It’s quirky, vibrant, exciting, colorful and even historical. The RiverPark campus of Columbus State University is constantly evolving as more people are attracted downtown, er, “Uptown,” and more students take up living and studying in what was once considered a blighted section of town. “I would certainly say it has transformed the Uptown area in a number of ways. Any time you attract a number of students it increases the attractiveness of that area to folks who are in retail and the restaurant business,” said CSU’s Interim President Tom Hackett.

“It is, indeed, a beautiful location,” said Ben Blair, associate professor of economics and director of the Butler Center for Business and Economic Research in the CSU Turner College of Business. But there are other benefits.

“I can tell you as a result of the RiverPark development, some of the non-measurable kind of things — the anecdotal evidence — is that it’s a lot safer place to be downtown, it’s a more vibrant place, a safer place for families to be at night,” he said.

Blair, the author of a recent analysis of the campus’ economic impact on the region, reports nothing but positive results from CSU’s various developments, which began in the mid-1990s. The impact study shows that the university’s RiverPark campus is now contributing more than $21 million annually to the local economy. According to Blair, expenditures by the university on its downtown campus currently support 227 jobs annually and provides $11.2 million in labor income annually.

The report focused on impacts associated with three types of spending, Blair said. The “day-today” expenditures by the university on wages, salaries, operations and maintenance; the personal expenditures of students housed in nearby residence halls; and money spent by the university on capital improvements such as remodeling existing buildings.

“Each of these direct expenditures generate additional economic activity indirectly through the purchases of intermediate goods and services by local businesses,” he said. “In addition, as employees and business owners earn income as a result of this economic activity, they will spend a portion of their income locally which induces another series of economic chain reactions through the Columbus economy.”

The recurring personnel and non-personnel expenditures by the university and the expenditures by students who are housed at the RiverPark campus generate significant ongoing impact, Blair said. “The annual economic impact of $21.5 million is over and above the amount CSU has spent since the early 1990s on building purchases and renovations downtown,” he said.

The idea of establishing a downtown college presence in this area started out as a public-private partnership to breathe new life into an old district. According to Blair’s published economic impact report, four community leaders — Columbus Mayor Frank Martin, CSU President Frank Brown, architect Rozier Dedwylder, and W.C. Bradley Co. CEO Bill Turner — formed a core group of key supporters.

“I understand it was a citywide decision to try to revitalize that area,” Blair said. “It all came about when they wanted to build a large performance hall (downtown). They wanted it to not be vacant between shows; they wanted it to be a vibrant place. One of the ideas that came to them was it would be a great place to include the Schwob School of Music. So that was kind of the impetus.”

The vision for a performance hall — what would become the RiverCenter — was a facility that would be a “beehive of activity,” Blair wrote in his report. “The most obvious way to accomplish this was for the performance hall to be a key component of CSU’s music school, which lacked top-quality performance facilities.”

In 1995, the Board of Regents approved the idea of moving the music school to the RiverPark district — but it would actually open a few years later. The first CSU facility Uptown opened in 1996.

“Basically, the university’s footprint down there started with the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in 1996,” Blair said. “And since then it’s grown. Between 2000 and 2001, there were some residential beds located downtown; the Rankin Art Center opened, and then between 2001 and 2002 the RiverCenter opened and CSU’s Schwob School of Music moved downtown.”

According to Blair’s report, between 1998 and 2014 the university bought and renovated many old downtown buildings for use as student housing, classrooms, art studios, performance halls and theatre facilities. The RiverPark campus now is home to 450 students, nestled in historic and historic-looking buildings such as the Rankin, Oglethorpe, Giglio, Broadway Crossing, One Arsenal Place and Fontaine. Aside from the Schwob School of Music, the Rankin Art Center and departments of Theatre, Art, History and Geography and Communication now call RiverPark home.

Construction, renovation and remodeling happened in four main phases. In 1995 and 1996, $5.5 million was spent on construction of the Coca- Cola Space Science Center. Counting the indirect and induced economic impacts, this spending supported nearly 50 jobs a year for two years and increased labor income by $6 million in 2014 dollars. During the second construction phase (1998– 2002), $8 million was spent to renovate the Rankin, Oglethorpe and Giglio buildings for student housing and the Rankin Arts Center.

This spending supported nearly 38 jobs. The biggest expenditure, $43.6 million, was made during the third phase (2004– 2007), which funded the construction of the Riverside Theatre, the Corn Center for  the Visual Arts, the renovation of One Arsenal Place, and the construction of the Columbus Hall and Broadway Crossing student housing buildings. These expenditures supported nearly 200 jobs each year and increased the total economic output by almost $84 million.

These positive developments haven’t gone unnoticed by other cities, according to CSU officials. Columbus and CSU have been recognized for years for a partnership that has helped revitalize the downtown district. Groups from other cities and states have frequently visited to see what’s going on here, and in 2011 two nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving Columbus’ downtown area, Uptown Columbus Inc. and Business Improvement District, recognized the university with its fourth annual Rozier Dedwylder Leadership Award, presented to a person or organization that embodies the vision and energy of Dedwylder, who helped launch the revitalization project now known as “Uptown.”

The revitalization efforts actually began back in the 1980s, Hackett said, when local residents first started to renovate homes in the historic district. Meanwhile, the city developed the Columbus Trade Center, which attracted upscale hotels. And then CSU entered the picture, which changed the landscape dramatically.

“I would certainly say the move of the college to the Uptown area transformed it by adding the students to the equation, and students bring life and excitement. The college of arts, music, theater moved from the main campus to the Uptown area, and it really changed it,” Hackett said. Hackett said the Uptown campus arrived during a flurry of activity, which he described as a “perfect storm in a positive way” that created the momentum that carries on today.

“It attracts new businesses that not only serve the folks who work there but that create an attractive Uptown area,” he said. “The other thing is a number of buildings have been repurposed to become residential buildings, such as loft apartments, and those have proven to be very, very popular. I attended a function Uptown recently in one of those loft apartments and it was gorgeous. Renovating buildings in that way brings a big city, hip vibe to the Uptown area where before there were old mills or office buildings.”