seanguy

DEMO has occured on the one story structure that is on the site for this new project The parking garage will be sitting where there is presently a parking lot. Thought I would give everyone an update as the columbus section has been lacking them lately! Slackers... Only takes a minute or two.. the picture is from columbusretrometro.com The same developer (arms prop.) also owners of columbus short north gay bars just finished the building in the distance on the other side of High St., The Dakota building.

DONE Now the same developer is starting on their 10 story project across the street

digging has started, they are doing the basic utility work now Here we go! Columbus Business First Short North condos under construction Developer JBH Holdings LLC has started work on its 43-condominium Jackson on High project in the Short North of Columbus. Construction crews began utility work for the $17 million project Aug. 17 as the developer moves toward finalizing financing through the Columbus branch of Michigan-based Citizens Bank. JBH Principal Brad Howe said the project at 1127 N. High St. has 12 signed contracts with 5 percent down payments and eight are set to close by late September. The eight-story building designed by Berardi & Partners Inc. has one-bedroom units selling at $199,900. Its three-bedroom condos top out at nearly $900,000. Howe said he expects general contractor Ruscilli Residential Ltd. to complete the project in May 2009.

South High Students In Original Building For Two Years South High School students are stepping into the past so their school building can move into the future. A $25 million renovation to modernize classrooms and spruce up hallways at South High School on Ann Street begins this fall. Meanwhile, students started classes yesterday in the Barrett school building on Deshler Avenue, which was the original South High. "That building has come full circle," said Jim Driggs, who attended Barrett and South during the 1960s and is president of South High School's alumni association. "This process breathed new life into the building. Once again, it's going to be used to its old potential." For the next two school years, Barrett will be called South on Deshler Avenue. South High School was in the building now known as Barrett from 1900 until 1924, when the current South High was built on Ann Street. Barrett became a junior high school and then a middle school; it was closed in 2006. Columbus Schools spent about $850,000 to turn Barrett back into South High, including $150,000 to replace the roof. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/08/30/20070830-B1-02.html

COLDAY man i have seen you throw your mustard around on this thread for years now, and I usually agree with you. I think you are taking my words too literal, what I am saying is, after living in Dayton, and living in Columbus my entire life, to compare columbus' gentrification to Dayton's is kind of off balance. I mean "size wise" columbus has about 8 neighborhoods, or more depending on how "specific" you want to get on neighborhood boundaries, that are the size of the Oregon District and gentrified or fixed up. Columbus has many neighborhoods going through massive gentrification you know that. In dayton they are few and far between, but that's good for a midwestern city. I do like the Oregon District.

German VIllage is more like the Oregon District, but so is Italian. Oregon does have some nice renovations, one of dayton's nicer areas. To compare to columbus though, columbus has like "8" oregon districts. 8 urban neighborhoods that have seen massive gentrification and infill. Each 5 years it seems a new neighborhood takes the spotlight as the "up" and comer. Right now though The Short North Neighborhoods (Italian Village pictured above and Victorian Village) are in the final gentrification stages where the infill starts to top half a million for condos and townhomes. The upscale final stage. German Village has been gentrifying since the 60s and is in the very very upscale stage, (i.e. retired older couples buying houses, very few rentals) Merion Village is seeing the biggest change. South of downtown and German village, the spill over of German Village has changed Merion Village from bluecollar to whitecollar gentrification. Olde Town East(east of downtown) is still the affordable gentrification neighborhood, the changes started in the late 80s, hurried up in the 90s, but racial issues continue to keep the neighborhood a mix of poor smaller houses and huge renovated mansions. There are very few "average" sized houses in Olde Town East, keeping only the very well off to perform renovations. Italian Village pictured on this post has many medium size/smaller houses that led to renovations that an average white collar individual can afford.

Yes, there is infill occuring because of easton. I know columbus very well and where economic development is occuring all over the city. The infill has been in the model of mostly office parks, random housing developments, some town homes, lots of aparments. The infill doesnt go east per se, but SOUTH east and west, the direction the above poster drove. The infill is going south of easton on Stelzer Rd. Many do not realize the direct connection of how columbus upgrades infrastructure around developing areas and the of more development and job creation. It is all planned, it doesn't happen by accident. The area that easton occupies was once all township land (and mostly lower income african american townships), if columbus had not annexed the land easton would be filled with one acre yards and ranch houses. That would actually push new office parks and retail out further into exurbs or it wouldnt exist at all. The land that columbus annexed from the 50s to the 80s was mostly all townships, that is why you can drive in sections of the city and see developments then one random street with 2 acre yards and lots of ranches. Thank god it was annexed or columbus would have a lot less jobs around 270 and a lot more townships. As easton has developed the development has pushed down Stelzer Rd. toward the airport. Stelzer rd was a little two lane township rd. Columbus has seen the trend for development this direction and has now expanded it to 8 lanes all the way to the airport, in essence, opening up the doorway for development all the way from easton to the airport going SW(and easton is really just north of the airport a mile or so) This is just one example of how columbus uses the initial resources in the area (roads etc) to expand the opportunity for companies to build more offices and create more jobs on what was before a area with little infill and lots of township ranch houses, and all of this new development isnt that far from downtown. Remember columbus' airport is really close to the central city for a city that is this large now. That is another benefit of being a medium sized metro gone larger.

