Partnership touts affordable housing inside Columbus

 

A study said housing construction starts are continuing to grow in the Columbus Public Schools district, aided by efforts from private business and the city.  The city issued 1,611 building permits for single-family residences in the district, according to the study. The city issued fewer than 100 building permits in the district in 1994.  The study was authored by Affordable Housing Associates, a public-private partnership aimed at increasing development in the city. 

 

The study said the housing was jump-started by $5.2 million the city spent on infrastructure over the past 10 years. The city promised to provide roads and sewer lines cutting between $3,000 and $4,000 off the cost of a new house.  At the same time, Affordable Housing Associates recruited State Savings Bank, now a part of Fifth Third Bancorp, to commit $100 million in loans to acquire land and build houses. Developers such as M/I Homes, Dominion Homes, Maronda Homes and Deluxe Homes (now Beazer Homes) joined in the partnership.

 

More at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/

It will be interesting to see what happens with this property if it does shut down.  Will it be redeveloped as a HOPE VI neighborhood?  What will happen to the residents?

 

Complex loses rent subsidies

Woodland Meadows likely to close, manager says

Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Columbus Dispatch

January 12, 2006

 

More than 300 families likely will move out of Woodland Meadows after their federal rent subsidies are taken away next month.  And that, said Woodland Meadows' managing partner Jorge Newbery, could be the final blow for the complex.  Newbery said he won't be able to pay his bills without the subsidies.  In a letter dated Tuesday, local officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told Newbery they are stopping the subsidies because the complex failed to "maintain the project in a decent, safe and sanitary condition." 

 

HUD's decision affects about 340 low-income families who live in subsidized units at Woodland Meadows.  The department plans to give them vouchers to subsidize their rents elsewhere, plus pay for moving expenses and help them relocate.  HUD subsidizes 412 units at Woodland Meadows; about 70 are vacant.  Another 100 families pay market-rate rents.

 

Full story at http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/139018.html

 

Please no more competition for Hope VI!

I feel terrible for the people living in those conditions. As the article states, 70% of the complex is vacant, and it is more than outwardly apparent as one drives down Steltzer Rd. Most of the buildings are boarded up with brush growing everywhere. It's an eyesore to say the least. I hope it does get shut down. As much of a burden as it may be for those that actually live there, they deserve better conditions than that.

From the 1/20/06 Columbus Dispatch:

 

Government to help Woodland Meadows tenants with costs

Kevin Kidder, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Columbus Dispatch

January 20, 2006

 

Their gas won't be turned off and money will be available to help them move, federal officials told Woodland Meadows tenants last night.  The federal Housing and Urban Development department will foot the $37,000 gas bill if the complex's management can't pay, said Tom Leach, HUD field office director.  The agency also will help tenants with some expenses: $100 for transportation; money for the security and utility deposits for their new apartment; moving costs; and $200 for miscellaneous expenses.

 

The assistance applies to the 344 tenants at the complex who receive Section 8 housing vouchers.  The news came at a meeting between Woodland Meadows residents and representatives from HUD, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, the Legal Aid society, the city and Franklin County.  HUD has said that it will no longer subsidize rent at the complex because of code violations and is working to relocate those tenants.

 

Full story at http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/140817.html

 

From the 1/27/06 Columbus Dispatch:

 

 

Most renters at Woodland Meadows are moving out

Mark Ferenchik and Barbara Carmen, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

January 27, 2006

 

The owners of Woodland Meadows are ready to throw in the towel.  Almost.  A judge yesterday cleared the way for city officials to move residents out of unsafe buildings.  But managing partner Jorge Newbery said he plans to retain those tenants who pay full rent by using the few buildings the city has deemed safe.  This would leave 100 renters amid the 1,100 apartments that sprawl over 52 acres.

 

"The goal is to keep 25 buildings open," Newbery said after the conference among attorneys and the judge in Franklin County Environmental Court.  He said income from those tenants would probably be enough to keep the utilities on in those buildings while he looks for new investors.  Newbery told the judge he agrees to vacate the remaining 97 buildings and will no longer fight the city.

