Disagreements doomed Buckingham's bid for Scioto Peninsula, city emails show

By Tristan Navera of Columbus Business First

The deal between the Indianapolis company chosen to spearhead the $500 million Scioto Peninsula redevelopment, the city of Columbus and Columbus Downtown Development Corp. was falling apart long before the June announcement that the project was on hold and that Buckingham Cos. was out.

Columbus Business First reviewed hundreds of emails between the city, the CDDC and Buckingham and found that the developer began reworking initial plans soon after landing the lucrative assignment as part of a potential deal with a company to move its headquarters to the Scioto Peninsula. The reworked project, the emails show, would have first and foremost focused on that company's campus before building up the rest of the mixed-use site with the hoped-for hotels, residences and restaurants.

That didn't sit well with CDDC, which raised objections to the changes as early as January or February, soon after it had picked Buckingham as the project's developer in December.

Few of the parties are talking much about the project now or have much to elaborate on the emails. But here is what we know.

Mystery tenant

Although not the original plan pitched to Columbus leaders, Buckingham soon began working with a large company to move its headquarters to the Scioto Peninsula. That company's campus would form the focus of the first phase of the development.

The name of the company and drawings of its campus were redacted by the city, claiming trade secrets, when it fulfilled our public records request for emails about the project. The emails do not say whether the company already is based in Columbus or would have come from out of town.

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