From the 1/3/05 Columbus Business First:

 

Short North complex to go condo

 

The units in the Victorian Gate apartment complex in the Short North will become condominiums as part of an ownership change.  Continental Real Estate Cos. officials said Monday the company it is selling the complex to Victorian Gate Conversion Co. LLC, which will sell the units. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

Patrick Grabill serves as managing partner of the conversion company. He's also president and managing partner of Homestead Communities, an affiliate of Continental Real Estate.  The units will range in price from the $90,000s to the low $300,000s. Under the Ohio Condominium Act, current residents will be given first opportunity to purchase their apartments, 663 N. High St.  After that, other residents of the complex will be allowed to bid on other units. The units should be open to the public by mid-spring.

 

"It offers a much-needed home ownership opportunity in this section of the city at a lower price point than most downtown condominiums," Grabill said in a press release.  Continental developed the 160-unit project 10 years ago and enjoyed nearly a 100 percent occupancy rate. The conversion company plans to upgrade the interior common spaces and add a fitness center.

 

Read more at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2005/01/03/daily4.html

^cool, it will be good for the neighborhood

^ Yeah, they should do really well there.

Good to hear.

More Short North Development

For Immediate Release

28 January 2005

 

Two major redevelopment projects in the Short North Arts District will add retail and residential space to the evolving urban historic neighborhood. The soon to be redeveloped Winders Motor Sales Company and Sofa Express Buildings are located at 777 and 849 North High Streets.

 

Occupancy of the 777 N. High Street project, featuring a 50 car parking lot, will begin in the summer of 2005. Mark Wood, Wood Cos. vice president, said “Our development, which should be some of the most exciting retail space in the Short North, and re-development of the ‘Sofa Express’ site one half block north of our building, will transform over 280 linear feet of High Street frontage from boarded up and vacant storefronts into a new hub of retail, restaurant and residential activity,” said Wood.

 

Lahoti Properties plans to construct 45 condominiums at the “Sofa Express” building at 849 North High Street, with retail storefronts on the first floor. Lahoti recently completed construction of retail storefronts and 20 condominiums located at 765-771 North High Street, and have seven condominiums under construction along Buttles Avenue facing Goodale Park.

 

The Wood Companies redeveloped the building at 937-951 N. High into five new storefronts in 2003. Businesses include the North Star Café, Emack & Bolio’s ice cream parlor/coffee shop, Sherrie Hawk’s new gallery “Sherrie Gallery,” Kiaca Gallery featuring African Contemporary art and the Jazz Art’s Group’s offices.

 

The Wood Companies’ “Winders Motor Sales Company” building at 777 N. High Street will result in over 12,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space. It will include unique second-floor lofted retail space and 18-foot-high glass windows, developed in character with the building’s historic 1924 architecture.

 

More than 170 new residential units will add to the foot traffic and energy along High Street over the next few years. The Wood Companies’ “Mona Lisa” building at 33 Warren Street, which is currently under construction, will feature seven town-home condominiums. The “Mona Lisa” development, reflecting the demand for upscale city living, will feature floods of natural light including a wall of glass overlooking a rear patio, plus front and rear balconies, fireplaces and attached garages.

 

For more information, please contact Mark Wood at (614) 298-9663.

www.WoodCompanies.com

 

http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/columbus_retrometro/

 

I do hope they keep the Winders building untouched( from the outside).

I enjoy it's distinctiveness.

cool

 

(I wonder if Campus Partners will say that since it is closer to OSU than the rest of the short north, that the Gateway Center was the reason it was being built.  :-D :evil:)

yay!

 

(I wonder if Campus Partners will say that since it is closer to OSU than the rest of the short north, that the Gateway Center was the reason it was being built. :-D :evil:)

 

they'll say that if they want a brick through their office window

According to the Columbus RetroMetro website, there are currently 9 residential projects going on in the Short North right now....not too shabby.  The I-670 cap was built to reconnect the Short North with downtown in an effort to get convention goers to shop in the Short North, maybe the bigger benefit will be the vibrancy of the Short North mingling with the energy from the Arena District/Vine St./North Market area to create yet another desirable area to live in.  I just hope they go big with the Arena Park Place condo tower!

 

 

Great news.  Short North is great and getting better all the time.

 

BTW, I thought that it was funny that stated it as the 777 N. High Street Project, FEATURING a 50 car parking lot.  Wow!  That's the place that I want to live!  It has a 50 car parking lot!  Cool!  What else?

