Losing popular campus establishments to development plans is nothing new. Too’s Above High displayed this banner in 2015, which reads, “Yes we are open and we are NOT going anywhere ‘til the wrecking ball makes us!!!!” Credit: Courtesy of Robert Singleton
Tucked onto the corner of North High Street and West Blake Avenue, a once thriving hub for food, drink and community stands vacant, with only a picturesque blue mural in its wake.
The Blue Danube — or “the Dube” — was once a community meeting place for Doreen Uhaus-Sauer and Pasquale Grado, two University Area commissioners with strong roots in the community. In 2018, it closed its doors after 78 years of business.
Grado, who authored the 1984 University Community Business Association’s University District Business directory, said “there’s hardly any” of the taverns, bars and restaurants from the directory left today.
Uhaus-Sauer, a Columbus historian, said the loss of “good great gathering places” — organically grown establishments that are prominent in the community — are the places the community misses the most and can create a “loss of identity” for both Ohio State alumni and current University Area residents.
“It’s all very, very personal. I think for others it is the loss of identity of a neighborhood,” Uhaus-Sauer said. “It’s the fabric of the neighborhood, which seems to be at the mercy of other forces that you cannot control.”
These “other forces” arrive in the form of out-of-state developers such as American Campus Communities, who bought the land on which The Little Bar and the University Baptist Church reside.
In July, a proposal to tear down University Baptist Church and the Little Bar to build new apartment complexes intended for students sent shockwaves throughout the community.
Several Ohio State students and community members attended University Area Commission meetings to oppose the project, which was approved by the Columbus City Council in a 6-1 vote.
The Little Bar is not the only popular campus gathering place to succumb to this fate.
In March, the University Area Commission unanimously passed a proposal by Buckeye Real Estate for a new apartment complex to replace the Bier Stube, a longstanding South Campus bar. Affectionately dubbed “The Stube,” the bar has been open since 1966, and the decision for demolition now rests in the hands of Columbus City Council.
Before these projects, there was Too’s Spirits Under High and Lucky’s Stout House, which both came down in new High Street developments.
The University Area Commission is a group of representatives elected by multiple University Area organizations, including the University Community Business Association, Ohio State and area rental property owners, according to their website.
When zoning proposals are heard in front of the board, they are first heard by the zoning committee, a smaller subsection of the commission. When deciding whether or not to pass a proposal, the committee examines zoning laws set by the city, such as heights and density.
Proposals presented to the committee are typically zoning code variances that need to be approved, such as removing parking spaces or expanding patios.
Robert Singleton, a former radio and television reporter for WCMH-TV and WOSU, said High Street in particular is a place that has been “waiting to be plundered” by out-of-state developers for the last year.
“It’s like canyons of steel on High Street,” Singleton said. “It’s never gonna end, is it?”
Grado, who frequently hears developers’ zoning proposals at University Area Commission meetings, said out-of-state developers are flocking to the University Area because of increasing population density and accessibility to investment money for student housing.
“No matter what project is being proposed, we’re always confronted with these major requests to increase the density,” Grado said. “They’ll double it, increase the height, you know, and it is not to bring students, but it’s to allow [out-of-state developers] to charge the rates they’ve been charging.”
The University Area Commission on which Grado and Uhaus-Sauer sit is filled with community members, representatives from businesses and Ohio State. While the commissioners hear concerns about affordability and community, their job when it comes to zoning is to consider the variances they’re presented rather than the impact of the zoning as a whole.
One of the problems with out-of-state developers is their tendency to “flip” properties and then leave the area, Uhaus-Sauer said.
Grado described flipping properties as developers building a project and then reselling it before it is completed, or soon after, to make a profit.
“As soon as they make their money, they’ll be out, and they may not complete the building in the style that was approved,” Uhaus-Sauer said.
Out-of-state developers are not the only contributing factor to the loss of beloved campus establishments. Uhaus-Sauer said the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of small business investment have contributed to the loss.
“It was also because they couldn’t sustain themselves or they were artificially sustained through federal funds for a while,” Uhaus-Sauer said. “Then we had a second wave of COVID and anything that looks kind of like, I want to say, an older tavern or a bar that was still run by a family, really really struggled to stay abreast of it.”
There’s not much that can be done to stop out-of-state developers from coming in, according to Uhaus-Sauer, and although getting historical designations can protect buildings themselves, the businesses housed inside don’t have the same privilege.
“There are things that create a neighborhood in the first place that give it that vibrancy and character. But once they start voting in favor of just the development, it is significant,” Uhaus-Sauer said.
