State of Downtown Columbus
Year-End 2023

Capital Crossroads & Discovery Special Improvement Districts are pleased to release their annual State of Downtown Report. This comprehensive report looks at data and research across various sectors including major investments, housing and residents, office and employment, education, healthcare and transportation. 

Trends across all researched sectors are encouraging with continued growth year over year since the pandemic. Among the highlights:

• $228 million of public and private investments were completed in 2023.
• $1.1 billion is under construction with $1.7 billion of proposed projects in the pipeline.
• Downtown’s residential population grew to 12,000.
• Downtown’s office vacancy rate improved slightly to 21.1% in the 4th quarter of 2023.
• 14 net new retailers opened ground-floor businesses in 2023, the highest number in a decade. 

Key Takeaways

• The downtown population continues to increase, and with 1,609 units under construction, it shows no signs of slowing down.
• Apartment occupancy remains high at 90%, allowing downtown apartments to command higher rents. The Vera on Broad and Topiary Park Crossing added 212 new workforce apartments in the Discovery District.
• The downtown office market held somewhat steady last year while peer cities saw an increase in their vacancy rates over the previous year.  
• Downtown hospitality continued its upward trajectory as hotel occupancy increased to 54.3%, and 5 million unique visitors to downtown made a combined 27.7 million visits, a 7% increase from 2022.

View the full report here

For questions, or to request a hard copy, contact Marc Conte, Executive Director of Capital Crossroads and Discovery Special Improvement Districts, at mvconte@sidservices.com or (614) 591-4507.