June 13, 200915 yr Nothing on the Kroger front yet. But just over a block north of Kroger: Great to see some urban-infill here (it's covering up a sweet mural though), but why must the city insist on punishing pedestrians?
July 6, 200915 yr OSU area gets boost from new projects Monday, July 6, 2009 - 3:32 AM By Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch A private developer is about to break ground on an 82-unit luxury apartment complex for students near Ohio State University. It is just the latest example of how the South Campus Gateway -- a bustling stretch of apartments, entertainment, restaurants and shops along High Street -- is helping to revitalize the University District, according to residents and several business owners. "The South Campus Gateway is transforming the neighborhood by creating an inviting and nice-looking place for people to live, work and play, which has spawned more development," said Ian MacConnell, chairman of the University Area Commission. "Between $100 (million) and $200 million in private money has been poured into the University District in the last five to seven years," said Bill Graver, president of the University Community Business Association. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/06/OSU_development.ART_ART_07-06-09_B1_KAECV4R.html?sid=101
July 21, 200915 yr City Vote Moves Grocery Store Renovation Closer By Patrick Preston, NBC4 Investigative, Political Reporter Published: July 21, 2009 COLUMBUS, Ohio—A Columbus City Council vote last night authorizing the sale of a small strip of city land to Kroger brings the grocer one step closer to a major renovation of its store at East Seventh Avenue and High Street, and in the process, an invigoration of the area that surrounds it. The stretch of High Street between the Short North and the University District has lagged behind its neighbors to the north and south in recent business development. But several mixed-use developments are opening or on the verge of opening, bringing new retail opportunities and residential units to the area. Kroger plans to convert the store into a community centerpiece, but a company spokesperson said the grocer still is not ready to say exactly when that will happen. “If they make it into a nicer Kroger, they redevelop it, put stores here, it will be good for them. And it will bring a lot more people into the area, “ said Darryl Mendelson, owner of nearby business Monkey’s Retreat. Mendelson’s business will soon face a rent increase as a result of the development, but he says the promise of more business should make up for it. Read more at http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/City_Vote_Moves_Grocery_Store_Renovation_Closer/19644/
July 22, 200915 yr Probably won't be until next year at the soonest. Regardless, there are two apartment developments with a total of six retail spaces filling in this side of High helping to bridge the gap at Kroger. Of course, they'll add a lot to make people forget about Kroger when the four of those which are still empty find people to set up shop.
August 9, 200915 yr News about Weinland Park from 10TV: United Way Announces 'Bold Goals' To Improve Community
August 23, 200915 yr Weinland Park Where we live: Signs of life Weinland Park is known for its poverty, violence and drug problems, but some residents see a community with potential Sunday, August 23, 2009 3:44 AM By Mark Ferenchik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/23/WEINLAND_PARK.ART_ART_08-23-09_B1_0AER78F.html
October 2, 200915 yr <b>Updates on Weinland Park Area Developments</b> By Rory Krupp | September 25, 2009 3:00pm <img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/weinland-park.jpg"> Roadwork is scheduled to begin this fall at the Columbus Coated Fabrics site. “While the economy has taken its toll on developers all over, the project continues to progress,” reported Mark Wagenbrenner at the Urban Land Institute meeting yesterday. The meeting covered the city plans for both Weinland Park and the upcoming Campus Partners development. The presentation included a projected expansion of the South Campus Gateway between 8th and 9th Avenues along High Street. The plan also includes a proposed gateway complex on 11th Ave between North Fourth and Grant in conjunction with the Columbus Coated Fabric site. READ MORE: http://www.columbusunderground.com/updates-on-weinland-park-area-developments
January 15, 201015 yr From 1/14/10 Dispatch: Columbus receives $23.2 million in neighborhood stabilization funds Columbus will receive $23.2 million in neighborhood stabilization money to help areas struggling with foreclosures and vacant housing, officials announced this morning. That included $10.3 million to help Wagenbrenner Development to build 305 homes and 300 apartments on the old Columbus Coated Fabrics site at N. Grant and E. 5th avenues in the Weinland Park neighborhood. Full article at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/14/Columbus_receives_neighborhood_stabilization_funds.html?sid=101
January 15, 201015 yr So just under half went to Weinland Park? If so, they probably should only split the rest with two neighborhoods.