 

Full story at http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/142416.html

 

From the 3/30/06 Dispatch:

 

 

WOODLAND MEADOWS

8 units at troubled complex lack gas

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Barbara Carmen

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Martha Burgan and seven neighbors at a battered East Side apartment complex woke again this morning to cold showers and no way to cook a hot meal.  Their landlord at Woodland Meadows had their gas service disconnected — by accident, he said — on Saturday to save money as the complex empties.  And now, he said, he can’t afford to have it turned back on.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/03/30/20060330-B4-00.html

 

From the 4/27/06 Dispatch:

 

 

PHOTO: Debra Finch makes one of her four to five daily trips to get water at the Woodland Meadows apartment complex.  DORAL CHENOWETH III DISPATCH

 

Complex’s owner wants out

Problems could snag plans to raze Woodland Meadows

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Barbara Carmen

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The owner of the long-troubled Woodland Meadows said yesterday he wants to level the 52-acre apartment complex and market it for a grocery or big-box store.  Owner Jorge Newbery signed a marketing agreement last week with the Robert Weiler Co., best known for helping develop the Polaris Centers of Commerce.  Newbery expects demolition to occur this summer at a cost of at least $2 million, but he’s unsure how he’ll pay for it.

 

Problems could tangle the plans: Newbery owes tax-credit and bond investors more than $12 million, which he used to buy the property in 2003. Contractors have filed at least another $12 million more in liens.  A commercial development also would require a vote of the Columbus City Council to rezone the land from residential use.  Despite the obstacles, Newbery and Weiler are optimistic. They say the value of the property will go up as soon as the 122 buildings come down.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/04/27/20060427-B1-02.html

 

From the 6/1/06 Dispatch:

 

PHOTO: As tenants leave the Woodland Meadows complex, workers such as Jeff Adams are gutting the apartments, removing copper pipes and window frames to sell as scrap.  FRED SQUILLANTE DISPATCH

 

WOODLAND MEADOWS’ FINAL DAYS

Gutted complex nearly empty

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Fewer than 50 families remain at the Woodland Meadows apartment complex, built a half-century ago to house thousands.  One part of the complex is simply gutted building after gutted building with no windows or doors.  The silence is interrupted by the occasional chirp of a bird.

 

In another row of buildings, crowbars and hammers punctuate the air.  "Thwack! Thwack!" That’s the sound of money still to be made from the dying 52-acre complex.  Owner Jorge Newbery has hired crews to knock out the valuable aluminum window frames and rip out copper pipes to sell for scrap.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/01/20060601-B1-01.html

 

Apartments nearing completion

Columbus Dispatch, 7/10/06

 

The new Jenkins Terrace, a Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority project at 1100 E. Broad Street, has gotten smaller but better. 

 

At four stories, the public housing project for senior citizens is eight stories shorter than the dilapidated tower it replaced.  JMM architects of Columbus "did a real good job of matching the architectural style of the neighborhood," the authority's Steve Havens said.  "The old building was out of keeping with the character of the neighborhood."

 

The framing of the building is complete, and interior construction is expected to begin soon.  When it opens late this year or early in 2007, Jenkins Terrace will have 100 units, 82 fewer than the old building.  Eligible residents will pay 30 percent of their adjusted incomes for rent, Havens said.

 

I don't usually post editorials or commentary, but I thought this one from the 8/10/06 Dispatch needed to be seen:

 

 

COMMENTARY

Tenants ask landlord for piece of $30 million

Thursday, August 10, 2006

MIKE HARDEN

 

Forget the beef. Tamara Parker wants to know: "Where’s the bread? " Parker posed that question to Jorge Newbery, owner of the now-vacant Woodland Meadows apartment complex, when she deposed him in March.

Parker is a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society of Columbus who represents eight former Woodland Meadows residents who say they were put through hell after central Ohio was socked by the Christmas ice storm of 2004.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/08/10/20060810-B1-04.html

 

Has there been and progress on redeveloping this site?  I stumbled upon this place yesterday and was pretty shocked to see 100 or so apartment buildings in the conditions shown in these couple of pics.  Let's hope they can come up with and implement some sort of redevelopment plan pretty quickly.  I certainly feel sorry for the neighbors.

 

 

MAP

 

Eyesore on East Side

City considers seizing, tearing down Woodland Meadows complex

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Barbara Carmen and Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The Woodland Meadows apartment complex needs to be redeveloped — without city help or money — or torn down, a top Columbus official said.  And City Development Director Mark Barbash didn’t rule out using tax dollars to level the 52-acre complex or eminent domain to seize it for development.  "We’re looking at all options," Barbash said. "The mayor is very focused on, as soon as possible, eliminating the blight."

