April 18, 2025 • 9 mins
Mark Somerson of Columbus Business First looks at local business news including the increasing popularity of LP's! Record stores are opening up everywhere!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let us hear you Retirement Group dot com
(00:01):
phone line. We talked to them every Friday at this time.
Columbus Business First Managing Editor Mark Summerson, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Sir, Hey, good morning. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Are you ready for eighty degrees tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Of course I've done today. I am so white that
putting shorts on is a very scary thing. But I
am going to do it like you, I mean, how well,
how else do you get that that that luscious tan
for the summer?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Like you look at your legs, You're like, there's two
there's two candlesticks sitting on it. What is that?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Like? What I've seen? Better? Better skin tone in a
more But.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, at least you can at least you can own it.
At least you get Uh. You guys did a story,
and we've got some some other things to get to,
but you guys did a big piece on Record Store Day.
Think that this last weekend National Record Store Day celebrating
uh vinyl record and vinyl is It's been back for
a while. Vinyl sales have surpassed cassettes and CDs here
(01:00):
in the last several years. It is trendy and it
is first of all, it's not cheap. And my son,
who's seventeen, we kind of got him into records. We
bought him a turntable. Of course, his his vinyl choice
is a little different than mine. I've got. My vinyl
collection is largely what my parents had, and that's the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones and led Zeppelin and the
(01:22):
Beach Boys.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
In the fun I put you down as an eighties
hair metal band.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Guy, you'd be We'd be mostly wrong on that. I
was more into the the sixties and seventies stuff. Okay,
But there's a lot of great record stores in Columbus.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh, there is, and we spent some time at two
of them. We went to use Kids Record on Summit
and we went to Spoonful, which is on State Street downtown.
And as you said, sales are up. Last year sales,
vinyl sales excluding singles, these are just the LPs reached
one point four billion dollars in the US austin inflation,
(02:00):
vinyl revenue increased by more than four thousand percent since
two thousand and four, and it really took off. We
found over COVID when people were at home, they may
have been looking at their old records and saying what
should I do with these? And that's when I started
up again. I hadn't had records since the mid eighties.
I replaced everything with CDs. Now I've got about three
(02:21):
hundred records. My daughter has about one thousand records wow
and growing. And she was there on records store Day.
I went the next day to one on ours in
near Clintonville called RPM and it's on North High Street.
And I did get a special edition five LP Grateful
Dead nineteen seventy six Live from New York package and
(02:44):
it was beautiful and I love it it.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So it's new. It was a new pressing vinyl. This
wasn't something that's been around for forty five fifty years.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No new pressing. I mean, the show's been around forever.
But somebody at somebody at Grateful Dead Headcore decided and
they do something special for Record Store Day every year.
There is a limited number of these made. There's a
limited number of all sorts of stuff that come out
on Record Store Day. We ran into some people were
getting the Wicket soundtrack that was made just for this.
(03:14):
It's a special edition. There's all sorts of cool things,
and you know, the record stores order as many as
they can, knowing they're going to sell out of these,
and both of the record stores went to had huge
lines well before they could open at eight o'clock. Record
Store Day has rules that you cannot open and start
to sell. Record Store Day things tell eight o'clock, So
people at both of these places were there overnight, some intents,
(03:36):
some and chairs. This is a big, big event. I
asked the guy who runs RPM, was this like your
Black Friday? Said no, it's so much better. Wow, he said,
this is we do in one day what we usually
do in like ten weekends. It is that big. One
guy at his store paid over nine hundred dollars for
records before he left. So it is a huge day,
(03:59):
and it's a increasingly it's a fascinating business. Like Used
Kids has been around for a while, Spoonful has had
this is their second iteration. But yeah, RPM has been
open probably I'm thinking ten years or so. But you're right,
these record stores are popping up all over the nation.
People are getting into vinyl again. I still buy a
(04:19):
lot of use records that you can get for five
to ten dollars, but the new ones are quite expensive.
They're fifteen, twenty dollars, and some of them that are
on specially weighted LP and vinyl are even higher, thirty
or forty dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, I like to go and get the you the
old old stuff, you know that's kind of beat up
for you know, five ten maybe you know, twelve bucks
is something that's been around the block and maybe got
a little scratch or a nick to it, and maybe
he's got to stick to it. I like those, you know,
my son will go out and buy the new stuff.
