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What If? CSU Main Campus Edition

Have you been to Mercer University lately? If you have you've noticed that the once somewhat neglected side of the campus bordered by Mercer University Drive has been revitalized by the addition of a new football stadium and modern student apartments. The new apartments are positioned across the street from campus on the south side of the Drive, meaning that students are now crossing a busy roadway that they hadn't navigated before. To make this task simple the University hoisted in a pedestrian bridge that connects the multi-floor student apartments to the main campus, passing over the busy street.
These student apartments now match another set of relatively new student apartments and retail shops found on the other end of campus that includes the Mercer University Barnes & Noble Bookstore. What if the sad little strip mall across from CSU's main entrance on University Avenue were razed and replaced with a replica of Mercer's multi-floor student apartment building shown at left that also connected to a Mercer-style pedestrian bridge over University Avenue like that in the photo at the top? None of it would have to be as fancy as Mercer's examples to be a nice draw. What's more, the CSU Bookstore could vacate its location in the Davidson Center and locate on the first floor of the new building next to a coffee shop and pizzeria. Not only would that location still be able to cater to CSU students and faculty, it would also be much more accessible to Columbus residents who might like to stop in and purchase a t-shirt or baseball cap. Recall that CSU is one of nine universities that are part of a 40-year Public Private Partnership (P3) with the University System of Georgia (USG) and Corvias to develop, construct, renovate, manage, and maintain new and existing student housing and community buildings on the main campus. This means that CSU needs only to acquire the small parcel of land there (assuming CSU doesn't already own it), which it could do with donor assistance, before turning it over to Corvias to develop and manage. It seems like this could work. What do you think?

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