New Development - Land Swap Deal
In March 2007, MidTown, Inc. assisted in facilitating a land swap deal between the City of Columbus and the Muscogee County School Board so that approximately 1.6 acres located in front of the new main library and presently inhabited by Firestone could be transferred to the School Board for incorporation into the front lawn greenspace of the new library. In exchange for this property (and other acreage located on Veterans Parkway to be incorporated into the new Mildred Terry library), the School board will transfer 6 acres of combined Sears and library site property, immediately behind the proposed new School Administration building on Macon Road to be used for the new city services center and a competition natatorium.
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The Potential of Tremendous Civic and Park Space
Working with elected and administrative officials, planning and economic consultants and hundreds of interested stakeholders, MidTown, Inc. helped develop a conceptual plan for the future use of the old Sears and excess library property. This plan has the maximum amount of park space sustainable at the location: 26.6 acres of park space. That park space surrounds the back of the library and provides an unobstructed park view out the library reading room window across the grand 18.5 acre central park to the new Rigdon Road Elementary School (indicated on the graphic above as the beige area with a blue asterisk). This plan provides for numerous pocket parks and grass vistas and includes the 6.6 acre front lawn of the library, which front lawn acreage was increased by the land swap deal discussed above.
