September 1, 2025 • 46 mins
Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer for Downtown Columbus, Inc., Greg Davies served as Vice President of Planning and Development for The Columbus Partnership. In this role, he was the point person for the business community on several critical issues, including affordable housing, while serving as the liaison with the City of Columbus for key projects like The Peninsula and Ohio State University’s Innovation District.Greg Davies has more than 20 years of experience working for the City of Columbus, where he served as Chief of Staff for Mayor Andrew Ginther and held multiple roles for Mayor Michael Coleman, including Director of the Public Utilities Department, Deputy Director of the Development Department and Deputy Chief of Staff. In his time at the City, Greg demonstrated strength in project management and organizational leadership, resulting in operating savings and direct programming to Columbus residents and customers.
His experience has resulted in an extensive network of relationships with senior executives, elected officials, community leaders, and the non-profit and academic communities throughout the Columbus region.As Chief of Staff, Greg built Mayor Ginther’s first cabinet and staff after he was elected in 2015. Greg was instrumental in the City’s successful bid to be America’s Smart City and, in tandem with the Columbus Partnership, helped create Smart Columbus. Greg also served as point person for numerous projects, including the ongoing redevelopment of The Peninsula, the Save the Crew effort and the development of the new downtown Hilton expansion. As Director of Public Utilities, Greg was responsible for providing water and sewer services to 1.1 million people in Central Ohio. The Department has over 1,200 employees and an annual budget in excess of $600 million. In his role at the Development Department, Greg oversaw the City’s housing program and created Home Again, a $25-million program designed to rehabilitate vacant and abandoned properties across the City. The program was the initial investment for the ongoing redevelopment of Franklinton.Greg lives in Upper Arlington with his wife Lis and has two children, Steph and Anna; and three stepchildren, Ellie, Maddie, and Lottie.
His experience has resulted in an extensive network of relationships with senior executives, elected officials, community leaders, and the non-profit and academic communities throughout the Columbus region.As Chief of Staff, Greg built Mayor Ginther’s first cabinet and staff after he was elected in 2015. Greg was instrumental in the City’s successful bid to be America’s Smart City and, in tandem with the Columbus Partnership, helped create Smart Columbus. Greg also served as point person for numerous projects, including the ongoing redevelopment of The Peninsula, the Save the Crew effort and the development of the new downtown Hilton expansion. As Director of Public Utilities, Greg was responsible for providing water and sewer services to 1.1 million people in Central Ohio. The Department has over 1,200 employees and an annual budget in excess of $600 million. In his role at the Development Department, Greg oversaw the City’s housing program and created Home Again, a $25-million program designed to rehabilitate vacant and abandoned properties across the City. The program was the initial investment for the ongoing redevelopment of Franklinton.Greg lives in Upper Arlington with his wife Lis and has two children, Steph and Anna; and three stepchildren, Ellie, Maddie, and Lottie.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Columbus in central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
(00:20):
Welcome back to another episode of CEOs You Should Know
and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. I am Boxer. This week's guest
has a resume that quite frankly makes me feel like
I haven't done anything with my life. But I'm excited
to have him here. He is the CEO of Downtown
Columbus NAK want to welcome Greg Davies to the show. Greg, welcome,
(00:42):
thanks for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So I'm looking at your resume and what haven't you
done with the City of Columbus. I just have to ask.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, I was very blessed. I was there for twenty
years and had the good fortune of starting right before
former Mayor Coleman was elected, maybe two months he was
actually running for office in one and as you know,
he served four terms. So it was very good for
job security. Yeah, I was able to started in Public
Utilities as his spokesperson there and worked various roles. Was
(01:16):
a in development department, deputy chief of staff, became director
of Public Utilities, which is all the water sewer in
a small electricity operation for the city, and then I
became Mayor Ginther's first chief of staff and so total
twenty years. Wow, lots lots lots great, great time. I've
really loved all those jobs obviously, you know, both mayors
(01:39):
have been extraordinarily good to me, and it's very rare
that you see two mayors I have the longevity that
they've had. Yeah, where someone could have a career that
was overlapped different administrations. So I was very blessed.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Quick let me ask you. There's so much to get
into with you and your journey. But four terms as
a mayor, by the way, that's is that unheard of?
A I mean, that seems rare.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's very rare anymore, just because term limits are a
lot of places. Yeah, Columbus doesn't have them. And so yeah,
Mary Coleman was very popular ran I think the fourth
one he you know, he debated a little a little,
but did a great job. And then when he announced
kind of surprised us. I thought he was going to
run for a fifth term, and he announced that he
wasn't running. Amerganther, who was then the city council president,
(02:25):
jumped in and he called me and said, hey, I'm
going to be running and going to need somebody that
knows the city. And at that point I had had
sixteen years in various roles, and so he had asked
me to be his first chief of staff, and so
we were responsible for kind of assembling his first cabinet. Candidly,
it was, you know, we didn't know each other as
well as we came to know each other. And my
(02:47):
big fear was, you're following a mayor who's kind of
a legend in Columbus, four terms, very popular. What are
we going to do to differentiate ourselves? And I think
Marriganther did a great job. And although he can be
quiet at times, he's very very hard working, very deliberate
and really put his foot, you know, his thumbprint on
(03:08):
on what he was doing. So it was a great
four years, probably the best job I'll ever haven't. I
don't miss it because it was very difficult and stressful,
but in terms of impactful and feeling like you're really contributing.
And I was born and raised in Columbus. Yeah, to
be able to to do some of the things and
see some of the things come out of the ground
that we worked on was very surreal.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Greg. I want to hear more about your life and
your journey in just a sect. But to your point
of stress, I was just going to jump in and say,
chief of Staff has always struck me as it just
sounds exhausting.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's it was, And we always joked, you know,
the good news the mayor always got to deliver and
the bad news I always got to deliver. So, you know,
you although you're doing good things and your team's doing
great things and there's so much good yeah, you know,
city of almost a million people, there's there's bound to
be a lot of issues and concerns. And the environment
(04:05):
that we've come to now, you know, right or wrong, politically,
it's just a lot more hostile. And so it was
a lot of stress and a lot of trying to
do the right thing. But Columbus, and this goes back
to Mayor Coleman, has always been very blessed. The two
mayors worked really well with the business community. In some
cases that's not the case, and city council and the
mayor got along. And so I think there's there's a
(04:27):
lot of folks who are very interested in the success
of Columbus and they all kind of pull together, which
made that job easier. I know there's other cities where
you have different parties that are represented on council or
the mayor, the business community do unlike the mayor, it
could be very very stressful. Yeah, in terms of that,
it was. It was a blessing.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You know, we look back at the four you know,
the four terms that Mayor Coleman had greg and it
is clear now we can see that Mayor Coleman really
did understand economics. He really understood what it takes to
revive a downtown specifically.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
There's no question and if you go back to nineteen
ninety nine when he was elected, he often jokes, you know,
when he was mayor and started he's the I mean,
he's the biggest reason downtown is where it is today.
He put a stake in the ground and said, I'm
going to invest in downtown. We're going to get people
living there again. You know, back in the nineteen fifties,
(05:25):
there was probably over thirty thousand residents downtown when he
took officers. Three thousand.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, and so you know that was a big challenge.
And all the roads and you know, everything was designed
to get people in and out for work, but you weren't.
You probably remember driving downtown and you know Mary Coleman
used to joke that five o'clock he could roll a
bullying ball down Bade the street not not hit anybody
and exactly, and you know, he just didn't want that.
(05:52):
So he he created a blanket tax abatement that if
you built housing apartments, condos, you know, you wouldn't have
to pay property taxes. And that really started to get
people thinking about it. But you know, you're not going
to live somewhere where you're either not working or you
have something to do after work, or you can eat,
or you can you know, recreate and do things. And
so you know, he just really had that vision and
(06:12):
plugged along and he created what was then Columbus Downtown
Development Corporation, which is now Downtown Columbus, Inc. Okay, he
created that mid two thousands to really tackle the big
issues that he felt were important and thought it would
be better to get that out of the city and
have someone just focus fully down full time down on downtown.
(06:33):
And if you recall, you know, kids come and daycares
will drop off kids with their with their chaperones and
they just have a ball. And we put a couple
of food trucks in this year so that you know,
someone could get lunch in a relatively affordable manner, you know,
if they're just hanging out for the way. And then
if you're familiar with Milestone two twenty nine, which was
(06:55):
the restaurant that absolutely with the park that unfortunately closed
in December, but are our organization has been given that
land by the city and the structure and we are
really close. If it was another few weeks, I could
probably tell you. But we're hoping to sign a new
restaurant tour that people will good, good, be excited about,
and so we'll have a we have a full service
restaurant back down there again. But in the meantime we
(07:18):
have the food trucks. We also have a Dora. Last
year we started that where you could publicly drink alcohol
as long as you're in a certain area and you're
using cups, that are provided. So at the old Milestone site,
we have a bar that you can go down and
walk the park, watch your kids play in the fountain,
have a drink, relax, and so just trying to get
people to use the water. We have that beautiful park
(07:38):
that was absolutely just haven't we haven't programmed it well enough.
And so that's one of the big things we're working
on this year is we we have these days where
either free or very discounted people can get on and
get in a kayak. And you'd be amazed how many
people have never done that, and that will wait for
hours just to go experience that opportunity. And when you
see that, you see the possibility. And you've been to
(08:00):
other cities where they make the most of their water.
And so we're currently looking at the confluence where the
boat house is, yeah, near kind of cruise stadium. And
as you come down, what else could we develop along
the river that would bring people down to either use
the trails or to go to a bar, to a restaurant,
you know whatever that might be.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Greig, by the way, I've always wondered this too, when
when you guys have a vision of developing a certain
property and you know, maybe it's somewhere near the boat house.
For example, do you do you pitch this to developers?
Do you open it up? I guess to everyone for
a bid? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah? We do. We're very similar to the city.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know, because we received some a lot of our
funding from the city, we tried to mimic. We're not
required to, but we tried to do that. And so,
for instance, the peninsula where coas I is. Yeah, we
built a Junta hotel. There's some apartments so beautiful there. Yeah,
it's great. There's an office building that's it's getting leased up.