I mean he'll go buy the new you know, the
Taylor Swift album or whatever that's been pressing. You'll spend,
(04:54):
you know, spend thirty dollars on that. But Greg Hall,
by the way, is the owner of You Kids Records.
He's a great guy. He's a really he's a big
supporter of youth hockey, which is a different conversation, but
I wonderful my son is involved in that. So Greg
is a great guy. If you are into vinyl and
getting the old fashioned records, going go see Greg at
(05:15):
us Kids. It's a fantastic, fantastic hobby, A great way
to kill us some time on a Sunday afternoon and
fire up the turntable. No doubt. Speaking with Mark Summerson,
Columbus Business First. All right, so there's this building east
side broad Street and I was just down there Mark
the other day, and I'm looking up at it and
I'm like, this is a beautiful building. Why is it
not being used.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's the broad Wind Building. It opened in nineteen twenty
four and it's about to go to auction. It's been
empty for years. There have been plans for this almost
ninety thousand square foot building for a number of years.
Robert Wyler Company was interested. At one point they purchased
this building. It's been one of those places where things
(05:56):
just haven't worked out and they're getting rid of it
and it's going to be auction off auctioning. The bids
start on April twenty eighth and closed on April thirtieth,
and opening bid is three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. Now,
the inside of this building needs a lot of work.
The outside is absolutely gorgeous. The inside the bones look great.
I've seen pictures from inside. It has got graffiti, it's
(06:18):
got problems with the paints and walls. It's gonna take
a lot. Now. Robert Wiler Company, at first wanted to
had three renovation plans for fifty apartments, sixty apartments or
forty three condominiums. They just couldn't get the numbers to work.
So now some other developer could come in and make
this work. It's really on the near East Side. It's
cool location. The building is humongous, and I think somebody
(06:41):
hopefully will invest in this because it is a treasure
of a building.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It is. It's a gorgeous building. I was not aware
that the inside was as trash as it was. Its
trash yeah, yeah, which reflects the opening bid at three
hundred and twenty five thousand. I mean, it's got to
be a good deal for somebody who who can make
the numbers work, right. I see they've got a plan
for the old spaghetti warehouse site.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, that was one that we hated to see go down,
but the roof was bad. It has lots of issues,
so that building's down. The new concept is called the Maclin.
It's at three ninety seven West Broad very familiar spot.
The former restaurant operated there from seventy eight to twenty two.
Now this has got two seven story brick buildings. These
are plans that were submitted to the city, two hundred
(07:26):
and fifty units, and it's just absolutely gorgeous and it
plays homage to the on one side looking over at downtown.
On the other side, looking toward Franklinton. It's really funky.
We have all these photos on our website. Take a
look at that. But it is going to be a
pretty interesting project once it's done, and I have a
feeling they're going to do very well filling these up.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Speaking with Bark Sommerson, Columbus Business. First, another story of
apartments and condos Levek Tower. They are flipping their apartments
to condos. Now, what's the Why are they making that change?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
This is interesting. Developer Brett Kaufman announced this on Monday
of this week that all of the apartments, sixty nine
of them, are going to become condos across fifteen floors
right now. The apartments that are they were apartments and
they still are until the leases are up. They're going
to sell for two hundred and forty thousand to six
hundred and fifty thousand for one and two bedroom units
(08:21):
between seven hundred, so it's two hundred and forty thousand
for seven hundred fifty square feed and all the way
up to seventeen hundred seventeen hundred square feed. But they're
also one hundred percent taxibated until twenty thirty two. So
that's a good deal for somebody. And you know, if
you've ever been inside the Levek Tower, it's an amazing place.
(08:43):
It is just a gorgeous building. It's got gorgeous floors
and these condos. You know, people who have lived in
there as apartments for a long time. We're not sure
exactly why Couflin did this. He purchased more than two
dozen floors of the forty seven story landmark building in
twenty fifteen. Compon Development currently still owns those fifteen floors.
(09:03):
Apartments are on from nineteen to thirty three, and those
will be converted into condos over time. He hasn't told
us exactly why the are doing this. It could be that,
you know, we just want to sell these had somebody
manage this for us and get out of the way.
It also means more cash for his development company if
that happens, So we'll have to see what happens. We're
(09:23):
going to take a look closer at the financing of
this and try to figure out exactly why these are
being converted, but yeah, it's just such a cool building.