 

Barbash said last week that he expects to know the future of the East Side development, located between Bexley and Whitehall, within 60 days.  Owner Jorge Newbery has received demolition bids of less than $2 million, but he missed his self-imposed target of razing the 122 buildings by September.  The last tenant moved out in the spring after Newbery lost federal, low-income rent subsidies.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/09/19/20060919-A1-01.html

County asked to take over control of vacant tower

Failed condo owners owe $131,125 in taxes

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Robert Vitale

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

As Columbus officials push to raze the Woodland Meadows apartments, Franklin County wants to close the book on another East Side housing complex with a troubled past.

 

County Treasurer Richard Cordray proposed yesterday that a public corporation begun last year to turn around blighted, tax-delinquent properties move to get control of Poindexter Tower, a former public-housing complex on Mount Vernon Avenue that has been vacant since 2003.

 

Units in the 46-year-old building were renovated and sold to elderly tenants in the 1990s as part of a federally funded, privately run venture, but the developer ran out of money and the condominium association couldn’t pay its bills.

 

full story at:

 

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/09/20/20060920-B5-00.html

 

Vacant condos could be razed

Owners of units in Poindexter Tower have few options

Monday, November 20, 2006

Barbara Carmen

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Poindexter Tower was among the nation’s first public-housing developments, has been a landmark in Columbus’ King-Lincoln district and is likely to become rubble.

 

The vacant 10-story tower is 46 years old and would be too costly to salvage, said an attorney for former residents who still own condominiums there. The leader of a nonprofit group trying to redevelop the Near East Side site agreed.

 

"It’s riddled with asbestos, needs a new roof and boiler system, and has been vandalized," said E. Darren McNeal, who has represented Poindexter’s condominium association since 1998.

 

Full story at:

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/20/20061120-B1-03.html

From the 11/28/06 Dispatch:

 

PHOTO: Goavinny Rodriguez, who works for the owner of Woodland Meadows, examines a board that was ripped from an apartment window. The 122-building complex has been vacant since summer.

 

Drive to tear down complex hits snag

Woodland Meadows owner to fight city’s push for demolition

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The owners of the vacant Woodland Meadows apartments will fight the city’s legal attempt to tear down the East Side complex.  "The city will continue to see 122 vacant buildings for a year or more while this winds through the court," said Jorge Newbery, managing member for Woodland Meadows Partners LLC.  "We’re not walking away from the property. We’re not going to do anything to jeopardize our investment," Newbery said.

 

The city filed a complaint in Franklin County Environmental Court yesterday asking a judge to declare the complex a public nuisance and order the 1,100 units demolished if the owners do not maintain the buildings up to city code.  The complex hasn’t been properly maintained, Columbus officials said, since it was emptied this spring after the federal government pulled rent subsidies.  "We believe the appropriate remedy is demolition," City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. said.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/28/20061128-D1-04.html

 

From the 11/29/06 Dispatch:

 

Woodland Meadows owner arrested

Texas authorities say he is neglecting Beaumont complex

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Barbara Carmen and Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH 

 

Landlord Jorge Newbery has been arrested by fed-up city officials who accuse him of failing to fix his blighted, stormdamaged property.  But the arrest wasn’t here, where the Woodland Meadows owner is fighting city efforts to tear down his vacant 122-building complex.  It was in Beaumont, Texas, where tenants of Pear Orchard Plaza Apartments complain of vermin infestations, water running down walls and collapsing ceilings.  And, just like Woodland Meadows, many buildings lack doors and windows.

 

Beaumont officials said Newbery didn’t appear in court earlier this month on charges that he allowed his property to fester and decay, despite collecting more than $300,000 in insurance for hurricane damage.  In Columbus, Newbery is to appear Dec. 18 in Franklin County Environmental Court to fight a city lawsuit to use public dollars to raze the vacant Woodland Meadows.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/29/20061129-B5-01.html

 

From the 12/9/06 Dispatch:

 

PHOTO: Residents of nine second-floor apartments at Berwick Court, 3680 Livingston Ave., have been ordered to move because the metal stairs are deteriorating and upstairs walkways are crumbling. 

 

PHOTO: A step lies on the ground, a safety hazard for tenants.

