8 hours ago, VintageLife said:

I’m just hoping it actually gets built. They haven’t done a feasibility study yet, but it sounded like they are doing that just to see how many affordable units they can provide. Kelley made it a point to say that they wanted to have as many affordable units as possible. 

That won't happen. First, there's not much funds in the trust. Second, apartments don't pencil.

On 4/23/2025 at 10:24 AM, VintageLife said:

100% agree with this, I think the state st side would have been great at 10 stories. I almost wish they would only build the broad st side and wait for the other half. 

 

I agree. I wish developers were more open to developing their sites in multiple phases. It would bring in- theoretically- more architectural variability, height levels, etc. I hate that everything is now built in one massive single building that covers the entirety of a site, especially when we're talking low-mid rise structures. 

https://columbusoh-my.sharepoint.com/personal/devmsonedrive3_columbus_gov/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fdevmsonedrive3%5Fcolumbus%5Fgov%2FDocuments%2FPlanning%2FBoard%5FCommission%2FDowntown%20Commission%20%28DC%29%2F2025%2F05%2E%20May&ga=1&LOF=1

Updated renderings for 14-story, 249 unit apartment tower for Peninsula Phase 2 are out.

8 minutes ago, amped91 said:

https://columbusoh-my.sharepoint.com/personal/devmsonedrive3_columbus_gov/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fdevmsonedrive3%5Fcolumbus%5Fgov%2FDocuments%2FPlanning%2FBoard%5FCommission%2FDowntown%20Commission%20%28DC%29%2F2025%2F05%2E%20May&ga=1&LOF=1

Updated renderings for 14-story, 249 unit apartment tower for Peninsula Phase 2 are out.

It’s trying to make me sign in, any chance for a screen shot? I feel I will be disappointed, but want to see it anyway ha

1 hour ago, VintageLife said:

It’s trying to make me sign in, any chance for a screen shot? I feel I will be disappointed, but want to see it anyway ha

Same here…

1 hour ago, VintageLife said:

It’s trying to make me sign in, any chance for a screen shot? I feel I will be disappointed, but want to see it anyway ha

Weird, didn’t make me sign in. I wanted to post screenshots but I’m over my attachment capacity and idk how to delete attachments. I’ll try to use a different uploading service.

Edit: Try this:

https://filebin.net/wby8bthxynl3s1z9

Edited May 14May 14 by amped91

I'll help out here. It's better than I remember. I like the balconies.

7 minutes ago, 17thState said:

I'll help out here. It's better than I remember. I like the balconies.

Eh, still terrible. That parking garage level is absolute trash. The entire peninsula should be covered in ground floor retail/commercial space. This entire project is pretty much a huge let down.

Blame banks. They love lending for apartments but if you bring up the R word half of them bail because of Amazon. It doesn't matter that the retail would become taprooms, offices (small office spaces still rent; it's enterprise level that doesn't), pizza and hair salons.

12 hours ago, 17thState said:

I'll help out here. It's better than I remember. I like the balconies.

I've always liked the work nbbj puts out. Agreed about the balconies, they add a cool dimension to the look of the building. The renderings look great but, based on other projects, my fear is this will get approved with the materials shown yet what's built will end up being different - and not in a good way. I also can't get over going from a 30-40 story proposal to 12. I wish there could be a little variation in height in Franklinton. Even if this building could be in the 15-20 story range it would help.

12 hours ago, VintageLife said:

Eh, still terrible. That parking garage level is absolute trash. The entire peninsula should be covered in ground floor retail/commercial space. This entire project is pretty much a huge let down.

The garage is giving Gilbert/Pembroke 🤢

1 minute ago, CMHOhio said:

The garage is giving Gilbert/Pembroke 🤢

Yeah, it’s not great and is giving another half finished Columbus project. Seems they only focus on the top few levels and avoid doing anything creative/nice at the ground floor, which is the most important aspect.

14 hours ago, VintageLife said:

Eh, still terrible. That parking garage level is absolute trash. The entire peninsula should be covered in ground floor retail/commercial space. This entire project is pretty much a huge let down.

I think terrible is pretty strong. I’m not in love with it and think it would look way better if broken up into 2-3 separate buildings. Regardless, I’m excited for another downtown grocer, Broad St activation, and 250 more housing units.

1 hour ago, amped91 said:

I think terrible is pretty strong. I’m not in love with it and think it would look way better if broken up into 2-3 separate buildings. Regardless, I’m excited for another downtown grocer, Broad St activation, and 250 more housing units.

