The developers of Easton Town Center and Polaris Fashion Place are among four groups vying to become the master developer of the $500 million Scioto Peninsula project near COSI.
The group overseeing the 21-acre project, nonprofit Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, said Monday it has narrowed the list of prospective development groups to four from the seven that expressed interest in the project.
The four are:
‒ Buckingham Companies of Indianapolis, which developed CityWay, a mixed-use project in downtown Indianapolis
‒ Atlanta-based Carter and partners Columbus-based Kelley Companies, The Robert Weiler Company and Casto. Kelley and Weiler worked on Polaris, while Casto is a longtime developer of retail and mixed-use projects. Carter’s projects include The Banks in Cincinnati.
‒ Crawford Hoying of Dublin and SunCal, headquartered in Irvine, Calif. Crawford Hoying is currently working on the Bridge Park mixed-use development in Dublin.
‒ Georgetown Company, headquartered in New York, and partners Daimler Group and Kaufman Development of Columbus. Georgetown developed Easton; Daimler’s office and mixed-use projects include Downtown’s 250 High, while Kaufman specializes in apartments
Each group is now being asked to submit a detailed proposal based on the Downtown development corporations’ vision of 3.1 million square feet of residential, office, hotel and retail/restaurant space, with apartments being the largest component.
Guy Worley, CEO of the corporation, said the group hopes to select a developer and sign a deal by September, with an eye toward starting work in spring 2018.
That would be a few months after the completion of the underground parking garage and Scioto Park in front of COSI, also being managed by the Downtown group.
Worley said the winning team will be chosen on a variety of factors, including their vision of the architecture and design guidelines for the project and their ability to finance and execute their plan.
The entire project, which would be done in phases, is expected to take 10 years to fully complete on land currently owned by the city of Columbus and Franklin County.