COLUMBUS GROVE — A unique educational opportunity and collaboration
began last month on February 7. That is when students from Columbus
Grove High School’s Business Class met with Dave Stratton and Eric Davis
from the Allen Economic Development Group. Together, they toured six
properties in Lima that are currently the focus of redevelopment efforts
in the city.
“Because one of the things we’re always talking
about is, what amenities? Delis? Restaurants? What we think always seems
great,” says Stratton as he explains why he and his colleagues felt it
would be worthwhile to work with the business class students. “But, what
do they think? They’re the next generation. They’re going to probably
come up with some real interesting things.”
According to Stratton
and Davis, one of the properties the students viewed has been sitting
vacant for six years. Another has an owner willing to commit millions
towards redevelopment if a plan can be presented with a strong economic
case. All have potential, and since one goal is to entice young people
to visit downtown Lima for recreation and entertainment, these
developers were keen to see what the students themselves thought might
work for the properties they toured.
Over the course of the next
two weeks the students did much more than offer suggestions. To borrow a
phrase, they got down to business.
As demonstrated during their
presentations, the students studied area demographics to better
understand the population being served. They looked at the other
businesses and organizations already present in the area. They paid
attention to traffic flow issues and parking needs.
They
researched how the area was zoned to better understand what could be
developed. They created a survey and interviewed nearby residents,
asking what kind of development those residents would like to see.
The
final presentations included details on specific lease amounts for
office space in mixed-use developments, projected construction costs and
anticipated timelines for development. A decision matrix was used to
inform the best possible use of the spaces being considered. 3D models
were created of final ideas.
“We plan to turn [this development
site] into a business incubator with a few select businesses,” said one
of the student presenters as she explained her team’s idea. “A place
where they can work and hold meetings in a laid back atmosphere.”
“We
plan on having a small coffee shop or cafe in the top…We want want to
bring a new work atmosphere to Lima… [With this plan], you can get a
private office space of around a couple hundred square feet for about
$1,000 a month.”
The student presenter then went on to show images
of a similar and successful concept from a city in Alabama which has
challenges comparable to that of Lima. The students had researched what
had worked in other cities and could possibly be duplicated in this
area.
“These principles apply pretty much universally to
communities across our region,” said Davis of the work the students had
done. “If we can get these students thinking about development in a way
that’s different than what has been occurring, there’s no reason they
can’t put some of those ideas to work here in their own community.”
Questions
were posed by Stratton and Davis that the students could not fully
answer, particularly around return on investment (ROI) and the length of
time it would take to recoup initial investment costs. This, however,
as both Stratton and Davis pointed out, actually showed the length of
progress the students had made within a short, two-week time period.
They had moved beyond the ideation phase of development planning, and
were approaching true questions of feasibility.
“Fantastic job,”
said Davis. “You clicked every box we tend to look at when we look at
project development, looking at the questions we would ask. We could get
down in the minutia, the details, but that’s not really appropriate
right now…The depth of the research and how far you took these ideas,
just fantastic.”