That rev one moved from campus to their very about
(09:00):
me and downtown we're in talks with a major grocer
coming right on Broad Street. Wow. So all that land
was owned by the city and it sat there for
you know, you can remember people parked in that vacant lot. Yeah,
and go to Coatsaide or to go wherever. But it
was just there was nothing there. And so you know,
maryrick Holeman again tasked my organization back in the in
(09:23):
the early two thousands, Hey, what what could we do
with that? And so we designed what we thought would
the standards would be and then we shopped it out,
put a public RFP out request for proposal, got a
bunch of folks, interviewed them, and the winning group was
Dameler built the office building. Flirting Collins out of Indianapolis
have done all the housing and there they're leasing up
(09:45):
like crazy. And then Rockbridge, who's also doing the North
Market Tower, did the Junto, which is just a fantastic
boutique hotel. If you haven't been down there, yeah, great
bar that has a view of downtown the city of
the River. So we're very pleased, and we're trying to
work on phase two, the grocery, more apartments, trying to
get some retail, and trying to get some we're actually
(10:06):
putting temporary pickaball courts in there, oh wow, some other
fun stuff for the residents, and just so it doesn't sit.
You know, the unfortunate part about development is it takes
a long time. And when you built the first hotel
and the apartments and the office building, you know more
is coming, but you don't want those to hurt, so
you're trying to activate some stuff to make it cool.
(10:28):
And that's really our job is just to help get
people excited about being down here.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, Greg Davis is with us. He is the CEO
of Downtown Columbus, Inc. And this week's guest on CEOs
you should know and iHeart Media Columbus podcasts. You know, Greg,
it didn't hit me till just moments ago when you
were rattling off all the different projects that I'm sitting
across from. The guy who you along with with your
(10:55):
staff and former staff, you now get, well all of
us do, but you being you know, kind of a
mastermind along with your team, you get to enjoy the
fruits of your labor. Now, Like how cool is that
to see all of this stuff come to fruition.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, it's really cool and a lot of this stuff.
And so you know the president, Amy Taylor, who's who's
my partner, and you know we do everything in lockstep.
She's been there since the very beginning with when Mara
Colene was there. So I worked with her at the city,
you know as the utilities director and cheap of staff.
We interacted a lot and I can remember to your
point working on the Peninsula and other projects as the
(11:33):
director or's the cheapest staff and now as the CEO
of Downtown clumb Sink Amy and I are going to
groundbreakings where like we weren't even in these roles, you know,
but here we are six years later, really, you know,
seeing something cool. We started in twenty one and at
the time, the fountain was not working. The city was
right owned it and was operating it, and it just
(11:55):
you know, water's very corrosive. So after fifteen years, it's
just the life cycle and the technology kind of kind
of faded. And it was during COVID, yeah, and people
were just losing their minds, and I said, you know,
we really we should just do something with this fount,
just to get one thing that somebody could say, hey,
downtown Columbus is cool. We gotta we got to go
(12:15):
back out, We got to get you know, we got
to go do something. And and it's been great, and
it was that that project kind of built on it
and then we got a bunch of other projects going.
And because of my relationships with with Merriganther and his
team and city council and a lot of the board
that that that I have, you know, we've been successful
(12:36):
and when we come up with good ideas, we have
the you know, people know that we're sincere and that
we're going to do a good job, and so I
think we get a lot of grace from the administration
and the community, but we got to keep delivering. And
so yeah, you know that once you don't deliver the
one thing that you promised, then it gets harder the
next time. But we've been we've been on a good role.
So I'm very excited.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Greg, if we could, let's let's go back a sec
to redevelop a city Center. Look, I've been to that
park now Columbus Commons all different seasons and it's so special.
It's just beautiful. Well, one of my favorite times of
the year though, believe it or not, is actually Christmas time.
(13:16):
There's just something so special about it, the backdrop of downtown.
Maybe it's the Christmas lights. I don't know. But what
was it popular at first that idea, because I just
keep thinking about economy, the chance to you know, drive revenue.
What was the reaction at first to that pitch.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It wasn't positive, it was it was more negative. And
particularly I don't know if you recall, but you know
we host picnic with the pops at the Commons. Yeah,
and that's the Columbus Symphony and that used to be
held at Chemical Abstracts. And when we redid the park,
Mark Coleman and others said to the symphony, hey, you're
gonna come downtown. We're gonna and a lot of people
(13:57):
were not happy with that. They didn't want to come
downtown to leave Chemical Abstracts. So there was plenty of
parking and it was easy, and it was suburban, and
the mayor knew, no, I've invested in this park and
this is a real jewel, and when people see what
I see, they're going to come around. And he was right.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
He was right.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And now when you go we were just there a
couple of weeks ago for picnic with the pops, and
you look out and it's you're downtown. You're looking at
all these beautiful buildings around you. People are all downtown
enjoying it. It's just such a beautiful setting. And had,
you know, had had the mayor and the others that
worked on that taken a poll and done a litmus
(14:37):
test and not done what they knew was right, we
wouldn't have that. We'd probably have some building that is
obsolete by now. But now we have a real, you know,
community jewel, and you probably know and I uh, next Sunday,
not this Sunday, but next Sunday. We have free concerts
every year. So one of the things both mayors have
always done is that Downtown should be everybody's neighborhood. You know,
(14:58):
when it first started, there was Mira and O, there
were some of the real high end compos and people
felt like, oh, y, that's for wealthier people. But that's
what the fountains for, that's what the concerts are for.
We have over two hundred and fifty three events at
Columbus Commons every year. Wow, and that's our mission. But
we're having Nelly is this year's free concert, which is
a pretty big get. Yeah, Nelly was here I don't know,
(15:22):
maybe five ten years ago with the symphony and with stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
The first time. Again to your question about did people
do it, Nelly was the first, I would say, non
symphony type performer to play with the symphony, and everybody
was like, what are you doing. You're going to ruin it?
This isn't And it was a great mix and it
has driven their attendance ever since. And they go out
of the box and get different acts now and they
(15:48):
all appeal to different people and so we're just super
excited to be hosting them.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I was gonna say, Greg, I feel like Nelly set
the tone for the Symphony Touse because I know me personally,
I'm like, Okay, what are they getting next year? I
can't wait for the you know, the announcement to come out.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, we had NAS last year, which is really cool.
I mean just just super fun. So that's wild.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah. So a couple of things to steal a quote
from the movie Feel the Dreams Mayor Coleman at the
time must have must have felt like, if you build it,
they will come very much. So yeah, and with the
because let's be honest, and you know this, people, especially
in the burbs where the majority of people are living,
(16:34):
had this. There was this negative vibe. I don't want
to go downtown or there's nothing there. But I can't
tell you the last time I've heard someone say that anymore.
It's been years.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, there's you know, security and safety a big component
of what we do because obviously you're not gonna have
big events if people don't feel safe and coming downtown.
And I think we've done, you know, knock on Wood
a good job with that. But it's expensive and it's
a lot of work, but you're right. I think that
was a big driving force was the mayor thought if
I build it, we'll do it. And then building on
(17:06):
that in twenty one we did a strategic plan and
the whole point of the first strategic plan was let's
build these assets. Well, now we have the assets, and
now how do we get people to enjoy them? How
do we get people to live downtown? How do we
get people to do all those things? And like I said,
we had three thousand people in early two thousands. You know,
we're up to eighteen thousand. Our goal is to have
forty thousand by twenty forty, you know, one hundred and
(17:27):
twenty thousand office workers, ten million visitors. That's our goal.
It's ambitious, but we think it's doable. And I think
if you go downtown. Part of the problem with downtown
is it's so big and spread out, Like when you
go to most downtowns that you or I would visit,
like a Chicago or oh yeah, whatever. It's very dense.
You could walk the whole downtown and find something to
(17:49):
keep your interest and feel safe because it's very pedestrian friendly,
it's very you know, very easy to get around. You
got public transportation, and we just never had that. But
now cod has passed link Us, so we're going to have,
you know, a better transit system. We're building more units downtown,
we're providing retail downtown for people to do stuff. And
like I said, we have all these events where now
(18:11):
people can come downtown if they live there, they can
they can do all that. If we had this big,
large grocery, that's going to help. So we're trying to
take away all the arguments that people would say, well
I would live downtown, but right, it's right right, And
now you know, we're trying to move away from that.
And we have found a lot of people who's maybe
kids who've you know, empty nesters, whose kids have gone
(18:31):
off and they live in the suburbs and they say,
I want to downsize, I want to go downtown and
they can walk to everything. You know, you've got the
Arena District was what opened in two thousand and yas
the Blue Jackets started playing, and just that's been a
twenty year process. It just takes a while, but I
do think Columbus continues to grow. It's the only city
in Ohio that continues to grow. You've got the university,
(18:53):
you got other universities, You've got a great pipeline of talent,
and they want somewhere cool to live.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
What greg it or it's wise too. It's set up
so well. You have the Ohio State Community to the
north and downtown of the Arena district. It's just it's
almost like it just it's like a puzzle. It fits
so perfectly. You have Nationwide Arena right across the street.
Are a couple of blocks down you have Huntington Park,
and then just a little bit further down from there,
(19:19):
all walking distance is lower dot Com Field for soccer.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, the Arena District's great and Nationwide did an excellent
job with that. In one of the other the big
projects I'm really excited about, I don't know if you've
heard about, but we're building a two mile capital line
and it's similar to if you've been to Indianapolis, they
have a cultural trail and the belt line in Atlanta
and New York has a high line and it's basically
(19:46):
a very deliberate two mile path. We'll go down Gay,
we'll go into the peninsula, we'll come back up and
just make kind of a rectangle around downtown. But it
connects all the things that you and I have been
talking about, all of our assets like Cosai, the River,
Gay Street, if you've been there Gay and High, where
the Janet Equlman piece hangs over there and High. And
then you have the new restaurants, you have Shouette, you
(20:09):
have Spec, you have Hanks, you have all this really
cool stuff there and Jeff Edwards has developed all that.
He's a board member of ours, and so we're trying
to highlight that as phase one. It's one hundred million
dollar project. Wow, but it will bring people down in.
What we're hoping is it allows people to walk and
to bike in a way that they can see things
(20:30):
that feel comfortable and not feel like downtown is so big.
And I really think that's going to be a game
changer for us.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Greg. When's the last time you heard I remember when
I moved here in nineteen ninety nine, I heard it
all the time, and then for the next I don't know,
five years or so. But I also can't tell you
the last time I heard someone say Cowtown.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It's been a long time, and I mean a true story.
