 The hallmark of Campus Partners’ work 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 and are of sufficient scale to change underlying conditions in the neighborhoods. 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 civic associations 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.
- Major improvements to municipal services, including refuse collection, street sweeping, code enforcement and street lighting.
- More effective coordination of public safety services, including the new Moody-Hall Neighborhood Policing Center.
- 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 new collaborations among the university, public schools and other agencies serving the University District, resulting in the Godman Guild-Ohio State University Extension Community Outreach Center, community computer center, and engagement by Ohio State students, faculty and staff through projects in service learning, health care, financial literacy, youth development, family living skills, job readiness, etc.
Campus Partners’ most visible initiative has been the revitalization of High Street – the “Main Street” of the University District. In 1997 and 1998, Campus Partners led a second community-based planning process to conduct a detailed urban design study of High Street. 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. Based on the High Street plan, Campus Partners has:
- 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 2002.
- Developed South Campus Gateway, a major mixed-use, urban redevelopment project, attracting more than $154 million in private and public investment. After five years of planning, property acquisition and construction, the project opened in the fall of 2005.
South Campus Gateway is a dynamic belnd of entertainment, restaurants, retail, offices, apartments and parking within a series of buildings whose architectural quality exemplifies the best in "Main Street" urban design. Locted on High Street adjacent to the university campus, Gateway is anchored by a flagship university bookstore, a seven-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.
In neighborhood revitalization, Campus Partners' most notable success has bene to preserve and improve low-income housing, while promoting economic diversity and neighborhood stability.
 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 Weinland Park.
The plan proposed major renovation of the properties, improved management and supportive services for the residents. 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 and will conclude in mid-2009. The housing portfolio was renamed Community Properties of Ohio (CPO). With enhanced property management and attention to public safety, CPO has brought greater stability to Weinland Park.
Campus Partners then worked with the City of Columbus and community stakeholders to prepare the Weinland Park Neighborhood Plan, adopted by City Council in 2006. The plan will guide further neighborhood improvements, including the recent efforts by Campus Partners and the city to clean up and redevelop a 20-acre “brownfield” industrial site in Weinland Park. Campus Partners identified a private firm, Wagenbrenner Devel-opment Company, which in 2008 acquired the site from the city and plans to invest more than $80 million to build some 500 units of market-rate housing. In early 2009, City Council appropriated funds to begin the design of $14 million in public improvements on the site, while Wagenbrenner began the environmental clean-up of the site.
In the student neighborhood around Ohio State, improvements in municipal services and the public infrastructure have been accompanied over the past decade by significant investment in the privately managed housing stock. In 2008, Campus Partners directed a student housing study, commissioned by the University Community Business Association, which found that students were living in this neighborhood in numbers not seen since the 1980s and that the housing occupancy rate was over 99 percent. In early 2009, Campus Partners negotiated the purchase of the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue to assist the university in achieving its plan to enhance on-campus student housing.
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