Easton isnt that far from downtown actually. And most of everything between downtown and easton is infilled or getting infilled. Really 270 isn't that far from downtown, that is why columbus' metro is the most compact in ohio. The office parks all over columbus and the metro is why columbus is has so many jobs. Columbus has the largest amount of office space of any city in ohio, office space = jobs in todays economy. Columbus always has growth so the concept appears to be working.

And that is what many from outside of Columbus do not understand. Downtown columbus is having office construction right now, actually, if you look at Class A office space under construction columbus is leading with the sq. ft. underconstruction in its CBD. Columbus has office parks all over the city, the same way in which a city like Cleveland had factories sitting next to its residential districts. Also, Columbus' metro has seen a lot of office/retail development outside of the city limits, so as the above poster stated it is good for Columbus to continue to densify the areas between all of the development that happened in the last 30 years. What would you rather have? Areas of un-used land sitting next to easton and suburban style housing developments? Of course not, its smarter to infill as much as possible and try to keep the development in and around 270 and out of the exurbs of columbus, which is where this development would go if columbus did not permit it around easton. Either to the exurbs or to Arizona, or another country! Also, these days there are few companies leaving downtown for office space outside the CBD. Most of this new office space actually keeps homegrown companies inside columbus. If you want a growing economy in the midwest you have to develope office space all of the metro not just in the CBD, and columbus knows this and that is why Columbus is sucessful. Now lets start to turn all of those Cleveland brownfield sites into office parks and what it's office space and economy grow! An example of a company that stayed in Columbus because of Easton office space is Safe Auto, they outgrew their headquarters and actually moved closer into the central city and built a new headquarters at Easton. The company was looking to expand to Arizona if columbus didnt offer the tax breaks and had plenty of decently cheap land to provide office space. Also, downtown has it's own office development area with the Arena District. Right now there is a company moving its headquarters to downtown from the burbs and building it in the arena district, and some other companies have done the same. So to say that there is a direct connection to building office space at easton and somehow hurting the CBD is actually misleading. Also, some of these jobs that will be created at Easton do help the central city. Do you actually think that all of the gentrification in Columbus/short north areas is because of downtown workers only? of course NOT! Most of the people living in the short north/german village making high incomes and fixing up homes do not work downtown but around 270. The economic growth around all of columbus is good for downtown, because it means more jobs and more money and more people and higher potential for more downtown/central city residents with good incomes. Economics and creating a thriving central city is not always as direct as just build downtown, its more complex. Columbus knows that and that is why the cities economy grows and downtown condo construction is working out very well. Its all interconnected.

If you look at the diagram of the place it is IN the beltway Traditional urbancrest, i am from columbus and have never even heard of the place, is actually right outside the beltway as you showed. However, this development is just inside the beltway and will be in an area of land that isn't urbancrest yet, it is Franklin county township property now. I say columbus should annex it, I don't know why the developer wants to have urbancrest annex it. Also, this wont really hurt too much because it is on the southside which is under retailed right now, but I like it that way. If you build too much retail on the south side you take away potential customers that should be going to downtown and these people will no longer drive to Tuttle or Easton just up 270, they will step outside their door and shop, which is nice for them, but might hurt Easton and Tuttle a bit.