Parking has become an issue in the Short North, and the retail cap on 670 only made the situation worse for residents fighting for parking spaces with people coming into the neighborhood. (from what I am told from the owners of Mac's)

 

So, actually it may be a big benefit.

You'd figure they'd park downtown.  There are plenty of spaces to go around...

This reminds me I need to book my hotel room for CommFest.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

 

The Yukon Studio Lofts

Latest breaking news...the former Functional Furnishings building on High Street just north of Union Station Place has a new lease on life: Yukon Studio Lofts. Plaza Properties has purchased the property and will be developing 28, 450 square foot studio lofts, on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building (14 each floor) and leaving 100 square feet of retail space on ground floor. I'll be very curious to see the floor plans when they become available.

 

http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/

Those are smallish lofts.  And that retail space can't be right-100 sq ft would be a 10 x 10 space.

 

Punch, parking is a problem.  I just thought it sounded odd for that to be the prime "feature" of urban lofts.

i was just getting on here to post this article

This is VERy good news.  The condos w/ the 50 whatever parking lot is actually the short norths last boarded up building.  The building stretches for a good half block or so and is an eyesore that i have been praying to have repaired.  For those who dont live in Columbus it is hard to understand that the announced projects are like the "finishing touch" to the short north. I  just wonder where you will have to park if you live in the Yukon lofts in the old Functional Furnishings building?   Im sitting in Cup O Joe MoJoe Lounge across from the building right now and dont see any parking here.  Maybe it will be a "real" urban loft with no parking.

yay!

 

(I wonder if Campus Partners will say that since it is closer to OSU than the rest of the short north, that the Gateway Center was the reason it was being built. :-D :evil:)

 

they'll say that if they want a brick through their office window

 

 

oo thats so tempting to do nowadays, lets see if only osu pd, cpd, and osu security wasent driving around every 5 minutes

Those are smallish lofts. And that retail space can't be right-100 sq ft would be a 10 x 10 space.

 

Punch, parking is a problem. I just thought it sounded odd for that to be the prime "feature" of urban lofts.

 

perfect for an free condom store and needle exchange place, KIDDING before i get yeld at as gay bashing, it was a joke, bout all that space would be big enough for

Great finds, John. These three projects will definitely be the finishing touches on what is already an incredible arts district that the whole city can be proud of. I definitely have a feeling that within the next 5 years High St. will be one huge, continuous nightspot stretching all the way from German Village to Clintonville. The missing link for the longest time had been the area in between South Campus and the northern fringe of the Short North. Currently, work is underway on redeveloping an old 3-story structure at the corner of High and 5th, and several other smaller projects in between the Gateway Center and the Short North are under construction.

Just think about how nice it would be to have a LRT train running along High Street (or in the vicinity) connecting all these great areas.

Great finds, John. These three projects will definitely be the finishing touches on what is already an incredible arts district that the whole city can be proud of. I definitely have a feeling that within the next 5 years High St. will be one huge, continuous nightspot stretching all the way from German Village to Clintonville. The missing link for the longest time had been the area in between South Campus and the northern fringe of the Short North. Currently, work is underway on redeveloping an old 3-story structure at the corner of High and 5th, and several other smaller projects in between the Gateway Center and the Short North are under construction.

 

Just think if Campus Partners actually helped the area 10 years ago rather than bulldozed it, your idea for a continuous High street would have been real for a few years now.

 

 

^Considering I wasn't all that interested in urban landscapes and planning that long ago, I really wouldn't know.

 

I'm playing with the cards dealt to me. The South Campus area very well might have been a successful, vibrant area if Campus Partners had "helped the area," whatever that means, since that's a pretty broad way of putting things. What's done is done, the only thing we can do now is hope this venture does in fact yield good things for South Campus and the surrounding environs. But besides the point, the High St. corridor still has a lot of potential, and it's extremely close to being realized now.

 

Also, John, I too would love to see LRT running down High St. That would definitely be the proverbial "feather in the cap" for High St. and the entire City of Columbus. Here's hoping it becomes a reality sometime in the near future.

Here's a nice article from the 2/18/05 Columbus Business First on Columbus condo activity:

 

The condo boom downtown is spreading north

Brian R. Ball

Business First

 

Connie Klema moved to Columbus' Short North as an Ohio State University graduate student in the early 1980s and quickly felt at home in the neighborhood. 

