“Finally, there’s plenty of shopping going on at the Shoppes at River Ridge. Five years after falling into receivership, the Dublin commercial strip has rounded into a thriving mixed-use district with guidance from new owners and an assist from city development code. In just the past year or so, a mix of tenants including FC Bank, Harbor Yoga and Cardinal Fuse opened for business, bringing the center to near-zero vacancy. “The last store opened in May,” said Mary Bresnahan, vice president of the retail brokerage at Jones Lang LaSalle and leasing agent at River Ridge. “It is 99 percent leased; we have one space available. (And) we’ve had more calls in the last four months for space.” The collapse and comeback story began in 2007, when the $24 million, 103,000-square-foot center opened just months before the recession hit. Several large tenants, including anchor grocery store Sunflower Market, closed amid struggles at their parent companies. River Ridge fell into receivership in 2010 after Fifth Third Bank called in a $20.5 million loan on the property to original owner TSARR LLC, an affiliate of Columbus developer K2 Group LLC. But a major positive development came in late 2011 after Miami real estate investment firm Mast Capital bought the struggling property from the bank for $6.1 million. “They jumped in with both feet and they have done a fabulous job,” Bresnahan said. “(The challenges) had nothing to do with Dublin’s Bridge Street corridor – the center is a beautiful center in a great location. (But) when owned by the bank they could not put any money into building. Tenants were supposed to build it out themselves. The new ownership (can) fund the remodels and it’s much easier to lease the center.” Dublin in early 2012 introduced its Bridge Street Corridor Development Code, which gave tenants more flexibility and visibility with their signage.

It also allowed for more than just traditional retail tenants, paving the way for Cardinal Health Inc.’s Fuse tech innovation lab, medical offices and others that can create a diverse center of shopping, dining and professional services, Dublin’s Economic Development Director Colleen Gilger said. “I think the biggest shift in momentum came when Bridge Street zoning was approved,” she said. “It’s been a nice transition for (River Ridge). When it was first built it struggled to really find its identity.” Dublin has reason to be happy with the turnaround. The 44,000-population suburb has generated “far more” income tax than expected from the center thanks to the variety of businesses, Gilger said. “We get the 2 percent off (incomes of) people that work here,” she said. “A grocery store might have 20 part-time workers that make hourly wages, versus that same store having SO or 60 Cardinal Health corporate salaried jobs.” For shoppers, the mix of uses means parking once and then walking to various storefronts. And that’s only likely to improve once Dublin’s Bridge Street District develops, first with Crawford Hoying’s initial Bridge Park phase to be completed in late 2016. ~ “When you can create a park-once environment in the suburbs, people tend to come back,” Ed McMahon,
senior research fellow at the Urban Land Institute, told Columbus Business First in an earlier interview about the Bridge Street District. “It’s going about this idea of placemaking. Walkability plus placemaking equals profitability.””

BUSINESS FIRST – NOV 06, 2015, Doug Buchanan

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