David, You said that to you you haven’t' viewed high st. as being up scale (other than German village area) that is maybe true in the past, but not these days. The part of the short north that was developed first is very upscale now. Lets just discuss a few of the retail and housing options on High St. between Goodale (the gap) and 3rd. Rosendale’s- a new restaurant opened by a chef from the Greenbrier resort. Average entree here is 35 plus. Dakota Condo Building- Most units are over 500,000 and up. Sole Classics Store- Here a hoddie will run you almost 300 dollars Rigby’s- Average price point for your main course is 25-38 Dr. Mojoe- If you find a pair of jeans in Mojoe for below 200 that's a bargain Hyde Park Steakhouse- I don’t need to say anything more about this one Now what makes the short north so cool still is that the high end has still been mixed with somewhat bohemian and hole in the wall bars/pubs like Short North tavern, and the random art galleries (not that they are cheap either, try paying a few thousand for a tea pot) And yes the Short North does have Ohio's first Segway outlet right on High St. next to Sole Classics and Planet Smoothie Also, all of the new condo developments in the Short North are getting more upscale as they continue. Most of them are being developed by the owners of the gay bars Union and Axis who know own half of the Short North and have aligned themselves with the democratic party, and the new governor, Senator, etc. etc. *This is another tangent, but kind of on topic, because the growth in the short north and gay business men who have gotten wealthy off of the growth are now using their money to pay their way into politics at the statehouse I know from personal experience. Saturday night I dined with the owner of the Dakota building who sat with the governor, his wife, and the mayor championing the cause of Gay Rights at a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign (which actually included the HRC from Dayton, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis; as they do not have their own fundraiser and enough corporate sponsorship of gay rights as Columbus, Cincinnati did have an exec from 5/3 representing, while Columbus had Nationwide, Chase, Limited, and Abercrombie and Fitch) And last week a lead short north developer met with Sherrod Brown at Union Station, the new upscale million-dollar Union gay bar in the Short North Do realize, the short north is serving a greater purpose in the new democratic Ohio Columbus has a lot of "new" money from all of this development, and most is gay, and most is now championing their cause and making a impact on the state law as a whole, its a beautiful thing, but without the money in the Short North this wouldn't be happening (Example: Cite the Governors new order to protect sexual orientation and gender identity for any workplace employee which was just enacted by him a little more than a month ago) Even further explanation for the Short North’s more upscale success is the homes that align the side streets are more expensive, more Victorian Village rental units or apartment buildings are converted to Condos and running close to a million in some cases, for town homes (very nice ones though) German Village was once much less upscale, now it is very expensive The same thing is happening to Victorian Village and now the Short North and right under some people’s noses Of course, this is all just further proof to how wealthy the short north is getting, a new condo tower is being built in the northern section of the short north with a roof top pool and units start above 300,000, and this is next to Skully's dinner where bums hang out now and just blocks from the Gateway, make no mistake, condo developments will push as close to campus as they can, High St. is in for much greater change than many here know or can understand.

Hey okay! It is right under our noses, everyone here has brought up great ideas, but the real reason the tenants in the gateway exist is being missed by this entire board. This topic needs answered by me because.. I live right off a street just south of the gateway! Ok> Everyone here is looking north when trying to find the demographic that the gateway is appealing to, HOWEVER, your missing the boat IT is what is south of the gateway that has led for more upscale tenants, and provided the demand for it. THE SHORT NORTH and DOWNTOWN hello. I can tell you i live in columbus right next to the gateway and have much time to study what type of people are going there and from where and with what kind of money. The gateway is functioning to bridge the gap between campus and short north. The area just south of campus has become so much more rich and upity and trendy in the last 5 years. Stores that once existed 5 blocks south of campus further down in theshort north are being pushed up closer and closer to campus. A gay book store that was once near the convention center: Now 3 blocks south of the gateway. The short north's portions closer to downtown are becoming more expensive and higher rents, the more bohemian stores, bars, galleries are being pushed closer to campus and the housing that use to be student oriented on very south campus now faces a lot of new immigrants (mexican) and the people who were pushed out of the short north (the poor and bohemian average people) by the gentrification. Buildings that had students in are now being upgraded to grad students, people who work at many gay bars (my friend Luke) in the short north (and the nice restaurants) are being priced out and pushed out by renovations into condos and up up scale apartments. These conversions are happening in the apartment buildings in the short north and victorian village and italian village. They are being pushed into the gateway neighorhood. That is why I live the Gatway area, and most of the people on my street are now mostly post grads working and living there before they buy a cond loft. ALso, The short north has mostly highend stores on high st. All of the new downtown area residents and grandview heigts people need more retail. The Gateway is trying to fufill the need for a store like Sunflower market, make no mistake sunflower is not there solely for the students (hel* no) they are there for all the new affluent young, hipsters, and yuppies, and retired people that now surround downtown andhave spread out to Grandview. That is why the gateway exisits; I know people who drive in from suburbs to go out there. The other night i was eating at Eddie Georges. A Columbus Crew soccer play was on a date there and he lives in the Brewery District near German VIllage. Columbus has money in downtown area now and those people have places to go but always need more. It just so happens that the gateway is providing these retail needs to the well off but also still picking a mix of retail that will appeal to the students with some money or a lot, and the need for more upscale retail by the new people living SOUTH of the gateway, not NORTH. The concept of the campus area functioning as a little college town unto itself is way outdated.. If you can look into the hourglass this what you will see in the campus area in columbus in the future: more gateway type developement as urban Columbus gentrifcation and office development consumes inward to mix in with parts of campus. The city knows there is room for office (the Gateway has office space and is now gaining a small convention space for businesses) and retail growth in the OSU campus corridor and they are going to make use of it.

