MAY 2001 CENTER REVIEW SkatingSkating ToTo SuccessSuccess Nationwide Realty Investors’ Arena District provides 24/7 buzz for downtown Columbus, Ohio. Randall Shearin ringing major league hockey to concerts and other sporting events. In all, Investors is active throughout the United Columbus, Ohio, has kept the Nationwide Realty Investors President States with a diverse portfolio of office, Bnew Nationwide Arena down- Brian J. Ellis expects the Arena – on its retail, hotels, luxury apartments and town hopping about 50 times this past own – to draw nearly 2 million people developing land. Directly and through year with pre-season and regular season each year to Columbus’s downtown. joint ventures, Nationwide Realty games. And, who knows, the Blue Jackets Nationwide Realty Investors is the real Investors controls more than $900 mil- might soon be an NHL playoff fixture. estate arm of Nationwide, one of the lion in real estate investments. Even better, the Arena, a joint venture largest diversified financial services and Now, Nationwide is well underway of Columbus-based Nationwide and insurance providers in the United States, with its development of the high-energy, Dispatch Printing Company, is busy with $120 billion in assets and more than $500-million Arena District, a spectacular another 100 nights a year with shows, 35,000 employees. Nationwide Realty mixed-use urban development. Features soon to accommodate FIRST TO SCORE close to 1.5 million visi- At face-off time, Nationwide Realty tors per year, the cur- Investors sought strong tenants to get the rently expanding center Arena District off to a rousing start-and has been ranked among to keep everyone well fed along the way. the 25 Most Active According to Ellis, the Arena District has Convention Centers in already proved its salt for the project’s North American. As pioneer tenant: Buca Di Beppo Italian might be expected, plen- Restaurant. ty of hotels are close by. “Buca Di Beppo opened in May of “With its entertain- 1999. It is one of the nation’s best- ment venues, office reviewed and most successful restaurant opportunities, ample concepts, but the downtown Columbus parking, traffic, great site has already claimed the Number 1 restaurants and resi- ranking. That’s impressive and indicates dences, the Arena the strength of this market,” Ellis says. include more than 600,000-square feet of District defines high energy, which will Other restaurants that have since office space for downtown, retail, dining, complement and further stimulate all the launched include: Gordon Biersch residences, an urban-scaled cinema and a exciting expansion in downtown Brewery Restaurant, a German brew pub novel indoor-outdoor performance cen- Columbus,” says Ellis. “We have created and restaurant; O’Shaughnessy’s Public ter which can be an intimate jazz cabaret a demand generator. Our office leasing is House, a 299-capacity pub and casual one night, and a country concert going extremely well and we continue to dining establishment, whose owners are amphitheater with seating under the stars, attract interest from highly successful native to Columbus; Chipotle Mexican the next. The Arena District has become local and national restaurants. We are Grill, specializing in gourmet burritos; the hub of a burgeoning downtown now focusing our attention on attracting Starbucks Café; Blue Jackets Bistro, fea- Columbus, bringing business together the same high quality retailers. The com- turing casual bistro dining; and the Black with entertainment and residential; and bination of office, entertainment, restau- & Blue, an upscale, French inspired, open integrating older neighborhoods with the rant, retail and residents who savor this kitchen dining experience. construction of newer neighborhoods. A convenient, urban lifestyle is the formula Bounded by North High Street to the few steps away is the highly successful for meaningful 24/7 use that all develop- east, Neil Avenue to the west, Spring Columbus Convention Center. Expected ers are striving for today.” Street to the south and railroad tracks to the north, land uses and attractions rising Fall 2001) and, Arena District Television The Arena District’s Master Plan was from The Arena District’s 95 acres or ADTV, the giant outdoor video screen developed by Myers Schmalenberger of include: unveiled this past New Year’s Eve. Columbus in collaboration with Sasaki • The Nationwide Arena, at 685,000 • Covered and surface parking totaling and Associates of Boston. square feet, home of the NHL Columbus 15,000 spaces, apportioned to best serve Blue Jackets (opened Fall 2000). all of the convention, entertainment, MAJOR LEAGUE STATUS; • As much as 1.5 million square feet of