January 19, 201015 yr this will be a monstrous mistake. you can't just throw up a bunch of houses and say "go away,crime".
January 21, 201015 yr you can't just throw up a bunch of houses and say "go away,crime". Is that what they're doing? I must have missed that part.
January 21, 201015 yr yes,that's what they are doing. the criminal element won't leave,now that there are 300 more houses for the thieves to break into.
January 21, 201015 yr So just under half went to Weinland Park? If so, they probably should only split the rest with two neighborhoods. According to a follow-up article the funding is as follows: Weinland Park - $10.3 million Area near Children's Hospital - $6.6 million King-Lincoln District - $1.8 million Eastern Franklinton - $0.625 million MAP OF NEIGHBORHOODS RECEIVING FEDERAL FUNDS
August 10, 201014 yr Murals in the Weinland Park neighborhood highlighted in the Columbus Alive article "Public Art: Outlying Art": FOUR SEASONS MURAL Weinland Park Community Garden - East Sixth Avenue and North Fifth Street, Weinland Park Wooden flowers and colorful recycled materials dot this thriving community plot outside the Godman Guild, but the centerpiece is a mural shining brightly among the tomatoes, peppers, herbs and wildflowers. Four panels depict seasons and some of the goodies harvested on site. It isn't the biggest mural in town, but it captures the garden's awesome come-together spirit. NEIGHBORHOOD MURAL Rice Paddy Motorcycles - 1454 N. Grant Ave., Weinland Park This long, colorful mural just west of the Ohio State Fairgrounds remains a work in progress. Slowly but surely, community members have filled in a blank cinderblock wall with vibrant scenes from the neighborhood - waving people, vintage houses and pretty green spaces. Even with a few empty spots, the painting evokes the blocky charm of Henri Matisse.
August 20, 201014 yr New blog about Weinland Park: Weinland Park - History and hysteria in an urban neighborhood
August 31, 201014 yr $15 million pledged to kick-start Weinland Park area Collaborative aims to fight blight, build and fix up more than 100 homes in three years Saturday, August 28, 2010 By Mark Ferenchik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A new group is working to rejuvenate the Weinland Park neighborhood north of Downtown by pledging at least $15 million to develop housing in the area plagued by crime, foreclosures and vacant houses. The Weinland Park Collaborative, which includes the city of Columbus, Ohio State University, the Columbus Foundation and 12 other institutions, also is investing money in job training and education. "If we work collaboratively, we can put together a model of neighborhood revitalization and take on the underlying issues without displacing people," said Doug Aschenbach, president of Campus Partners, which is Ohio State's community-development arm and another of the group's members. The goal is to re-energize the housing market by renovating and building more than 100 homes in two to three years. The collaborative is expected to invest at least $15 million in the neighborhood of 4,800 residents, said Lisa Courtice, vice president of community research for the Columbus Foundation. WEINLAND PARK COLLABORATIVE - PROJECT MAP Full article: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/28/15million-pledged-to-kick-start-weinland-park-area.html?sid=101
August 31, 201014 yr Weinland Park suffers from the highest concentration of section 8 housing. Making the borders nice is great, as is rehabbing existing homes in the interior, but that is going to have to be addressed for this to work.