 

Woodland Meadows owner in trouble with city again

Tenants evicted because of violations at another complex

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Jim Woods

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Jorge Newbery, the embattled landlord of Woodland Meadows, is facing new code violations and evictions at another East Side apartment complex.  Columbus building inspectors issued orders yesterday to move residents immediately from nine second-floor apartments at Berwick Court, 3680 E. Livingston Ave.  Rusted metal stairs and deteriorating concrete on some second-floor walkways are unsafe, said Linda LaCloche, a spokeswoman for the Columbus Department of Development.

 

Managers at the complex are helping tenants move to Colonial Village, a neighboring apartment complex on E. Livingston Avenue, LaCloche said.  The city gave residents 24 hours to move.  The order doesn’t affect those who live on the first floor of the complex, which has about 50 units.  The apartments were built in 1963.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/09/20061209-C3-01.html

 

From the 12/19/06 Dispatch:

 

PHOTO: Jorge Newbery, Woodland Meadows managing member, had no comment yesterday after the Environmental Court hearing. 

 

PHOTO: Judge Harland H. Hale describes the area in the middle of Allegheny Avenue at Woodland Meadows to court reporter Susan Bangert, probation officer Bryan Wagner and bailiff Janice Byrd. The city will ask to demolish the complex if all windows and entrances are not boarded up in two months.

 

JUDGE’S DEADLINE FOR WOODLAND MEADOWS

Complex is officially a nuisance

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Woodland Meadows owners have two more months to board up the vacant apartment complex before Columbus seeks a court’s permission to tear it down.  Judge Harland H. Hale, of Franklin County Environmental Court, declared the property a public nuisance yesterday, giving Woodland Meadows Partners LLC until Feb. 15 to bring the property up to city code.  That means boarding up all windows and entrances to the 1,100 apartments in the complex and removing trash from the property, City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. said.

 

If the owners don’t, the city will come back and ask to demolish the 122 threestory brick buildings that served as homes for thousands of residents and that Mayor Michael B. Coleman declared "Public Enemy No. 1" last month.  Hale, who toured Woodland Meadows yesterday morning before a court hearing, said the complex is in as poor a condition as anything he’s seen.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/19/20061219-D1-01.html

 

City to tear down Woodland Meadows

Tuesday,  April 24, 2007 3:29 AM

By Robert Vitale

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Woodland Meadows, the crumbling East Side apartment complex where conditions have been likened to bombed-out sections of Baghdad, is coming down.  Columbus City Council voted last night to pay a local demolition company more than $2.4 million to tear down 122 buildings that once housed more than 2,000 government-subsidized tenants.  Work will begin in five to 10 days, said Boyce Safford, interim director of the city's Development Department.

 

The city won the right to raze Woodland Meadows in February, when owners missed a court-imposed deadline to secure the vacant buildings against vandals and thieves.  Safford said the city will bankroll demolition and seek to get its money back from Woodland Meadows' owners.  As of December, about 40 other creditors already had claims totaling $15 million against them.  Woodland Meadows, dubbed "Uzi Alley" by police in the 1990s because of frequent gang violence, never made the turnaround pledged by managing partner Jorge Newbery when he purchased the complex in a 2002 bankruptcy auction.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/04/24/coun24.ART_ART_04-24-07_D1_S46FP34.html

122 buildings! I used to drive past there often but never knew it was that massive.

Razing of Woodland to include roads, too

Tuesday,  May 15, 2007 3:30 AM

By Kevin Mayhood

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

An owner of a blighted East Side apartment complex said yesterday that he understood that the 122 buildings would be torn down by the city, but he argued that the roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure should remain.  "Our current plan is the redevelopment of the 52 acres as affordable housing," Jorge Newbery, managing member of Woodland Meadows, told Franklin County Environmental Judge Harland H. Hale.  He told Hale that to replace the roads, parking lots and walkways would cost $7 million to $8 million.

 

But Hale, who in February ruled that the complex was a public nuisance, ruled yesterday that he won't stop the demolition and clarified that he intended that the acreage be reduced to a "clean slate."  Assistant City Attorney Robert A. Beatty Jr. had argued against limiting demolition. Leaving the roads would make it easier for people to dump such things as cars and trash on the property, he said.  Beatty also pointed out that the city's list of complaints against the complex had included all paved areas.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/05/15/woodland.ART_ART_05-15-07_B3_256NJG2.html

Very interesting idea involving the infamous former Woodland Meadows apartment complex.