No, I think the word terrible is not strong enough. I would fire the architect and blacklist them for life. They should never be allowed near another project ever again.

15 hours ago, 17thState said:

I'll help out here. It's better than I remember. I like the balconies.

Agree with everyone else's input. The balconies are a great touch and the materials look good. Would love to see a green wall cover the parking garages and for the heigh to be bumped up to 18-20 stories.

Or, uh, this.

The upper floors look good but still disjointed and the base still needs work. There’s no reason the garage screening should go all the way up, and there are too many blank walls facing the street. I’m surprised a firm like nbbj is behind the design they typically do very good work, this is like the most low effort version of their aesthetic I’ve seen.

17 minutes ago, cityscapes said:

The upper floors look good but still disjointed and the base still needs work. There’s no reason the garage screening should go all the way up, and there are too many blank walls facing the street. I’m surprised a firm like nbbj is behind the design they typically do very good work, this is like the most low effort version of their aesthetic I’ve seen.

Last I heard, the owner had chopped up the building across multiple design teams, so that could be driving some of the disjointed-ness. There's also only so much the architect can do if no one is willing to pay for a decent means of screening the garage.

6 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Or, uh, this.

I'd rather have this too, but the city would probably have to throw as much money at it as merchant tower to get it built, which is something obscene like $70M+. That I don't support.

18 hours ago, PizzaScissors said:

Last I heard, the owner had chopped up the building across multiple design teams, so that could be driving some of the disjointed-ness. There's also only so much the architect can do if no one is willing to pay for a decent means of screening the garage.

That’s what the robust downtown commission review is for I’m sure they’ll catch that and make them remedy the issue so downtown can have a good public realm. /s

Editing this to also say I don’t get why they wouldn’t want the front lower floors to be residential units and have balconies facing the park for a premium. The whole site is over parked as it is I’m sure it would be fine if they lost those parking spaces for more units and a better park facing facade.

Edited May 16May 16 by cityscapes

Next phase of The Peninsula to feature 14-story tower with apartments, grocery store

New plans are under review for a 14-story residential tower as part of phase two of The Peninsula development downtown.

Dubbed “Pen Two” in architectural renderings, the revised proposal for the building at 317 W. State St. was submitted for review at the Downtown Commission's Tuesday meeting.

...

The single tower now proposed will have 249 apartment units with a ground-floor grocery store occupying 34,000 square feet.

Discussions with the grocery store operator are in the final stages, with an announcement planned for later this year, Taylor said.

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2025/05/16/peninsula-phase-two-apartments.html

If a grocery store operator is selected, I'd imagine this is a done deal and the 14 story proposal would most likely proceed forward. Not my favorite proposal for the site, but still an improvement over the original proposal on the 14 story version.

On 5/14/2025 at 1:11 PM, ColDayMan said:

Or, uh, this.

This rendering was def always just a grab for TMUD credits. The developers even admitted this would not move forward without the tax credits. Also, even though I believe the towers in this version do look way better than what we currently have, it still suffers from the same fundamental problem, which is that it’s a giant block-sized parking garage as a base with a couple towers awkwardly placed on top.

17 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Next phase of The Peninsula to feature 14-story tower with apartments, grocery store

New plans are under review for a 14-story residential tower as part of phase two of The Peninsula development downtown.

Dubbed “Pen Two” in architectural renderings, the revised proposal for the building at 317 W. State St. was submitted for review at the Downtown Commission's Tuesday meeting.

...

The single tower now proposed will have 249 apartment units with a ground-floor grocery store occupying 34,000 square feet.

Discussions with the grocery store operator are in the final stages, with an announcement planned for later this year, Taylor said.

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2025/05/16/peninsula-phase-two-apartments.html

Any guesses on the grocery store operator?

6 minutes ago, 614love said:

Any guesses on the grocery store operator?

Still hoping for a meijer, but who knows. 34,000 is the average size of groceries apparently, but is much larger than most Trader Joe’s and Aldi locations. Whole Foods are on average around 40,000, but they have been opening smaller, so that’s always a possibility.

Did they say at one point it is a new player to the area, or did they say it was a grocer that is already here, I cannot remember?

Edit to add: just looked around and they recently opened an apartment in Columbus Indiana with a 10,000 sqft grocery store. That one is apparently a bloomingfoods co-op, which looks local to Indiana, so maybe something similar will happen here?