September 30, 201014 yr Blighted buildings to be redeveloped in Weinland Park Tuesday, September 28, 2010 By Barbara Carmen, The Columbus Dispatch Two blighted, vacant apartment buildings will be torn down to make way for new homes as part of a project to rejuvenate Weinland Park. Franklin County Commissioners voted unanimously to accept Franklin County Treasurer Ed Leonard's recommendation to erase $156,097 in unpaid property taxes by placing the properties into the county's land bank. Commissioners immediately then gave the buildings, at 1407 and 1415 N. 4th St., to Campus Partners, a nonprofit group that works to redevelop the area near Ohio State University. It will spend $409,000 to strip away asbestos and raze the 26 units. Campus Partners is to build at least three $120,000 homes on the site, said Leonard, who helped put together the deal with the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County. Full article: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/09/28/Blighted-Weinland-Park-complexes-to-be-redeveloped.html?sid=101
October 13, 201014 yr EPA gives nod to Auld Co. redevelopment project in Weinland Park Business First of Columbus Monday, October 11, 2010, 2:25pm EDT Wagenbrenner Co.’s cleanup efforts in the run-up to a mixed-used development at the former D.L. Auld Co. site on Fourth Street could become less costly thanks to a recent Ohio EPA ruling. The EPA issued a so-called urban setting designation for the site, meaning groundwater can remain untreated because officials have determined no current or future need for its use in the area. Wagenbrenner more than a year ago announced plans to build 120 multifamily residences above commercial office and retail space at the site. MORE: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/10/11/daily4.html
October 20, 201014 yr Weinland Park Development Plans Moving Forward Columbus Underground March 2, 2009 The plans for the new Kroger at 7th and High are moving through the University Area Commission review board and the City permitting process. Pictured (PDF) is the most recent Kroger incarnation. The building will be sited where the parking lot is currently located. http://www.columbusunderground.com/weinland-park-development-plans-moving-forward Maybe the new University Area/Weinland Park Kroger is really gonna happen? As reported in Columbus Underground: New Kroger Store N-587 (REBID) 1350 North High St Columbus, OH 43201 Bid Due Date: October 13, 2010 @ 2:00pm New 59,334sf Kroger Store with 1,908sf Attached Retail Space and all Related Site Work. Work includes demolition of existing Kroger Store and renovation of city streetscapes. Project is essentially the same as bid 12/09, but most plans have been updated. Project is based on a 240-day schedule. For Base Bid, existing store will remain open until new store is complete. Alternate for demolishing existing store at start of project. Second alternate would revise start date to March 1, 2011. MORE: http://dodgeprojects.construction.com/Kroger-Store-N587--Columbus-OH---REBID-_stcVVproductId108719559VVviewprod.htm
October 21, 201014 yr Blighted neighborhood may sprout 'food campus' Thursday, October 21, 2010 02:55 AM By Mark Ferenchik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A year-round farmers market, dozens of community gardens and a restaurant selling locally produced food might be coming to an impoverished neighborhood near the Ohio State University campus. Weinland Park, already the focus of a number of efforts to transform its crime-ridden, blighted image to one of stability, also could get a food-processing center and business incubator. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission received an $864,989 federal grant yesterday to plan those projects. The plan includes detailed building and landscaping designs, plus marketing and business plans that will be finished in the next two years. It would be urban redevelopment based on a food-production system, a "neighborhood food campus" that the planning commission's Jerry Tinianow said would be unique in the United States. Full story at: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/10/21/blighted-neighborhood-may-sprout-food-campus.html?sid=101
October 30, 201014 yr It's not an urban myth. It's real! OSU-area Kroger renovation to begin Saturday, October 30, 2010 By Marla Matzer Rose, The Columbus Dispatch Kroger is ready to go ahead with plans to rebuild its High Street store just south of the Ohio State University campus, about two years after renovation was first discussed. A spokeswoman for the Cincinnati-based supermarket chain confirmed yesterday that the store at High Street and Seventh Avenue will begin preparing for construction of a new store on the site next week, with an expected completion date of mid-2011. The existing 36,000-square-foot Kroger will remain open while the new store is built at the southwest corner of the site, in what is now the parking lot. MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2010/10/30/osu-area-kroger-renovation-to-begin.html?sid=101
October 30, 201014 yr Great news, but also a sobering reminder of just how stupid it is for Columbus city government to continue their any-development-is-good-development mentality in an urban setting; it can take years or decades to reverse. We'll be seeing the same discussion about the Sav-A-Lot in Olde Towne East somewhere down the road. Maybe now that the immanent groundbreaking is official we'll see the remaining storefronts fill in on both sides of Kroger in the meantime. I'm still waiting for someone to turn that blue car lot across the street into a little restaurant with a spacious patio. Now that would really complete the desired urban setting for this part of High.
