Gravitational Pull: How Creative Culture Makes Neighborhoods Great

The Community's Conversation

Developing a Dynamic Downtown Series

If it’s been more than a year since you last visited the Franklinton section of Columbus, just west of downtown, you’re in for a shock. Longtime vacant lots and boarded-up houses are gone, replaced by trendy new apartment buildings that look like they’ve been plucked from a hip neighborhood in Copenhagen.

The new developments are more than just places for urbanites to live: they’re complete destinations, stocked with brewpubs, restaurants, coffee shops, and art installations. The living arrangement’s often modern too, with “co-living” apartments now becoming more common: in these “adult dorms,” bedrooms are private, but spaces like living rooms and kitchens are shared for maximum socialization and minimal rent.

No developer in Columbus has been closer to the epicenter of Franklinton’s complete reinvention than visionary Brett Kaufman. His 15-acre Gravity project, “the world’s largest conscious community,” is now almost a city-within-a-city and features apartments, offices, and coming soon – an adult “experience park” featuring pickleball courts, an ice rink (in the winter), and space for food trucks.

Columbus Business First’s Bonnie Meibers sits down with Brett Kaufman for an-in-depth conversation on his vision for Columbus and the city’s unrealized potential as a modern, sustainable, and equitable city.

The speakers are:

Brett Kaufman, Founder, Kaufman Development

With host Bonnie Meibers, Commercial Real Estate Reporter, Columbus Business First

Greg Davies, CEO of Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, provided closing remarks.

This forum is part of CMC’s ongoing Developing a Dynamic Downtown series, presented by the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation and Capitol South and sponsored by Thompson Hine.

This forum was also sponsored by REALM and supported by The Ellis. The livestream was presented by The Center for Human Kindness at The Columbus Foundation and by The Columbus Dispatch.

This forum was recorded before a live audience in Columbus, Ohio on September 13, 2023.