CMHOhio

I almost prefer it looking like that compared to the renderings of the finished product.

It looks like it's been a while in the making! Long-time downtown pawn shop building to be converted to apartments By Tristan Navera – Reporter, Columbus Business First Sep 26, 2017 Updated Oct 4, 2017, 4:19pm EDT An old, three-story downtown building could be renovated with new apartments. Lev Kucherski, who owns Lev's Pawn Shop at 220 E. Main St., said he wants to see the top two floors of the building at the northwest corner of Main and 5th streets renovated with new apartments. https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2017/09/26/long-time-downtown-building-to-be-converted-to.html From today's article: "There is one studio unit which will rent for $1,200. The one-bedroom units will rent for about $1,400 and the two-bedrooms will start at $2,000. The rent for a two-bedroom apartment includes a parking space. Twelve of the units have balconies." $1200 for a studio apartment in this area of town seems like quite a price tag. Maybe it's a loft set up? $1400 for the one-bedroom units is a bit more reasonable, but still pretty up there for this area of town. The units do look very nice, though, as does the common space.

They named it! 😭 I actually don't mind the name given I knew its history the moment I saw it. Rockwell operated out of the former Curtis-Wright factory at CMH, which is now a Republic Airways maintenance base (the hangar with the big Value City Furniture advertisement draped across it). Yeah, these renderings are unfortunate. The street-level images made it seem a lot more varied with the signage and large pedestrian throughways. This view makes it look like your standard auto-oriented development. Though, another image from Business First has the 5 buildings closest to the park grayed out: Maybe it means there's a possibility that those buildings could change in design based on future demand. Some variation in building materials and structured parking would really bring this development up a few notches. In a perfect world, the parking would just be reduced overall since the development sits at a nexus point of both a North-South and East-West COTA route (the #24 and the #10). I wish that fact would be promoted more than anything and incentive would be made to capitalize on the ease of access of these 2 routes rather than give into the Parking Monster.

This is still my favorite pocket of Columbus, and it is only getting better. I love the overall look and feel of it and how it's developing.

That corner strip mall is presently owned by Wood Companies, is it not? I thought they had floated redevelopment of the parcel once other projects in the area were completed. Maybe it's getting around that time for them to put a serious proposal together?

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day. Kinda sad to see it go, it was a relic of a bygone time. Too bad it couldn't be integrated into any new development, but I have a feeling it was more of a hindrance to anything happening on that land.

This is really exciting. Between Edwards downtown and Kaufman in Franklinton, these are the 2 standard-bearers for urban development, in my opinion. I was really hoping to see an update on the elevated park; hopefully that's still in the works. I mentioned it earlier upthread, but such an amenity would truly be a unique draw to the downtown core and would add to the desirability of the area.

^Second King Gyros. That place is amazing. Does this development have a name? Kinda glad it doesn't; that it's just "Whitehall." This project could really help change the face of the suburb. Interesting that they're gearing it towards creatives with a focus on live-work space for the artistic community. It makes sense given Whitehall's relative affordability and easy access to Downtown and the Near East Side.

That's great news. Glad to see Ohio Health investing so much in downtown via Grant, especially with the loss of Mt. Carmel West as a full-service inpatient hospital. The new tower is a nice surprise as well. It may not equal the 16-story Baldwin Tower that was demolished in the early 2000s, but great to see nonetheless. Even better, it looks like another surface lot will be replaced, albeit with structured parking. Too bad they didn't keep their executive offices in the Borden Building (180 E Broad) or somewhere else downtown, but this $400M investment by the health system is certainly welcomed.

All for the affordable housing. But this is the second recent proposal to put housing under the approach to one of the runways at CMH. The other being the housing proposal for land between Hamilton and 270. And this isn't on the initial approach either. By the time a plane reaches that distance from 10L/28R, it's only hundreds of feet off the ground. CMH doesn't see a lot of night activity, but it's still pretty active at times and likely is only going to continue to attract more flights. These proposals just seem like invitations to NIMBY-ism that could stymie airport expansion.

I dare say this is moving even faster than Intel. The latter is significantly larger, but still impressive the speed of construction.

Yay! More work distractions! I'll be playing around with this for sure.

Good call. I had forgotten about that design feature (flaw?). I still wish they had done something to distinguish it a bit more from its Flats neighbors, but those gables certainly were not the answer.

I certainly forgot about it. But you're right, there it is, topped-out and visible from 161:

No kidding! Some of these other shots really show just how much has sprung up from downtown, up to campus, and across to Grandview. Hope it continues!

This is awesome. They could've easily mowed this building down but instead they chose to preserve it and make it part of the overall neighborhood. This quote from the article says it all: I love what Kaufman continues to do with the Gravity development.

Interesting. I liked the aesthetic of the two separate buildings, but there's something about having this whole half of the block developed up to the sidewalk that looks appealing also. I'm okay with this proposed change if it makes the project more viable.

Kinda had a "The View on Grant" look to it. I'll definitely take the additional story. Kinda wish it was going on a empty lot, though the building it's replacing isn't a great loss by any stretch of the imagination.

Flats on Vine Copy+Paste I guess it's what's to be expected for the parcel. On one side I'm glad it's still going forward and I'm always happy to see another surface lot meet its demise. On the other, I'd kill to see some bit of architectural variety in whatever is planned next for the Arena District.

Found the tidbit in bold interesting... Lower.com lost CTO, reshaped workforce in 2022 – and could move to Columbus from New Albany By Carrie Ghose - Staff reporter February 21, 2023, 10:00am EST Updated 14 hours ago After reducing and reshaping its workforce in 2022 – and losing its CTO – Lower.com is focusing its fintech ambitions on its distribution model quickly gaining traction, CEO Dan Snyder said. Meanwhile, with a gradual shift to hybrid work, the digital lender has consolidated its New Albany offices, Snyder said in an interview. Lower could leave for downtown Columbus or the Easton area once its remaining lease expires. "We still are empowering homeownership through technology," Snyder said. https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/inno/stories/news/2023/02/21/lower-mortgage-ceo-dan-snyder-staff-office.html

I loved the original Wendy's. It was such an iconic piece of local history. As mentioned, the interior was decked out in all sorts of restaurant history. The whole place was like a time capsule. Such a shame to have lost it and the classic exterior to faux-cathedral design there now. Ironically, the building still houses historical pieces, but of Catholic art and relics. There's some really cool stuff in there now to be sure, but it's a shame Wendy's and the city couldn't work something out to keep the location open. Lord knows there are plenty of other parcels close to St. Joseph's that the diocese could've used to house and display their pieces.

I didn't either. It seems like it's pretty safe to say that if there's a surface lot presently there, something cool and interesting once stood there...😔

I prefer rubenesque.

Millennial Tower 2.0?