffee shop and other retail on the main level.
Stumbo and others in Alliance administration already have moved to central Ohio and will operate in temporary office spaces until the new building is constructed.
Reynoldsburg played host earlier this month to its annual Tomato Festival, a hat tip to Alexander W. Livingston, a native son who, in the late 1800s, developed a commercially viable (and tasty) tomato.
Thus the tomato tossing Saturday and the relative brevity of the mayor’s prepared remarks.
“Nobody’s here to listen me,” he joked. “We want to throw tomatoes!” mkovac@dispatch.com @Ohiocapitalblog