Construction cranes dot the skyline in and around Downtown these days, and plans are afoot for several new Downtown-area skyscrapers. Even so, office space is hard to fill in a number of major Downtown buildings and tenants continue to pack up in favor of the suburbs.

The biggest issue? Parking.

Many major buildings in the heart of Downtown near Capital Square that don't have plentiful, attached parking continue to languish despite positive signs elsewhere of a revitalized Downtown core.

There are occasional bits of good news, such as the recent reopening of the completely redone Long Street garage west of 3rd Street, several years after it had been condemned. The fully enclosed garage has more than 500 spaces. A car wash will reopen soon in the garage, managed by Park Ops for Connect Realty.

The garage attracts about a 10 percent premium over parking across the street, said Connect President Brad DeHays. A single, non-reserved space costs $185, and reserved spaces top $200 per month. While that's very low compared to parking rates in the largest U.S. cities, Downtown workers for years had grown accustomed to paying only about $100 a month out of their own pocket.

Developers say parking rates have to go higher to justify private investment in more parking spaces. But costlier parking could be another reason for companies to shun Downtown in favor of a suburban office with plentiful, free parking.

Developer Frank Kass, founder of Continental Real Estate, continues to work on projects around Downtown but says the parking issue is a huge drag on buildings without parking garages. He and other real estate experts say the economics of acquiring land and building a garage don't make sense for private developers.

"The only real solution is for the city to build more garages," Kass said. He points to two garages built in 2009 and 2010 — at Front and Rich (RiverSouth) and 4th and Elm (next to the Neighborhood Launch project) — that have been very successful investments for the city, which can borrow at a lower rate and doesn't pay tax as a private developer must. The garages are managed by the nonprofit Columbus Downtown Development Corporation.

Steve Schoeny, director of development for the city, said there are no plans to build more garages. He said the city simply doesn't have much land to build on, and city Auditor Hugh Dorrian has not favored investing in more garages as an ongoing proposition. Schoeny pointed out that the city and county do offer some incentives such as grants that must be paid back over time for private developers to build extra parking.

Schoeny and others favor an approach that encourages more Downtown workers to commute by other methods.

"We have high parking rates for a distressed office market in the core of Downtown," said Cleve Ricksecker, executive director of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District. "Vacancy for Class A and B office space (in the district) is 25 percent. It's highly distressed right now, and that doesn't include OhioHealth, which will be moving workers out of Downtown to their new headquarters" by late 2018. It will vacate close to 140,000 square feet of Downtown space in two buildings along Broad Street.

In addition to vacancy, Ricksecker said, rents in the area have dropped on an inflation-adjusted basis, down 28 percent since 1999.

"The Capitol Square area should be the premier office market of the city," Ricksecker said. "The reality is, tenants are still leaving ... not many new ones are coming in, they're just shuffling around to different areas."

Tyler Steele, general manager of the Huntington building for Hines management, confirmed that tenants continue to cite travel and car-related woes in giving notice that they are moving to the suburbs despite the building's recently announced investment in improvements.

"We hear that freeway congestion and general lack of transit alternatives into the city from the suburbs are top concerns," Steele said. "It's repeatedly the suburban commuter complaining about freeway congestion, accidents and weather-related backups in their daily routine." Parking at the Huntington building, which has a waiting list, runs between $200 and $300 monthly.

Ricksecker's goal is to fund a program starting next spring that would offer workers within the Downtown improvement district a free monthly bus pass. He is still trying to piece together the money from grants and other sources needed to supplement an assessment on all property within the district.

He said even a 6 percent swing from cars to other forms of commuting would provide significant relief for Downtown parking and would make it easier for Downtown hotels and other businesses to hire and retain workers. Ricksecker added that other cities, including Cleveland and Cincinnati, have recently invited him to talk to them about the idea.

Joseph Schwieterman, a professor of transportation at DePaul University, said such issues are something many cities across the country face, with no easy, one-size-fits-all answers.

"It's going to be tough to push enough people to (mass) transit to solve the problem," Schwieterman said, given that buses and bikes currently are the main alternatives in Columbus.

Schwieterman added that inexpensive gas and a shift in jobs away from ones where employees clock in and clock out at set shifts also have contributed to people being unwilling to get out of their cars.

The city's Smart Cities grant is funding efforts to make future commutes better with such things as self-driving cars, but most agree there will remain parking and traffic pain for the near-term future.

"This is something we're concerned about, but not something that's unusual," Schoeny said. "This is what you'd expect in a growing city."

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mrose@dispatch.com

@MarlaMRose