 

WOODLAND MEADOWS: Uncertain future

Future Bexley athletic fields?

Troubled housing complex now looks like a park

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

By Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Now that the Woodland Meadows apartment complex has been leveled, could a Bexley schools athletics complex be in its future?  That's an idea a Bexley sports booster is championing, although Woodland Meadows Partners LLC still owns the 52-acre East Side property, which is in foreclosure.  "There has been a lot of interest from the school administration," said Paul Kolada, who pitched the idea to the school district. Kolada heads the athletic boosters and owns the industrial-design company Priority Designs.

 

Kolada said Bexley academics are highly rated, but the district of a little more than 2,000 students needs better athletic facilities to compete against other suburbs. The district's athletes are scattered, with soccer players practicing at Wolfe Park in Columbus, the football team practicing at Maryland Avenue Elementary in north Bexley and the baseball team at Capital University in south Bexley.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2007/10/17/WOODLAND.ART_ART_10-17-07_B01.html?sid=101

One of a very few examples of a "positive demolition".

 

Wrecking ball helped revive neighborhood

Woodland Meadows area awakening

Wednesday,  January 9, 2008  - 3:16 AM

By Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Two decades ago, the violent, drug-infested apartment complex that became Woodland Meadows was known as Uzi Alley.  Now, deer are grazing there.  Gloria Harman couldn't believe her eyes on Dec. 27 when she saw deer behind the fence that surrounds what is now grassland dotted with trees.  "There were two of them," said Harman, a teacher who has lived across the street in an apartment on Ruhl Avenue since 1996.  "The next day, there were three."  It's quite a different scene from the 122 vacant, windowless buildings the city tore down last fall. But the change goes beyond the deer that found their way to what is now a 52-acre clearing in the heart of the city.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/01/09/WOODDEER.ART_ART_01-09-08_B3_VJ90OD9.html?sid=101

Columbus housing authority discusses demolition plan

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 9:27 PM

By RITA PRICE, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Where will they go? If the federal government approves a plan to tear down half of the city's public housing, then approximately 2,700 low-income residents must find answers to that question.  Dennis Guest, CMHA executive director, presented CMHA's five-year demolition plan at a committee meeting of the Columbus City Council.

 

Years of crippling budget cuts pushed CMHA to ask the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for permission this month to raze six of its oldest and largest communities.  Sawyer Towers would come down next year under the plan, with 67-year-old Poindexter Village the last to go, in 2013.  Sunshine Terrace, Lincoln Park, Riverside Bradley and Marion Square also would be demolished.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/21/CMHATALK.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

Aren't those towers for seniors only? I'm for tearing these down, especially for elderly people who could be independent but can't drive. They need to be put where they can walk for daily needs, which we sadly don't have in abundance. Pretty much all of those places are out of their price range and lower income neighborhoods just continue to be suburbanized with strip malls and more buildings and homes torn down for grass lots. Looking at the south side plan, the city isn't pushing for urbanizing the area which shows they aren't serious about helping poor neighborhoods and while adding a grocery store to the east side is good it's coming in a form that promotes auto-centricity, which hurts the vast majority of low-income residents who aren't educated enough to make the connection between dumping thousands into a car they can't afford in the first place and thereby not saving a lot of money by shopping at the sprawling Sav-a-lot.

City moving on plan to raze housing projects

 

The first wave of a massive relocation project for public-housing residents likely will begin in the spring.  Federal housing officials have approved most of the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority's five-year plan to tear down the city's oldest and largest public-housing communities.  "They've pretty much bought off on the entire program," said Dennis Guest, CMHA executive director.

 

Guest still awaits final word that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide enough Section 8 vouchers for residents to rent on the private market. He doesn't expect snags.  HUD also wants CMHA to first offer two large complexes, Lincoln Park and Marion Square, for sale.  "They're saying, 'Well, maybe you don't have to incur the cost of demolition if you can sell it,' " said Stephen Havens, CMHA director of business development.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/15/CMHA_demo.ART_ART_11-15-08_B1_8HBT4AU.html?sid=101