Mary Coleman, if you said that it was not good
like you if you said that in a meeting or
somebody visiting said that he took great effence and mehriganther.
You know, he he just was the president of US
Conference Mayors for for all the mayors in the in
(21:12):
the country, and you know, we would travel and he
would always tell people. They'd say, where are you guys from,
say Columbus, and they wait for you to say what Columbus.
And He's like, we're the fourteenth largest city, you know.
Do you say Chicago, Illinois? Do you say you know?
And people always say, well, there's a Columbus Georgia. Well,
Columbus Ohio and Columbus Georgia are two very different things.
(21:33):
And I think we've earned the right to be Columbus
and and that's his point. And you're right. We used
to be a cow town, a college town, and I
think the university has always been a great partner. But
I think I think they used to overshadow the city.
I think if people thought absolutely Columbus, the thought about
high state football, and they thought of the high state,
and now I think they think of both. I think
(21:54):
some people are integrated.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think there's some people who
are not from here. Obviously that thought, oh that's that's
the name of the town is Ohio State and truly
not the case. And you know, after what two decades
plus under our belt, even more with the crew with
the Blue Jackets, they're so established now, I feel like, Okay,
(22:18):
well they they've they've gone through some of the hardships
and now they're here. They exist and this is more
than just Ohio State Buckeye Country for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And I think the short North was a big part
of that. You know, the North Market German village. We
have so many great neighborhoods and we have so much
to do, and the sports certainly helped. We've got a
great theater scene. One of the other things we've been
working on with the symphony is the potential of building
a new symphony. I'm just gonna ask you about that peninsula.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
How far I don't know how much you can speak
or not speak of it, but how far along are
we on this? Is that? Is that going to be
like right next to Kosai or it would be just
south of Kasti.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Okay, Yeah, And they just transitioned to they got a
new executive director, so they put it on pause a
little bit, but they the deal that they have with
the City of Columbus is the city will give them
the land if they raise a certain amount of money, right,
and they've indicated they can do that. So we're just
waiting to see, you know, how their private fundraising goes,
and very optimistic and hopeful that they can pull it off.
(23:20):
And then we'll have another beautiful uh to go with
the National Veterans Museum, which which downtown Columbus in developed
in Kosai. So you have that public thing, but you
could also have three areas where if you came to town,
maybe you'd want to go go to all three, right,
and they're right there, And if we can compliment it
with all the other stuff that we're putting at the peninsula,
(23:41):
all of a sudden, you've got downtown's next neighborhood. Oh
and then but there's so much of it that that
you know, we focus there, And then you think about
where Columbus State is and you know they're investing a
bunch of money in Grant Hospital, and you think, gosh,
that seems so far away. But it's downtown. Yeah, it's
it's pretty far from the peninsula, but it's all downtown
and so being able to one day, probably long after
(24:05):
I'm gone, to walk from Columbus State to the peninsula
and feel like you're in you know, a big city
would be It would be a great goal, and I
think we'll get there at some point.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Greg. One of the things you talked about you hit earlier.
I want to bring up because I think you made
the announcement back in April, is for people to come downtown.
They obviously they want to feel safe, they want to
feel secure. You've got the CPD headquarters downtown. That's one thing.
But one of the things you started a partnership right
to provide a new safety initiative. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, so we did merriganter in the Columbus Partnership, which
is the group of all the largest company CEOs who
get together to do things for a community and obviously
advocate for downtown. One of the things that came out
of COVID was there was a lot more property crimes
and things that at the time we were trying to
get people to come back to work, and that was
(24:58):
always an excuse, Well, I don't feel safe to come
back to work. Yeah, I personally think they just didn't
want to come back to the office, they want to
work at home. Who doesn't ex But we had to
address it to help the larger companies in the state
convince people to come back. And so what we did
is we looked at best practices. We had a team
go up to Detroit. In Detroit, I'm sure most people
(25:18):
you know have preconceived notions of Detroit, but Detroit has
actually come a long way in the last ten fifteen years.
And a big part of that is Dan Gilbert, who
owns the Cavaliers and is a big Detroit guy. He
bought a lot of property and he created this this
safety program where all the property that he owned the
installed cameras and then he worked with all the other
(25:39):
large employers that were still in downtown Detroit and they
put it through one you know, one feed where you
could have people monitoring all this and you could talk
in real time if you're at Huntington and I'm over
at you know, the city center area. You know, Columbus
commons that if you have a crime, I can feed
you my camera and we're all doing it in real
(26:01):
time and share in data. So yeah, as always, well
we have our data, you have your data, we're not
gonna the two shall never meet. But now we have
Columbus Police, you know, every large employer we have, the
state give us money for one hundred cameras new cameras.
We had one hundred cameras existing. So we're going to
continue to build that network. In the Lazarus building, that's
where our office is, the old Lazarus Department store that
(26:23):
I love that building initiatives to redo all that and
in there we have a full time safety command center
and it's been great and it gives people peace of
mind and and you know, you're not going to obviously
stop everything, but it's certainly I think helps and gives
us a better pulse on what's going on downtown and
where we can put resources, where police can use resources,
(26:45):
if we hire off duty police, Well we've had issues
at two in the morning over here, you know, and
we can document that. It's just more data driven and
been great, great partnership with the city and the private
private sector.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Has greg Has it Has it gotten better crime wise
downtown since I mean, I know that initiative is obviously
brand new, but since COVID, since the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, and I would argue it was never that bad.
I think it was the perception. I think, Okay, I
would argue, you know, when COVID hit, there weren't a
lot of the workers downtown that were there, a lot
of the retail stuff that wasn't going as well. So
when if you came downtown, you walk downtown, you might
see more of unhouse population, you might see more whatever,
and you know, they're always there. People the same people
(27:29):
are always downtown. It's just people were you know, just
not used to seeing it so empty. And I think
there was this belief that, well, it doesn't feel as safe,
and it wasn't the case. And we kept telling people,
if you want to make it safe, bring your employees
back to work, right and if you want to save downtown,
bring your employees back to work because people need to
buy coffee, sandwiches, you know, all that stuff to keep
(27:51):
downtown thriving. And now you know, Huntington, nationwide, the state
of Ohio, they all brought their employees back and we're
seeing a huge difference. And I think a lot of
that perception has died down. And we've had two wildly
successful summers with you know, we have the Arts Festival,
Red White and Boom, not that we hold them, but
downtown where we have large numbers of people downtown and
(28:14):
really I'm sure some incidents, but nothing. You know, in
the middle of the day, people coming from the suburbs.
It's more two thirty three in the morning, and groups
of people are coming together to fight or are doing whatever.
But you know, not the general public. I'm not saying
that's okay, but I think the right right And if
you brought your kids down for a concert, you're gonna be,
(28:35):
You're gonna be.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
You know, Greg to your point, and I'm about to
mention one thing that I get. It's not downtown, but
the huge events that Columbus does host Red White and Boom,
for example, almost a half a million people, and you
think about the security that goes behind making sure everyone's safe.
How about a Saturday afternoon Ohio State football game. Yeah,
(28:59):
you know, hundreds of thousands of more people are there
and and you know, knock on this counter. We I'd
like to think we do a pretty good job keep
people safe.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, I think. I think definitely we had a surgeon
property crimes and cars getting broken into, and with all
the Kia stuff and people that were you know, doing that,
and so our garages we maintained a couple of garages.
We really had to look at what do we what
do we do to stop this? This is this is
getting out of hand, and you know, people aren't gonna
come downtown if they think their car is gonna get
pre Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
By the way, I'm I'm probably gonna sound like a
tech nerd for a sec. But with this technology that
we have, with with newer cameras, are we able to
catch culprits, the bad guys more than than ever? I mean,
how how much better are these cameras nowadays?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I think it's more like, like I said, if something
happened and you have you break into my car and
I have your face on camera, and you went west,
we could call somebody in real time west and say
that's graat this guy coming and yeah, and somebody could
maybe catch him or at least build a case afterwards
that okay, we have a picture of him, and you know,
(30:07):
we'll figure this out. So I think just all that
information helps. I think it's a deterrent. I think, yeah,
I agree, and large don't like to go places where
they feel like there's an enhanced security. They want to
have somewhere where it's not. And so that's another thing
we look at is we're designing new things downtown and
building new things, is making sure that we're not building
any alleys or corners that aren't you know, that aren't
(30:29):
in sight of police or cameras or us and just
make sure that everybody when you're walking you just feel safe.
And yeah, I've always felt in big cities, despite you know,
they have bigger numbers of crime, because you know, the
multiples of people are off the charts.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I always feel safe when there's more people. You know,
it's at night when there's no one walking around that yeah,
you might be a little squirrely, you know, looking behind you,
but during the day you probably don't.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Hey, Greg, what's the post COVID? Now we know that
the struggle is real for occupancy in office buildings. Where
are we at here in twenty twenty five? How are
things downtown?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Office continues to be a struggle. It's certainly something that
we are focused on as part of our strategic plan
and is part of ongoing discussions we have with the city.
There's a lot of buildings that are either not occupied
or you know, not too many people in them. And
(31:28):
these are buildings around the State House. These are buildings, yeah,
are very important to the core of downtown. And so
the question is can you convert them to residential? Can
we fix them up enough to get people back. But
the whole office market is still settling out as to
what is an office anymore, what it's looks like with
remote work and COVID and you know, people have found
(31:49):
that there are other ways to do work, which leads
us back to the peninsula, which is building an area.
You know, when we built that office building, to have
places to eat, to have you know, activities after work,
to have your apartment so you can just walk out
and go to work. That's real appealing to young people now.
And so building an environment where you can do everything
in one area is probably going to help with the office.
(32:12):
The days of building an office you know, like a
two seventy and pick your spot where it's just all offices, yeah,
and there's no restaurants or anything in there, and it's
just you know, I think those days are over.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Those days are over.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
I think people Wow, I think people really want to
feel good at work. You know, they don't want to
feel like they're in a Dilbert cartoon. They want to
feel like they're they're part of something cool and special,
and and uh, you know, I think that's what you'll
see moving forward. Like if you look at Bridge Park,
Oh yeah, I've done a nice job with that Easton
you know where those are. Those are great models, But
(32:48):
there's only one downtown. You know, you can build an
urban area in the suburbs, but it's not downtown. It's
not as authentic. And so I think you you know,
you'll always have people who want the real thing.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, I know, a handful of years ago, and maybe
this was pre COVID, I can't remember, there were there
were issues with trying to find parking good good parking downtown.
