South Campus Gateway, which opened in August 2005, is a dynamic blend of entertainment, restaurants, retail, offices, apartments and parking within a series of buildings whose architectural quality exemplifies the best in “Main Street” urban design. Campus Partners developed Gateway to serve one of the nation’s largest collegiate markets and some of Columbus’s most diverse urban neighborhoods. The project’s success and scale will be an important catalyst for revitalization on High Street and in the neighborhoods of the University District. For more specific information on Gateway’s retail, housing and office components, visit www.southcampusgateway.com. The Gateway site of 7.5 acres stretches for three city blocks along High Street, the “Main Street” of Columbus, adjacent to the southeast corner of The Ohio State University campus at 11th Avenue. The development is a mixed-use project with about 225,000 square feet of entertainment, restaurant and retail space, 88,000 square feet of office space, 184 apartments and a 1,200-space parking garage. Anchoring more than two dozen retail tenants are a flagship Barnes & Noble university bookstore, a grocery specializing in natural and organic foods, an eight-screen art cinema and an array of unique restaurants. The total private and public investment in Gateway is more than $150 million. Campus Partners has employed CB Richard Ellis as the property manager. During planning and construction, Jones Lang LaSalle was the development management advisor. Turner Construction Company was construction management advisor. Elkus/Manfredi Architects of Boston was the project architect and Moody/Nolan Architects, Ltd., of Columbus was the associate architect. Gateway is on the edge of a distressed neighborhood with a high concentration of poverty and is in the federally designated Columbus Empowerment Zone. The project has brought an estimated 700 jobs to an area with high unemployment. Gateway is not a “mall,” but a distinct collection of one-of-a-kind local and start-up businesses side-by-side with familiar national stores in a pedestrian friendly environment. Gateway’s retail anchor is Barnes & Noble-The Ohio State University Bookstore, one of the largest bookstores in the Midwest. This flagship store occupies portions of the first two floors of the mixed-use building at High Street and East 11th Avenue. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers signed a lease in November 2001 to operate a new 50,000-square-foot full service bookstore as an anchor in the Gateway project. The new store combined the existing Ohio State University Bookstore and Long's Book Store. In its planning stage, the project was known as the University Gateway Center. As the project moved into its construction phase, Campus Partners consulted with stakeholders and conducted focus groups to develop a permanent name for the project. “South Campus Gateway” was chosen in 2003 because the name reflected the historic reference to the area as “South Campus” and the project’s purpose as a “gateway” to the university and the neighborhood. History of the development of South Campus Gateway Campus Partners sponsored a competition in early 1999 among three master developer teams for the right to build South Campus Gateway (then referred to as the University Gateway Center). On May 21, 1999, Campus Partners announced that The Druker Company, Ltd., of Boston, had been selected as the preferred master developer for the Gateway project. Druker's proposal had received the widest support among stakeholders in the University District. You can also review the proposals submitted by the other developer teams. Columbus City Council on Dec. 13, 1999, authorized the city administration to enter into an economic development agreement with the Gateway Area Revitalization Initiative, a non-profit affiliate of Campus Partners, for development of Gateway. The agreement outlines responsibilities for property acquisition, requirements for a relocation plan, funding of public improvements, creation of a tax increment financing district (using non-school revenues), required traffic measures, neighborhood employment initiatives and related matters. By early 2002, Campus Partners had completed the acquisition of all the properties required for the Gateway Center and had negotiated relocation agreements with all of the existing businesses in those properties. The six businesses that were still operating in the Gateway area closed by the end of January 2002 in preparation for demolition of the existing buildings. [Click here for news release on business relocations.] Demolition of the existing buildings to make way for Gateway began May 1, 2002, and was completed by mid-July 2002. [Click here for story and photographs from the demolition.] In March 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that Campus Partners would receive $35 million in tax credit allocations under the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program for construction of South Campus Gateway. Campus Partners received the largest such allocation for a single project in the country. [Click here for news release from March 14, 2003, on tax credit allocation.] The first-phase public improvements on the Gateway site began in May 2003 and by late fall 2003 were substantially complete. These public improvements included burial of overhead utility lines, moving and separation of storm and sanitary sewers, and roadway work. Second-phase public improvements, such as sidewalks and pedestrian lighting, will take place after the buildings are constructed. [Click here for news release of May 2, 2003, on public improvements.] In May 2003, Campus Partners also unveiled its merchandising plan for South Campus Gateway at the annual spring convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas. [Click here for news release of May 15, 2003, on merchandising plan.] The start of construction of Gateway was marked with a major public celebration on Oct. 18, 2003, on the site. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and Ohio State President Karen Holbrook were among the dignitaries who offered remarks. Construction of buildings on the Gateway site began in January 2004. [Click here for a news release announcing the awarding the first series of construction contracts.] The Gateway project has continued to evolve since The Druker Company was tentatively designated as the preferred master developer in 1999. The project remains on track, but the preferred development model that emerged is the use of a fee-developer who works with Campus Partners to manage the project. With the completion of the land acquisition, both Campus Partners and Druker agreed in July 2002 that it was the most appropriate time to make such a change. Among the factors that made the fee development services model a more appropriate mechanism than a land-lease to a developer or a joint venture were the increased utilization of the space in Gateway for university-related purposes (such as housing for students of the Moritz College of Law) and the ability of Campus Partners to access less expensive tax-exempt financing for the Gateway project. Unfortunately, The Druker Company, like many development companies, does not provide development services on a fee basis and, therefore, in July 2002 withdrew from its involvement with Gateway. [Click here for joint statement by Campus Partners and Druker.] As a result, Campus Partners in July 2002 invited a selected number of development firms with fee-developer experience to respond to a request for proposals. Campus Partners interviewed several firms and subsequently selected Jones Lang LaSalle as development management advisor for the project. [Click here for news release of Jan. 10, 2003, on Jones Lang LaSalle.] Many members of the development team assembled by Druker, such as Elkus/Manfredi Architects, have continued with the project. Updated February 25, 2004.