October 31, 201014 yr Good news about Kroger moving forward; their plan for Weinland is much better than what they did in the Brewery District. ^Since the Sav-a-Lot on East Main was a reuse of an existing building, I don't complain too much about the parking lot being in the wrong place.
November 7, 201014 yr Here is some site plan information on the new Kroger store at 1350 N. High Street in the Weinland Park neighborhood, just south the OSU campus. The first two images are the GIS map and aerial photo of the existing Kroger store from the Franklin County Auditor's site. The construction site plan of the new Kroger store is from this Weinland Park blog, which also has an earlier version of the reconstruction plan:
November 7, 201014 yr Good news about Kroger moving forward; their plan for Weinland is much better than what they did in the Brewery District. Just out of curiosity... what makes you say that?
November 8, 201014 yr WEINLAND PARK Full-court press to transform the struggling neighborhood near OSU Sunday, November 7, 2010 By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch Two symbols of the blight plaguing the Weinland Park neighborhood soon will be reduced to dust. A pair of brick apartment buildings, long vacant and covered with graffiti, are scheduled to be demolished Nov. 15 and replaced with as many as 12 market-rate houses. Those 12 will be part of 72 new or renovated homes expected to be finished by the end of 2011 in a multiphase effort to revive the neighborhood at Ohio State University's doorstep. The houses are just some of the recent efforts to improve Weinland Park. Some others: • The community policing center on E. 11th Avenue; the new Weinland Park Elementary School on E. 7th Avenue; and Ohio State's Schoenbaum Family Center, a preschool for children of faculty members and neighborhood residents. • The 379 apartments renovated by the Ohio Capital Corp. for Housing and Community Properties of Ohio during the past seven years. • Plans by Wagenbrenner Development to build more than 600 houses on the former Columbus Coated Fabrics site as well as other areas of the neighborhood. • A multimillion-dollar commitment by foundations to boost housing and other programs in the neighborhood. • An $864,989 federal grant to plan the transformation of the vacant factory site at N. 4th Street and E. 5th Avenue into a farmers market, restaurant and food-processing center. The money also will be used to plant more community gardens. MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/11/07/full-court-press.html?sid=101
November 30, 201014 yr Better health may be key to neighborhood's revival Thursday, November 25, 2010 By Mark Ferenchik and Rita Price THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A recent survey of Weinland Park households found that 22 percent cited health barriers, more than any other reason, as the biggest obstacle in the hunt for decent-paying jobs. "That caught us very much off-guard," said Howard Goldstein, research director for Ohio State's Schoenbaum Family Center in Weinland Park. "We thought it would be things like the lack of jobs, educational training, criminal records," he said. The researchers recently released a comprehensive evaluation of the Weinland Park neighborhood southeast of the Ohio State campus, where the city, university, foundations and other agencies are working to rebuild the community. The Weinland Park Collaborative is investing at least $15 million, including renovating and building more than 100 homes in two to three years. "We all agreed that stabilization of housing needed to be the priority, but clearly it's time to expand the priority areas," said Lisa Courtice, a vice president for the Columbus Foundation, which provided a $127,000 grant for the survey. MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/11/25/better-health-may-be-key-to-neighborhoods-revival.html?sid=101
December 1, 201014 yr I haven't driven by the Kroger recently but assuming things have started moving at the site... $20 million plan Kroger will fix up 8 stores in region Wednesday, December 1, 2010 02:55 AM By Tracy Turner THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Kroger is investing $20 million in some of its Columbus-area stores as it works to meet customer demands, the company said yesterday. The Cincinnati-based grocery chain plans to renovate as many as eight stores in and around Columbus this year and next, with the first of the planned renovations under way at its 1350 N. High St. store near the Ohio State University campus, spokeswoman Amy McCormick said. That store is being completely rebuilt. The company's new campus-area store will sit closer to High Street than its old store and will expand to 56,400 square feet from its current 35,000 square feet, she said. The new store will include service meat and seafood departments, a beverage center and a selection of prepared foods, McCormick said. The pharmacy also will be larger, and the store will increase its offerings in all perishable and grocery departments. MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2010/12/01/kroger-will-fix-up-8-stores-in-region.html?sid=101
December 1, 201014 yr I walked past the site the other day: the section of parking lot where the new building is going has been ripped out and foundation work has begun. Also, the entrance to the current building has been partially demo'd and a banner hung that states it is open during construction. I would've snapped a pic but I didn't have my camera with me.