Ya, of course Columbus' central city lost population White flight happened in columbus' urban neighborhoods during the late 50's, 60's, and 70's just like everywhere else. Italian VIllage was once yes all Italian families, now you have ONE or maybe TWO people living in a house that was once occupied by entire large family. The rest of central city columbus works the same way, most of the gentrification is replacing or moving families out further to newer annexed areas or suburbs. I think that the general idea is that Columbus seems to have less empty, boarded up homes, or decayed homes (than some of the other cities in the region.) Really other than Franklinton and some parts of the near east side, most buildings are being used, even if its for a single person. SO i really believe that most of Columbus urban city population loss is due to changing demographics (more singles, gays, older people with no kids, couples without children) living in the older neighborhoods that once had families. Also, some of the central city has changed from family homes (near the university district and N. campus) to student housing for OSU students or professors.

Well, on the topic where someone said that Ohio's fortune 500's are made up of mostly retail, banking, etc (old economy) have you forgot that the LARGEST is columbus (actually Dublin's) Cardinal Healthy? a company that does perscription drugs, and health care, thats a pretty techy/research based company. Also, Columbus has Hexion Chemical which was formed out of a merger with Columbus based Borden and a Texas company, then they relocated the larger company to Columbus. The company does research and owns labs. That is one of the fastest growing larger companies in the state (cosidering they weren't even on the fortune list a few years ago), and they are headquarted in downtown columbus on Broad St.

OK OK OK The Columbus I live in is a haven for young professionals. The Columbus I live in is urban, I haven't left the interior of 270 for 3 weeks. I live near downtown, wake up catch the bus to grad school. Work out in the center of downtown overlooking the capitol. Dine and eat at nice locally owned restaurants. I see young professionals around me all day 24/7 There's beautiful and fit people abounds. If you live in suburban Columbus your impression is very different, but urban columbus is doing a great job of catering to the young professionals as it is. Compared to just 10 years ago, Columbus' young professional scene is already 80 percent better. And a lot of the creative young professionals are employeed in retail and fashion. The Short North is already transforming from a fine art street to a local fashion street. In the last year about 5 local fashion designers have opened spaces. Most of my friends who are young and hip work for Abercrombie and the Limited, though they are not headquarted downtown, the thousands of creative and unique jobs that have been created by those companies has made a MAJOR impact on central city Columbus; i.e. nightlife, dinning, fashion shows, etc. etc.

I really do not think that in all cities mixing poor is a bad idea. Truely, Columbus has a lot of projects mixed into nicer areas. Italian Village had a lot of projects and now most are redone into developments where its 90 percent market 10 percent low income. It works out fine, Many sociological studies show that when the poor is mixed in there is less crime issues and better employement and quality of life. Also, police and city resources are not being spent on trying to control one area where the poor is totally concentrated. Columbus' east and northeast sides have the most projects still, but placing the projects in mixed areas seems to have performed ok in certain neighborhoods in Columbus. I am really not for keeping the poor in one ghetto, I am for mixed income neighborhoods. Some other neighborhoods, Linden and Northland, in columbus have seen middle class flight because of the poor mixed in, and thus people not wanting those poor attending school with their children.

Early this fall they reported that they were trying to put retail on the ground level of the new courthouse structure along High ST. I haven't read any update stating that this was going to be part of the final design. I know they seem to be having budge constraints so i hope that retail wasnt axed with the worries.

Someone snap some NEw pics the tower is almost up to its final height of 20 stories. I tried to count the other day it looks like they only have 2 more floors of concrete to pour! wee hoO!

Just to post an update, Nationwides' new office has done and construction is finishing up on the interior. There is a cut out beneath the building for the parking garage behind it, that allows parking for arena district patrons. Also. the grange construction is moving along steadily.

The sign for this project has been put up showing it off to all that pass by on High St. I am just waiting for the digging to start.