lodging and business activities of The SMALLER TOWN SMARTS office space. Five buildings comprising Arena District and surrounding down- Columbus takes its place among a approximately 600,000 square feet are town, as well as intelligently accommo- string of comfortably sized, progressive already completed, with three more date both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. but modest Midwestern city successes, under construction. The buildings have • Abundant green space, including tree- including the likes of Indianapolis, been designed to provide density to the lined Nationwide Boulevard, the Arena Indiana, and Nashville, Tennessee. overall project and range from four to District’s pedestrian-friendly “Main In some cases, prosperity is served by eight stories, with provision for high-end, Street.” McFerson Commons, a 3-acre government and education, and first-level retail. Ellis expects to do excep- park named after former Nationwide Columbus is home to both Ohio’s state tionally well with business workers, Arena CEO Dimon McFerson, features the his- government and the sprawling campus of District residents, as well as sports and toric Union Station Arch; and outdoor The Ohio State University. However, as entertainment patrons. While develop- plazas at the East and ments like the Arena District are meant to West Arena plazas. enhance and serve the Columbus metro Overall, the festival area, Ellis adds that it will help attract atmosphere is solidified conventions to an already busy by an intelligent archi- Convention Center schedule and even tectural and space plan- draw a modest amount of tourism that ning design. The Arena didn’t exist before. District’s early industrial “Now, Columbus has become a super look, sprinkled with cut- Midwest weekend or two- or three-day ting edge design like the getaway, much as Nashville or Lexington ADTV screen and plenty might be,” Ellis says. of open glass for night- • Innovative entertainment venues, time lights serve as a including the eight-screen Arena Grand welcome beacon, inte- Theatre with 1,700 seats (opening August grates well with its sur- 2001), the PromoWest Pavilion (opening roundings. pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal report (February 22, 2001), Columbus is one of those cities that has found a comfortable, recession-resistant middle ground “between new and old economies.” Diversity is the key, with strong contributions from financial serv- ices, healthcare, retail, the food industry and wholesale trade. In fact, manufactur- ing accounts for only 11 percent of the city’s employment. Like Tennessee, home turf for delivery giants FedEx and UPS, Columbus has proven an excellent location, and is far enough south to capitalize on the eco- nomic potential of shipping and distribu- tion. Its once-mothballed Rickenbacker Air Force Base, 20 miles southeast of the city, has emerged as one of the nation’s leading express and distribution “megaplexes.” Renamed Rickenbacker International Airport, the 5,000-acre air- field is the world’s largest airport dedicat- ed solely to cargo. NATIONWIDE ARENA: NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN The new NHL franchise, the Columbus Blue Jackets, does represent a coming of age and claim, in Midwestern style, to major league status, as it has for cities like Nashville and Indianapolis, but it is only one component of the project’s potent entertainment mix. Opening this year, the Arena Grand Theatre, to be managed by the Drexel Theatre Group, with its multi-level design, balcony seating and Bistro Club level; and the PromoWest Pavilion, and all-weather, Designed to go “inside or outside,” at the PromoWest Pavilion to draw as all-season, many-sized performance home 24,000-square-foot PromoWest Pavilion, many as 250,000 people each year. are highly anticipated by Columbus’s developed by Nationwide Realty “The Pavilion is perfect to handle movie, concert and club-goers. Investors and Columbus-based events or performances needing larger “Certainly, it’s a highly competitive PromoWest Productions, will accommo- space than what a restaurant or club entertainment marketplace,” Ellis says, date from 500 people to 2,500 people would offer, but more intimate than the “And it’s been demonstrated in other indoors. The pavilion’s stage can also be Nationwide Arena. All forms of entertain- areas that people will by-pass or hop- rotated, turning the venue into an out- ment in the Arena District will be able to scotch other venues for something as side stage and amphitheater, holding up find their best stage and setting,” Ellis compelling and exciting as the Arena to 4,000 people. Ellis expects 200 events emphasizes.SCB District.”.