I’ll be so pissed if they just convinced Charmy’s/Hills to move to the Peninsula ☠️

I’ve had it in my head that it’s gonna be an Aldi, but could see a TJ’s as well. Apparently Publix is expanding north too, with a new store in the KY portion of the Cincy metro, so wouldn’t be upset to see them start expanding into Cbus either.

23 minutes ago, amped91 said:

I’ll be so pissed if they just convinced Charmy’s/Hills to move to the Peninsula ☠️

I’ve had it in my head that it’s gonna be an Aldi, but could see a TJ’s as well. Apparently Publix is expanding north too, with a new store in the KY portion of the Cincy metro, so wouldn’t be upset to see them start expanding into Cbus either.

I don’t think charmy’s would move, they painted that building and it’s also around 8,000 sqft. They would struggle to fill a space 30,000 sqft larger.

3 hours ago, VintageLife said:

Still hoping for a meijer, but who knows. 34,000 is the average size of groceries apparently, but is much larger than most Trader Joe’s and Aldi locations. Whole Foods are on average around 40,000, but they have been opening smaller, so that’s always a possibility.

Did they say at one point it is a new player to the area, or did they say it was a grocer that is already here, I cannot remember?

Edit to add: just looked around and they recently opened an apartment in Columbus Indiana with a 10,000 sqft grocery store. That one is apparently a bloomingfoods co-op, which looks local to Indiana, so maybe something similar will happen here?

My money would be an urban Meijer (see what I did there! O-H...). Bridge Street Market in Grand Rapids, their urban Meijer concept, is 37,000sqft. Ditto with Capital City Market in Lansing.

39 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

My money would be an urban Meijer (see what I did there! O-H...). Bridge Street Market in Grand Rapids, their urban Meijer concept, is 37,000sqft. Ditto with Capital City Market in Lansing.

I love meijer, so that’s what I’m hoping for, but in the end if it’s a major chain, it will be beneficial no matter what it is.

2 hours ago, amped91 said:

I’ll be so pissed if they just convinced Charmy’s/Hills to move to the Peninsula ☠️

I’ve had it in my head that it’s gonna be an Aldi, but could see a TJ’s as well. Apparently Publix is expanding north too, with a new store in the KY portion of the Cincy metro, so wouldn’t be upset to see them start expanding into Cbus either.

TJ's is going elsewhere.

7 hours ago, columbus17 said:

TJ's is going elsewhere.

I’ve been told multiple times on good authority that TJs is going in Grandview Crossing, but that was supposed to start Q1 and we’re already in Q2 with no indication of it happening….

16 minutes ago, smjjms said:

I’ve been told multiple times on good authority that TJs is going in Grandview Crossing, but that was supposed to start Q1 and we’re already in Q2 with no indication of it happening….

I had been told a different location... my thought it either the lease fell through on that or they put bids in on both. There also might be two...

8 hours ago, columbus17 said:

TJ's is going elsewhere.

Would much rather have an Aldi in the downtown area.

2 hours ago, smjjms said:

I’ve been told multiple times on good authority that TJs is going in Grandview Crossing, but that was supposed to start Q1 and we’re already in Q2 with no indication of it happening….

Edwards tried to get TJs at The Nicholas on high st but TJs wasn’t interested sadly.

On 5/17/2025 at 11:15 PM, VintageLife said:

Would much rather have an Aldi in the downtown area.

That's my hope for the Estrella, assuming it goes forward. Smaller footprint and with good proximity to the soon-to-be-expanded Jaycee Arms and existing Nazareth Towers a block or two away. Would be a prime location for a budget-oriented grocer.

1 hour ago, Zordon Shumway said:

That's my hope for the Estrella, assuming it goes forward. Smaller footprint and with good proximity to the soon-to-be-expanded Jaycee Arms and existing Nazareth Towers a block or two away. Would be a prime location for a budget-oriented grocer.

Not to mention the entire east side, which has almost zero options until Bexley

Not my photo, I snatched this from twitter but it was so cool I had to share.

I don't think I ever realized there were more buildings behind the daycare.

2 minutes ago, DTCL11 said:

I don't think I ever realized there were more buildings behind the daycare.

Same, I’ve looked at some many views of this area and have never noticed that ha. Wonder if they are used more if they are just sitting empty? There is enough room to make those an apartment ha

Commission Approves New Scioto Peninsula Building

The Downtown Commission this morning signed off on the latest design of a new mixed-use building at the southwest corner of West Broad and Belle Streets.