More low-income housing set

Downtown project to provide 100 units, half for homeless

Tuesday,  April 21, 2009 3:06 AM

By Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

A Downtown housing development for low-income and homeless people will soon rise from an empty, trash-strewn lot next to a freeway embankment.  National Church Residences is to break ground May 20 on the Commons at Buckingham, an $11.7 million building along I-670 just northeast of Abbott Nutrition, a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/04/21/copy/DTHOUSE.ART_ART_04-21-09_B1_S0DK828.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

Images of the location and rendering of the proposed housing from The Dispatch:

 

 

 

While this development isn't as sexy as a new project aimed at young professionals or retirees, it's still a great addition to downtown. The organization leading the development is top-notch. As noted in the article, their first foray into low-income housing has been a great success, both in giving people looking to turn their lives around a good home as well as being a good neighbor. Also, as mentioned in the article, the site chosen for this project, a vacant lot by I-670, is an eyesore. And the building itself will be attractive; certainly not a design one might immediately relate to low-income housing.

Thanks for posting this.  I remembered hearing about this project a few years ago.  Last word was that the project was waiting for the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to fund it though its low-income housing loan program.  Looks like it took longer than they thought.  Here's the old article.  Pretty close to the most recent article, except for a comment about being ready to open by Summer 2009.  Smaller color version of the same rendering included with the more recent article...

 

New housing for homeless

Friday, May 04, 2007

Debbie Gebolys, The Columbus Dispatch

 

This is the design proposal

for the Commons at Buckingham

efficiency apartments Downtown.

 

The nonprofit developer that built the Commons at Grant to house the formerly homeless is planning a second Downtown project.

 

National Church Residences weathered some controversy in 2002 when it opened the Commons at Grant at Grant Avenue and Fulton Street on the southern edge of Downtown.  Now, the developer wants to build a similar facility on the northern edge.

 

http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2007/05/04/20070504-B1-01.html

Images of the location and rendering of the proposed housing from The Dispatch:

 

 

 

While this development isn't as sexy as a new project aimed at young professionals or retirees, it's still a great addition to downtown. The organization leading the development is top-notch. As noted in the article, their first foray into low-income housing has been a great success, both in giving people looking to turn their lives around a good home as well as being a good neighbor. Also, as mentioned in the article, the site chosen for this project, a vacant lot by I-670, is an eyesore. And the building itself will be attractive; certainly not a design one might immediately relate to low-income housing.

 

Agreed.  Getting a mixture of lower-income, market-rate and upper-income housing should be positive for the downtown.  And this group, National Church Residences, does high-quality low-income housing.  They've hired the same architects, Berardi Partners, that designed their other downtown project, The Commons At Grant. 

 

Here's a photo of the Commons At Grant project, located at the northeast corner of Grant Avenue and Fulton Street.  This location was previously a surface parking lot. 

 

 

This is the design proposal for the Commons at Buckingham efficiency apartments at 328 Buckingham Street.  Its hard to tell from this rendering, but the Buckingham project was going to use similar exterior brick as the Commons at Grant project.  And the Grant project looks really great - especially for a low-income job.  Hope the Buckingham project turns out as well.

 

 

These projects are more evidence that low-income housing does not have to look like crap and can offer urban, social functionality as opposed to dumping people into horrendous social experiments because they don't have enough money to have many choices for where to live.

I worked next to the existing low income housing project at Grant & Fulton and it is surprisingly dead outside.  You hardly see a sole walking by.  This contributes to its reputation as being safe and a "good neighbor."

 

Maybe it focuses on low income housing for those who are seniors and unlikely to be out, have kids, or those with jobs trying to make ends meat on minimum wage?

Downtown housing project moving ahead

Business First of Columbus - by Brian R. Ball

Friday, June 12, 2009

 

A 100-unit low-income housing project planned for a vacant lot in downtown Columbus is set to begin construction in July.  National Church Residences, the nonprofit developer of the proposed $11 million Commons at Buckingham, has finalized the sale of tax credits for the project to JPMorgan Chase & Co.  The sale raised $6.9 million, the final piece needed to get under way.

 

The Commons at Buckingham will provide housing for 100 low-income and homeless residents.

 

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/06/15/story7.html

Agreed, that is the most attractive public housing I've ever seen.  If we can do that for homeless people, I know we can do it for young singles who want to live in the city.

Technically, it's not public housing.  National Church Residences is a private, not-for-profit group.  Public housing denotes a government or quasi-governmental agency, like a metro housing authority.  But I get your point.  For-profit developers ought to be able meet this standard.