 

Klema, who plies her real estate trade through Highland Management Group, said a tide of residential development in the Short North and other districts north of downtown has been rising over the past two years as the city's condominium craze finds fertile ground in established neighborhoods.

 

Plenty of developers are keeping Klema company as they look for vacant lots and buildings to convert into condos, not only in the Short North but also in the nearby Italian Village, Victorian Village and Harrison West neighborhoods.

 

Full article at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2005/02/21/story3.html

 

Here's a nice article from the 2/18/05 Columbus Business First on Columbus condo activity:

Klema, who moved back to her hometown of Pataskala a few years ago, plans a return to Italian Village when a four-story condo complex dubbed Russell Square is completed at East Russell and Kerr streets. The triangular parcel next to the North Third Street ramp to Interstate 670 will offer four 2,000-square-foot condos sharing a rooftop garden facing downtown Columbus.

 

"I want a spot there," she said. "It's a great location."

 

 

It's a great location because of the easy access to I-670, because of access to the emenities of the Short North, or the potential sight lines/vistas from her apartment? 

^ Because it's not Pataskala....

Condos springing up in the Short North

The perfect urban lifestyle

March 2005

By Cindy Bent Findlay, ShortNorth.com

 

For an increasing number of young singles, empty nesters and others, living along High Street in the heart of the Short North is becoming a reality.  "I’ve been looking for something downtown for five years. I wanted to step out my front door, walk and get somewhere. I have the best location in Columbus now,” says Bruce Henke, an attorney with downtown law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease.  Henke is referring to his new 1400-square-foot condo at Parkview, a Long & Wilcox project overlooking Goodale Park at the corner of Park and Poplar.

 

Parkview is just one among many condo projects sprouting along High Street and in surrounding blocks. Some 107 new condominium units ranging from entry-level to luxury pricing plus 64 new rental units will bring a significant amount of foot traffic to the neighborhood over the next few years.

 

Construction is underway from north to south, with new buildings going up and old ones being renovated into new living space.  The 160-unit Victorian Gate is “going condo,” converting rentals to owned units. Lahoti Properties is working on various projects that will add up to 79 new condo units by some time in the next two years.  And the former Functional Furnishings building is being redeveloped by Plaza Properties into new retail on the ground floor and 14- 450-square-foot condos on the second and third.

 

The Wood Companies is adding its own retail and condo developments expanding further north along High Street, though mainly concentrating on retail development in the buildings, at least at first.  That’s not even including the massive new projects underway on the eastern and western boundaries of the neighborhood – the new Harrison Park in Harrison West and the long-awaited Jeffrey Place in Italian Village.

 

Read more at http://www.shortnorth.com/CondosSpringingUp.html

good news! i used to live in a loft at 772 north high (above what is now l'antibes restaurant) and wood was our landlord so im very familiar with that area and it is great news. my building was among the first lofts in columbus so wood co. will make the new ones cool apts i am sure.

I received an e-mail today from someone concerning the cause of the problem with the High St arches (supposedly)

The reason that those lights do not work anymore is because the main breaker box and all of the electrical equipment for the arches was put in the basement of one of the Short North buildings. After only working for a short time, that basement flooded and short circuited out all of the wiring and it was all ruined. All of the arches would need to be rewired and major costs would be involved in getting them back up and running again

:oops:

 

Ohhhh wow.  I hope that's not true...

Well, here's a little more from Columbus RetroMetro:

 

 

Arches to Have Lighting Solution Selected this Month

 

The decorative arches that line the Short North arts district have had four potential replacement lighting solutions being tested since around December of 04 in the 2 northern most arches on North Hight Street just above Fifth Avenue. The original lighting that was installed was faulty and did not function properly, causing the city to look for a new soultion. We won't get into the litigation against the installer...

 

From the looks of it, of the four replacement lighting systems that were being tested, the incandescent and LED solutions are the two most likely candidates. Due to the extensive life of the lights used in the LED replacement solution and an extended warrantee on the Korean built system, the city may be leaning in that direction.

 

The city will be making the choice this month, followed by a search for funds to complete the retrofitting of the replacement system.

 

When will it be done? That still remains a bit of a mystery. I would look projected dates to come out after the solutions is selected.

 

http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/columbus_retrometro/2005/07/arches_to_have_.html

 

cool

This is literally right behind our new house. Our neighbor recently mentioned the parking issue. I wonder what revision was made to address the 50+ spot shortage.