December 3, 201014 yr More signs of activity just a little north of Kroger, curious to see how Campus Partners is going to handle this - will Weinland park be getting some new, dense CP-owned housing stock? http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2010/12/03/campus-partners-buys-up-land-next-to.html?ana=e_ph Campus Partners buys up land south of Gateway by Ohio State Business First - by Carrie Ghose Date: Friday, December 3, 2010, 6:00am EST - Last Modified: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 5:04pm EST Related: Commercial Real Estate, Education Enlarge Image Janet Adams | Business First Campus Partners chief Doug Aschenbach plans to ask developers for their ideas for a block of land bordering the South Campus Gateway project next to OSU. Developers soon will get a chance to pitch what they’d build for South Campus Gateway – south.
December 3, 201014 yr South Campus Gateway South - SCGS - YES! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
December 19, 201014 yr Wagenbrenner lands $3M in Clean Ohio money for Auld/3M site in Weinland Park A 99-year-old industrial site at East Fifth Avenue and North Fourth Street has landed $3 million in state cash for environmental cleanup that will allow Columbus developer Mark Wagenbrenner to expand his redevelopment efforts in the Weinland Park neighborhood. The Ohio Department of Development approved the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant to pay for the demolition and environmental scrubbing of the former D.L. Auld Co. site at 1186-1190 and 1206 N. Fourth Street. MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2010/11/wagenbrenner-lands-3m-in-clean-ohio.html
December 19, 201014 yr WEINLAND PARK NEIGHBORHOOD Blighted area gets improvement tool Sunday, December 19, 2010 By Mark Ferenchik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Columbus is betting on new homes and other developments in the Weinland Park neighborhood near Ohio State University to pay for new streets, lights and other public improvements in the area. Property taxes generated by new development in Weinland Park also might be spent on new sidewalks and parks and even knocking down eyesores. On Monday, the Columbus City Council gave the go-ahead to create a tax-increment financing district that includes most of Weinland Park. Although officials don’t know how much money could be generated by the district, they said it is part of the broad effort to improve the area by building housing, perhaps creating a farmers market and community gardens, and concentrating on job training and improving residents’ health. MAP OF WEINLAND PARK TIF DISTRICT MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/19/blighted-area-gets-improvement-tool.html?sid=101
December 20, 201014 yr In addition to the TIF, it would be helpful if the city kept money generated from parking meters on their side of High and only spent it in neighborhood improvement. Unfortunately they don't seem to want that. If the TIF is so great for one neighborhood dealing with blight, why not parts of Franklinton, Hilltop, Linden, etc?
December 20, 201014 yr Those neighborhoods don't have OSU pushing for the redevelopment. I think the city is pleased enough with what OSU is doing for the King-Lincoln area that they are willing to go the extra mile with incentives for Weinland to keep OSU happy. King-Lincoln is, after all, the Mayor's favorite pet project and anything that can benefit that neighborhood deserves a trade-off incentive elsewhere right?
