Open chairs and Wonder Bread sandwiches lasted only minutes at the first meeting, when hundreds of excited guests crammed into a room and hallway in Junctionview Studios to hear about a large, recently empty structure at 697 N. 4th St.
The 64,000-square-foot brick building, as of that night, was known no longer as the closed Wonder Bread bakery but as the future site of Wonderland, a multiuse space for art, performances and retail.
Proposed by an artist and four entrepreneurs, the idea sparked such instant enthusiasm that, in two weeks, a Facebook group in its honor amassed more than 5,000 friends.
A neighbor in Italian Village was among the first to comment on the page: "Oh my GOD, I am SO excited about this!"
"This is out of control, beyond awesome!" followed a city-planning professor at Ohio State University.
"YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" wrote an artist, using twice as many exclamation marks.
And then, there wasn't much news for several months.
One year after the announcement, the 100-year-old building is still, for the most part, a big abandoned bakery. The founders, who originally said tenants would move in last summer, now aim for an opening party in which the iconic Wonder Bread sign would be lighted on New Year's Eve 2011.
Critics have compared Wonderland to Ibiza, which isn't a compliment. The Short North housing development remains a vacant lot, stalled since 2006.
Last January, though, the vision for Wonderland was relatively simplistic: a building with rented spaces that could be constructed by volunteers with hammers.
Then came that first meeting, the inquiries from more than 1,000 prospective tenants and the comments from community leaders about Wonderland as a boon to economic development and a symbol of the city's creative spirit.
"It really became much bigger than just a bunch of storage units. It became a cultural zeitgeist," said artist and co-founder Adam Brouillette, 30 - who is now Wonderland's executive director.
"When people ask me, 'I thought you guys were going to be done by now,' I say we had a choice: We could do it fast, or we could do it right. We just chose to do it right."
Wonderland leaders expect more visible progress in the coming months, when they secure nonprofit status and kick off a fundraising campaign. The organization will begin leasing the building, purchased for $1.2 million last year by real-estate developer and original co-founder Kevin Lykens.
The team, which now consists of Brouillette, co-founders Josh Quinn and Andrew Dodson and a board of directors, will also introduce a series of monthly events.
At a Chinese New Year celebration planned for February, a lighthearted science fair in March and an April show-and-tell dinner with the newly selected Wonderland tenants, more about the group's plans will be revealed.
Construction, expected to begin by June, will likely entail the building of artist studios, rehearsal spaces, a performance and event venue, a recording studio and places to eat, drink and shop.
Artists and possibly community members could share equipment in workshops, those without offices could rent a workspace, and tenants and visitors alike could display their work in a shared gallery.
One mode of transportation between the two levels: a tube slide, playground-style.
Wonderland officials, who plan to select about 150 tenants in March, have unexpectedly received more than 1,000 proposals, including some they had never imagined - including a 20,000-square-foot brewery and a closet-sized space where a tenant would spay and neuter cats.
The atmosphere should be collaborative, with each tenant having opportunities to work with others - whether the occupant is a musician or a lawyer helping artists with intellectual-property issues.
For Eric Rausch, a ceramic artist who works out of a musty South Side warehouse, Wonderland could mean having a studio with more equipment, the space to host workshops and gallery exhibits and the chance to learn from a neighborhood of diverse artists.
"It all sort of seems like I'm describing the dream," said Rausch, 27, of the Short North.
Of course, Wonderland can't become reality without funding.
Brouillette once pegged the project cost at $7million to $9million, later saying the estimate could be higher or lower, depending on the selection of tenants and contractors. Regardless, he feels confident that Wonderland can secure the funding despite the current economic challenges.
"I graduated from (Columbus College of Art & Design) with a printmaking degree; I haven't run a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign," said Brouillette, who heads the arts group Couchfire Collective and manages Junctionview Studios in Grandview Heights.
"But I've come to a pretty distinct understanding that this is, in the grand scheme of things, not that large of an amount of money."
Wonderland has qualified for up to $1.2 million in state and federal tax credits for historic preservation and was recently awarded its first grant: $50,000 from the Columbus Foundation.
The Hodge Group, the project's hired fundraising consultants, won't specify possible sources of funding yet.
But Russell Hodge, managing partner, said Wonderland can find success by diversifying its fundraising: pursuing additional grants, corporate donations and "nontraditional opportunities."
What Brouillette calls a "fancy wedding registry" will be created online so that individuals, who will be recognized on plaques when the building opens, can make donations toward tangible items such as drywall, doors or light switches.
Already, in the absence of formal fundraising, more than 2,500 individuals have made contributions to the project.
"One of the impressive factors here has been the groundswell of support that has been generated for this project, which shows that it's really not a noble vision of a few but a cause among many," said Doug Kridler, president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation.
The Wonderland grant, he said, is rare during an economic time when the foundation isn't looking to fund startup efforts. In 2009, less than 1 percent of its funding went to new organizations.
"It comes down to what refreshes a city, and it's the ability to renew and reinvigorate," he said. "This is a great idea being advanced by smart, open and highly engaged people."
Wonderland, projected to be self-sufficient at 80 percent occupancy, would eventually buy the building and use its profits to fund loans or grants for tenants who outgrow their space there and wish to establish their own facilities.
When paired with existing resources, Wonderland could help sell the city in both tourism and business circles, said Mike Brown, director of development and public affairs at Experience Columbus.
"For me, this is exactly what the real Columbus is all about," he said. "There's this appetite among the young, creative class in Columbus to do something.
"The Wonderland project is a place where it's crystallizing. It's giving them a mission."
Brouillette hopes visitors to Columbus will return home talking about "this crazy old Wonder Bread factory where there was all this stuff going on" and that the city will be mentioned among New York; Los Angeles; Austin, Texas; or Portland, Ore., as a cool place that creative people want to move.
"But I think Columbus is not like Portland or Austin," he said.
"I think Columbus is like Florence, Italy, in the 1500s: We are essentially beginning a new renaissance."
asaunders@dispatch.com