It's an icon of Columbus and I absolutely love it.
All right, let us hear you Retirement Group dot com
(00:01):
phone line. We talked to them every Friday at this time.
Columbus Business First Managing Editor Mark Summerson, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Sir, Hey, good morning. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Are you ready for eighty degrees tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Of course I've done today. I am so white that
putting shorts on is a very scary thing. But I
am going to do it like you, I mean, how well,
how else do you get that that that luscious tan
for the summer?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Like you look at your legs, You're like, there's two
there's two candlesticks sitting on it. What is that?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Like? What I've seen? Better? Better skin tone in a
more But.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, at least you can at least you can own it.
At least you get Uh. You guys did a story,
and we've got some some other things to get to,
but you guys did a big piece on Record Store Day.
Think that this last weekend National Record Store Day celebrating
uh vinyl record and vinyl is It's been back for
a while. Vinyl sales have surpassed cassettes and CDs here
(01:00):
in the last several years. It is trendy and it
is first of all, it's not cheap. And my son,
who's seventeen, we kind of got him into records. We
bought him a turntable. Of course, his his vinyl choice
is a little different than mine. I've got. My vinyl
collection is largely what my parents had, and that's the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones and led Zeppelin and the
(01:22):
Beach Boys.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
In the fun I put you down as an eighties
hair metal band.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Guy, you'd be We'd be mostly wrong on that. I
was more into the the sixties and seventies stuff. Okay,
But there's a lot of great record stores in Columbus.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh, there is, and we spent some time at two
of them. We went to use Kids Record on Summit
and we went to Spoonful, which is on State Street downtown.
And as you said, sales are up. Last year sales,
vinyl sales excluding singles, these are just the LPs reached
one point four billion dollars in the US austin inflation,
(02:00):
vinyl revenue increased by more than four thousand percent since
two thousand and four, and it really took off. We
found over COVID when people were at home, they may
have been looking at their old records and saying what
should I do with these? And that's when I started
up again. I hadn't had records since the mid eighties.
I replaced everything with CDs. Now I've got about three
(02:21):
hundred records. My daughter has about one thousand records wow
and growing. And she was there on records store Day.
I went the next day to one on ours in
near Clintonville called RPM and it's on North High Street.
And I did get a special edition five LP Grateful
Dead nineteen seventy six Live from New York package and
(02:44):
it was beautiful and I love it it.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So it's new. It was a new pressing vinyl. This
wasn't something that's been around for forty five fifty years.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No new pressing. I mean, the show's been around forever.
But somebody at somebody at Grateful Dead Headcore decided and
they do something special for Record Store Day every year.
There is a limited number of these made. There's a
limited number of all sorts of stuff that come out
on Record Store Day. We ran into some people were
getting the Wicket soundtrack that was made just for this.
(03:14):
It's a special edition. There's all sorts of cool things,
and you know, the record stores order as many as
they can, knowing they're going to sell out of these,
and both of the record stores went to had huge
lines well before they could open at eight o'clock. Record
Store Day has rules that you cannot open and start
to sell. Record Store Day things tell eight o'clock, So
people at both of these places were there overnight, some intents,
(03:36):
some and chairs. This is a big, big event. I
asked the guy who runs RPM, was this like your
Black Friday? Said no, it's so much better. Wow, he said,
this is we do in one day what we usually
do in like ten weekends. It is that big. One
guy at his store paid over nine hundred dollars for
records before he left. So it is a huge day,
(03:59):
and it's a increasingly it's a fascinating business. Like Used
Kids has been around for a while, Spoonful has had
this is their second iteration. But yeah, RPM has been
open probably I'm thinking ten years or so. But you're right,
these record stores are popping up all over the nation.
People are getting into vinyl again. I still buy a
(04:19):
lot of use records that you can get for five
to ten dollars, but the new ones are quite expensive.
They're fifteen, twenty dollars, and some of them that are
on specially weighted LP and vinyl are even higher, thirty
or forty dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, I like to go and get the you the
old old stuff, you know that's kind of beat up
for you know, five ten maybe you know, twelve bucks
is something that's been around the block and maybe got
a little scratch or a nick to it, and maybe
he's got to stick to it. I like those, you know,
my son will go out and buy the new stuff.
