Marble Cliff Place Campus: West Fifth Avenue and Dublin Road

The former Highlight's For Children campus consisting of approximately 50,000 square feet at the northeast corner of West Fifth Avenue and Dublin Road was purchased by Todd Kemmerer, president of Capitol Equities, and partners in 2003. Highlights had moved operations to its new Watermark Drive campus leaving the 2300 and 2500 West Fifth Avenue buildings vacant and in need of updating.

The 2500 Fifth Avenue building was demolished to provide additional parking and green space for the project while the 2300 building was renovated for Babbage Simmel, a knowledge-based IT services firm. Since 2004 the firm has occupied the updated 18,500 square foot building which now houses state-of-the-art technology classrooms, a client cafe and meeting areas along with Babbage Simmel's corporate offices.

The remaining building, 2200 West Fifth Avenue, was occupied by Zaner Bloser, a division of Highlights, until June 2007 when it also moved to Highlight's new campus. This left the overall project with a 60% vacancy rate.

Having received notice earlier in the year that Zaner Bloser would be vacating the building at the end of their lease a strategy was formulated to rehabilitate the property into a multi-tenant facility. With a plan already in place Capitol Equities was able to begin the construction project as soon as the building was empty. The team kept much of the existing structure while replacing the roof, mechanical and HVAC systems. A new main entry and common lobby were added to the building to draw the styles of the 2200 and 2300 Fifth Avenue buildings together, creating a campus-like feel at this prominent Grandview corner.

During the renovation process Capitol Equities also negotiated and finalized leases for two organizations to occupy most of the 2200 building as soon as work was completed. In mid-July 2007 the Butler Cincione& DiCuccio law firm moved into the third floor of the building. By September 2007 the State of Ohio Department of Administrative Services also occupied the entire first and second floors of the building, bringing the campus' occupancy back to over 95% within just 60-days of Zaner Bloser vacating the property.

"When we originally purchased this property, we had 100% occupancy guaranteed with Zaner Bloser in one building and Babbage Simmel moving into the 2300 building, however, we knew the time would come when we would be left with a completely vacant 27,000 square foot building, and we planned accordingly," says Todd Kemmerer.

"Because Capitol Equities provides construction management, property management as well as leasing services, we were able to run with the redevelopment from start to finish, quickly repositioning the asset and ending with a fully occupied campus with a down time of only 60-days."