January 27, 201114 yr Although this article focuses on public schools in the Weinland Park neighborhood, it is part of The Weinland Park Collaborative - a holistic redevelopment of the neighborhood that has been discussed previously in this thread. A PDF of full KidsOhio study is available at the link to the full article below: WEINLAND PARK: Flight from schools for academics, not safety, study says Monday, January 24, 2011 By Jennifer Smith Richards THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Parents who shun their assigned Weinland Park-area schools do their research. They find better-performing schools in the Columbus district for their children instead. And they're happy. The Weinland Park parents who send their children to schools in their low-income neighborhood are less satisfied. So much for conventional wisdom. It's a long-held belief among many people who study and work with the Columbus City Schools that a quest for academic excellence wasn't the primary reason parents flee subpar neighborhood schools. "People thought safety was the main driver. It isn't. People thought parents weren't informed, but they are," said Mark Real, president of KidsOhio, a Columbus-based nonprofit group that regularly studies the district. A new KidsOhio study of the Weinland school zone, one of the poorest and most-troubled in Columbus, offers new insight into how parents choose schools for their children. Groups that are investing millions to improve housing in the area wanted to know why so many parents were choosing schools outside the neighborhood, which is just north of Italian Village between Ohio State University and the state fairgrounds. The findings highlight the need for those involved in improving the Weinland Park area to make academics a "priority - not incremental improvement, but dramatic improvement," said Jeff Lyttle, region executive for the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, which funded the study. "We want families who consider moving into the neighborhood to have a great choice in schools as well as great housing choices," Lyttle said. MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/01/24/its-for-academics-not-safety.html
January 27, 201114 yr More about The Weinland Park Collaborative from the Weinland Park Community Civic Association website: The Weinland Park Collaborative The Weinland Park Collaborative is a partnership made up of more than a dozen agencies and organizations. The collaborative listens to residents and to the Weinland Park Community Civic Association to learn what people believe can best improve their neighborhood. The agencies and organizations coordinate and jointly support the projects outlined below. Housing: Grants to assist existing low-income homeowners to make needed exterior repairs to their houses. Renovation of vacant and foreclosed houses and new construction of market-rate and affordable units with an emphasis on homeownership. Employment: A construction training program to prepare residents to join crews renovating homes in Weinland Park and a liaison with The Ohio State University to assist residents in applying for and keeping jobs with the university. Education: Opportunities for children and adults through a variety of programs housed at Weinland Park Elementary School, GED classes, home-based child care training, reading readiness, and an application for a federal Promise Neighborhoods planning grant focused on Weinland Park. Healthy living: A model program for pregnant women to improve birth outcomes. Free rides to medical appointments for all residents. Reducing litter and public health hazards. Public safety and crime prevention: Analysis of crime trends and communications with residents on protecting themselves and their property. Employment of four residents to cut high weeds, trim bushes and remove litter from public right-of-way and, with permission, on private property. Greater cooperation with Columbus Division of Police. Empowering residents: Support for expansion of Weinland Park Community Civic Association and its committees. Employment of a part-time organizer for the civic association. Support for the Weinland Park Dawgs youth football team. Creation of Neighborhood Network to reach residents renting housing. Figuring out what works: A survey, reaching more than 400 households, to determine residents’ education, employment, health, resources, needs, and perception of the neighborhood and to help direct future investment. An ongoing assessment of programs to determine their effectiveness. We hope to learn in the next three to five years what works best to improve people’s lives in Weinland Park. Many of our partners, such as the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, The Columbus Foundation, United Way of Central Ohio, the City of Columbus and The Ohio State University, will take the best ideas and share them with people in other neighborhoods to improve their communities. MORE: http://www.weinlandparkcivic.org/WPCCA/Collaborative/Collaborative.html
January 27, 201114 yr Weinland Park just had the unfortunate trifecta of horrible schools, the highest concentration of section 8, and harboring lots of criminals. When you look at the high school graduation rates in much of the city of Columbus it's absolutely pathetic considering we're a 1st world city. Census tracts 16 and 17 very closely match the borders of the neighborhood (tiny bit of spillover into IV) and show that 1 out of every five adults didn't graduate from high school and it is well below surrounding neighborhoods, unless you count South Linden across the tracks wherein a large part of the neighborhood shows one-third of all residents who dropped out and didn't finish high school. If parents are serious about improving the public schools then there needs to be some huge demonstrations calling for some major reform. In the short term, WP is an obvious choice for revitalization and counteracting the uneducated, criminally inclined residents that are a setback to the area can be done by attracting residents to the quality, inexpensive housing stock here and with a little bit of research you can find the best areas (keeping some distance between you and the section 8 housing). High St, which more and more storefronts getting filled in and with the new Kroger helping to bridge the gap between OSU and the Short North provides some compelling amenities for those looking at living in the area. Even E 5th Ave is now in much better shape here in stark contrast to the rest of it. Hell, there's now a French themed bar where they sell $6 bottles of beer right across from a fluorescent lit carryout advertising cheap malt liquor. In the end, it's hard to say how far a bunch of new and rehabbed homes will fare in light of the section 8 problem if it's not addressed, ie dispersed.
