Campus Partners' accomplishments: 1995-2007

The hallmark of Campus Partners’ work over the past 10 years has been a market-based strategy which relies on community planning, a comprehensive approach to neighborhood renewal, partnerships among the major stakeholders, improvements in municipal services, and strategic projects that leverage private investment.

The Ohio State University created Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment in 1995 to spearhead the revitalization of the urban neighborhoods around its Columbus campus. Campus Partners was incorporated as a non-profit organization to work with the city, community agencies, neighborhood leaders and the university itself.

Campus Partners in 1995 and 1996 directed a comprehensive, community-based planning process, resulting in the University Neighborhoods Revitalization Plan: Concept Document. Columbus City Council and Ohio State’s Board of Trustees in 1997 adopted the plan as a “blue print” for action. Since the plan’s adoption, the most significant neighborhood accomplishments have been:

· Creation of a highly successful homeownership incentive program to encourage Ohio State faculty and staff to buy homes and live in the University District neighborhoods. More than 90 employees have purchased homes with support from this program.

· Substantial improvements to municipal services, including refuse collection, street sweeping and code enforcement.

· More effective coordination of public safety services.

· Construction by Ohio State’s College of Education and Human Ecology of the innovative Schoenbaum Family Center, the nation’s first university-operated early childhood laboratory in a neighborhood setting.

· Development of a partnership between the university and the public schools serving the University District to establish these schools as models of urban education, as well as engagement by Ohio State students, faculty and staff through projects in service learning, health care, family living skills, job readiness, etc.

Campus Partners’ most visible and energizing initiative has been the revitalization of High Street – the “Main Street” of the University District. In 1997 and 1998, Campus Partners conducted a detailed urban design study of High Street to refine recommendations for commercial revitalization. As a result, Campus Partners in 2000 published A Plan for High Street: Creating a 21st Century Main Street, which in May 2002 was adopted by Columbus City Council as a city planning document for High Street in the University District. Based on the High Street plan, Campus Partners has:

· Worked with property and business owners on planning and support for a special improvement district (SID) to provide a higher level of clean and safe services on High Street.

· Prepared urban development and design guidelines for High Street properties to ensure appropriate types of urban development and renovation. The guidelines, which are a companion to the urban zoning overlay for High Street, were refined by the city’s Planning Division and the University Area Commission and were adopted by City Council in May 2002.

· Constructed South Campus Gateway, a major mixed-use, urban redevelopment project, attracting more than $150 million in private and public investment. After several years of planning and property acquisition, building construction began in January 2004 and the project opened in the fall of 2005.

The Gateway project is on High Street adjacent to the university campus and is in the city’s federally designated Empowerment Zone. The project is a dynamic blend of entertainment and shopping venues anchored by a flagship university bookstore, a natural foods grocery, an eight-screen arts cinema and a unique array of restaurants. The buildings’ upper floors include offices and 184 apartments. A 1,200-space garage provides low-cost, accessible parking. Gateway is a catalyst for High Street to reach its potential as a great collegiate market.

Barnes & Noble-The Ohio State University Bookstore, the nation’s second largest collegiate bookstore, occupies most of the first and second floor of this building on High Street at East 11^th Avenue. The bookstore is Gateway’s retail anchor. The third, fourth and fifth floors are office space.

One of Campus Partners’ greatest challenges has been to improve low-income housing. The Weinland Park neighborhood of the University District has the city’s highest concentration of project-based, Section 8 subsidized housing.

With guidance from a community advisory panel, Campus Partners in 2001 proposed an innovative plan to acquire 1,335 units of Section 8 housing that had earned a reputation of “housing of last resort” and were in need of extensive rehabilitation. These units constituted the largest portfolio of scattered-site Section 8 housing in the nation. About 550 of these units are in the Weinland Park neighborhood.

The plan proposed major renovation of the properties, improved management and supportive services for the residents. The goal was to preserve a significant supply of low-income housing, while encouraging stability and greater economic diversity in these neighborhoods.

Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, one of the state’s largest non-profit developers of affordable housing, partnered with Campus Partners to implement the plan. OCCH acquired the properties in 2003, installed new leadership and direction in the property management company, and instituted supportive services for the residents. Housing rehab began in 2004. The housing portfolio has been renamed Community Properties of Ohio.

Section 8 housing units along North Fourth Street are owned by Community Properties of Ohio. This photograph shows the condition in October 2006 after extensive renovation.

Campus Partners worked with the City of Columbus and community stakeholders to prepare the Weinland Park Neighborhood Plan, adopted by City Council in mid-2006. The plan will guide neighborhood improvements, including the current efforts by Campus Partners, the City of Columbus and a private developer to clean up and redevelop a 21-acre “brownfield” site into market-rate housing and a community park.

Information updated December 17, 2007.

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