 

^ You have a new house?  :?

It appears they just broke ground on this project. There is a digger on the patch of grass at the north end of the site which is already hard at work.

From Columbus Business First, 8/10/05:

 

City to try again with Short North arches

 

The city of Columbus plans to re-light the Short North arches, this time with LED lights.  Akron-based EG&G Inc. installed the 17 arches on North High Street, between Poplar Avenue and Smith Street in 2002.  They began to fail shortly afterward.  The city said it will spend about $1.3 million to re-light the arches, although it hopes to recoup that costs through a lawsuit filed against EG&G.

 

The city hasn't bid the contract to install the new lights, said Mary Carran Webster, assistant director of public service.  Ralph & Curl Engineers of Columbus has been testing four separate lighting systems on two of the arches for the last year, Webster said.  The winning system will use light emitting diodes rather than the arches' original fiber optic lights.  The LEDs will be able to change colors and provide strobe effects, the city said.

 

More at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2005/08/08/daily11.html?from_rss=1

 

^the last thing i need is strobe-ing color effects when stumbling through the short north........

No doubt.  It's hard enough to look at the Convention Center when drunk!

Well the solution is....

Don't drink to forget

Don't drink to remember

  :evil: :drunk:

HUGE improvement coming to the Short North's former Sofa Express building....

 

For before and after pictures:  http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/

 

For Project info:  http://www.dakotaonhigh.com/

Oh wow, that's more than I could have ever imagined for that property! That old boarded-up Sofa Express building has been an eyesore in the district for the longest time, and what will replace it looks great. It looks like the same developer designed and built 100 Buttles, which was impeccably done. It should fit in the Short North quite nicely.

 

this is on high next door to the old u-shaped greystone apt building no?

 

yay ground floor retail -- looks very nice! esp when compared to that old sofa express eyesore -- i take cheap couches and futons are out of style around there now? hehe!

 

 

^Correct.

 

And WOW at that!

If it's anything like 100 Buttles, it will be fabulous.  That looks great.

Nice! Now they just need to do something with that ugly building right across the street from it! (The one just north of Haiku). :P

Wow! is about the only thing to say

Progress report:

 

Developers begin work on Short North condominiums

 

Several longtime Short North developers have begun work on an ambitious condominium project near the heart of the Columbus arts district.  The five-story building called Dakota will offer 48 residential units and a handful of firstfloor commercial condos.  It’s going up at 845 N. High St., where two buildings that had been boarded up for years have been torn down.  One used to house a Sofa Express store.

 

The developers, known as Arms Properties, are Rajesh Lahoti, Raymond Brown, Michael Council and Wilbur Ischie.  Brown and Lahoti own Union Station Video Cafe, the Havana bar and Axis Nightclub in the neighborhood.  Arms Properties recently developed a handful of condominium projects in the Short North, including one at 775 N. High Street.  Lahoti said the goal for Dakota is to have two restaurants and two retail stores on the first floor.

 

More information is available at www.dakotaonhigh.com.

 

Sounds like this one will be priced at or above Arena District rates!  I'm really impressed that they are already selling some.

 

$200,000 / 750 sq. ft. = $267/sq. ft.

 

$900,000 / 3250 sq. ft. = $277/sq. ft.

 

WOW!

Wow! Very nice.

Arch-lights settlement suits city fine

$1.2 million from designer nearly would cover cost to fix Short North fixtures

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The company that designed the shorted-out lights on the Short North arches over High Street will pay the city $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit — and almost cover the cost of fixing them next year.  The city originally paid $800,000 for the decorative lights, which haven’t worked since they flickered out in 2002.  It will cost an estimated $1.3 million to fix them.

 

"It’s almost a complete recovery," said Assistant City Attorney Pat Delaney. "That’s a good result for any type of litigation."  The Columbus City Council will vote Monday on the settlement with EG&G, based in Akron.  The city sued EG&G in January 2004 after negotiations broke down.  The fiber-optic lighting system in the 17 arches failed shortly after it was first lighted on Dec. 4, 2002.

 

The city paid $2.4 million toward the $3 million project, which included the cost of the metal arches themselves.  The Short North Special Improvement District financed the rest.  The city paid about $800,000 for the lights, Delaney said.

 

More at http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/12/10/20051210-B1-00.html

Does anyone know technically why the fiber optic lights didn't work?  I am curious.

 

The LED lights sound interesting too.