I didn't mean to suggest it was a public group.  I was referring to the funding sources listed in the article.  Thank you for clarifying.  Getting something like this financed and built is very complex, and National Church Residences has apparently mastered the process.  Good work by all involved.

Crews Break Ground On Low-Income Development

By Tom Brockman, NBC4 Reporter

Published: July 9, 2009

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Officials were on hand while crews broke ground on a new low-income development Thursday, and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time.  Crews broke ground on The Commons at Buckingham Thursday.

 

It’s a four-story 100-unit building that will house low income individuals that’s located just south of Interstate 670.  Seventy-five units are to house former homeless individuals who are trying to get back on their feet.  Twenty-five units are to house low-income individuals.

 

The $16-million project is the third of its kind in Columbus over last seven years and is paid for with public and private donations.  The first project was The Commons at Grant at 398 S. Grant Ave. in Downtown.  The second was The Commons at Chantry at 5500 Millersfield Dr. on the city’s East Side.

 

Officials said they expect The Commons at Buckingham to be complete next July.

 

http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/Real_Estate_Expert_Housing_Has_Never_Been_So_Affordable/19106/

LINCOLN PARK, SAWYER TOWERS

Investor wants to buy up old public housing

Thursday,  July 23, 2009 - 3:20 AM

By Rita Price, The Columbus Dispatch

 

A Massachusetts real-estate mogul who calls himself the "Turn-Around Czar" could soon seal a deal to buy two of the city's biggest public-housing complexes.  The commissioners of the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority are to decide on Friday whether to approve closing documents for the sale of Sawyer Towers and Lincoln Park, which have a total of more than 700 apartments.  The prospective buyer is Vaios Theodorakos, who owns and operates VTT Management in Framingham, Mass., CMHA officials said.  Theodorakos is offering $2 million for the twin high-rise Sawyer Towers just east of Downtown and $2.2 million for Lincoln Park on the South Side, said CMHA Executive Director Dennis Guest.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/23/CMHA_BUY.ART_ART_07-23-09_B1_J3EIB3F.html?sid=101

LINCOLN PARK, SAWYER TOWERS

Investor wants to buy up old public housing

Two complexes sold, to be turned into private housing

Saturday,  July 25, 2009 - 3:11 AM

By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch

 

The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority board has agreed to sell its Sawyer Towers and Lincoln Park apartment complexes to Vaios Theodorakos.  Theodorakos said he owns 100 percent of his company, V.T.T. Management in Framingham, Mass.  He said he has no foreclosures or bankruptcies on his record.  He might pay cash -- $2 million for Sawyer Towers and $2.2 million for Lincoln Park, both of which he's converting into private apartment complexes, although he said he'll be taking Section 8 vouchers.

 

   

 

Read more at http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/25/LINCOLNSAWYER.ART_ART_07-25-09_A1_NBEJ0MI.html?sid=101

Photo of the construction site for anyone who hasn't been over to check it out yet. Not a whole lot to look at over there yet. ;)

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/buckingham-1.jpg">

Another construction photo taken earlier today. Looks like the stairwell "towers" are almost finished and the rest of the building should start taking shape pretty soon:

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/buckingham.jpg">

I went into the Columbus Convention Center today to use the bathroom and noticed that they had the Columbus Housing Conference. I think you were supposed to register to attend but I just walked in, in regular clothes and started talking to architects, environmental people and such, at the booths. They were all there marketing their businesses and probably had much more important people they could have talk to but they still took out 20-30 minutes to talk to me just because I'm fascinated by what they do. I sat and talked to Frank Elmer who designed New Village Place, which I admit I've always sort of disliked because of the choice of siding among other things that I thought were extremely out of context with the neighborhood but it turns out, it's actually VERY much in context.

 

*Houses being orientated at an angle instead of being parallel to the street is a common feature in Italian Village.

 

*Housing styles vary in the development, but there are actually 24 (or so) distinct styles of buildings in Italian Village.

 

*The houses are duplexes and Italian Village certainly has many of those.

 

* The street layout isn't too far off from what you would find in Italian Village (I was under the illusion that it looked sort of housing projecty/exclusionary in its fabric - I wonder if others felt the same way?).

 

*The development includes porches and terraces, which is also common in Italian Village. I think those are great for social interaction and aesthetics.

 

*The parks are at the edge of the development which makes the park look not exclusive at all and adds to permeability just as the porches do.