The 161-foot-tall building will hold a grocery store on its first floor, a three-story parking garage above that, and will be topped with 10 floors of apartments. One floor of the garage would be dedicated to parking for the grocery store, and would include oversized elevators to accommodate shopping carts.

The approved plans are similar to those presented to the board last fall. The garage will have space for 463 cars and the building will hold a total of 249 residential units. Tweaks to the design include changes to some of the materials used and the look of the parking garage facade – a colorful treatment was discarded in favor of more subtle vertical lines.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/commission-approves-new-scioto-peninsula-building-bw1/

32 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

Commission Approves New Scioto Peninsula Building

The Downtown Commission this morning signed off on the latest design of a new mixed-use building at the southwest corner of West Broad and Belle Streets.

The 161-foot-tall building will hold a grocery store on its first floor, a three-story parking garage above that, and will be topped with 10 floors of apartments. One floor of the garage would be dedicated to parking for the grocery store, and would include oversized elevators to accommodate shopping carts.

The approved plans are similar to those presented to the board last fall. The garage will have space for 463 cars and the building will hold a total of 249 residential units. Tweaks to the design include changes to some of the materials used and the look of the parking garage facade – a colorful treatment was discarded in favor of more subtle vertical lines.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/commission-approves-new-scioto-peninsula-building-bw1/

😐, this is how I feel. I think this building is incredibly underwhelming, but I welcome more units and a grocery, so it’s just meh.

It's really unfortunate. The whole design is brutal. There's nothing pleasing about it whatsoever. It will be an eyesore for years to come. Good job commission!

I'm really curious why its so hard to smoothly integrate a grocery story, specifically, in to a mixed used building. Even when they are, they are often either off set from the mixed use part or buffered with a parking deck. That buffer or separation seems to be the rule rather then the exception.

1 hour ago, DTCL11 said:

I'm really curious why its so hard to smoothly integrate a grocery story, specifically, in to a mixed used building. Even when they are, they are often either off set from the mixed use part or buffered with a parking deck. That buffer or separation seems to be the rule rather then the exception.

Outdated designers and lack of money probably.

It looks like if the Nicholas's bad corner were the entire building, and 14 floors tall. Yikes!

1 hour ago, DTCL11 said:

I'm really curious why its so hard to smoothly integrate a grocery story, specifically, in to a mixed used building. Even when they are, they are often either off set from the mixed use part or buffered with a parking deck. That buffer or separation seems to be the rule rather then the exception.

A 40,000sqft grocer needs parking guaranteed. This isn't a bodega for daily shopping needs. It also needs space for large deliveries. I do agree it can be integrated better. Check out this Whole Foods in Tempe:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dF9oUWEmKW3kxyUC8?g_st=ac

2 minutes ago, aderwent said:

A 40,000sqft grocer needs parking guaranteed. This isn't a bodega for daily shopping needs. It also needs space for large deliveries. I do agree it can be integrated better. Check out this Whole Foods in Tempe:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dF9oUWEmKW3kxyUC8?g_st=ac

That's the same issue with a different garage screen. Its still not incorporating the garage and masking it behind offices, apartments, etc from the main street. It is what it is off alleys etc, but the garage should not be so obviously facing main corridors.

I Get they need parking but it is so universal that even a good example is just a better garage screen cover?

5 hours ago, aderwent said:

It looks like if the Nicholas's bad corner were the entire building, and 14 floors tall. Yikes!

Maybe if they would use glass for at least the top 6 or 7 floors it might look a little better but this looks straight out or Minecraft! SMH

5 hours ago, DTCL11 said:

That's the same issue with a different garage screen. Its still not incorporating the garage and masking it behind offices, apartments, etc from the main street. It is what it is off alleys etc, but the garage should not be so obviously facing main corridors.

I Get they need parking but it is so universal that even a good example is just a better garage screen cover?

They can do better with masking parking in these new projects if the commission shuts them down! These developers are doing the bare minimum. Everyone remembers the convention center garage built a a while back, it was supposed to be mask with a screen that blew with the wind. Why even waste the extra money? It looks horrible and it's one of the first things you see if you're coming from the airport and visiting our city for the first time!

21 minutes ago, sono4315 said:

They can do better with masking parking in these new projects if the commission shuts them down! These developers are doing the bare minimum. Everyone remembers the convention center garage built a a while back, it was supposed to be mask with a screen that blew with the wind. Why even waste the extra money? It looks horrible and it's one of the first things you see if you're coming from the airport and visiting our city for the first time!

That really was an epic failure