ThisWeek UA 06/02/2011
After years of sitting mostly vacant, the revitalization of Kingsdale has resulted in a full house.
“Our retail space is now completely full, with only one 2,800-square-foot space left,” Continental Real Estate retail development broker Steve Siegel said. “When we purchased (Kingsdale), every current tenant signed a new lease, and we’re really thrilled with everyone’s commitment.”
Of the final retail storefronts to be built out, four new businesses will be opening at Kingsdale by the end of 2011. These include Coldwell Banker King Thompson (opening June 7), Nutter Hardware (anticipated opening in August), Urgent Care (anticipated opening in October) and Raymond James Financial Services (opening not yet announced), according to the Upper Arlington City Manager’s office.
Siegel said that the city and Continental would like to add another full-service restaurant to the property, but there currently is no one committed to developing one.
According to Continental representatives, the opening of another retail office space in building A, the newly constructed building on Tremont Road next door to the new Coldwell Banker King Thompson storefront, could represent up to 20 new professional employees in the city.
With the retail space filled, and the realization of 20 new positions, deputy city manager for economic development Matt Shad said the city could see an increase in annual income tax revenue of $50,000.
“We’ve been in our current (Fishinger Road) building for over 20 years; this new location will give us a lot more visibility and there’s just a lot of excitement around the new Kingsdale,” Coldwell Banker King Thompson executive vice president Jerry White said. “The consumer experience is going to be nice with this more efficient space, putting all the agents on one level.”
White said that they have been looking to move to a more modern location for a few years, but because of the King Thompson history with Upper Arlington, they wanted to wait for something central to the city, not on the periphery.
“Real estate is a more mobile environment now, so we are building the real estate office of the future,” White said. “We are a residential-only office that wants to grow in place and honor the tradition that King Thompson started here.”
Chuck Nutter, owner of Nutter Handyman Services and now Nutter Hardware, agrees that being in the center of the city is very important.
“We’re only focusing on the two- to three-mile radius of Upper Arlington residents for our customers,” Nutter said. “I’m all for this being a very locally focused hardware store.
“When we were working on how to fund the business, we ended up getting several of our existing (handyman) customers to be investors. Having people in the community investing with local businesses creates even more community ownership and I believe will snowball into good things.”
Nutter said that he was originally negotiating to build the store at Tremont Center when the Kingsdale redevelopment presented the current opportunity.
“I’d say Kingsdale has had a successful heart transplant, having gone from ghost town to having parking problems,” Nutter said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us. Continental has done an extraordinary job and has been fabulous to work with.”
Nutter Hardware will be a part of the Ace Hardware co-operative, providing Nutter with access to discount pricing and a wide variety of products, he said.
Besides these retail developments, the city and Continental have completed the land transfer of the Kingsdale office parcel, per the Performance to Development Agreement. This agreement gives Continental three years of exclusive marketing of the parcel for office development, according to city documents.
“This is a step in the process that we knew was coming with the completion of Phase 1,” deputy city manager for community affairs Emma Speight said. “The hope is for offices to be built and filled there, so we’ll see if the market for that is as strong (as it was for the retail).”
According to Shad, the city anticipates that the office parcel, fully developed, would net an additional $400,000 in annual income tax revenue.