 

He said there's 100% occupancy in both market rate and subsidized units. In fact, there's a waiting list for the market rate units.

 

I think the shared backyards/courtyards is excessive and makes it look more like a 'project' but apparently that was out of their control. Am I right in guessing that maybe the impervious surface ratio (made worse by parking requirements and excessive road widths maybe forced them to have to use that space for water detention or slowing velocity?) I would like to know more about that if any of you know about that kind of stuff. It just looks so odd to me. The architect wanted to make the streets even narrower than they already are but they weren't allowed to do so.

 

You know, now that I think about it, Columbus has some pretty damn good quality affordable housing. Judging from the elevations I saw of the Rich St. housing that they're (actually) building (yay!) - it also looks like it's going to be great.

 

I remember in Suburban Nation, Andres Duany saying we need to stop experimenting on the poor. That was the first thing I thought when I saw the weird materials, particularly the siding in "New Village Place" but hey, it's mixed income and tenure is 100% with a waiting list so who the hell can complain?

 

What do you guys think about the quality/design of the affordable housing in Columbus? Which projects do you particularly like or despise?

^David, I moved your post from the Random Developments thread into this Public Housing thread.  This is an older thread that I cleaned up and moved into this area. 

 

As for the quality of the affordable/public housing in Columbus:  I think Columbus has some reasonably good examples and some reasonably bad examples.  But I don't the bad examples are nearly as bad as other larger cities.  Mostly because Columbus public housing projects are not as large in size as the mega-projects found in other larger cities.  We do have some problematic projects like Sawyer Towers and Lincoln Park, but to be truly terrible requires something on a New York or Chicago sized scale.  Mega-projects = Mega-problems.

 

Columbus has come close to mega-projects of that size in the past.  Woodland Meadows on the east side and the Wingate Villages apartment complex on the west side are two examples.  Woodland Meadows was recently demolished and Wingate Villages looks to be headed for the same fate.

 

As for some reasonably good public housing examples - I think the New Village Place you described is one.  It is relatively small in scale, new construction and within a revitalizing urban neighborhood.  I also like the Bollinger Tower as well.  But its location in the middle of the Short North probably has alot to do with that.

Wingate Villages looks to be headed for the same fate.

 

I used to live in Wingate (they just changed the name to Oakbrook Manor, though). It's a terrible place that isn't accessible to much of anything, except a bus line that can take you downtown via Sullivant. Their plan was to rehab half of the buildings and put used fixtures in the rehabbed units from the old abandoned units, instead of just buying new fixtures and rehabbing all of them with new materials. I talked to one of the workers who admitted they were doing that. They seem very corrupt.  They said it is the second largest housing estate in America. I don't know if that's by land mass or number of units.

CMHA apartment complexes finding interested buyers amid slump

Business First of Columbus - by Brian R. Ball

Friday, November 6, 2009

 

A Boston real estate investment company has closed on the first of three public housing projects it intends to buy in Columbus as others snap up four additional properties the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority put on the seller’s block in April.  VTT Management Inc. paid $2 million on Oct. 29 for the 392-unit Sawyer Towers complex on Leonard Avenue on the city’s east side.  It also has the four-apartment Wellington complex in contract for $50,000 and the 312-unit Lincoln Park townhouses on the south side in contract for $2.2 million.

 

Columbus investors also have shown interest in the public housing units with an eye toward retaining low-income tenants and their CMHA-issued rent vouchers.  For example, Jay Harkrider and business partner Andy Lallathin want to expand their portfolio of 12 housing units in Columbus with the planned purchase of the 49-unit Canonby Court apartments southwest of downtown for $1.06 million.

 

MAP OF CMHA PROPERTIES FROM THIS ARTICLE

 

Full story at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/11/09/story11.html

Figured it was time for an update ove here. Pretty drastically different from those last two photos up top. ;)

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/buckingham-1.jpg">

Moving right along. Looks like a very nice building, although from 670, the 4th floor units in the back look like they're 10 feet away from the highway. ;)

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/construction13.jpg">

 

Looks like this project is complete and people have moved in. Nice.

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/buckingham1.jpg">

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/buckingham2.jpg">

Just thought I would make a thread about this subject so any news, projects or developments could be crossposted here and in any other regular development thread so it would be easier to keep track of specifically affordable housing info in our region.