Ok I do agree, but I don't think brick has to be used. Quality design is different than trying to blend in with the surrounding area. I would like this without the pink siding and maybe incorporate a glass design, if they will go more modern. The new Grange building across the street, i believe is to be a glass mid-rise. Also, the different between 60s ugly design and this, is that this still serves the 3 important modern new urbanist purposes. It functions, many 60s,70s,80s, used plazas and other elements (nationwide plaza) which deny the building the ablity to function with the street level and area. This project does use.. 1. Street level retail 2. mixed used, meaning restaurant 2nd floor living on 3-8 3. Interacts with the street, with underground parking In American new urbanism, we sometimes forget function is the most important aspect BEFORE appearance. I just took a trip to Toronto and the most striking different I notice between US cities and Canadian cities is... Canadian cities often take function before appearance. In Toronto there is less absence of street level retail, even if the building housing the retail is an ugly concrete structure. If your bringing urbanism to the masses less expensive buildings materials have to be used. Glass towers often equal expensive condos. Look at the mass apartment buildings you see in more social leaning countries, they are just large brick, what some call flat ugly high rises, but they serve their function. To supply housing for average incomes in a dense area. That doesn't mean that a building with this design in Columbus a northern city is the answer. Just that we should sometimes think outside of the box when using buildings materials that will function in creating a more affordable condo project. The post world war II new urbanism combines ugly design with a forgotten function. I would rather have this building there than what exists now. It would add more density to the neighborhood and promote more mixed mid-rise use buildings on South High. The columbus condo explosion has resulted in mid rise in downtown up to north high. It would be nice to see it start on south high as well.

Well, OK I saw the design and i was like that looks like a casino. And it does look like Florida. But that is something about Columbus, because of the cities decent economy, we always have new buildings, and they are often a crazy mix of influences. Look at many of the 60's broad st. skyscrapers, some of those look like Florida too. However, if we didn't already have great quality infill occuring I would hate this project. The Short North, downtown, Grandview all have glass modern or great historic brick midrise to highrise infill occuring. However, right now there's a one story building on this site, which is 1940's suburban anyway. An 8 story across the street from the midlevel addition to the Grange Insurance will look fine. I think a splash of crazy color on S. High, which is very low rise and almost all brick will be interesting. Not every building has to be a glass design or turn of the century redo. We have plenty of those going up in Columbus.

Columbus has many projects doing the type of housing infill demonstrated in the Harrison West infill. It is interesting, some infill in cities like Indianapolis seems to use so much siding. I was just in Toronoto and there was no siding at all just brick. Columbus is a big fan of brick all over the innercity, has been since late 1800s and still is today. Most of the infill is usually a pretty decent quality here.

Most people do not realize that a lot of those developments are in the city limits of Columbus, but called Grandview Heights to lump the entire area into one entity. The first one, the Heights, was proposed and built right on the border of Columbus and Grandview. So the building is in the Columbus portion of Grandview Ave, which doesn't have burried power lines, like many urban columbus streets, and non-urban as well. Therefore, it appears an oversight occured and the city approved the development, but didnt think to burry power lines, as that is usally done as a major capital improvement project, and usually only in areas which are in more of a decline/urban renewal (morse rd.) I like to find things like that when they occur in Columbus. The city is so large that all government entities are unable to always pay attention to those kind of details when a new project occurs. Grandview Heights was also very angry that Columbus approve that 5 story building right on their commerical strip consiting of 2 story buildings and homes. However, it appears they are warming up to Columbus efforts' to densify the area even further.

I don't know if that is the case. This developer focuses on rental units, usually around urban campuses in central cities. They are not usually into the condo biz. Also, they are from the east coast, where the condo market is dipping, so they are most likely nervous to enter the condo biz. However, Columbus urban condo market is in the opposite mode and is still growing rapidly and units are selling. Nationwide, wouldn't be constructing a 20 story condo tower in downtown if the condo market in Columbus is soft. Im at odds right now over the details of this project, first this is a nice old building which has been used as offices for some time. This conversion is an okay idea because the Old Deaf School is located in the old town st neighborhood and has the deaf school park right next to it. Making it ideal for condo or rental. There is a lot of rentals already in the area, so it is a nice little collection of apartment dwellers already. However, the company that has been awarded the contract is already working on the Senaca Hotel (now sitting empty) into apartments, The Seneca sits on broad st (anyone have a pic) and is a grand old hotel brick structure like 8 stories i believe (somewhere around that) This same company (from Phili) announced that they would redo the Senaca into apartments over 2 years ago. Still today the apartments are not completed. Now the city or capital south , whoever, has awarded the same company, who hasn't fullfilled their existing rental conversion promises, another contract to convert a second historical building? I find that a bit odd, in urban condo or apartment conversion projects the most important aspect is the developers history, not just the initial plan. There were some other local developers with experience in Columbus not Phili. For instance, one was the developer who oversaw the construction of the Hampton Inn in the Short North.