been neglected for decades. By the time we acquired the property, the facade had deteriorated so severely that pieces were detaching from the structure, and we had to place netting around the upper portion of the building to prevent debris from falling. Its condition was so poor that the city was considering condemning and demolishing it — a scenario that would have been disastrous for our redevelopment plans.
Compounding this challenge was the fact that the country was in the midst of a recession. During boom times, one might feel confident undertaking such a project, but in a recession — with little pre-leasing and no certainty of tenants — this redevelopment carried significant risk. Because of these difficulties, my brother urged me to seek a blessing from the Rebbe. Initially, I resisted. I believed we shouldn’t trouble the Rebbe with business matters when people were seeking blessings for far more critical issues, like their health. Why impose upon him for something as mundane as a commercial venture? But my brother persisted, and eventually I agreed to ask at the next Machne Israel event.
Approached the Rebbe during our one-on-one meeting — as was the protocol at these events — I said: “We are working on a major project in downtown Columbus, and we would appreciate receiving a blessing for it to succeed.”
The Rebbe gave his blessing, but then he suggested that we make additional plans for the project to be larger. He explained that if we expand our plans, G-d will increase his blessings, and we will be successful beyond our expectations.
This made absolutely no sense to me. We were already using the entire parcel of land and expanding the building to the limits set by the structural engineer. The project was fixed; there was nothing else that could conceivably be added. I even told our local Chabad rabbi afterward that I didn’t understand what the Rebbe could have meant.
Ultimately, we managed to avoid the building being condemned, and thank G-d, the redevelopment was extremely successful. Despite completing the project in the depths of the 1991 recession and opening with only 20% of the building leased, we reached 100% occupancy within eight months — something virtually unheard of.
Now, one of our anchor tenants was a major regional bank that had leased approximately 20,000 square feet, with an option to expand by up to an additional 15,000 square feet. It had signed a 25-year lease, but after only two years it had grown so rapidly that even this was not enough. The bank informed us that unless it could secure additional space, it would have to relocate. This was alarming. The bank was a tonal tenant whose presence helped define the building and establish it as a “Class A” property on the commercial real estate market. The bank had to continue paying out its lease, but if its place was left empty, or even it managed to sublet it to someone else, the entire building would be affected.
Immediately to the west of our site was a parcel owned by the Taubman Company, originally intended to serve as part of a mall development contiguous to the south of our site. Taubman had repeatedly stated that it would use this parcel as a connector to the site of the Ohio State Capitol building, so we had never considered it acquirable. Then, in a completely unexpected turn of events, Taubman abandoned their plan, and we were able to purchase the parcel.
This utterly unforeseeable development allowed us to build a massive addition to our structure. With 23 stories, over 300,000 square feet, and a large parking facility, the expansion was more than twice the size of the original building. The two properties became a single integrated project, giving the bank exactly the space it needed to stay and continue its extraordinary growth.
None of this could have been predicted. When the Rebbe told us to expand the project, there was absolutely no indication that such a possibility even existed. Yet, with hindsight, everything aligned in a way that made his words not only sensible, but remarkably prescient. We ultimately sold the entire complex in 2006, and it became one of the most successful real-estate ventures ever completed in the city of Columbus. For years, I dismissed such stories as being apocryphal... but not anymore.
Mr. William Schottenstein is a real estate developer living in Columbus, Ohio. He was interviewed in August 2025.