Is that an issue anymore of you solved that problem?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
No, that's that And that's honestly, one of the biggest
things that stops redeveloping the office buildings is parking. If
you convert it to residential, most people, myself included, probably
you would want to park where they live. And so
you don't want to park at a parking garage at
ten o'clock at night after you went to the grocery
(33:34):
two blocks away and walked to your apartment, and so
figuring out how to build that, because when you're in
an urban environment, most likely you're building structured parking, which
is a parking garage. That's expensive. You know, we built
a couple at the Peninsula and the City. You know,
you're talking twenty million dollars of garage and that's wow,
a lot of money. But parking is a necessity. And
(33:55):
so that's why what CODA did with link Us was
so important, is because now you can get you know,
predictable rapid transit in and out of downtown. I think
more people would take advantage of that and be less
dependent on parking. Can you go to most big cities,
if you go to hotel, you probably valet your car
and you're walking. You're not getting in your car and
(34:16):
going everywhere in New York City, You're right, right, you're
just walking, right, Yeah. So I think if we could
figure that out with people getting downtown on the bus
and bus, rapid transit, those types of things, you know,
that'll ease some of that parking requirement.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Greg, I'm pretty sure we probably touched some of them already.
But looking forward, looking to the future, the future of
Columbus downtown. What are some of your struggles, but also
tell us about the and again you touched on some
of them, but the exciting things down the road. What's
the future look like.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I think the future is great. I think Columbus and
I felt this way before COVID we were really at
a tipping point downtown. Everything that Mariquona Americanther did was
was bearing fruit. And then it just you know, it
just came to like everywhere, just an absolute hope. And
then we built back up and we're going and things
are good, and I think the city's doing great. I
(35:10):
think the biggest barriers are going to be funding because
it's very expensive. Like we're talking about parking, we're talking
about redoing buildings, we're talking about developing neighborhoods. You know,
that costs money. In the city, the county, the state
have all been great about doing it. We love to
get some help from the federal government. You know. One
of the things that we'd like to do is to
(35:32):
see and affordable housing has been a buzzword for everybody.
Right That used to be i'd say a social issue,
and now it's it's more of an economic issue, where
absolutely and you have Intel, and you have Andrew, and
you have all these great announcements that the central high
areas getting and you don't have anywhere where people can live, right,
They're going to stop coming, and so we really need
to figure that out. And in order to get all
(35:54):
these housing units, we're going to have to spend some money.
And so one of the things that we've talked to
the state and the federal government about is can we
get tax credits for some of these old like the
old Chase building downtown or you know, oh yeah, buildings
where you just they're gonna sit and they're gonna be
a drain on the community. So let's put some money
in it, repurpose it, get people living downtown, and you know,
(36:16):
hopefully that raises all boats.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
But yeah, Greag, didn't I read? Correct me if I'm wrong.
I feel like I read not too long ago that
that was an idea thrown around for the Chase building,
is to repurpose it.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Possibly for ye buildings have had Okay, people look at it,
and historically, you know, with hotels and with those office
buildings downtown. I think sometimes folks come from out of market,
out of the city, sure, out of state, most cases,
and they they see what it costs, and they know
what they charge in Dallas or New York or Chicago. Yeah,
(36:49):
well it doesn't translate here necessarily yet. And so you know,
we need people locally, We need the government to step
in and say, hey, this is really what you could
get for a hotel room, this is really what you
could get for rent in downtown Columbus at this point
in time. So let's be realistic about what we can
build and what we can charge and do all that
because right now a lot of out of town folks
are just sitting on buildings, you know, because the math
(37:12):
didn't work, and obviously the economy changed quite a bit
with interest rates and everything in the last few years,
right right, you know, people who start at projects now
are finding, oh wow, the numbers have changed to a
point where I can't move forward until, you know, things
settle down. Yeah, so a lot of that. But I think,
you know, not to be political, because it's not a
(37:35):
political thing, but you know, I think cities are really important,
and I don't think it's healthy to have, you know,
this rural and urban divide. Like you know, whoever's in power,
one's better than the other. It's it's all critical to
the success of our community, to our state, to our country,
and so, you know, working together to provide housing, to
create jobs that helps everybody. That's not a political thing,
(37:57):
that's just common sense.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, no, I agree with that. Hey, you said you
as we wrap up here, you said you were born
and raised in Columbus, right.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I was born in Riverside Hospital.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, my god. So what part of town did you
live on grow up?
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I grew up a little bit all over. I was
in Columbus until junior high and then I went to
Grand View. I went to Buckeye Valley. My mother got
remarried and went out lived on a farm for a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Oh wow, what kind of farm? I grew up on
a farm soybean out?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Oh yeah, Ostrander, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Did you have to walk the fields? Beanfields? Rocky?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
You ru in the combine a couple of times, but
then ended up moving up Arlington and graduated high school
from there. Wow? What did sheange? Yeah? It was it
was quite a quite an eye opener.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Boy, you've got you got the grand tour of everything,
all sorts of.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I went to three high schools in ten weeks.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Oh my goodness. Wow. So looking back, I mean, boy,
if there's anyone to ask, because I've only been here
twenty six years. And then there's a guy like you
who born and raised here, lived outside of Columbus, and
then you, you know, you lived in the inner circle.
If you will, you a grand view, What are your
thoughts about the progress here on Columbus.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, I mean, I'm absolutely so proud to be a
part of it. And sometimes I can't believe how far
we've come. I remember junior high high school. You know,
if you wanted to see a concert, you were going
to Cleveland, You're going Cincinnati. You want to see a
sporting event outside of the buck Eyes, you were going
out of the town. And you know, when Polaris was
first built, now it's gone. That's how old I am.
But you know, it was like, oh wow, we can
(39:35):
go to a concert. Yeah, I have to spend the
night in Cleveland or drive all night, you know.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
And by the way, I remember, I remember people complaining
when Polaris is around, how far of a hike that was. Yeah,
Now it's like it's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah. And when the Blue Jackets first started, at the time,
you know, I didn't I didn't have a lot of resources.
We had two kids, and but I wanted to get
season tickets with a buddy because I had always complained that,
you know, Columbus didn't have anything. And I thought, well,
if if they need to sell X amount of season
(40:12):
tickets to get here, you know, I don't want to
be a hypocrite. I want to support this and I
be lucky. And it's been great, you know, I think
I think the Blue Jackets in the nation Wide Arena
are really helped fast track Columbus's image and and also
people's interest in it. And then when I think when
people come here, you know, I think most people are
just surprised when they get here, like some people would
(40:33):
think of this, Like I think of Iowa, like I
don't know what, you know, a small town, and I
was like, yeah, but I could get there and think
this is the coolest place in the world. And most
people that come to Columbus and spend time go to conventions.
I'm also on the Experienced Columbus Board, so is to
bring tourists to Columbus. You know, invariably they're staying near
the convention Center, which is the short north they're going
to the North Market, there's all those restaurants, Like, I
(40:55):
had no idea Columbus was this cool, it had this
much stuff to do, and and I think that's our
job now, is to really sell it. I think part
of our charm, but part of our our problem. In
Mayorck Coleman, you know, he always talked about swagger, and
he was like, I'm tired of being humble. You know,
we got to go out and tell people who we are.
And so he did it. He did a great job
(41:17):
of kind of lifting the collective conscious of yeah, pride.
It's okay to be proud of your series.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Absolutely we should be.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, but we were always so humble in Midwestern and
took pride in that. And it's a great place to
raise your family, and it is it is, but it's
also a great place to be young. It's a great
place to be old. It's a great place, and I
think it's a wonderful place well.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
And we've had greg things already built in to uh
you know, Ohio State for example, other colleges too, that
could definitely keep this city young.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I know.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
One of the bigger issues with the state too early on,
it seems like in the past couple of decades was
retaining those people, those young people. But I feel like
we are doing it.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Definitely. It used to be the brain drain and everybody
would leave, and now that that is not the case.
And that's that's really where downtown has become critical in
Columbus State. Which you can't have student housing as part
of a community college like that, but you know, we
can build apartments and they can build so that people
could live there, not associated with the university. But and
so I think people want to be downtown. I think
(42:17):
when they graduate from o Higo State, why would you
want to go too far if you could be in
downtown Columbus and afford it and have a great job,
and yeah, lots to do.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
So, Greg you mentioned being on the board of Experienced Columbus.
I also host the Experienced Columbus podcast with Sarah town.
I know that one of the issues, and especially when
when Ginther was on mayor Ganther, was you know, having
enough hotel capacity to bring more how's that coming along?
(42:46):
Because I know he at the time he was breaking
about the second tower being now the tallest.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, the second tower was a game changer, Okay, And honestly,
the first one was built len Americ Coleman the first Hilton,
and that was ridical. And then the second one has
allowed to have a thousand rooms, you know right now,
so you can get big conferences. And we had ASAE,
which is the largest, single largest conference. We had them
(43:14):
unfortunately the year before COVID, so we didn't get the
benefit of everybody coming. We've had the US Conference and
mayors when the mayor was elected president was Downtown Columbus.
We've had large, large conferences that we would have never
gotten before twenty ten, right, And that just adds to it.
And Brian Ross and Sarah that they were a great
job at Experienced Columbus and so but they need resources
(43:37):
and they need to get people. But the great thing
about providing them resources is there's an ROI on their
resources because they're bringing people who are spending money to town.
