Downtown Columbus' shift from parking lots to projects
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Surface parking lots have become a target for major redevelopment projects, a shift matching a national trend that is reshaping the look and feel of downtown Columbus.
Why it matters: Columbus has been striving for years to reinvigorate downtown. Turning a bevy of surface lots into housing, retail and amenities can help create a neighborhood that stays beyond the workday.
State of play: Since 2020, around a dozen projects have redeveloped local surface parking lots.
- Those include housing like Madison North, Industry Columbus and Two Twenty Vine, plus OhioHealth's Grant Family Medicine, pickleball courts in Franklinton and offices at 500 Neil Ave.
- Even Land-Grant Brewing's popular expansion replaced a lot.
What's next: Several more projects are eyed for the coming years.
- Encova Insurance and the Pizzuti Companies plan a $96 million surface lot redevelopment project.
- In the Discovery District, Columbus State plans a massive series of projects that will infill former parking lots and add a YMCA.
How it works: In many cases, parking isn't eliminated — it's integrated.
- High-profile developments like the Merchant Building include hundreds of spaces.
The big picture: Attitudes toward parking have shifted in recent years as the city works to make downtown connected and vibrant.
- In 2022, the city's downtown strategic plan suggested reducing surface lots to increase density.
Case in point: The Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority is working on a master plan, and executive director Ken Paul tells Axios that officials will explore parking lot redevelopment.
- He says a post-COVID world with changing office occupancy and vehicle use opens possibilities of "much more productive" use for surface lots.
- "I'm hopeful that we'll continue to advance policy that disincentivizes holding onto surface parking lots and makes it easier to redevelop them into higher, more productive assets."
Zoom out: Columbus is catching up with national urban planning.
- Organizations like Smart Growth America, the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute have recommended parking reductions for years.
The bottom line: To some — like former Mayor Michael Coleman — replacing parking lots should be one of our highest priorities.
- "More housing, especially affordable, more retail, more pedestrian activity, more transit and mobility options, more green space, more diversity, more equity and access, more art," he told City Council in 2022.
- "The only thing that we're talking about that should be less is surface parking lots; that's been the bane of downtown for a long time."