I mean he'll go buy the new you know, the
Taylor Swift album or whatever that's been pressing. You'll spend,
(04:54):
you know, spend thirty dollars on that. But Greg Hall,
by the way, is the owner of You Kids Records.
He's a great guy. He's a really he's a big
supporter of youth hockey, which is a different conversation, but
I wonderful my son is involved in that. So Greg
is a great guy. If you are into vinyl and
getting the old fashioned records, going go see Greg at
(05:15):
us Kids. It's a fantastic, fantastic hobby, A great way
to kill us some time on a Sunday afternoon and
fire up the turntable. No doubt. Speaking with Mark Summerson,
Columbus Business First. All right, so there's this building east
side broad Street and I was just down there Mark
the other day, and I'm looking up at it and
I'm like, this is a beautiful building. Why is it
not being used.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's the broad Wind Building. It opened in nineteen twenty
four and it's about to go to auction. It's been
empty for years. There have been plans for this almost
ninety thousand square foot building for a number of years.
Robert Wyler Company was interested. At one point they purchased
this building. It's been one of those places where things
(05:56):
just haven't worked out and they're getting rid of it
and it's going to be auction off auctioning. The bids
start on April twenty eighth and closed on April thirtieth,
and opening bid is three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. Now,
the inside of this building needs a lot of work.
The outside is absolutely gorgeous. The inside the bones look great.
I've seen pictures from inside. It has got graffiti, it's
(06:18):
got problems with the paints and walls. It's gonna take
a lot. Now. Robert Wiler Company, at first wanted to
had three renovation plans for fifty apartments, sixty apartments or
forty three condominiums. They just couldn't get the numbers to work.
So now some other developer could come in and make
this work. It's really on the near East Side. It's
cool location. The building is humongous, and I think somebody
(06:41):
hopefully will invest in this because it is a treasure
of a building.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It is. It's a gorgeous building. I was not aware
that the inside was as trash as it was. Its
trash yeah, yeah, which reflects the opening bid at three
hundred and twenty five thousand. I mean, it's got to
be a good deal for somebody who who can make
the numbers work, right. I see they've got a plan
for the old spaghetti warehouse site.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, that was one that we hated to see go down,
but the roof was bad. It has lots of issues,
so that building's down. The new concept is called the Maclin.
It's at three ninety seven West Broad very familiar spot.
The former restaurant operated there from seventy eight to twenty two.
Now this has got two seven story brick buildings. These
are plans that were submitted to the city, two hundred
(07:26):
and fifty units, and it's just absolutely gorgeous and it
plays homage to the on one side looking over at downtown.
On the other side, looking toward Franklinton. It's really funky.
We have all these photos on our website. Take a
look at that. But it is going to be a
pretty interesting project once it's done, and I have a
feeling they're going to do very well filling these up.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Speaking with Bark Sommerson, Columbus Business. First, another story of
apartments and condos Levek Tower. They are flipping their apartments
to condos. Now, what's the Why are they making that change?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
This is interesting. Developer Brett Kaufman announced this on Monday
of this week that all of the apartments, sixty nine
of them, are going to become condos across fifteen floors
right now. The apartments that are they were apartments and
they still are until the leases are up. They're going
to sell for two hundred and forty thousand to six
hundred and fifty thousand for one and two bedroom units
(08:21):
between seven hundred, so it's two hundred and forty thousand
for seven hundred fifty square feed and all the way
up to seventeen hundred seventeen hundred square feed. But they're
also one hundred percent taxibated until twenty thirty two. So
that's a good deal for somebody. And you know, if
you've ever been inside the Levek Tower, it's an amazing place.
(08:43):
It is just a gorgeous building. It's got gorgeous floors
and these condos. You know, people who have lived in
there as apartments for a long time. We're not sure
exactly why Couflin did this. He purchased more than two
dozen floors of the forty seven story landmark building in
twenty fifteen. Compon Development currently still owns those fifteen floors.
(09:03):
Apartments are on from nineteen to thirty three, and those
will be converted into condos over time. He hasn't told
us exactly why the are doing this. It could be that,
you know, we just want to sell these had somebody
manage this for us and get out of the way.
It also means more cash for his development company if
that happens, So we'll have to see what happens. We're
(09:23):
going to take a look closer at the financing of
this and try to figure out exactly why these are
being converted, but yeah, it's just such a cool building.
It's an icon of Columbus and I absolutely love it.
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