And so that's been great. And you know, there's always
so much to do. But I always try to remind myself,
whether it's work or personal or whatever, you know, we're
never going to do everything we want. But if I
(43:58):
looked back from what I did at the city, or
what I did as a human, or what I've done
in the four years since COVID, there's a lot to
be proud of, absolutely lot to look at, and so yes,
I can always do better, and yes we will do more,
but let's not lose sight of the fact Columbus has
really come a long way and we should be really
proud of that.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Definitely. Hey, what last question, Greg When it comes to
downtown specifically, remember there, Remember the days and we're talking
decades ago where you would have a maybe a small
business or a large corporation and the place to be
was downtown. That's where you wanted and maybe it was
a skyscrape or whatever. Are we seeing a renaissance of
(44:42):
that or will we see something like that again? Do
you think?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah, in Columbus, I think if you go to Gay
and High on the weekends and you go to those
restaurants and you see him, I think that's a place
to be. I think the new Butchern Rose the Camera
Mitchell opened in downtown has been great as part of
that P and C. That's an old office building that
was repurposed, redeveloped and is wonderful. I think the Peninsula,
when it's finally built out with everything, will definitely be
(45:05):
a place that people will talk about if that Symphony
Hall gets built. You know, when they do a Buckeye
game and they're shooting downtown, you're going to see all
that stuff. That's what they show you. So instead of
the Horseshoe, which is beautiful, and we can show downtown
and people can be proud of that as well.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Wow. Well, Brian Davies, such a pleasure to have you
here a CEO of course this week's guest on CEO
as you should know Downtown Columbus, Inc. You have a
lot to be proud of, sir, and just everything that
you've done. And I will just say again, looking at
your resume, I just feel like I haven't done much
with bike, not at all.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Not at all. I feel like that's some days too
so human nature.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
But I mean it's just amazing to talk to someone
where now you drive downtown and everywhere you look you
had some kind of you were instrumental in something with
that development over the past plus decades. That that's amazing it.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Really, I mean not to sound corny, but Columbus really
is a place where everybody comes together and so yeah,
all those things don't happen without a great business community,
great government, great privacy. It all comes together, and I
think when the city puts its mind to something and
knows that something big needs to get done, we usually
end up in the right spot. So I'm just glad
to be a part of it, well certainly not driving it.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Greg, thank you so much for your time and thanks
for being a guest this week. CEOs You Should Know
is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia,
Columbus
Columbus in central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
(00:20):
Welcome back to another episode of CEOs You Should Know
and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. I am Boxer. This week's guest
has a resume that quite frankly makes me feel like
I haven't done anything with my life. But I'm excited
to have him here. He is the CEO of Downtown
Columbus NAK want to welcome Greg Davies to the show. Greg, welcome,
(00:42):
thanks for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So I'm looking at your resume and what haven't you
done with the City of Columbus. I just have to ask.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, I was very blessed. I was there for twenty
years and had the good fortune of starting right before
former Mayor Coleman was elected, maybe two months he was
actually running for office in one and as you know,
he served four terms. So it was very good for
job security. Yeah, I was able to started in Public
Utilities as his spokesperson there and worked various roles. Was
(01:16):
a in development department, deputy chief of staff, became director
of Public Utilities, which is all the water sewer in
a small electricity operation for the city, and then I
became Mayor Ginther's first chief of staff and so total
twenty years. Wow, lots lots lots great, great time. I've
really loved all those jobs obviously, you know, both mayors
(01:39):
have been extraordinarily good to me, and it's very rare
that you see two mayors I have the longevity that
they've had. Yeah, where someone could have a career that
was overlapped different administrations. So I was very blessed.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Quick let me ask you. There's so much to get
into with you and your journey. But four terms as
a mayor, by the way, that's is that unheard of?
A I mean, that seems rare.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's very rare anymore, just because term limits are a
lot of places. Yeah, Columbus doesn't have them. And so yeah,
Mary Coleman was very popular ran I think the fourth
one he you know, he debated a little a little,
but did a great job. And then when he announced
kind of surprised us. I thought he was going to
run for a fifth term, and he announced that he
wasn't running. Amerganther, who was then the city council president,
(02:25):
jumped in and he called me and said, hey, I'm
going to be running and going to need somebody that
knows the city. And at that point I had had
sixteen years in various roles, and so he had asked
me to be his first chief of staff, and so
we were responsible for kind of assembling his first cabinet. Candidly,
it was, you know, we didn't know each other as
well as we came to know each other. And my
(02:47):
big fear was, you're following a mayor who's kind of
a legend in Columbus, four terms, very popular. What are
we going to do to differentiate ourselves? And I think
Marriganther did a great job. And although he can be
quiet at times, he's very very hard working, very deliberate
and really put his foot, you know, his thumbprint on
(03:08):
on what he was doing. So it was a great
four years, probably the best job I'll ever haven't. I
don't miss it because it was very difficult and stressful,
but in terms of impactful and feeling like you're really contributing.
And I was born and raised in Columbus. Yeah, to
be able to to do some of the things and
see some of the things come out of the ground
that we worked on was very surreal.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Greg. I want to hear more about your life and
your journey in just a sect. But to your point
of stress, I was just going to jump in and say,
chief of Staff has always struck me as it just
sounds exhausting.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's it was, And we always joked, you know,
the good news the mayor always got to deliver and
the bad news I always got to deliver. So, you know,
you although you're doing good things and your team's doing
great things and there's so much good yeah, you know,
city of almost a million people, there's there's bound to
be a lot of issues and concerns. And the environment
(04:05):
that we've come to now, you know, right or wrong, politically,
it's just a lot more hostile. And so it was
a lot of stress and a lot of trying to
do the right thing. But Columbus, and this goes back
to Mayor Coleman, has always been very blessed. The two
mayors worked really well with the business community. In some
cases that's not the case, and city council and the
mayor got along. And so I think there's there's a
(04:27):
lot of folks who are very interested in the success
of Columbus and they all kind of pull together, which
made that job easier. I know there's other cities where
you have different parties that are represented on council or
the mayor, the business community do unlike the mayor, it
could be very very stressful. Yeah, in terms of that,
it was. It was a blessing.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You know, we look back at the four you know,
the four terms that Mayor Coleman had greg and it
is clear now we can see that Mayor Coleman really
did understand economics. He really understood what it takes to
revive a downtown specifically.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
There's no question and if you go back to nineteen
ninety nine when he was elected, he often jokes, you know,
when he was mayor and started he's the I mean,
he's the biggest reason downtown is where it is today.
He put a stake in the ground and said, I'm
going to invest in downtown. We're going to get people
living there again. You know, back in the nineteen fifties,
(05:25):
there was probably over thirty thousand residents downtown when he
took officers. Three thousand.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, and so you know that was a big challenge.
And all the roads and you know, everything was designed
to get people in and out for work, but you weren't.
You probably remember driving downtown and you know Mary Coleman
used to joke that five o'clock he could roll a
bullying ball down Bade the street not not hit anybody
and exactly, and you know, he just didn't want that.
(05:52):
So he he created a blanket tax abatement that if
you built housing apartments, condos, you know, you wouldn't have
to pay property taxes. And that really started to get
people thinking about it. But you know, you're not going
to live somewhere where you're either not working or you
have something to do after work, or you can eat,
or you can you know, recreate and do things. And
so you know, he just really had that vision and
(06:12):
plugged along and he created what was then Columbus Downtown
Development Corporation, which is now Downtown Columbus, Inc. Okay, he
created that mid two thousands to really tackle the big
issues that he felt were important and thought it would
be better to get that out of the city and
have someone just focus fully down full time down on downtown.
(06:33):
And if you recall, you know, kids come and daycares
will drop off kids with their with their chaperones and
they just have a ball. And we put a couple
of food trucks in this year so that you know,
someone could get lunch in a relatively affordable manner, you know,
if they're just hanging out for the way. And then
if you're familiar with Milestone two twenty nine, which was
(06:55):
the restaurant that absolutely with the park that unfortunately closed
in December, but are our organization has been given that
land by the city and the structure and we are
really close. If it was another few weeks, I could
probably tell you. But we're hoping to sign a new
restaurant tour that people will good, good, be excited about,
and so we'll have a we have a full service
restaurant back down there again. But in the meantime we
(07:18):
have the food trucks. We also have a Dora. Last
year we started that where you could publicly drink alcohol
as long as you're in a certain area and you're
using cups, that are provided. So at the old Milestone site,
we have a bar that you can go down and
walk the park, watch your kids play in the fountain,
have a drink, relax, and so just trying to get
people to use the water. We have that beautiful park
(07:38):
that was absolutely just haven't we haven't programmed it well enough.
And so that's one of the big things we're working
on this year is we we have these days where
either free or very discounted people can get on and
get in a kayak. And you'd be amazed how many
people have never done that, and that will wait for
hours just to go experience that opportunity. And when you
see that, you see the possibility. And you've been to
(08:00):
other cities where they make the most of their water.
And so we're currently looking at the confluence where the
boat house is, yeah, near kind of cruise stadium. And
as you come down, what else could we develop along
the river that would bring people down to either use
the trails or to go to a bar, to a restaurant,
you know whatever that might be.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Greig, by the way, I've always wondered this too, when
when you guys have a vision of developing a certain
property and you know, maybe it's somewhere near the boat house.
For example, do you do you pitch this to developers?
Do you open it up? I guess to everyone for
a bid? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah? We do. We're very similar to the city.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know, because we received some a lot of our
funding from the city, we tried to mimic. We're not
required to, but we tried to do that. And so,
for instance, the peninsula where coas I is. Yeah, we
built a Junta hotel. There's some apartments so beautiful there. Yeah,
it's great. There's an office building that's it's getting leased up.
That rev one moved from campus to their very about
(09:00):
me and downtown we're in talks with a major grocer
coming right on Broad Street. Wow. So all that land
was owned by the city and it sat there for
you know, you can remember people parked in that vacant lot. Yeah,
and go to Coatsaide or to go wherever. But it
was just there was nothing there. And so you know,
maryrick Holeman again tasked my organization back in the in
(09:23):
the early two thousands, Hey, what what could we do
with that? And so we designed what we thought would
the standards would be and then we shopped it out,
put a public RFP out request for proposal, got a
bunch of folks, interviewed them, and the winning group was
Dameler built the office building. Flirting Collins out of Indianapolis
have done all the housing and there they're leasing up
(09:45):
like crazy. And then Rockbridge, who's also doing the North
Market Tower, did the Junto, which is just a fantastic
boutique hotel. If you haven't been down there, yeah, great
bar that has a view of downtown the city of
the River. So we're very pleased, and we're trying to
work on phase two, the grocery, more apartments, trying to
get some retail, and trying to get some we're actually
(10:06):
putting temporary pickaball courts in there, oh wow, some other
fun stuff for the residents, and just so it doesn't sit.
You know, the unfortunate part about development is it takes
a long time. And when you built the first hotel
and the apartments and the office building, you know more
is coming, but you don't want those to hurt, so
you're trying to activate some stuff to make it cool.