January 30, 201114 yr More from a very informative website/blog about Weinland Park: Let’s move to Weinland Park! This proposed streetscape along Hamlet north of 8th Avenue will be matched by another group of five along North Fourth where the not-quite-yet-to-be imploded brick apartments are currently located. The houses will sell in the $80,000 range (maybe less, maybe more) range but thanks to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program will be worth around $170,000. Meaning that you get around $90,000 of house for free plus Columbus’ most walkable neighborhood and eventually a farmer’s market down the street. So, in ten years or so who’s going to feel like a dimwit for not buying one now. The only catch is you must make less than 120 percent of the average median income in Columbus which for a family of four is around $80,000. MORE: http://weinlandpark.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/lets-move-to-weinland-park/
January 30, 201114 yr Good news about Kroger moving forward; their plan for Weinland is much better than what they did in the Brewery District. Just out of curiosity... what makes you say that? The Brewery District Kroger is just like any other Kroger, positioned behind a parking lot. The development also completely strayed from the original Brewers Yard plans, leaving crosswalks and vistas that go nowhere; in fact, some of the crosswalks end in planters. In Weinland Park, Krogers is building up to the street and leaving space for other ancillary retail. I live downtown and walk to the Brewery District Krogers often, but I would much rather walk to the Weinland design.
February 4, 201114 yr Obviously, we've known about this project for a long time. It's still good to see Kroger avoid a nasty street setback and build a building that interacts with its surroundings. When they built a new Kroger in downtown Portsmouth during the mid/late '90s, they didn't set it back from the street, but left the street facing side with no windows and instead painted pictures of normal Main Street activity on it. Unfortunately, they've shown signs of wanting to do a suburban-style store on Short Vine in Cincinnati, an area that doesn't deserve that treatment. - opinion
February 12, 201114 yr Campus Partners filling in gaps with deal for parcel near Gateway Business First - by Doug Buchanan Friday, January 21, 2011, 6:00am EST Ohio State University’s real estate arm has filled another gap in its effort to acquire most of a city block next to South Campus Gateway. Business First reported Dec. 3 that Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment had assembled nearly 6 acres along East Eighth and Ninth avenues for unspecified future development, with a handful of holdouts remaining. On Dec. 30, it bought the only remaining gap along Ninth, a boarded-up duplex, for $223,000. Campus Partners President Doug Aschenbach said the organization approached property owners in the area through a broker about possible sales when Gateway was developed four years ago, then stepped back. Deals since then have come from owners who sought out Campus Partners or simply listed their properties for sale. But the agency made another round of queries in November, and Aschenbach said this latest deal resulted from that. The last gap along Eighth is owned by one James Ellerbrock, whom Campus Partners couldn’t track down. Aschenbach said the agency’s broker has been in touch, but he’s not sitting on a jackpot because development can go forward on separate projects. Campus Partners plans to ask developers in early February for ideas on how to reuse the ground – contingent on them not trying to do deals of their own with property owners along High Street adjacent to its land. MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2011/01/21/campus-partners-filling-in-gaps-with.html This Ninth Street land purchase was also shown on map included in a later Dispatch article about a different OSU Campus area project. The map helps put this purchase in context with the other projects occuring and/or planned in the off-campus/Weinland Park neighborhood: CAMPUS AREA PROJECTS MAP
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