(10:28):
And that's really our job is just to help get
people excited about being down here.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, Greg Davis is with us. He is the CEO
of Downtown Columbus, Inc. And this week's guest on CEOs
you should know and iHeart Media Columbus podcasts. You know, Greg,
it didn't hit me till just moments ago when you
were rattling off all the different projects that I'm sitting
across from. The guy who you along with with your
(10:55):
staff and former staff, you now get, well all of
us do, but you being you know, kind of a
mastermind along with your team, you get to enjoy the
fruits of your labor. Now, Like how cool is that
to see all of this stuff come to fruition.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, it's really cool and a lot of this stuff.
And so you know the president, Amy Taylor, who's who's
my partner, and you know we do everything in lockstep.
She's been there since the very beginning with when Mara
Colene was there. So I worked with her at the city,
you know as the utilities director and cheap of staff.
We interacted a lot and I can remember to your
point working on the Peninsula and other projects as the
(11:33):
director or's the cheapest staff and now as the CEO
of Downtown clumb Sink Amy and I are going to
groundbreakings where like we weren't even in these roles, you know,
but here we are six years later, really, you know,
seeing something cool. We started in twenty one and at
the time, the fountain was not working. The city was
right owned it and was operating it, and it just
(11:55):
you know, water's very corrosive. So after fifteen years, it's
just the life cycle and the technology kind of kind
of faded. And it was during COVID, yeah, and people
were just losing their minds, and I said, you know,
we really we should just do something with this fount,
just to get one thing that somebody could say, hey,
downtown Columbus is cool. We gotta we got to go
(12:15):
back out, We got to get you know, we got
to go do something. And and it's been great, and
it was that that project kind of built on it
and then we got a bunch of other projects going.
And because of my relationships with with Merriganther and his
team and city council and a lot of the board
that that that I have, you know, we've been successful
(12:36):
and when we come up with good ideas, we have
the you know, people know that we're sincere and that
we're going to do a good job, and so I
think we get a lot of grace from the administration
and the community, but we got to keep delivering. And
so yeah, you know that once you don't deliver the
one thing that you promised, then it gets harder the
next time. But we've been we've been on a good role.
So I'm very excited.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Greg, if we could, let's let's go back a sec
to redevelop a city Center. Look, I've been to that
park now Columbus Commons all different seasons and it's so special.
It's just beautiful. Well, one of my favorite times of
the year though, believe it or not, is actually Christmas time.
(13:16):
There's just something so special about it, the backdrop of downtown.
Maybe it's the Christmas lights. I don't know. But what
was it popular at first that idea, because I just
keep thinking about economy, the chance to you know, drive revenue.
What was the reaction at first to that pitch.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It wasn't positive, it was it was more negative. And
particularly I don't know if you recall, but you know
we host picnic with the pops at the Commons. Yeah,
and that's the Columbus Symphony and that used to be
held at Chemical Abstracts. And when we redid the park,
Mark Coleman and others said to the symphony, hey, you're
gonna come downtown. We're gonna and a lot of people
(13:57):
were not happy with that. They didn't want to come
downtown to leave Chemical Abstracts. So there was plenty of
parking and it was easy, and it was suburban, and
the mayor knew, no, I've invested in this park and
this is a real jewel, and when people see what
I see, they're going to come around. And he was right.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
He was right.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And now when you go we were just there a
couple of weeks ago for picnic with the pops, and
you look out and it's you're downtown. You're looking at
all these beautiful buildings around you. People are all downtown
enjoying it. It's just such a beautiful setting. And had,
you know, had had the mayor and the others that
worked on that taken a poll and done a litmus
(14:37):
test and not done what they knew was right, we
wouldn't have that. We'd probably have some building that is
obsolete by now. But now we have a real, you know,
community jewel, and you probably know and I uh, next Sunday,
not this Sunday, but next Sunday. We have free concerts
every year. So one of the things both mayors have
always done is that Downtown should be everybody's neighborhood. You know,
(14:58):
when it first started, there was Mira and O, there
were some of the real high end compos and people
felt like, oh, y, that's for wealthier people. But that's
what the fountains for, that's what the concerts are for.
We have over two hundred and fifty three events at
Columbus Commons every year. Wow, and that's our mission. But
we're having Nelly is this year's free concert, which is
a pretty big get. Yeah, Nelly was here I don't know,
(15:22):
maybe five ten years ago with the symphony and with stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
The first time. Again to your question about did people
do it, Nelly was the first, I would say, non
symphony type performer to play with the symphony, and everybody
was like, what are you doing. You're going to ruin it?
This isn't And it was a great mix and it
has driven their attendance ever since. And they go out
of the box and get different acts now and they
(15:48):
all appeal to different people and so we're just super
excited to be hosting them.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I was gonna say, Greg, I feel like Nelly set
the tone for the Symphony Touse because I know me personally,
I'm like, Okay, what are they getting next year? I
can't wait for the you know, the announcement to come out.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, we had NAS last year, which is really cool.
I mean just just super fun. So that's wild.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah. So a couple of things to steal a quote
from the movie Feel the Dreams Mayor Coleman at the
time must have must have felt like, if you build it,
they will come very much. So yeah, and with the
because let's be honest, and you know this, people, especially
in the burbs where the majority of people are living,
(16:34):
had this. There was this negative vibe. I don't want
to go downtown or there's nothing there. But I can't
tell you the last time I've heard someone say that anymore.
It's been years.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, there's you know, security and safety a big component
of what we do because obviously you're not gonna have
big events if people don't feel safe and coming downtown.
And I think we've done, you know, knock on Wood
a good job with that. But it's expensive and it's
a lot of work, but you're right. I think that
was a big driving force was the mayor thought if
I build it, we'll do it. And then building on
(17:06):
that in twenty one we did a strategic plan and
the whole point of the first strategic plan was let's
build these assets. Well, now we have the assets, and
now how do we get people to enjoy them? How
do we get people to live downtown? How do we
get people to do all those things? And like I said,
we had three thousand people in early two thousands. You know,
we're up to eighteen thousand. Our goal is to have
forty thousand by twenty forty, you know, one hundred and
(17:27):
twenty thousand office workers, ten million visitors. That's our goal.
It's ambitious, but we think it's doable. And I think
if you go downtown. Part of the problem with downtown
is it's so big and spread out, Like when you
go to most downtowns that you or I would visit,
like a Chicago or oh yeah, whatever. It's very dense.
You could walk the whole downtown and find something to
(17:49):
keep your interest and feel safe because it's very pedestrian friendly,
it's very you know, very easy to get around. You
got public transportation, and we just never had that. But
now cod has passed link Us, so we're going to have,
you know, a better transit system. We're building more units downtown,
we're providing retail downtown for people to do stuff. And
like I said, we have all these events where now
(18:11):
people can come downtown if they live there, they can
they can do all that. If we had this big,
large grocery, that's going to help. So we're trying to
take away all the arguments that people would say, well
I would live downtown, but right, it's right right, And
now you know, we're trying to move away from that.
And we have found a lot of people who's maybe
kids who've you know, empty nesters, whose kids have gone
(18:31):
off and they live in the suburbs and they say,
I want to downsize, I want to go downtown and
they can walk to everything. You know, you've got the
Arena District was what opened in two thousand and yas
the Blue Jackets started playing, and just that's been a
twenty year process. It just takes a while, but I
do think Columbus continues to grow. It's the only city
in Ohio that continues to grow. You've got the university,
(18:53):
you got other universities, You've got a great pipeline of talent,
and they want somewhere cool to live.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
What greg it or it's wise too. It's set up
so well. You have the Ohio State Community to the
north and downtown of the Arena district. It's just it's
almost like it just it's like a puzzle. It fits
so perfectly. You have Nationwide Arena right across the street.
Are a couple of blocks down you have Huntington Park,
and then just a little bit further down from there,
(19:19):
all walking distance is lower dot Com Field for soccer.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, the Arena District's great and Nationwide did an excellent
job with that. In one of the other the big
projects I'm really excited about, I don't know if you've
heard about, but we're building a two mile capital line
and it's similar to if you've been to Indianapolis, they
have a cultural trail and the belt line in Atlanta
and New York has a high line and it's basically
(19:46):
a very deliberate two mile path. We'll go down Gay,
we'll go into the peninsula, we'll come back up and
just make kind of a rectangle around downtown. But it
connects all the things that you and I have been
talking about, all of our assets like Cosai, the River,
Gay Street, if you've been there Gay and High, where
the Janet Equlman piece hangs over there and High. And
then you have the new restaurants, you have Shouette, you
(20:09):
have Spec, you have Hanks, you have all this really
cool stuff there and Jeff Edwards has developed all that.
He's a board member of ours, and so we're trying
to highlight that as phase one. It's one hundred million
dollar project. Wow, but it will bring people down in.
What we're hoping is it allows people to walk and
to bike in a way that they can see things
(20:30):
that feel comfortable and not feel like downtown is so big.
And I really think that's going to be a game
changer for us.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Greg. When's the last time you heard I remember when
I moved here in nineteen ninety nine, I heard it
all the time, and then for the next I don't know,
five years or so. But I also can't tell you
the last time I heard someone say Cowtown.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It's been a long time, and I mean a true story.
Mary Coleman, if you said that it was not good
like you if you said that in a meeting or
somebody visiting said that he took great effence and mehriganther.
You know, he he just was the president of US
Conference Mayors for for all the mayors in the in
(21:12):
the country, and you know, we would travel and he
would always tell people. They'd say, where are you guys from,
say Columbus, and they wait for you to say what Columbus.
And He's like, we're the fourteenth largest city, you know.
Do you say Chicago, Illinois? Do you say you know?
And people always say, well, there's a Columbus Georgia. Well,
Columbus Ohio and Columbus Georgia are two very different things.
(21:33):
And I think we've earned the right to be Columbus
and and that's his point. And you're right. We used
to be a cow town, a college town, and I
think the university has always been a great partner. But
I think I think they used to overshadow the city.
I think if people thought absolutely Columbus, the thought about
high state football, and they thought of the high state,
and now I think they think of both. I think
(21:54):
some people are integrated.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think there's some people who
are not from here. Obviously that thought, oh that's that's
the name of the town is Ohio State and truly
not the case. And you know, after what two decades
plus under our belt, even more with the crew with
the Blue Jackets, they're so established now, I feel like, Okay,
(22:18):
well they they've they've gone through some of the hardships
and now they're here. They exist and this is more
than just Ohio State Buckeye Country for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And I think the short North was a big part
of that. You know, the North Market German village. We
have so many great neighborhoods and we have so much
to do, and the sports certainly helped. We've got a
great theater scene. One of the other things we've been
working on with the symphony is the potential of building
a new symphony. I'm just gonna ask you about that peninsula.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
How far I don't know how much you can speak
or not speak of it, but how far along are
we on this? Is that? Is that going to be
like right next to Kosai or it would be just
south of Kasti.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Okay, Yeah, And they just transitioned to they got a
new executive director, so they put it on pause a
little bit, but they the deal that they have with
the City of Columbus is the city will give them
the land if they raise a certain amount of money, right,
and they've indicated they can do that. So we're just
waiting to see, you know, how their private fundraising goes,
and very optimistic and hopeful that they can pull it off.
(23:20):
And then we'll have another beautiful uh to go with
the National Veterans Museum, which which downtown Columbus in developed
in Kosai. So you have that public thing, but you
could also have three areas where if you came to town,
maybe you'd want to go go to all three, right,
and they're right there, And if we can compliment it
with all the other stuff that we're putting at the peninsula,
(23:41):
all of a sudden, you've got downtown's next neighborhood. Oh
and then but there's so much of it that that
you know, we focus there, And then you think about
where Columbus State is and you know they're investing a
bunch of money in Grant Hospital, and you think, gosh,
that seems so far away. But it's downtown. Yeah, it's
it's pretty far from the peninsula, but it's all downtown
and so being able to one day, probably long after
(24:05):
I'm gone, to walk from Columbus State to the peninsula
and feel like you're in you know, a big city
would be It would be a great goal, and I
think we'll get there at some point.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Greg. One of the things you talked about you hit earlier.
I want to bring up because I think you made
the announcement back in April, is for people to come downtown.
They obviously they want to feel safe, they want to
feel secure. You've got the CPD headquarters downtown. That's one thing.
But one of the things you started a partnership right
to provide a new safety initiative. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, so we did merriganter in the Columbus Partnership, which
is the group of all the largest company CEOs who
get together to do things for a community and obviously
advocate for downtown. One of the things that came out
of COVID was there was a lot more property crimes
and things that at the time we were trying to
get people to come back to work, and that was
(24:58):
always an excuse, Well, I don't feel safe to come
back to work. Yeah, I personally think they just didn't
want to come back to the office, they want to
work at home. Who doesn't ex But we had to
address it to help the larger companies in the state
convince people to come back. And so what we did
is we looked at best practices. We had a team
go up to Detroit. In Detroit, I'm sure most people
(25:18):
you know have preconceived notions of Detroit, but Detroit has
actually come a long way in the last ten fifteen years.
And a big part of that is Dan Gilbert, who
owns the Cavaliers and is a big Detroit guy. He
bought a lot of property and he created this this
safety program where all the property that he owned the
installed cameras and then he worked with all the other
(25:39):
large employers that were still in downtown Detroit and they
put it through one you know, one feed where you
could have people monitoring all this and you could talk
in real time if you're at Huntington and I'm over
at you know, the city center area. You know, Columbus
commons that if you have a crime, I can feed
you my camera and we're all doing it in real
(26:01):
time and share in data. So yeah, as always, well
we have our data, you have your data, we're not
gonna the two shall never meet. But now we have
Columbus Police, you know, every large employer we have, the
state give us money for one hundred cameras new cameras.
We had one hundred cameras existing. So we're going to
continue to build that network. In the Lazarus building, that's
where our office is, the old Lazarus Department store that
(26:23):
I love that building initiatives to redo all that and
in there we have a full time safety command center
and it's been great and it gives people peace of
mind and and you know, you're not going to obviously
stop everything, but it's certainly I think helps and gives
us a better pulse on what's going on downtown and
where we can put resources, where police can use resources,
(26:45):
if we hire off duty police, Well we've had issues
at two in the morning over here, you know, and
we can document that. It's just more data driven and
been great, great partnership with the city and the private
private sector.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Has greg Has it Has it gotten better crime wise
downtown since I mean, I know that initiative is obviously
brand new, but since COVID, since the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, and I would argue it was never that bad.
I think it was the perception. I think, Okay, I
would argue, you know, when COVID hit, there weren't a
lot of the workers downtown that were there, a lot
of the retail stuff that wasn't going as well. So
when if you came downtown, you walk downtown, you might
see more of unhouse population, you might see more whatever,
and you know, they're always there. People the same people
(27:29):
are always downtown. It's just people were you know, just
not used to seeing it so empty. And I think
there was this belief that, well, it doesn't feel as safe,
and it wasn't the case. And we kept telling people,
if you want to make it safe, bring your employees
back to work, right and if you want to save downtown,
bring your employees back to work because people need to
buy coffee, sandwiches, you know, all that stuff to keep
(27:51):
downtown thriving. And now you know, Huntington, nationwide, the state
of Ohio, they all brought their employees back and we're
seeing a huge difference. And I think a lot of
that perception has died down. And we've had two wildly
successful summers with you know, we have the Arts Festival,
Red White and Boom, not that we hold them, but
downtown where we have large numbers of people downtown and
(28:14):
really I'm sure some incidents, but nothing. You know, in
the middle of the day, people coming from the suburbs.
It's more two thirty three in the morning, and groups
of people are coming together to fight or are doing whatever.
But you know, not the general public. I'm not saying
that's okay, but I think the right right And if
you brought your kids down for a concert, you're gonna be,
(28:35):
You're gonna be.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
You know, Greg to your point, and I'm about to
mention one thing that I get. It's not downtown, but
the huge events that Columbus does host Red White and Boom,
for example, almost a half a million people, and you
think about the security that goes behind making sure everyone's safe.
How about a Saturday afternoon Ohio State football game. Yeah,
(28:59):
you know, hundreds of thousands of more people are there
and and you know, knock on this counter. We I'd
like to think we do a pretty good job keep
people safe.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, I think. I think definitely we had a surgeon
property crimes and cars getting broken into, and with all
the Kia stuff and people that were you know, doing that,
and so our garages we maintained a couple of garages.
We really had to look at what do we what
do we do to stop this? This is this is
getting out of hand, and you know, people aren't gonna
come downtown if they think their car is gonna get
pre Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
By the way, I'm I'm probably gonna sound like a
tech nerd for a sec. But with this technology that
we have, with with newer cameras, are we able to
catch culprits, the bad guys more than than ever? I mean,
how how much better are these cameras nowadays?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I think it's more like, like I said, if something
happened and you have you break into my car and
I have your face on camera, and you went west,
we could call somebody in real time west and say
that's graat this guy coming and yeah, and somebody could
maybe catch him or at least build a case afterwards
that okay, we have a picture of him, and you know,
(30:07):
we'll figure this out. So I think just all that
information helps. I think it's a deterrent. I think, yeah,
I agree, and large don't like to go places where
they feel like there's an enhanced security. They want to
have somewhere where it's not. And so that's another thing
we look at is we're designing new things downtown and
building new things, is making sure that we're not building
any alleys or corners that aren't you know, that aren't
(30:29):
in sight of police or cameras or us and just
make sure that everybody when you're walking you just feel safe.
And yeah, I've always felt in big cities, despite you know,
they have bigger numbers of crime, because you know, the
multiples of people are off the charts.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I always feel safe when there's more people. You know,
it's at night when there's no one walking around that yeah,
you might be a little squirrely, you know, looking behind you,
but during the day you probably don't.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Hey, Greg, what's the post COVID? Now we know that
the struggle is real for occupancy in office buildings. Where
are we at here in twenty twenty five? How are
things downtown?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Office continues to be a struggle. It's certainly something that
we are focused on as part of our strategic plan
and is part of ongoing discussions we have with the city.
There's a lot of buildings that are either not occupied
or you know, not too many people in them. And
(31:28):
these are buildings around the State House. These are buildings, yeah,
are very important to the core of downtown. And so
the question is can you convert them to residential? Can
we fix them up enough to get people back. But
the whole office market is still settling out as to
what is an office anymore, what it's looks like with
remote work and COVID and you know, people have found
(31:49):
that there are other ways to do work, which leads
us back to the peninsula, which is building an area.
You know, when we built that office building, to have
places to eat, to have you know, activities after work,
to have your apartment so you can just walk out
and go to work. That's real appealing to young people now.
And so building an environment where you can do everything
in one area is probably going to help with the office.
(32:12):
The days of building an office you know, like a
two seventy and pick your spot where it's just all offices, yeah,
and there's no restaurants or anything in there, and it's
just you know, I think those days are over.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Those days are over.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
I think people Wow, I think people really want to
feel good at work. You know, they don't want to
feel like they're in a Dilbert cartoon. They want to
feel like they're they're part of something cool and special,
and and uh, you know, I think that's what you'll
see moving forward. Like if you look at Bridge Park,
Oh yeah, I've done a nice job with that Easton
you know where those are. Those are great models, But
(32:48):
there's only one downtown. You know, you can build an
urban area in the suburbs, but it's not downtown. It's
not as authentic. And so I think you you know,
you'll always have people who want the real thing.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, I know, a handful of years ago, and maybe
this was pre COVID, I can't remember, there were there
were issues with trying to find parking good good parking downtown.
Is that an issue anymore of you solved that problem?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
No, that's that And that's honestly, one of the biggest
things that stops redeveloping the office buildings is parking. If
you convert it to residential, most people, myself included, probably
you would want to park where they live. And so
you don't want to park at a parking garage at
ten o'clock at night after you went to the grocery
(33:34):
two blocks away and walked to your apartment, and so
figuring out how to build that, because when you're in
an urban environment, most likely you're building structured parking, which
is a parking garage. That's expensive. You know, we built
a couple at the Peninsula and the City. You know,
you're talking twenty million dollars of garage and that's wow,
a lot of money. But parking is a necessity. And
(33:55):
so that's why what CODA did with link Us was
so important, is because now you can get you know,
predictable rapid transit in and out of downtown. I think
more people would take advantage of that and be less
dependent on parking. Can you go to most big cities,
if you go to hotel, you probably valet your car
and you're walking. You're not getting in your car and
(34:16):
going everywhere in New York City, You're right, right, you're
just walking, right, Yeah. So I think if we could
figure that out with people getting downtown on the bus
and bus, rapid transit, those types of things, you know,
that'll ease some of that parking requirement.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Greg, I'm pretty sure we probably touched some of them already.
But looking forward, looking to the future, the future of
Columbus downtown. What are some of your struggles, but also
tell us about the and again you touched on some
of them, but the exciting things down the road. What's
the future look like.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I think the future is great. I think Columbus and
I felt this way before COVID we were really at
a tipping point downtown. Everything that Mariquona Americanther did was
was bearing fruit. And then it just you know, it
just came to like everywhere, just an absolute hope. And
then we built back up and we're going and things
are good, and I think the city's doing great. I
(35:10):
think the biggest barriers are going to be funding because
it's very expensive. Like we're talking about parking, we're talking
about redoing buildings, we're talking about developing neighborhoods. You know,
that costs money. In the city, the county, the state
have all been great about doing it. We love to
get some help from the federal government. You know. One
of the things that we'd like to do is to
(35:32):
see and affordable housing has been a buzzword for everybody.
Right That used to be i'd say a social issue,
and now it's it's more of an economic issue, where
absolutely and you have Intel, and you have Andrew, and
you have all these great announcements that the central high
areas getting and you don't have anywhere where people can live, right,
They're going to stop coming, and so we really need
to figure that out. And in order to get all
(35:54):
these housing units, we're going to have to spend some money.
And so one of the things that we've talked to
the state and the federal government about is can we
get tax credits for some of these old like the
old Chase building downtown or you know, oh yeah, buildings
where you just they're gonna sit and they're gonna be
a drain on the community. So let's put some money
in it, repurpose it, get people living downtown, and you know,
(36:16):
hopefully that raises all boats.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
But yeah, Greag, didn't I read? Correct me if I'm wrong.
I feel like I read not too long ago that
that was an idea thrown around for the Chase building,
is to repurpose it.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Possibly for ye buildings have had Okay, people look at it,
and historically, you know, with hotels and with those office
buildings downtown. I think sometimes folks come from out of market,
out of the city, sure, out of state, most cases,
and they they see what it costs, and they know
what they charge in Dallas or New York or Chicago. Yeah,
(36:49):
well it doesn't translate here necessarily yet. And so you know,
we need people locally, We need the government to step
in and say, hey, this is really what you could
get for a hotel room, this is really what you
could get for rent in downtown Columbus at this point
in time. So let's be realistic about what we can
build and what we can charge and do all that
because right now a lot of out of town folks
are just sitting on buildings, you know, because the math
(37:12):
didn't work, and obviously the economy changed quite a bit
with interest rates and everything in the last few years,
right right, you know, people who start at projects now
are finding, oh wow, the numbers have changed to a
point where I can't move forward until, you know, things
settle down. Yeah, so a lot of that. But I think,
you know, not to be political, because it's not a
(37:35):
political thing, but you know, I think cities are really important,
and I don't think it's healthy to have, you know,
this rural and urban divide. Like you know, whoever's in power,
one's better than the other. It's it's all critical to
the success of our community, to our state, to our country,
and so, you know, working together to provide housing, to
create jobs that helps everybody. That's not a political thing,
(37:57):
that's just common sense.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, no, I agree with that. Hey, you said you
as we wrap up here, you said you were born
and raised in Columbus, right.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I was born in Riverside Hospital.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, my god. So what part of town did you
live on grow up?
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I grew up a little bit all over. I was
in Columbus until junior high and then I went to
Grand View. I went to Buckeye Valley. My mother got
remarried and went out lived on a farm for a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Oh wow, what kind of farm? I grew up on
a farm soybean out?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Oh yeah, Ostrander, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Did you have to walk the fields? Beanfields? Rocky?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
You ru in the combine a couple of times, but
then ended up moving up Arlington and graduated high school
from there. Wow? What did sheange? Yeah? It was it
was quite a quite an eye opener.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Boy, you've got you got the grand tour of everything,
all sorts of.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I went to three high schools in ten weeks.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Oh my goodness. Wow. So looking back, I mean, boy,
if there's anyone to ask, because I've only been here
twenty six years. And then there's a guy like you
who born and raised here, lived outside of Columbus, and
then you, you know, you lived in the inner circle.
If you will, you a grand view, What are your
thoughts about the progress here on Columbus.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, I mean, I'm absolutely so proud to be a
part of it. And sometimes I can't believe how far
we've come. I remember junior high high school. You know,
if you wanted to see a concert, you were going
to Cleveland, You're going Cincinnati. You want to see a
sporting event outside of the buck Eyes, you were going
out of the town. And you know, when Polaris was
first built, now it's gone. That's how old I am.
But you know, it was like, oh wow, we can
(39:35):
go to a concert. Yeah, I have to spend the
night in Cleveland or drive all night, you know.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
And by the way, I remember, I remember people complaining
when Polaris is around, how far of a hike that was. Yeah,
Now it's like it's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah. And when the Blue Jackets first started, at the time,
you know, I didn't I didn't have a lot of resources.
We had two kids, and but I wanted to get
season tickets with a buddy because I had always complained that,
you know, Columbus didn't have anything. And I thought, well,
if if they need to sell X amount of season
(40:12):
tickets to get here, you know, I don't want to
be a hypocrite. I want to support this and I
be lucky. And it's been great, you know, I think
I think the Blue Jackets in the nation Wide Arena
are really helped fast track Columbus's image and and also
people's interest in it. And then when I think when
people come here, you know, I think most people are
just surprised when they get here, like some people would
(40:33):
think of this, Like I think of Iowa, like I
don't know what, you know, a small town, and I
was like, yeah, but I could get there and think
this is the coolest place in the world. And most
people that come to Columbus and spend time go to conventions.
I'm also on the Experienced Columbus Board, so is to
bring tourists to Columbus. You know, invariably they're staying near
the convention Center, which is the short north they're going
to the North Market, there's all those restaurants, Like, I
(40:55):
had no idea Columbus was this cool, it had this
much stuff to do, and and I think that's our
job now, is to really sell it. I think part
of our charm, but part of our our problem. In
Mayorck Coleman, you know, he always talked about swagger, and
he was like, I'm tired of being humble. You know,
we got to go out and tell people who we are.
And so he did it. He did a great job
(41:17):
of kind of lifting the collective conscious of yeah, pride.
It's okay to be proud of your series.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Absolutely we should be.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, but we were always so humble in Midwestern and
took pride in that. And it's a great place to
raise your family, and it is it is, but it's
also a great place to be young. It's a great
place to be old. It's a great place, and I
think it's a wonderful place well.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
And we've had greg things already built in to uh
you know, Ohio State for example, other colleges too, that
could definitely keep this city young.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I know.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
One of the bigger issues with the state too early on,
it seems like in the past couple of decades was
retaining those people, those young people. But I feel like
we are doing it.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Definitely. It used to be the brain drain and everybody
would leave, and now that that is not the case.
And that's that's really where downtown has become critical in
Columbus State. Which you can't have student housing as part
of a community college like that, but you know, we
can build apartments and they can build so that people
could live there, not associated with the university. But and
so I think people want to be downtown. I think
(42:17):
when they graduate from o Higo State, why would you
want to go too far if you could be in
downtown Columbus and afford it and have a great job,
and yeah, lots to do.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
So, Greg you mentioned being on the board of Experienced Columbus.
I also host the Experienced Columbus podcast with Sarah town.
I know that one of the issues, and especially when
when Ginther was on mayor Ganther, was you know, having
enough hotel capacity to bring more how's that coming along?
(42:46):
Because I know he at the time he was breaking
about the second tower being now the tallest.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, the second tower was a game changer, Okay, And honestly,
the first one was built len Americ Coleman the first Hilton,
and that was ridical. And then the second one has
allowed to have a thousand rooms, you know right now,
so you can get big conferences. And we had ASAE,
which is the largest, single largest conference. We had them
(43:14):
unfortunately the year before COVID, so we didn't get the
benefit of everybody coming. We've had the US Conference and
mayors when the mayor was elected president was Downtown Columbus.
We've had large, large conferences that we would have never
gotten before twenty ten, right, And that just adds to it.
And Brian Ross and Sarah that they were a great
job at Experienced Columbus and so but they need resources
(43:37):
and they need to get people. But the great thing
about providing them resources is there's an ROI on their
resources because they're bringing people who are spending money to town.
And so that's been great. And you know, there's always
so much to do. But I always try to remind myself,
whether it's work or personal or whatever, you know, we're
never going to do everything we want. But if I
(43:58):
looked back from what I did at the city, or
what I did as a human, or what I've done
in the four years since COVID, there's a lot to
be proud of, absolutely lot to look at, and so yes,
I can always do better, and yes we will do more,
but let's not lose sight of the fact Columbus has
really come a long way and we should be really
proud of that.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Definitely. Hey, what last question, Greg When it comes to
downtown specifically, remember there, Remember the days and we're talking
decades ago where you would have a maybe a small
business or a large corporation and the place to be
was downtown. That's where you wanted and maybe it was
a skyscrape or whatever. Are we seeing a renaissance of
(44:42):
that or will we see something like that again? Do
you think?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah, in Columbus, I think if you go to Gay
and High on the weekends and you go to those
restaurants and you see him, I think that's a place
to be. I think the new Butchern Rose the Camera
Mitchell opened in downtown has been great as part of
that P and C. That's an old office building that
was repurposed, redeveloped and is wonderful. I think the Peninsula,
when it's finally built out with everything, will definitely be
(45:05):
a place that people will talk about if that Symphony
Hall gets built. You know, when they do a Buckeye
game and they're shooting downtown, you're going to see all
that stuff. That's what they show you. So instead of
the Horseshoe, which is beautiful, and we can show downtown
and people can be proud of that as well.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Wow. Well, Brian Davies, such a pleasure to have you
here a CEO of course this week's guest on CEO
as you should know Downtown Columbus, Inc. You have a
lot to be proud of, sir, and just everything that
you've done. And I will just say again, looking at
your resume, I just feel like I haven't done much
with bike, not at all.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Not at all. I feel like that's some days too
so human nature.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
But I mean it's just amazing to talk to someone
where now you drive downtown and everywhere you look you
had some kind of you were instrumental in something with
that development over the past plus decades. That that's amazing it.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Really, I mean not to sound corny, but Columbus really
is a place where everybody comes together and so yeah,
all those things don't happen without a great business community,
great government, great privacy. It all comes together, and I
think when the city puts its mind to something and
knows that something big needs to get done, we usually
end up in the right spot. So I'm just glad
to be a part of it, well certainly not driving it.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Greg, thank you so much for your time and thanks
for being a guest this week. CEOs You Should Know
is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia,
Columbus
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